A personal Christmas gift

Player of the Year, Sam Bradford
I’m wondering! It is two days before Christmas. Being a person who tends toward self-centeredness, what is the best gift I could give myself?

Salvation? No. God gave me that. I didn’t earn it or do anything to achieve it.

Same thoughts regarding my very special wife. (We are celebrating our eighth wedding anniversary today. She deserves some kind of medallion of recognition for putting up with me that long.)

The best gift to give myself (and possibly you to yourself)? Patience, endurance.
Sam Bradford, Oklahoma quarterback who recently won the Heisman Trophy and just yesterday was voted Player of the Year by the AP, said it well. Posted on an FCA website are his words: “Probably the biggest things I learned were just the power of patience and perseverance, and knowing that everything God does, He does for a reason. He knows what He’s doing. It’s not our job to question what He’s doing with our lives. He has a purpose for it, and we just have to trust Him and know that His plan is the right way.”

Sam spoke these words prior to becoming the latest Heisman winner. He had learned these lessons from experience. He redshirted his freshman year, strugglig in his first months at college. As a redshirt, he had to sit back and watch as his friends competed on the field and shared their experiences together. All Bradford could do was watch and wait and try to trust the Lord whom he served. Little did Bradford know what was ahead. He remained faithful during the waiting period and clung to what he knew to be true - that God had a plan for his life.

Patience, perseverance, endurance.

The Book of James, chapter one, verses 2-4, challenges us with, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

Patience, perseverance, endurance, a gift we can give ourselves for Christmas. Waiting expectantly, even with joy, through a tough time, knowing God can use it in our lives to build a strength of character not available in comfortable times.

Merry Christmas. Will be posting again after the first of January.
P