Word in the Hand

wordinthehand2011

Trials and Temptations Consider it pure joy, whenever life gets difficult, because you know that the trying of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance is always work in progress towards a time when you may be mature and complete, so that you may flourish.   It is, what Winnie the Pooh would call, a blustery day. A wide sky with bright clouds racing to the horizon; some darker cousins challenging, armwrestling the sun; 'if I win it will rain'. And they try; but they don't. It seems a good day for a walk in the churchyard, sheltered by the high sandstone wall and yew hedge; but it isn't. The cloud racing zephyrs are also chasing each other through the mature oaks, sycamores and chestnuts; roaring like thunder and sending down a torrent of leaves, twigs and immature acorns and nuts. The trees seem to shudder to their very roots, the weight of all the summer growth making them heavy like sheep waiting for the shearer. The paths full of unripened fruits, twig...