From Bad to Good

     As I have already told you, I started a new job and I totally love it! On my third day, I came home thinking, “Dang, I had so much fun today, I think I would have done it for free!” Now, don’t get me wrong. I am very thankful that I do not have too! I am not sure how long that feeling would last. I haven’t experienced that kind of excitement about my job in years. In fact, I have not enjoyed my job in over two years. Many times I wish I had not gone to work for my former employer. However, today I realized how much better I am at my current job because of the experience I had received over the last few years. No matter how hard the last two years has been for me, I am thankful for them. They have made me a better person and a better plan administrator for the company I am now working for currently. 
     If you are walking through a valley in your life . . .hold on! Focus on loving God regardless of your circumstance and God will take this valley and use it for something good in your life. Recently, a good friend of mine shared a story that shows this spiritual principle in wonderful way.
     At the conference Bishop T.D. Jakes preached a message called Stir Up the Gift. In this message he likened life to his amazement in his mother’s ability to make a cake. He said as a young boy he would watch her in the kitchen as she gathered all the ingredients and in anticipation of the great tasting cake he would sometimes stick his finger into some of the separate ingredients and taste them. Baking powder ... yuck! Flour ... blah! Butter ... mmm! Eggs ... gross! Sugar ... yum! Vanilla ... bitter! But somehow all these bad tasting ingredients stirred together with the good made the most wonderful cake. Leave something out and the cake falls flat. That’s the way life is. The ingredients tasted separately aren’t all good, but some are sweet! Each ingredient adds something we need to learn from all our experiences and blended together with faith and the promises of God the flavor is incredible.

And we know that in all things god works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28