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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Bitter and Sweet (05/28/09)
Forrest Gump said “Life is like a box of chocolates.” Yes, it can be especially like dark chocolate. It can be bitter when you first bite it but the taste improves as you chew and you can finally adapt to the taste of slightly sweet. If you ever notice when someone buys a bag of different kinds of chocolate, the dark is usually the last pieces to go. Then, when you get desperate for chocolate you will eat it. It grows on you.

I have had a few bites of dark chocolate lately and I am able in all the bitter taste to find some sweetness to really feel good about. I have spent my life raising my four daughters. There has been a lot of confusion because of major differences in morality between me and their dad. We had a lot of disrespect for each other and it erupted in wrong ways because we didn’t know how to handle it. I just knew because of what the Bible says about standing for what is right that all would end sweet.

It seemed to be going that way until the year 2006 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Even though we had our family torn apart from two daughters that decided they were lesbians and both had been married fifteen years and had two children each. Talk about bitter times hoping it would turn out sweet. The girls didn’t seem to respond well to the point that I didn’t cry about having cancer. I never cried but once and it was after three days of intense pain and no sleep because of steroids. Three of the girls seem to think that I was too strong and it caused bitter feelings that have not sweetened since.

All of a sudden it seems that I am the reason for every problem the girls have had in their life. Not their daddy and me, just me. I didn’t raise them right. I “Made” them go to church and I “Made” them choose between me and their dad. I thought I was teaching them right and wrong. I found myself feeling bitter over this until I found some sweetness amid it all. Their daddy has started to defend me and stand for me in ways he never has. He has finally seen their bitterness which didn’t seem to appear more than hurt feelings for a while. The sweet part for me is that I have seen and heard him straighten two of them out over lies they are telling. He actually called them on the carpet about it.

What it is really coming down to is that they think I am too strong because I have not compromised my morality in all this and I have never compromised my marriage. They have seen me stand without crumbling in situations most people could not have taken nor would they have. I have not had a problem with letting them know I love them but they are living in sin. The sweet part is that it is because of God that I have not lost my mind or my faith or quit believing in Him.

God has helped me overcome the bitter part and has taught me about how He gives to me when I feel like I am losing. The sweet part is my relationship with God is in tact. He is so faithful to come to me even before I know I need Him and prepares me for sweet communion with Him when in fact it would be bitter without Him. Everything in my life hinges on God’s Word and what He says in it. I would not be here without Him and I feel His protection all the time. He has given my husband and me a relationship in understanding that I never dreamed would come. We can actually talk without fighting and walking away without resolution. We have learned to appreciate the sweet times and let go of the bitter ones. It is finally coming together in sweet ways while we wait for the others to change. Our box of chocolate has less bitter pieces and more sweet ones and I believe God is rewarding me for tying knots and holding on.
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Helen Murray
06/05/09
What a fabulous article! I can relate to every word of it, having had similar experiences. It is certain that God helps us stand strong when crumbling seems the simpler option. Knowing how lonely it can be, I praise the Lord for your powerful example.
Dolores Stohler 
06/05/09
Thanks for sharing. I, too, can relate to parts of your story. Remain strong in your faith and you may find your prodigals changing their views when they test the limits and find that Mom really does know best. This is what happened to me when my prodigal son entered his middle years, looked back on his life and began to see with clarity all the mistakes of his youth. He's beginning to think like me now.