Putting Things in Perspective...

I have recently run across several quotes from a woman that I knew very little about until this afternoon. Her name and bits of her story were familiar to me, but I wanted to know more. So many of the quotes I have seen from her have been very inspirational and focused on trust and hope in the Lord's plan. I wanted to know her story.

Come to find out this woman, Corrie ten Boom, was a Dutch Christian Holocaust survivor who helped many Jews escape the Nazis during World War II. She has written an autobiography, (along with several other books) about what her life was like in those years, and I can only imagine how moving her story must be.

As I read about this woman, I found myself thinking about my own "hard" journey. My journey, which honestly after reading about hers, just doesn't seem so hard anymore. This woman went through things that were horrible and still she and her family are quoted as saying some pretty inspiring and faithful words in the midst of a incredibly trying and dire time in their lives.

Before dying in a concentration camp, Corrie's sister Betsie said this...."There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still."

After being released from a concentration camp Corrie said, "God does not have problems. Only plans."

She sounds to me like a pretty amazing woman with a faith that I can only strive to attain. In the meantime, I think I will try to remember her words and remember that there are many struggles much harder than my own. Her words and her story help me put my journey into perspective.

Here are several more of her faithful words....

"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."

"Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open."

"If you look at the world, you'll be distressed. If you look within, you'll be depressed. If you look at God you'll be at rest."

"This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see."
(The Hiding Place)

"Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength- carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength."

"Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden."

"Happiness isn't something that depends on our surroundings...It's something we make inside ourselves."

"Some knowledge is too heavy...you cannot bear it...your Father will carry it until you are able."
(The Hiding Place)

"Don't bother to give God instructions; just report for duty."

"Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear."

"Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future."

"The tree on the mountain takes whatever the weather brings. If it has any choice at all, it is in putting down roots as deeply as possible---Each New Day"

"Child, you have to learn to see things in the right proportions. Learn to see great things great and small things small."

".....joy runs deeper than despair."

"You can never learn that Christ is all you need, until Christ is all you have."

"Happiness isn't something that depends on our surroundings. It's something we make inside ourselves."
(The Hiding Place)

"How often it is a small, almost unconscious event that makes a turning point."
(The Hiding Place)

"Perhaps only when human effort had done it's best and failed, would God's power alone be free to work."
(The Hiding Place)

"In darkness God's truth shines most clear."
(The Hiding Place)

"Love is larger than the walls which shut it in."
(The Hiding Place)

"Faith is like radar that sees through the fog -- the reality of things at a distance that the human eye cannot see."