Every good and perfect gift comes from above

I recently realized that I had defined the way God relates to people--and that I had defined it incorrectly.

I understood that God related to me by challenging me, by leading me through the desert places, and through those times I really did grew incredibly. In fact, I began to think that I only grew when God put me through suffering. I believed that his blessing to me was suffering. I believed that people who did not suffer did not grow. I was thankful that God did not give me good things.

Then someone pointed out to me that God actually enjoys giving good things to his children. That teaching them through suffering was an anomaly, not the standard method. That just like a father wants to give his child wonderful things, to shower them in blessings, so my father in heaven loves me and wants to give me every good thing he can!

I know this seems like a simple realization, but it has radically transformed my life and my relationship with God and with other people. Now I can still be thankful for my past experiences and the growth that resulted from some very difficult times, but I can also enjoy the good things that are placed in my life. I feel free to love and to enjoy!

In this realization, I have been able to focus on the blessings that God has given me, which, to be honest, was breath to my soul. In the last year I became frustrated with God, asking him when he would finish dragging me through the dirt. I had had enough of sorrow and grief. I thought that he would never stop growing me through hardship and I did not think I could make it any further.

Thank you, mi querido Dios, for redeeming me. Thank you for persistently loving me. Thank you for wanting to give me good things. Thank you for the suffering I encounter. Thank you for helping me realize that yes, one way you relate to me is by carrying me through the desert, or making me eat my spinach, but you also cherish me and want to bless me with good things.

"Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!"