And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. --Romans 8:28
One afternoon, a teenage girl joined her mother in the kitchen. The young lady began explaining to her mom everything that was wrong with her life-she had failed an algebra test, her boyfriend broke up with her, and she just found out her best friend would be moving away soon.
All the while, the mother was baking a cake as the young girl talked. Finally, the girl's mother interrupted to ask if she wanted a snack. The daughter replied, "Absolutely! I love your cakes!"
"Here...have some cooking oil," her mother offered.
"Yuck!" the girl responded. "That's gross."
"Well, how about a couple of raw eggs?" asked the mother.
"Gross, mom!" was the girl's response.
"How about a cup of flour or a teaspoon of baking soda?" the mother then offered.
"Mom, those are all disgusting!" the girl said. "I don't want those things for snacks."
After a long pause, her mother finally said, "Dear, all these things seem bad by themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake!"
God works the same way in the lives of believers. Not everything in life is a piece of cake. Sometimes tragedy or hardship strikes and leaves you wondering, "What did I do to deserve this?" or "Why did God do this to me?" Many times we wonder why He would even let us go through such difficulties.
However, what we oftentimes don't realize is that when God puts all these things in His order, they always work for good! We must simply trust Him that each of life's events, combined by His hands, will turn out to be something deliciously wonderful!
PRAYER CHALLENGE: Thank God for the good and bad "ingredients" He allows to come into your life. Thank Him for working all things together for your good and His glory.
Daily Smile:
The photographer for a national magazine was assigned to get photos of a great forest fire. Smoke at the scene was too thick to get any good shots, so he frantically called his home office to hire a plane. "It will be waiting for you at the airport!" he was assured by his editor. As soon as he got to the small, rural airport, sure enough, a plane was warming up near the runway. He jumped in with his equipment and yelled, "Let's go! Let's go!" The pilot swung the plane into the wind and soon they were in the air. "Fly over the north side of the fire," said the photographer, "and make three or four low level passes."
"Why?" asked the pilot.
"Because I'm going to take pictures! I'm a photographer, and photographers take pictures!" said the photographer with great exasperation.
After a long pause the pilot said, "You mean you're not the instructor?"
In The News:
Gosnell Trial Spurs House Republicans to Demand States Regulate Abortion Clinics
Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee have set a May 22
deadline in which they expect public health officials from all 50 states
and Washington, D.C., to provide them with "details on state licensing
of abortion clinics and providers, information on revoked licenses,
state inspections of clinics and disciplinary actions" so they can
"examine how each state regulates and monitors abortion clinics and
protects the health and safety of women," the Christian Post reports.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), vice chairman of the committee, who
signed the letter to the public health officials along with her
Republican colleagues on the committee, said: "Planned Parenthood called
Gosnell's 'House of Horrors' an 'outlier,' but we're learning Gosnell
is not an aberration. They were approached by women who complained about
the disgusting conditions at Gosnell's facility, and they didn't report
it. When the Pennsylvania Department of Health found out about Gosnell,
they sat on their hands and the media was silent. Now we're discovering
that other big abortion businesses refuse to give medical treatment to
babies who survive botched abortions and we're finding out the truth
from former pro-choice nurses who called their own Gosnell-like clinics
'ridiculously unsafe.'" On Wednesday, Blackburn introduced H. Res. 206, a
resolution calling on members of the House to review the public
policies that led to illegal abortion practices, such as those
discovered at Gosnell's Philadelphia clinic. The resolution states that "Congress
and States should gather information about and correct abusive,
unsanitary and illegal abortion practices and the interstate referral of
women and girls to facilities engaged in dangerous or illegal second-
and third-trimester procedures."
Americans' Abortion Views Steady Amid Gosnell Trial
As Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell awaits the jury verdict in his murder trial, a new Gallup poll finds
26 percent of Americans saying abortion should be legal under any
circumstances, 20 percent saying it should be illegal in all
circumstances, and the majority -- 52 percent -- opting for something in
between, as has been the case in nearly every Gallup measure of the
question since 1975. The current views on the legality of abortion,
conducted May 2-7, are nearly identical to those from Gallup's prior
measures in December and May 2012. Although the survey was conducted
after much of the testimony in Gosnell's trial had already been reported
in the news, the stability in Americans' views about the legality of
abortion suggests the trial has not swayed public opinion. Part of the
reason could be that relatively few Americans are paying attention to
it. One quarter of Americans say they have followed news of the case
either very closely (7 percent) or somewhat closely (18 percent), but
that is well below the 61-percent average level of attention Americans
have paid to the more than 200 news stories Gallup has measured since
1991. An additional 20 percent of Americans say they are following it
"not too closely," while 54 percent say "not at all." This makes the
Gosnell case one of the least-followed news stories Gallup has measured.
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