I enjoyed today's reading in Show Me the Way very much. It reminds me that God's will for me is sometimes what I want and sometimes not what I want, but is always what I need. Real growth often seems to come out of the painful times in my life. It comes during happy times too. It's nice when I can step back during those painful times and know that there will be something revealed later that God needed me to learn from the painful experience. Too often, I just bemoan the dificulty and fail to realize that God is there with me, loving me, guiding me and showing me the way. When I pray for knowledge of His will for me, and notice the answers He is giving me, I see how much God loves me and loves the world.

I don't know what God is showing us with the struggling economy and all the pain it is causing so many people. I believe it will drive many people to try harder and harder to rely on themselves, and some will have a measure of success with that; others won't. The fortunate ones will be those who learn to rely more and more heavily on God, through reading the Bible and other spiritual literature, prayer and meditation, and seeking knoweldge of His will and the power to follow that path.