James 1:2-4, Holman Christian Standard Bible

"Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing."

So right before Christmas God showed me what I should be doing right now during this furnace situation. What am I talking about right?

Well... A family we are close to had found out some seriously devastating news.

Their to do list during this uneasy time was to serve God. Awesome right? While the dad sat in the hospital basically on death’s door, the family showed up at our home with groceries. That hit me. It stuck with me.

Today is my marriage anniversary (woohoo!) And my husband had planned a personal day off work so he can work on some things, and we get to see him more throughout the day than normal. Anyways, today we are trying to focus on serving and praying. I asked my husband what I can pray for regarding him. He said, “Pray that I let God handle it, and that I don't put duct tape on it.” Literally, there is a crack and hole in our furnace that he wants me to pray for him not to want to put duct tape on it. But when he said that I saw it on a spiritual level also.

Sometimes we need surgery on our heart and God is in the middle of surgery, and all we want is duct tape. He is working! He is precise! He is miraculous! He is mighty. He isn't a duct tape! So don't use duct tape in your life today. Go to God with your requests… or share a prayer with someone! Let them pray for you! Get raw! Get humble!

Ok so listen, I want to talk about a part of my husband’s prayer last night. It hit me hard! It was crazy beautiful! He said, "God, thank you for allowing our furnace to break." That got me thinking how important it is to be reminded of how powerful our trials can be. Our attitude toward the situation is everything! God will handle it!

I was telling my friend about the prayer and she sent me the best biblical comparison to Jason's words! I hope they help you as much as they help us here at the Conley household.

"And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." (Romans 5:3-5, HCSB)

Let’s stack this day up with a good attitude during your hard time and mine. Go on with your day trusting the growth that will come from the hard time that has been allowed by the One who sees it all!