My conclusions from giving up sugar entirely for three weeks can wait until tomorrow. First, I wanted to follow up yesterday’s post with a short explanation of one of the greatest lessons the Lord taught me in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n
I can now testify to the very real possibility of obeying what the Spirit commands in James 1:2-3 – “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because (There’s that word again!) you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
I survived some crazy trials in 2020 and now I’m working on James 1:4 – “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” I’ve got a long way to go, but it’s an exciting period in my life.<\/p>\n\n\n
To be sure, I miss Haiti. I love my friends, co-workers and students there and I long to be with them still. I have never gotten more satisfaction out of work, or felt a better fit, than during my time as a teacher at Cap-Haitien Christian School. Our departure from Haiti was painful (to put it mildly!) and I truly wish things had turned out differently.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
But I have found joy because the trials have strengthened my faith. And what could be a greater cause for celebration than that<\/i><\/b>?<\/p>\n\n\n
Therefore, I can honestly say I hold no grudge against any individual or organization and I would welcome reconciliation with absolutely anyone who has done even intentional harm to me or my family. And doubly so with anyone who feels I have done harm to him or her.<\/p>\n\n\n
Joy crowds out any desire to bear a grudge, seek revenge, or nurse anger. (Besides, the Lord doesn’t give us the option to do any of those things, anyway, especially in our dealings with brothers and sisters in Christ.)\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My conclusions from giving up sugar entirely for three weeks can wait until tomorrow. First, I wanted to follow up yesterday’s post with a short explanation of one of the greatest lessons the Lord taught me in 2020. I can now testify to the very real possibility of obeying what the Spirit commands in James […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6375,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6374\/revisions\/6375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}