Refuse to Sink--and Never Pull Up Anchor!

I discovered I'm not the only person who gets tears in her eyes over a wall plaque hanging in a shop.

We were in Mardels the other day, Jonathan and I, picking up a textbook for school, and were meandering our way back to the checkout, when I spied this wall placque.

"Happiness keeps you sweet,

Trials keep you strong,

Sorrows keep you  human,

Failures keep you humble, 

And God keeps you going."

When I got to the end of that plaque, my heart was in one big pang, and I told Jonathan, "I love that!" and then I hurried on, my eyes filling with tears. 

I went quickly around the corner, because for a moment I just wanted to be alone,
and would he understand?

And then this evening after a rough week and another of many weak spells, I read a sweet post by Christy Fitzwater:

"...My mom’s visit landed between mother’s day and her birthday coming up, so I wanted to take her shopping for a combo gift while she was here. I had been struggling with the gift idea, though. Since dad went to be with the Lord only a few months ago, buying stuff seems trivial. I wondered what I could possibly buy that would have any meaning for my grieving mom.

The first craft booth we came to had this large, cheerful lemonade sign. I said, Oooooh, cute, and we stopped to look at it. Maybe this would be a fun birthday present, mom?

That is when our eyes moved slightly to the left and landed on a smaller sign that made me catch my breath and made mom’s eyes teary.

This speaks to me, my mom said.

[It was a wall plaque with the words "Refuse to Sink," and an anchor painted behind it.]

It became church for a minute on the parking lot, with the Spirit of God coming up underneath my momma’s soul –her being encouraged and me swooning at the love of the One who tailors encouragement to fit the desperate needs of his own children...

I like blue, my momma said. It doesn’t really go with the colors in my house, but I like it.

Soon I was paying for that sign.

We brought it home and set it on the chair in the guest room. We kept talking about those words and how much they mean to us right now.

Then, only two days later, I came home from teaching school, and my momma opened up her Beth Moore Bible study that she had been plugging away at every afternoon while I was at work.

Do you know what the study was today? she asked me. It was about Paul in the ship, caught in the middle of a perilous storm, and how we sometimes find ourselves in a storm and might need to throw some cargo overboard but not pull up anchor. Never pull up anchor."

http://www.christyfitzwater.com/perseverance/look-tailored-encouragement/