Thanks for sharing all of that. I really appreciate it, and I trust that God will use it to minister to others who may be going through similar situations. I won't ask why you couldn't find peace with moving forward, but you probably saved yourself even more heartache down the line by breaking the engagement. Even though you called that pain "indescribable", I know what you mean.
I get the whole sister moving out thing, too. I've always been very attached to people, and there's enough heartache and sense of loss when somebody just leaves the normal way, but to have someone just disappear suddenly must be much harder to bear. Like you said, praise the Lord that she's okay.
Why was God putting you through so much? Generally speaking, he takes us all through stages of death to ourselves. It's painful. There's no denying that. This may not seem like much of a consolation to you at the moment, seeing how the pain is still raw to some degree, but God does give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.
Isaiah 61:1
The Spirit of the Lord GOD
is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to
them that are bound;
Isaiah 61:2
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
Isaiah 61:3
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
I trust that that will ultimately be your outcome, even if it seems unlikely or even impossible at the moment.
Your Mom's definitely right about not focusing on the temporal. I think that I mentioned this in one of my other posts, but I pretty regularly read the book of Ecclesiastes to remind myself of the vanity of this life. Ultimately, death will come, except to those Christians who are still alive at Christ's coming, and we need to live with that reality before us at all times while maintaining an eternal perspective or outlook. I'm not saying that it's easy to do, especially in a world which constantly bombards us with the pleasures of sin for a season, but it is possible with the help of God's Spirit. Just know that you're not alone, and that you have other brothers and sisters who are going through similar trials.
If I could offer a piece of advice to you of my own, and it's a piece of advice that I've offered to myself many times and heeded, then it would be to periodically step back and look how your life is positively affecting others. Again, with just the little bit that you've shared about yourself here, it's beyond apparent to me that you've been a blessing to others. Gaining a better realization of this yourself may do wonders in regard to overcoming your discouragement. I don't know if you ever watch movies or not, but I'm going to provide you with a link to a movie called "Second Glance". It's basically the Christian equivalent of "It's a Wonderful Life". If you choose to watch it, then i trust that God will show you what a blessing you truly are to others.
https://tubitv.com/movies/465476/second-glance?start=true
You might be required to register there, but that only requires an active email address. I've used this site for years, and I've never encountered any sort of problems there.
Anyway, I will pray for you for God's continued comfort and guidance. Again, thanks for sharing what you did.
God bless you.
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