Oh, to become like You, Lord, I’ve asked this often… I’ve yearned and strained and longed to try and copy You. But this is not Your way to fashion Your child into Your likeness.

Only when You allow a trial to come and stand before me, to question and defy me, only then can I make the choice to accept or reject it as a tool to refine me to a better likeness of You.

When bitter words assault me,
When I long to jump to my defense,
When my pride falls and crashes into a million pieces -
This is the teachable moment, the golden opportunity, to allow You to strengthen my spiritual fiber so my attitudes become like Yours.

You accepted pain willingly, ungrudgingly, nonvindictively.
You had gone before me to experience all that I am to feel,
so that I could follow in Your footsteps to become like You.

There is only one difference -
You hold my hand through my hurt
While You went through Yours alone.

by Donna Leonard