Relationships and God's Goodness

We were at a retreat this weekend here in the Metroplex. It is one we have attended with some regularity over the last few years because it is close to home and we have known many of the attendees for a looooong time.

This year at the first session they opened with a time of recounting God's goodness. Well, if you have been in a semi-funky time for a while and you hear people praising God for family trials, illness and recovery, going home stories, etc, you have to almost be dead not to begin to see how ALL of our lives are touched daily, hourly by His goodness.

I have prayed for many people over the years that they would be blessed with God's goodness which leads to repentance...particularly family members who are the hardest for me to talk
with...they know me too well! Anyway, I was made aware again of how God has shown this same goodness to me over and over again. And, that no matter where I feel that I am in my spiritual life, HE IS GOOD TO ME- period. There is not a breath I take without His permission, not a step I take, not a moment of my life that He is not intimately aware of and mindful of, even when I choose NOT to acknowledge Him.

The circumstances of our lives can do a number on me so easily when I forget that as the psalmist said, "I have been young, and now am old and have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread". Today, I can easily remember the day almost 34 years ago that I knew the Lord showed me that verse...shortly before I got married. All these years, that verse has sustained me, when I stopped to ponder on it! God's goodness to me is wonderful.

As I sat in the meetings, I realized that in this group of maybe 60 people, I knew all but around a dozen or so for at least 20 years. Some I had known for over 35 years. One of the men was a groomsman at our wedding. Another couple are our best friends in the Lord and in the world...learned how to be married together (we married within 3 months of one another), learned how to be parents together, how to disagree and make up, how to walk through the good times and the bad ones, too. God's goodness to me expressed in the relationships He provided for ME!

It was a blessed time, I must say. Growing together as we walk through this life, experiencing His goodness and the relationship with Him and those He places with us on our journey...priceless.