I can remember as a child how I looked forward to special times like vacations, birthdays, and Christmas. I knew that while taking a vacation we would be staying in motels with swimming pools. Even if the weather turned bad we would jump in those pools and have the time of our life.

On our birthdays we would be able to pick the meal we wanted. Mom would fix our favorite food and we would never be late to the table on those special days. Then there was Christmas; the most special time of all. The Sears and Roebuck Christmas edition catalogs would come and we would wear it out looking through it time and again. We were allowed to pick out the one special gift we wanted for Christmas.

We knew that in all of these special times our parents would come through for us. Dad would reserve a motel with a swimming pool for our vacation. Mom would make our birthday meal and it would be as good as we had imagined it would be. Then we would never doubt that we would get that one special gift we had picked out from the Sears and Roebuck catalog.

In all of these special times, there was an element of hope and trust in our parents. Hope and trust are powerful and necessary in our lives. Without hope for a harvest no farmer would plant a seed. Without hope for the future we would have no desire to live. The opposite of trust is suspicion. If we are suspect of everything we encounter, our life will be miserable.

Proverbs 13:12; “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.”

It is said that 80% of the things we worry about, never happen.

Proverbs 3:5; “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”

As a child I put my trust in my parents that those special days would be all I hoped they would be and I was never disappointed. Keep hope and trust alive in your life and you too will not be disappointed.

These are the things we look into at the Gathering Place every Sunday morning at 10:30 and Wednesday evening at 7. Come and be with us.