The Silver Lining

Whenever things get tough people usually say that there is a silver lining somewhere. Well things have been a little rough around here. My step-mom, Anita's, mom is not doing well, she was just taken to Hospice a couple days ago, my mom's basement flooded about a month ago, then just this past weekend the water heater broke and released water over the carpet that wasn't wet, and I just found out that my step-brother's house was broken into just a day or two ago! Not much good sounding stuff there.

Well, for those of you who don't know, I am going on a short term missions trip to England in May. Today was our first team meeting for that, so I was able to meet the people on my team for the first time, I think I'm going to like this trip!

When I got out of the meeting, I was getting ready to leave the building to go back to my dorm when I saw one of our professors, whom I am friends with, he is also my small group leader, his name is Steve Carr. He waved me into the office he was in and informed me that he was just in a preachers board meeting for the school and they were discussing scholarships and he brought my name up to them and mentioned that I was a pretty good kid. Then he told me that they decided to give me an $800 scholarship! Who couldn't use that?

Now this would be good news any day, but the timing of it was just great! That is what we call a silver lining. Though it doesn't replace or fix everything that is going on, it is a little wink from God letting me know that He is still with me! It feels pretty good.

Just an encouraging scripture for anyone else going through anything difficult right now:

Romans 5:2-5: "And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom His has given us."