Once

What are the once and done things in your life? Mine tend to be very small things, like brussel sprouts or liver (except mom kept feeding us liver over and over for all my childhood, but you get what I mean.) Then there are the things I thought would be once and done, like childbirth, but that was twice, or even backpacking (I had a terrible first experience).

What I have found over the years is that some of the things I did once and hated, ended up being the things that helped me grow and become who I am right now. I am who I am because I had 2 kids. I am who I am because I tried backpacking again because I wanted to persevere through the bad experience to have the good experience. Even now, backpacking is super challenging. I have to dig deep to plan a trip and get to the trailhead. It’s hard. But once my feet hit the trail, I’m always so glad I made it there.

Life is about faith. Salvation may be a once and done event, but making it all the way home to see the face of the Lord requires perseverance. Faith is staying the course when things go wrong, when life throws you pain and suffering. If you understand faith correctly, it’s not once and done. It’s over and over and over again.

‘but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. ‘

Matthew 24:13

Friends, May the Lord give you the strength to stand firm to the end, the strength to face the hard things over and over again, because when we reach the finish line, we will finally be able to say we lived our once life on earth and we won’t ever have to do that again!

Happy FiveMinuteFriday!