The two times in my teens I immediately ran to "church" when I was hurting the most. It was because my mother had aided me in the "habit" of turning to God for answers and peace when I was in a crisis in my life. I just took for granted that I was to ALWAYS turn to God in good times and bad. Unfortunately I just kept turning to Him in my times of Crises. I see that a lot in some Christian walks. They are beating down the doors and pleading prayers when they are in crisis, yet after the Gracious Heavenly Father walks them out of their storms..they forget about the continuation of remaining in an intimate relationship with God.
I am not proud of the way that I treated God...he got me through so many ruff times and then I would slip back to my old ways. With me, I was His stubborn child and did not remain obedient to Him. So, just as a parental father, He knew that it was time to "discipline me" in order to bend my ear to listen to Him.
I believe that the good Lord let me go through so many things so that I can help others in so many ways now. He has made me obedient to Him and reminds me to stay humble.
My walk with the Lord now is so intimate and so personal that I am Perfectly OK with being "different" again. Because the difference in me now is HOW I LOVE MY LORD!!! How I am no longer discarding Him and His nudges He gives to me.
My previous posts got me up to the age of about 18. Here is where the discipline begins to come in. I call it my "desert years" where God was attempting to get me to humble myself and learn that He had a Purpose and a Plan for my life. These are the years that He provided me with SO much and I just kept thinking it was me advancing my career...But it was not me...HE was ALLOWING ME to gain and build confidence so that the trip down to the end result would be to HIS GLORY.
Until tomorrow, bless you and may you be a blessing to others!!!! (( hugs ))