Last week, my husband Jeremy and I received some really exciting news.  We are expecting our fourth little blessing, predicted to arrive at the onset of Spring 2013.  We adore our three sons, so adding another sweet pea to the bunch has our hearts overjoyed.

I am already head over heels for the precious little life growing inside of me; however, in all of my exuberance, there’s one thing that I am not so thrilled about – morning sickness.  Well, in my case, morning, afternoon, and evening sickness.  It never ends.  Although I know it will soon subside, and a beautiful blessing will come at the end of it all, it’s the one unpleasant part of the process I wish I could skip altogether.  But I can’t, so I may as well embrace it, right?

I remember feeling that same way while enduring the tough process of allowing the Lord to transform my life.  There were some tears I wished I didn’t have to cry; some friends I wished I didn’t have to lose;  some struggles I wished I didn’t have to go through; and some mental battles I wished I didn’t have to fight.  But you know what?  No matter how much I resented what I had to face in order to be groomed and developed into who the Lord destined me to be, I understood that there was no way to avoid the breaking, pruning, purging, and refining process.  If I wanted the blessing of new life awaiting me on the other side of my unwelcomed circumstances, I knew I had to go through it all.