Once upon a time...

Once upon a time in a beautiful place, there lived a woman. She had a fulfilling life with her little family. She was married to a handsome, gentle man, and she was a mother to three darling children, who filled their days with joy!
She was loved by many people in her world, and counted herself blessed to have so many friends. The greatest thing of all was that she was loved by God Himself!

This woman had lived a good life. Although she had gone through situations that had almost taken her desire to go on, she just kept going!

Then one day she encountered something that to her was so deeply painful. She spent many days worrying about what was going on around her. She cried into her pillow, and wondered why and how these things could happen to her. She even began to feel sorry for herself!

One day, she was angry and asking God about these things. He asked her to write down on little pieces of paper all the bad things that happened to her. She did as He asked and He threw them into a garbage can. As He did they made a stinky, ugly mess. She looked into the can, and was so thankful that God had thrown it away, and that she didn't have to carry it around anymore!

As she walked away, she remembered something unkind that someone said to her, and she felt unforgiveness creep back into her heart. She ran back to the can of trash, and dug in and found one of the papers that she had thrown away. She put it into her pocket, and noticed that her hands and sleeves were covered with the smelly stuff. She grumbled and got angry that she was now dirty!
She went home to change and wash up, and as she did she thought about how someone had spread a rumor about her that was not true, and she quickly changed her shirt and ran to the alley, and started to dig again into the trash, looking for the paper that had that offense on it. She couldn't forgive that...it was wrong! She again became covered with the stinky mess! Angry, she ran back home to clean up again!

She spent many days doing this, and soon her family began to notice her discontent. They could see her pain, and how it had wrapped itself around her heart. Her smile and joy disappeared.

One night in the darkness that had surrounded her, she quietly begged God to please take the pain away!
God Himself wrapped His big arms around her, and while rocking her He said, "My child, you are the one that keeps running back to that pile of garbage, and digging through it! I threw it away to be forgotten forever, and you keep getting it out again!"
She sat in His embrace and wept. He wiped her tears, and she fell into a peaceful rest!

She awoke the next morning, and noticed that God had left her a letter. She opened it up and read these words...

"I came so that you can have real and eternal life, a more and better life than you ever dreamed of!" (John 10:10)

"I'll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home (away from that disgusting garbage can). I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for." (Jeremiah 29:11)

So the woman began to stay home, never to return again to the pile of garbage that God had thrown away!
She noticed as the days went on that she felt peaceful and alive! Her smile and joy returned!

As she tended to her garden, she talked to God about how He had delivered her from the "former things" and how He would be enough to meet all of her needs as she moved on to the life He had planned for her!

She raised her hands to heaven and praised her God...and she lived happily ever after, in Him!

Phillipians 3:12-14...
I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back.

(The title to this is, Sheila's Story!)