Reaching Beyond Pain

Reaching beyond Pain

[God] comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 2 Corinthians 1:4

Everyone hurts at one time or another. And even reading the scriptural reminder that our experiences can be used to encourage and help others going through the same things doesn’t always encourage us. After all, at the beginning of our traumas, few of us are interested in comforting others. We’re too busy slugging through our own challenges and wishing for days gone by. Since we all compare ourselves with others who we think are more blessed and less lonely, the trick is to get that comparison going in the right direction.

So instead of sighing each time we see “perfect families” at church or in the mall, we need to look for others who are alone and lonely. This is where we sometimes have to get a little tough with ourselves. After all, if we allow ourselves to hurt every time we see an intact family, we’re going to hurt a lot. We don’t have to be victims of envy. We do have the choice of whether we want to be better women because of what we have experienced or bitter women because of the blows life has handed us.

Lots of people need us. The problem is, we want to be needed by the people we need. Life doesn’t work that way. But we can ask the Lord to bring his good out of our circumstances and let us make a difference in someone else’s life. After all, we may be miserable, but that doesn’t mean we have to act miserably. Reaching out to help others actually helps us. —SANDRA

Lord, I confess I don’t want to help others with their problems when I have so many of my own. So, help me to remember that my job is not to solve all the world’s problems but to let others know I care.

A four-letter word causes us enormous problems: self. Our self-inclination will send us reeling unless we have settled the core issue: What is our life purpose? Once God’s glory is our purpose, then we have a center point to which we can relate each decision and each situation.

—SUSAN HUNT, WOMEN’S MINISTRY CONSULTANT AND AUTHOR