Confirmation Personal statement pg. 2

I worked hard the next year I probably took around a couple thousand swings, when tryouts came I was ready and guess what, I didn’t make the team. I was extremely disappointed after that for a while nothing seemed fun. But something my dad said stuck with me, we all feel disappointment in our lives and this may be used for the future and I need to talk to God about the pain I felt. God’s job isn’t to walk in front of us and sweep our path clean so that we don’t trip and fall; He walks right by us and helps us pick ourselves up when we fall. After I became a Christian I still felt pain, my dog died, I failed tests, and I didn’t make the team, life was still imperfect but I’m here aren’t I? I still have the same smile on my face don’t I? I’ve stumbled a lot in my life and God has always lifted me up. Whether He is giving me the strength to send 8 hours a day in the hot sun in Mississippi or giving me the courage to tryout again God has been with me through the good and bad times. When the sun is rising God has reminded me why, and when it is setting and I am lost in the darkness He has reminded me it always rises in the morning. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” doesn’t mean “I’m going to be super-successful and have a great wonderful life on easy street.” It means “Though storms may come my way I can survive through them with God’s help.” You know when Paul wrote Phil. 4:13? If you said “Oh he was ministering to a community and they accepted Jesus and everything is going great” you’re dead wrong. Paul was in prison, arrested for loving Jesus. He wrote that verse in the end of His letter after thanking his friends for their gifts and good news he tells them not to worry because even though he is in chains and even though he knows he may die he also knows that Jesus was with him. Paul was shipwrecked, beaten, and put in chains, he heard how Christians were killed cruelly by the Roman soldiers and has seen good friends die but he has also seen the glory of God on the road and the miracle of his returning sight. He has seen the joy in the eyes of new believers and heard of the love of his Lord Jesus. Though things were going terribly Paul knew that he would survive through the loving grace of God.