{"id":130,"date":"2014-05-28T11:18:37","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T16:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/?p=130"},"modified":"2016-08-31T11:21:03","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T16:21:03","slug":"life-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/2014\/05\/28\/life-lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"Life Lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Through an event this past weekend I learned that I still have a lot to learn- about me. About people. And most importantly, about God.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">I\u2019ve spent most of my life learning. Drinking in knowledge. About life, the universe, everything. About God, about what a Godly woman\/wife looks like, about Godly mothers, daughters, friends.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Yet, a painful discovery of how I can {still} make life miserable for everyone around me has hit me in the face.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">I won\u2019t expose the details here. It was not pretty, just downright ugly.\u00a0 Most others would just shake it off and move on. Not me. If life doesn\u2019t go as I expect, if others don\u2019t do exactly as they said, my applecart is upset. And MY apples are ruined-at least for that moment in time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">This is not just due to my elevated expectations, but a lack of trust.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">My entire life up through 2008 was spent dealing with an untrustworthy parent.\u00a0 I can hear you saying: \u201csurely not.\u201d Maybe it is an exaggeration.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Let me rephrase that: In a world where, if we truly trust God to be Who He is and that, like Joseph, things meant to harm me, God intended for good, then we can bear up under most anything thrown our way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">For most of my adult life, someone managed to throw harmful things my way. Whether intentional or unintentional-that\u2019s what my parent represented in my life. Lies, accusations, victimization, manipulation of circumstances, all were a daily part of the interchange with my parent.\u00a0 It was standard operating procedure to try to control through deceit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Expectations by me that said parent would change, maybe this time it will be different\u2026. Went unmet\u2026 There were the occasional times when a surprise glimmer of the person I wished for would show, but those fast faded in the next sentence spoken or question asked. I kept believing that eventually there would be a place where everything would fall into place, but that was not to be.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">I had a functionally insane parent who re-wrote the rules of behavior every morning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The erosion of trust in my heart began long ago and continued until death us did part.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Fast-forward. I find myself still operating on those same expectations. I just want people to do what they say they will do, exactly when they say they will do it. When they don\u2019t there\u2019s another erosion in my trust bank.\u00a0 How sad is that?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">All that time God intended for good, was to mature me, to teach me to trust Him for everything and depend on Him only. Yet, I find I still haven\u2019t quite learned the lesson well enough that it has stuck.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">I still try to trust that my expectations will be met. My skepticism and cynical nature have not served me well in that department. I still want to believe that, someday, everyone will do what they say they will do and when they will do it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">So, this lesson is being re-taught. Again.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">From my earliest recollection in nursery school{preschool to the younger generation}, the first two Bible verses I memorized were:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><em><strong>What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee<\/strong>. Psalm 56:3<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0And<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><em>\u00a0<strong>Be still and know that I am God.<\/strong>\u00a0Psalm 46:10<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Trust. In. Him. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Know. Him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">The preschool lesson I am still learning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0Is He still teaching you a lesson you haven&#8217;t learned yet?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/jenniferdukeslee.com\/tell-his-story\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none;\" title=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/jenniferdukeslee.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/tellhisstory-badge.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Through an event this past weekend I learned that I still have a lot to learn- about me. About people. And most importantly, about God. I\u2019ve spent most of my life learning. Drinking in knowledge. About life, the universe, everything. About God, about what a Godly woman\/wife looks like, about Godly mothers, daughters, friends. &#8230; <a title=\"Life Lessons\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/2014\/05\/28\/life-lessons\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Life Lessons\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[34,27],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-god","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions\/131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}