I must stop here and tell you how much sermons with topics like the ones I described in the previous posts inspired me. They taught me about the kind of life God wanted me to live. They encouraged me to reach high, to work for purposes greater than myself. I learned to join God in his work, realizing I could be his hands, his feet and voice. So many lessons I was taught! I meditated on each one, savoring the truths and putting them into practice in the best way I could.

Messages like this inspired me to do the work of raising awareness in the church and founding Living Room. They helped me grow the courage I needed to trust in God for all I tried to do.

I thank God for the obedience it must have taken to bring me words that helped build my spiritual maturity. Those Spirit-led words intensified my desire to devote myself to God’s service.

My trust in God grew firm.

But years later, my trust in man was to plummet.

I will never stop grieving that my efforts to serve in the ways I was taught, were in the end not acknowledged. If I were to speak with the voice of a confused young child: “I thought I was good, but instead of receiving love I was treated as though I was bad.”

“What more could I have done, Lord?”