When punches are thrown in my life I recall and pray one of the most quoted verses in the bible “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”, Philippians 4:13.
Examples of when he strengthened me:
- Father’s death when I was 14 – He gave me the strength to carry on as a young teenage girl.
- Troubles in my 36 year marriage – He gave me the strength to hang in there, pray, decide what was best, to forgive.
- Financial ruin in 2009 – when blindsided He gave me the strength to figure out how to proceed with my life. He gave me the strength to forgive.
- Family betrayal – turmoil, resentment, silence, betrayal by an aging mother and siblings. Still working on this one but “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”.
Just by these few personal examples you can see that God hasn’t given me favorable circumstances to claim His strength. What it means is that I am not the one who is strong – it is Christ who is strong in me that I can bear the punches, the blind sides, the betrayals.
What tougher job is there than raising children on your own? Our church has a card ministry for single moms for Mother’s Day. Here are some of the cards I made using this verse.
The geraniums are a digital image from Power Poppy, colored with Copic Markers. Inside says Thinking of You Happy Mother’s Day.
This card I used the rose outline sticker from Starform and colored with Copics. I used a lighter background cardstock stamped with the Gingham Background Stamp from My Favorite Things and embossed it. The sentiment was created on my computer and Spellbinders Back to Basics Tags.
