Hey friends, today we want to tell you one of the craziest stories in the bible. It's the book of Job. Job and his wife experienced a great family tragedy. One day, they lost their business, wealth, property, and every one of their seven children died, like a house where they were turnin' up collapsed on them. Talk about a rough day; Job and his wife were shaken! They each responded in different ways. Suffering exposed Job's love for God, as he struggled with what he could not understand, but it told his wife's unbelief: "Curse God and die," she said.
Like their response to suffering reveals so much about them, it also reveals so much about us.

The scripture tells us that through ALLLLL of this, Job never sinned against God even when he had boils all over his skin. His unbelieving wife's answer was," Do we take the good from God but not the bad?". That's real. Also, hard! Even though he never cursed God, he asked some questions, and God had a couple of chapters of response. Job responds in humility. He acknowledges that God is God and does things for the good of those who love them and for many other reasons.

Now, it is VERY likely you will never suffer the way Job did. But you WILL go through suffering at some point in life. There is joy in suffering and fruit from our faith. Our boy Job became twice as blessed by God. His story could have ended very differently if he had decided to curse God instead. Maybe you and your family feel like you're losing so much during COVID, whether physical or special. We know it's tough. We want you to know that God sees your heart and allows your suffering. Whoa, are we ready to talk about that?!

For now, we leave you with some questions to talk about as a family. How do you think you would have responded if you were Job? Does it make sense that we should be joyful in our suffering? How can your trials improve your faith? How can God use this for good? The sobering truth is that unbelief will keep you from the promises of God. Are you willing to let those promises go because of a hard season, or are you ready to persevere no matter what? We don't want to miss out on any of those promises! We want to pray with you this week in whatever season you are. We ask that God would begin the healing process in your life and take the suffering you have faced and glorify himself through them! We can't wait to hear about your conversations at home. Love y'all!

-Jesse and Marissa