"STRAINING THE MILK"!

My grandmother was well-known for her skills in the kitchen.  Everybody knew that "Grandma" could cook like no other person.   As a matter of fact, "Grandma" cooked our wedding rehearsal dinner when we married February 17, 1984.   Regrettably, she slipped into heaven February 15, 1985, two days before our first wedding anniversary.  

My GrandPa used to milk his milk cow everyday.  Grandma would "process" the fresh milk as soon an GrandPa brought it in the house.  She would strain the milk with a "strainer" and then strain it again with a special cloth especially made for straining the cream out of milk.  Only the milk made it through the straining cloth.  Everything else was removed.  

Over the past couple of days, I have been writing about lessons from the book CLASSIC CHRISTIANITY. The stories shared, Reed and Marian dealing with the death of their daughter Wendy, and Tim Stevenson preparing for his Canadian Wilderness trip, made me think of Grandma straining her fresh milk.   

We are all unique in our Christian walk.  Our spiritual "DNA" is developed by the dealings and circumstances of our lives.  No one else has my experiences, with the people I knew, at the time I had them, for the length of time I had them, and on and on.   We are made with GREAT care and PRECISE motions.  Psalms 139:14 says "I will praise thee; for I am FEARFULLY and WONDERFULLY made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well."   GOD knew Jeremiah "before I formed thee in the belly" (Jeremiah 1:5).   Reed and Marian both lost the same daughter, yet they individually had to cope with the tragedy in their own way.  Tim Stevenson prepared for "Discipline" in his life like few others. 

Everyone has thoughts and emotions that make us unique.   GOD knows our thoughts (Isaiah 66:18; Psalms 94:11) and HE has HIS thoughts about us (Jeremiah 29:11).  

Sometimes I get impatient with GOD trying to get all if the impurities out of my life.  It seems that HIS plan is to keep "STRAINING" my life until all the cream and impurities are removed.  Like Tim Stevenson, HE does it because HE LOVES me and HE wants me to succeed.  I just have to remember Psalms 27:14 that says "WAIT on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: WAIT, I say, on the LORD."