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EN(dur)ANCE by Robin Gudal

Recently our granddaughters came to stay with us for a week. One is just under 4 but still had a pacifier as her steady security of comfort.

One afternoon, after her nap, she awoke with very chapped lips and a red mark on her chin.

“Nana, it hurts!” “Oh dear!” I said, “You need to give up your paci,” I explained.

She is a thinker and recognized that no air getting in-between her face and the paci was causing the soreness.

The next step would be a mouth sore. “Nana, what’s a mouth sore?”

I looked up a mild canker sores and showed her. She didn’t want that!

Off we went to buy a Vaseline ChapStick for the redness.

As late afternoon turned to evening, we knew it would be a long night. She and I were committed. What fun to tell mommy and daddy about her big accomplishment!

Except, she had this for three-and-a-half years, and then one afternoon, it was put away.

“Nana, this is hard, really hard!” she would tell me with big tear-filled (but committed) eyes. “I want my paci!” Then, “Can I see the mouth sore?”

She is smart enough to correlate the physical pain and emotional pain, and she desired to make the right decision.

Easter is the anticipation of Jesus rising from the dead and all the promises that offers.

Victory, freedom, joy, all the hallelujahs.

And then real life interrupts that victory. We want our security, which often is something not good for us — “Life can get hard, really hard!”

Let us lean in and remember the promises of eternity. Commit to Jesus even, within all of life’s challenges.

“See on the hill of Calvary, my Savior bled for me. My Jesus set me free. Look, at the wounds that give me life, grace flowing from his side, no greater sacrifice.

What he’s done, all the glory and the honor to the Son, my sins are forgiven, my future is Heaven.

I praise God for what he’s done. Sing! For the freedom he has won, even death is dead and done. His life has overcome. Speak! Say the name above all names over every broken place. He is risen from the grave!

I’ll never forget what He’s done, ’cause He healed my bondages. I’ll never forget, ’cause he changed my life.” — “What He’s Done,” Passion

Walk in victory today!

Robin (Beckman) Gudal is intentional in life, a wife, momma, nana, friend and a flawed and imperfect follower of Jesus.