L Is For Life

L is for life and abundant life at that! John 10:10 "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly"

L could also be for the person I'm blogging about and it could also be for Lady because she is a remarkable lady. I guess I should also count this post as part of my Heroes Of The Faith series.

L is an amazing lady! She has two sons, both at high school, she's a hairdresser and lives with her mother. all quite unremarkable, but that's one of the things I love about the true heroes in life.

But L has some complexities in her life that would make many of us want to give up. Firstly, her oldest son was recently diagnosed as being bi-polar and he's recently been talking about taking his own life. not words that any mother wants to hear. He's a bright boy who was doing really well at school but that's all come to an end. L lives with her sons in a two room wooden shack in the garden of her mother's house, which turns out not to be her mother's house at all! L's mother is a seriously addicted gambler and has all the attendant problems associated with her addiction which just piles on a load of uncertainty that L really doesn't need.
To add to the problems, L decided to give up her salon business and go to college for three years to better herself and to give her sons a better life.

We all have a ton of rubbish to deal with in life, none of us have a nice straight path to walk, so what makes L so special?

L is special to us because we see her growing in faith and maturity through these testing circumstances and she steadfastly thanks God for the many blessings in her life. Yes, you read that right! It feels like the worse her circumstances get the more she's at the front of church sharing testimony of how God has answered more prayers and provided for her needs. Most folk in her situation would be up the front asking for prayer, but L just keeps on testifying to God's faithfulness in her life. WOW!

I recently did a short series in Tree of Life looking at blessing and came to the conclusion that God's blessing comes through faithfulness. So often we see folk who just want God to perform a quick and easy miracle and then move on with the next thing but all their doing is missing the inherent biblical principle of faithfulness. How can we expect God to bless us if we're not being faithful?

L is blessed because she is faithful to God, spending time in his presence and word and constantly bringing her family to him in prayer. This is why she is blessed and this is why she's a hero of the faith; because she's such a great model for others to follow.

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This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2013.