On Suffering

More from Tending Your Garden by Denise Sproul.

First let me set the scene - in the final chapter of her book Tending Your Garden Mrs. Sproul writes…

By most people’s standards we have had something of a difficult year. On New Year’s Eve I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The next day my husband lost his job. A few months later, Shannon’s seizures grew markedly worse. Then there was/is the house situation. We are without a home, and may not have one until next year. Two surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy and the recoveries therein filled the days in between.

Through all this year, my husband kept giving me the same message - now is the time to believe what we have always believed…"My brethren, count it all joy,…” (James 1:2-4).

The remainder is long, but please, please do not let that deter you from reading the rest of what she has to say. It is wonderful! After I read it, I could hardly wait to share it.

More from Tending Your Garden by Denise Sproul…

Our confidence in the sovereignty of God never goes deep enough. In the face of hardship we take some small measure of comfort knowing this didn’t happen by accident. It is because my own understanding is shallow that I find myself behaving as if I don’t believe at all. I grumble, I complain, I worry, I wish things were different. I do everything but count it all joy. Like a petulant child I look at what my heavenly Father has put under the tree for me, and I am ungrateful.

That’s the root of the problem, what I want to find under my tree. It is because I am not sufficiently sanctified that I tear open the boxes looking for comfort, ease and honor. Instead, like boxes full of sensible socks, I find fruit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. To put it another way, it is because I am not sufficiently sanctified that my heart’s desire is not set on what it should be, sanctification.

…When we connect our suffering with our sanctification, it almost always seems to come across like some dire warning. We still think like Job’s friends. The point isn’t, “You’d better get serious about your sanctification, or else God will send you a stocking full of coal.” It’s not like He wants to give us gumdrops and Game Cubes, but won’t because He’s a wise Father who knows what’s best for us. What I’m trying to get at is that God has carefully wrapped each of these challenges for me. He has picked them out on purpose, by design. He is unwavering in His commitment to make me like His Son, even when that’s not where I want to go. But He doesn’t try to make me like His Son so He can love me, but rather because He loves me He labors to make me like His Son. –Denise Sproul

If you are looking for a good, biblically solid, practical book on being a godly wife and mother, then Tending Your Garden is the book you’ve been looking for. It is simply the best book on the subject that I have read – maybe ever. And I’ve read a lot.

I’m sorry to have finished it.