Bring forth the Good

Uh oh, it's March! I better get my green clothes out; I don’t want to get pinched. For as long as I can remember, St. Patrick’s Day has been a day everyone wore green, and those who forgot tried to duck and hide throughout the day to keep from getting pinched. But I didn’t have a clue who St. Patrick was until I was an adult. St. Patrick was taken as a slave in his teens. After 6 years of enslavement in Ireland, he escaped, but he vowed to go back. After he became a priest, he did just that, converting the island to Christianity. Today we are often too scared to tell our neighbors about Christ. This man traveled back to a people who enslaved him to teach them the love of Christ. He let God use a bad situation and bring good from it. How many times do we dwell on a bad situation allowing it to continually bring us down instead of grasping hold of the good that God can bring from it? Romans 8:28 says, "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose." Sometimes, in the darkest moments of our lives, God is chiseling us out to bring forth something beautiful, something good. We just have to have the strength, patience, and trust to wait upon the Lord. ~Robin