3. Gleaning: Do Not Look Forward...

    Do not look forward to the changes and chances of this life in fear. Rather look at them with full hope that, as they arise, God, whose you are, will deliver you out of them. He has kept you hitherto; do you but hold fast to His dear hand, and He will lead you safely through all things; and when you cannot stand, He will bear you in His arms. Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow. The same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow, and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, then, put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations. - Frances de Sales

                                                                                              
    The many troubles in your household will tend to your edification, if you strive to bear them all in gentleness, patience, and kindness. Keep this ever before you, and remember constantly that God’s loving eyes are upon you amid all these little worries and vexations, watching whether you take them as He would desire. Offer up all such occasions to Him, and if sometimes you are put out, and give way to impatience, do not be discouraged, but make haste to regain your lost composure. - Frances de Sales
                                                                                                                                         

7. Gleaning: Let Us Then...

    Let us then think only of the present, and not even permit our minds to wander with curiosity into the future. This future is not yet ours; perhaps it never will be. It is exposing ourselves to temptation to wish to anticipate God, and to prepare ourselves for things which He may not destine for us. If such things should come to pass, He will give us light and strength according to the need. Why should we desire to meet difficulties prematurely, when we have neither strength nor light as yet provided for them? Let us give heed to the present, whose duties are pressing; it is fidelity to the present which prepares us for fidelity in the future. - Fenelon

    If day by day we first seek divine direction, and then follow it, we shall be ready, when new circumstances arise, for the new blessings which will be offered. Today should be preparation for tomorrow. The only proof that we shall be equal to tomorrow’s test is that we are meeting today’s test believingly and courageously. The only evidence that we shall be willing for God’s will tomorrow is that we are subject to His will today. - W. G. S.

41. Gleaning: We Learn By Suffering...

    "We learn by suffering what we teach in song," the poet says. It would be truer to say that we learn by suffering what we teach in our lives. When the great violin-makers of the middle ages wished to form a perfect instrument, they caused the tree to be felled at a particular period of its growth. The wood was then planed and cut into small pieces. These were exposed to the heat of the sun and the winter's storms; were bent, rubbed, polished, and finally fastened together with incomparable skill. If the wood could have found a tongue, doubtless it would have begged to grow in the forest, to rustle its branches and bear its fruit as its companions were left to do, becoming at last a part of the sodden earth. But it was this harsh treatment that made one of its common boards the Stradivari violin, whose music still charms the world. So, by countless touches of pain and loss, God fits us to bear our part in the great harmony with which true and earnest souls shall ultimately fill the world. "  

- Selected

    By patience man becomes more excellent,
    Fairer than gold, clear as the firmament,
    More pure from each vile element,
    In every grace more eminent,

    To Jesus more acceptable,
    More like to saints unblamable,
    To enemies more terrible,
    And to his friends more lovable.
                                                        - Thomas A. Kempis

25. Gleaning: Stars May Be...

    Stars may be seen from the bottom of a deep well when they cannot be discerned from the top of a mountain: so are many things learned in adversity which the prosperous man dreams not of. We need affliction as the trees need winter, that we may collect sap and nourishment for future blossoms and fruit. Sorrow is as necessary for the soul as medicine is to the body:
    "The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
    Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown."
    The adversities of to-day are a preparatory school for the higher learning.

- C. H. Spurgeon 

                                                                                                                

    Back and forth the plow was driven. The field was covered with grasses and lovely flowers, but remorselessly through them all the share tore its way, cutting furrow after furrow. It seemed that all the beauty was being hopelessly destroyed. But by and by harvest time came, and the field waved with golden wheat. That was what the plowman's faith saw from the beginning. ​

    Sorrow seems to destroy the life of a child of God. Its rude share plows again and again through it, making many a deep furrow, gashing its beauty. But afterward a harvest of blessing and good grows up out of the crushed and broken life. That is what God intends always in trial and sorrow. Let us have the plowman's faith, and we shall not faint when the share is driven through our heart. Then by faith we shall see beyond the pain and trial the blessing of richer life, of whiter holiness, of larger fruitfulness. And to win that blessing will be worth all the pain and trial. - J. R. Miller