When I was younger, I would go by to visit with my grandmother and she would say, “Come in and sit awhile…would you like some tea?”

All the grandchildren called her Corrie ~ not Grandmother, Nanny, or Granny. Corro Nell was what her friends would call her.

Having my grandmother Corrie was an experience I will cherish forever! She was an amazing woman. She was humble, giving, loving but tough. She was wise beyond her years and even her education level.

She had experience that far exceeded anyone around in the area of real estate and finances back in her day. Many people in the field would attest to that. We would talk about these life experiences many days while drinking sweet tea on her porch.

I have memories of where she and I would talk about life even when I was younger. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Those times when I would realize that life isn’t made up of fairy tale stories.

I miss those days. I learned so much from those talks. Many days now, I wish she would come sit on my porch so I could bend her ear at how things are today and get her opinion and advice. The world has changed many times over in the last 15 years or so since we would have those talks. Many days I think…”Corrie wouldn’t believe this!”…or “Wonder what Corrie would tell me to do?”

I have remembered these talks lately as one of my own children has asked the question several times recently…”Why is life so hard Mom?”

Now granted…she is 9 years old, her good friend has recently moved away and she has had to get multiple teeth pulled this week…all of this contributing to her emotions of things being so difficult.

Another event this week that has stirred her with these questions is that she was riding the bus home from school when they came up on an accident that had just happened. She saw the individual laying still on the ground where his motorcycle had pulled out in front of an empty bus headed to a school in the afternoon.

Can you imagine now what things she has going on in her mind? This has overwhelmed her with grief. She realizes that person had a family too.

It broke my heart to see my little girl realize that the world is not all about ice cream, bicycles, and pink tutu’s. This is a hard place. I remember being there once. She is growing up.

At the same time I have been smiling at Jesus because her father and I must have done something right because as soon as she and her sister saw the accident, she grabbed her younger sister, her cousin and other little girls around them and they began praying for the motorcycle man and the bus driver. She knew praying was the first thing she needed to do.

Is that my response?

I have been sharing with her that Jesus, the promised one, never said things would always be easy. Sometimes life is hard and we don’t understand everything that goes on around us. This should give us more reason to fall into the hands and protection of a great and mighty God who we can go to and cry out “Abba, Father” to when we don’t understand. The great and mighty ONE does understand.

He tells us to lay our cares at His feet. He desires us to cry out to Him. Even when we don’t understand. I am sure if we could see a YouTube video of David writing the Psalms we would see him being real and raw with God about some of his thoughts.

Psalm 55:17 says “Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.”

2 Samuel 22:7 “But in my distress I cried out to the LORD; yes, I cried to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry reached his ears.”

Psalm 88:1 O, LORD, God of my salvation, I cry out to you by day. I come to you at night.”

Trusting in God in the hard things is sometimes more difficult. But learning to cry out to our Father as our first response to good things and bad things as they happen in our life is something that, sadly enough, most adults don’t ever acquire.

Corrie taught me that. My parents helped a lot too.

Lately, I have heard a song on the radio that expressed my sentiments about being real with God when you don’t understand life. It is by Aarron Shust called “My Hope is In You”. I would love for you to take the time to watch it. Maybe you will need to cry out to God for something today…in need or in Joy…in questioning or in understanding.

(If you are reading this through email you will need to go directly to my blog site to see it.)