Tempered

Metal is heated and pounded pounded and heated heated and pounded pounded and heated cooled Heated and pouunded pounded and heated heated and pounded pounded and heated cooled over and over pounded and heated cooled heated and pounded before it is ground into a refined shape polished and ground polished polished buffed shined and sharpened before it can perform as it was intended to be an instrument a work of art a work of the creator Just as we are tempered to stand with the Word and serve

When you are in the bottom of the barrel and everything around you is dark and scary, look up!

Being broke is tough, but being broken is a place that it seems you can never crawl out of. That is where I was, broken and broke. I was so fr beyond out of money that I couldn't even deal with the day to day needs of my family. I worked two jobs just to keep food on the table. This might not be the place you would think God would find you... Living in the poorest part of town between a drug dealer and a family of 1 in a two bedroom apartment, I was struggling to feed my young family. I was working so hard and getting farther into debt by the day, not because of anything we could cotrol but because of two beautiful premature baby girls we had in our life. We worked hard to do everything right, but the whole world seemed sacked against us. It was here that a thirteen year old girl reached out and fed our family when she and her family barely had enough to eat. They reached out to us. For us this was what God's grace was all about. That meal was our turn around moment. I believe there is a turnaround moment for each of us. As I reflect on that day I think back to how bleak those days were and how, in the bottom of that barrel we only saw the darkness around us. It is amazing that the kindness of a young girl was all it took to make us look up, and see our way out of the barrel we were caught in. Who have you reached today... and who has reached you? Peace, Patrick