I really liked this quote: your struggles do not define you, but they can refine you by Reyna I Aburto. I have struggled for a long time to know what the right direction is to go in is. I have also prayed to know what his will is and how I should follow it. The answers have been slow in coming and I have had to act on faith, sometimes when I really didn’t want to. Not even knowing if what I was doing was the right thing to do. I have struggled to continue moving forward when everything seemed so dark and lonely, when the opposition was seemingly more powerful and pervasive. I wondered more than once if my prayers where even heard. I have questioned, cried and tried again for a very long time. I still can’t say that the struggle is over or that it ever will be over until I die. However, the lessons learned where more than I can ever write, they affected every part of my life, they were soul-crushing and life-changing for me. It wasn’t just one crisis it was many and on multiple levels. I suppose the overarching lesson of it all was trusting in God when there was no other way. How many times did I wish that I didn’t have to go through this trial by fire, but I did. Just recently I finally figured out what areas I am sinning in. I try to do the right things and most of the time I do. The big things of course I’m doing very little of that, however, the seemingly inconsequential things was where I fell down over and over again. Like getting frustrated over computer issues (most of the time that is user error). Or getting aggravated because things don’t go my way. Or even getting angry because people can be so human and totally imperfect, like me. One more thing is in doing those things that you should have done and didn’t. Trusting in God means not having any desire to do evil, but that you recognize it when you are doing it, and repent of it. Also when those angry, frustrating and aggravating things happen, you look to God. Tell him your troubles, tell him your pains, your weaknesses, he knows and understands you. This is loving God with all your heart, might, mind and strength, which is the first and great commandment. Doing that will then give you the power to love others as you should love them. Then, and only then can your struggles refine you and you will have sought and found his will for you!!!