Refine

Refine

These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

IT HAD BEEN A MAD SCRAMBLE of a morning. Burnt waffles, lost homework, and then the coup de grâce: my first grader stepped in a pile of dog poo, just as the school bus rounded the corner, heading toward our stop. Frantically wiping poop off a small left shoe (still attached to the child) with a nearby twig, I finally surrendered, sighing resignedly as I waved the bus on, without my kid.

My evening ended with an email cheerily rejecting my submission. And the stuff in between these two unpleasant events? Well. Let’s just say that I’d spent the day navigating especially difficult conflicts both as a lawyer and a parent almost nonstop between the shoe incident and the rejection letter. In other words, I was tired, cranky, and at the end of my string.

As I sat alone in the still of the night with the rest of my household tucked in and sleeping sweetly, I pondered refinement and what God has to say about it at work in our lives, wondering what would happen if we acted the most like Christ in the moments when we want nothing more than to throw a tantrum like a toddler in Target.

Ugh. That’s hard to hear, especially in the midst of a bad day. But it’s true. What if we viewed frustrations and annoyances, hard moments and tough weeks as refining faith moments rather than allowing them to derail us into the ditch of emotional caterwauling? Is it easy? Of course not, but is it worth the effort? Certainly.

Just as gold and silver become purer and more valuable for having gone through the refiner’s fire, so do we. When we face challenges, turning to God rather than running away, we emerge stronger spiritually, with faith roots having dug deeper and wider, anchoring us, giving us a firmer foundation than before.

Lord, help us to see the refinement, the value in hard moments, situations, and experiences. May we emerge from those encounters with our faith not only intact, but having grown stronger. Amen.

-Julie

One Good Step: Shift your perspective on a hard situation, viewing it through the lens of a refinement of your faith. How does that perspective shift change your response?