Don't let the fire die.

Hey Everyone.

For Christmas, one of my friends gave me a wonderful, precious present. It was a beautiful glass candle holder. Then she gave me nine candles. Each candle represented a fruit of the spirit – love, joy, peace, etc. At the bottom of each candle was a verse pertaining to the particular fruit. And this was so that if I am struggling with being joyful then I put the candle in, let it burn, read the verse, pray. And as I pray, the smoke symbolized the prayers going up. Too cute I know. She’s amazing.

So the other night I had my candle lit. I was lying in bed and looking at the candle. I asked "Hey God, what's so significant about fire? Refining? Purification? Okay, fair enough, but that's not clicking for me right now...." About ten minutes later I blew the candle out so I could go to bed (we don’t want any fires) I climbed into bed and all the smoke blew over to my bed and I gagged. I did. I coughed, and I gagged. And then I started laughing hysterically. "Oh" I said "so you mean that when the fire dies, it stinks."

I know this doesn't sound very deep. And that you may be wondering why I am sharing this with all of you. Well, it's because I used to think that maybe I was a Christian because my parents raised me to be a Christian.

This past year I put God to the side and my fire got smaller and smaller, and I felt like it almost went out…I was miserable.

I suppose I want to remind all of you that our joy really does come from God. I changed nothing in my life except the placement of Christ and now I’m truly living all the days of my life.

For all of you, I know some of you are hurting so much. Some of you are honestly going through things I could never imagine going through and some I can say that I’ve been there, survived that. Depression, an empty nest, broken marriages, feelings of worthlessness, changes coming up, kids moving on, new beginnings, new challenges, old challenges, break ups. Yeah, you each know who you are.

Okay, little tears are coming.... (shoot) I want each of you to hold onto your fire, don’t let it die. Please don't let it die. It stinks. It may not make sense; you may wonder what's going on and why God is allowing it to happen. Someone once told me, "Sometimes I didn't know why God allowed stuff to happen in my life, but somehow through it, I became a little more like Him." He never leaves us. He holds, guides, loves, and helps us through...and little by little the fruits of His Spirit will be manifested in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Please don't let your fire die.

Cheering you on in the hope and full faith that your fire will survive.

May you know that if you need, I will be His match to help light you up again.

Kaylee