Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Amazing Sufferer

As it says on the sidebar (in the "Currently in my "books I'm reading" basket" list), I'm reading a book about Elizabeth Prentiss. I was so struck by her faith in Christ even after the loss of her children, that I just had to share some quotes with you.

She lost two children (almost three) in a period of about seven months. It was said, understandably, that she struggled with depression and her health wavered many times and she was brought almost to death many times. Yet in those times, and in the times following her recovery, she wrote amazing things in her journal and in letters to others suffering. May the Lord give us the grace, faith, and strength to follow her amazing example of trust Christ through everything Him brings into our lives!

In a letter to a friend who lost a child (not long after Elizabeth lost her two), ~ "I trust that in this hour of sorrow you have with you that Presence, before which alone sorrow and sighing flee away. God is left; Christ is left; sickness, accident, death cannot touch you here. Is that not a blissful thought? ... May sorrow bring us both nearer to Christ!" ~

~ "This life is all about 'a closer walk with God'. The deeper the sorrow, the closer the walk." ~

~ "Nay Lord, but it is hard, is hard -
Oh, give us faith to see,
That grief, not joy, is best for us
Since it is sent by Thee" ~

~ In the letter to her friend again, "But why should I think I know better than my Divine Master what is good for me, or good for those I love?" ~

1 comment:

Kat said...

Elizabeth exemplified such beautiful faith. Oh that we would be like her and revel in the beauties of Christ, counting them as being more precious than any earthly joy, in all of the trials and sorrows that come our way!