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It's more than you can bear, but it's a story to share
Kelly Gunther • August 10, 2020
Since writing my blogs. I wanted to start this one about my faith and really open about it because it's really a big part of who I am. It was Mother’s Day of 2020 & I listened from online, as I am sure just most of us did. It really sat with me and I really pondered on it. This past week, I listened to the message again. I listened carefully as once I felt God talk to me, through this message. His message was & is about, “It’s more than you can bear, but he’s giving you a story to share.”
Just the title hit home with me. As I’ve always known sometimes it has felt more than I can bear, but I also always knew there would be a story to tell after I went through the bearing of it. Never did I always see it at the moment, as that there would be a reason for what I was going through to make me stronger to have a story to tell. I believe just trusting God & knowing what I was going through I would later then have a story to tell.
With every hardship comes a reason after it to be able to tell about it. (If you chose to) God teaches us to trust him in all of our dark places. He also teaches us how to grow from within us to be able to honor him. All of the glory to God.
I start to explain all of this without giving my story or even just some of the background of my faith. I never was the one who grew up in a church or even went to church every Sunday. I always believed in God, but never saw into a church until my early-mid 20’s. (besides the holidays) I was introduced to a church that was pretty new in the area of Salt Lake City(at the time). I had gone one Saturday evening as it was a small area of the meeting room with chairs lined up & a band. I was hooked from the very first night, turning into going ever sense. I knew this was meant to be for me. The pastor seemed as if he was talking right to me. For someone not knowing a lot about my faith & who truly God was. I just knew this is where I was supposed to start & begin my journey.
I went for the next 9 years. I would go on Saturday nights then turning into every Sunday. Every holiday. Then wanting to get involved more & more. Leaning into being on the greeting team, to being in small groups. That I then joined.
On Sundays, I would already be looking forward to the next Sunday. It was something I would sit in at knowing how every single word of each message would somehow relate to me. I maybe didn’t know it then, of how much it was connecting to me each time. I would sit & really pounder on the message & really then apply it to my day to day life.
Week after week, month after month & year after year. I would then really start to feel God. I would start to grow with him, as it was all a new learning process for me. I would start to feel him in what I was doing in my day to day life. I would find myself wanting to know more about the bible and take the “homework” a lot more seriously. I would ask questions & want to know everything. I may not have totally understood a lot of it, but I knew I wanted to be involved in one way or another.
I had met one of my really good friends at church, McKenzie. The pastor, Troy told me, he could see us being really long time life friends. He was right. I had always looked up to her and would even say if I could be as prettier as her, could I be! I was starting to learn how & why God was putting certain people into my life. Did he put McKenzie into my life so I could start to believe in myself? Would he do it, because she’s one of my best spiritual friendships? Anytime that I had a question about anything, she would always point me to God & give me the best advice. We don’t have the answers, but God does & I would just thank him for the great friendship that I had with one my closest spiritual friendships.
As I knew everything always happens for a reason, I would start to see God through it all. As I listened to the message “It’s more than you can bear, but he’s giving you a story to share” it would all start to make even more sense to me. Was God telling me everything I went through & am going to go through was just going to be more of the story of my own? I believe so. I never believed in my own story until I would start to tell it & share it more. Then I would believe more of what God was doing.
I don’t want to tell & share my whole story in one blog, but more so to help you. I want you to find your message. What is your own personal story being written about? Do you feel God working through you to be able to tell & share your story? I believe with my story, God was telling me & starting to show me how to help others through my own story.
As hard as it was growing up with a father who had an alcoholism problem. I wouldn’t understand it until later. What I went through I'd grow wiser from it. I learned that we can’t change people just for ourselves. I learned that even if you’d bag & bag for them to be in your life, they will choose what they want to choose. I learned that only that person can & want to change for themselves. Absolutely no one can do it for them. I learned as hard as it was, as a teenager trying to figure it all out, let alone understand it all, that I would grow up and be mature enough to know it maybe wasn’t all them. That the drinking was doing most & all of the talking. God was showing me that I would have to work through my story. To be able to help you work through your story through mine.
I learned that as bad as I just wanted to be smart like everyone else and get straight A’s, that just wasn’t going to happen for me. The struggle for me was something that I was just going to have to learn how to deal with but yet become stronger because of it. Just because I wasn’t as good as everyone else in my class at a subject. I wasn’t even close enough to be just as smart as half of them. That was okay. As hard as it was for me to expect it & actually be okay with my learning disability. I knew that it’s just a part of who I am. God showed me that I didn’t need to have the book smarts, as much as I wanted. To show me how to travel around the world. God gave me my personality & showed me through my struggles that I could help & share my story with them, to get through theirs.
I learned as much as I loved one entire sport for most of my life, that there was more out there. I learned that from feeling & trusting God. God was writing and telling my story totally different than what I had thought it was going to be. He was to teach me about him & that I would start to learn more of who he was. I would start to see my story change because I would trust within my faith more & more. I would then start to see as bad as you struggle with anything in life, that God was going to be there to help you fix it & let you grow from it. I was starting to learn that everything that I had gone through was being “more than I could bear, but it's a story to share”
I started to grow up & trust more within God & not so much myself. I would then start to see the outside picture of life. I would start to see people for who they were. God was starting to teach me & show me, who he was. That he was & is in the driver seat. That he is in control, not me.
As I am writing this, I am listening to the sermon maybe for my 4th-5th time. Each time I hear something different & really connections with me. So I will leave you with this, As I feel this is where I should leave off.
The Apostle Paul knows very well how it feels to suffer, be in prison for good & bad. He knows first hand “It's more than he can bear, but God was giving him a story” He(the Apostle Paul) believes in us. He showed us how it was for him to struggle, but yet he was going to be able to get through it.
2 Corinthians 1:7 And our hope for you is firm because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also in our comfort.
The reason why I leave you here or with this is because throughout my story. I did a lot of suffering, growing through pains, not knowing if I would ever be able to make it through all of the struggles & hardships. Now knowing I (myself) went through & still am going through it all knowing that, it is always going to be more than I can bear, but a story to share. I couldn’t be prouder of who I am, & my story to share. I say that so strongly, as I’ve grown so much that I know what I went through (& still am) is making me stronger. It’s given me the perseverance to never give up. I know God is showing me how to keep trusting within him, to be able to keep showing & teaching my story. I learned all of that growing through all of the struggles, knowing somewhere there would be a story to share. Trusting & knowing God was going to have one for me someday.
I don’t know where you are on your spiritual journey. I just wanted to share a little piece of mine to help you know it's “more than you can bear, but a story to share.’ Keep believing in your story & know when you are struggling that it's going to be a story to share(If you chose to) Along with a story, you never know anyone else’s. Listen to theirs and read the pages together. Always remember, believe in you, knowing God always has a reason for everything, cause at the end its “More than you can bear, but a story to share.”
Blessings
Take a listen! It's a favorite!
https://www.capitalchurch.com/the-story-you-bear/
Kelly Gunther Blog
Let that sink in for a bit as you read it. You might be wondering what that even means. Spiritual friendship isn’t something you just come across or even recognize right off the bat (at least for me, it wasn’t). It’s a friend, or group of friends, who lead and point you to God. I never knew what it truly was until I joined my church and was introduced to small groups. My small group was a group of women who met every Thursday. We’d do a Bible study together then discuss what we’d learned on the topic of what we were following and diving into. I really started to feel not only what “spiritual friendship” was but more of even the meaning of “true friends.” Before I made these spiritual friendships, I’d never been around a group of women that would pray together and talk vulnerably to help one another with the best advice they could. As it was then handed to God we knew & trusted that He would always point us in the direction of where it was going to lead us. Friendships are very important and always have an important meaning behind them, as every friend you have is - different from one another. That is what is so special about friendships and having so many different ones. Each one is unique and special to you. I just want you to know, I’m not here to tell you how to be a good friend or even be a Spiritual Friend, just want to give my meaning of friendships of my own. As they are very important to me, as it's where good friends become your family as well as lifting one another up. Friends are how you get to pick who you want to be in your circle to do life with. They understand everything that you are going through and will always be there for you, no matter what. The little catch is… You yourself have to be a good friend also. This starts just within you! If you aren’t a good friend to yourself, you can’t be a good friend to anyone else. you have to love yourself to be able to give yourself to others. What you put into you is just as important as what you give out to your friendships. If you aren’t happy with yourself, you won’t be happy with others. To know who you truly are, you have to fully dig within yourself. There are a few pieces. Confidence within you, believe in yourself, love yourself for who you are, and most importantly, stand up for who you are! If you are confident with who you are, you’ll be able to attract confidence in friendships. You want the ones who lift one another up. I love seeing my friends grow in who they are and chase the dream they want. You want to see them succeed, be happy for them, and cheer them along the way. Cause hey! Not everyone is always “perfect” or on their best game for that day. When you need a little belief or whatever it may be, your friends are able to help lift you up and remind you who you are! It's a hard world out there and even a cruel one. Why be so cruel to one another, when you can lift and help one another out? As you succeed, so do your friends. It’s a huge momentum circle where one feeds off another, to then lead into another. The more momentum you have, the more you grow stronger as a bond and always help each other out. Friendships are always for seasons of life. they are put into certain parts of your life, for when you might need that exact friend to be able to help you. Each one has its own story to be able to grow with you. “Friendship is the greatest of worldly goods. Certainly, to me it is the chief happiness of life. If I had to give a piece of advice to a young man about a place to live, I think I should say, ‘Sacrifice almost everything to live where you can be near your friends.’” C.S. Lewis Love that quote! I hope you can understand how important friendships are, what they stand for, and who they are. Without friendships, you won’t have much. As friendships really are the greatest of worldly goods! Says C.S. Lewis. Also along with C.S. Lewis, I couldn’t agree more, “to me it is the chief of happiness of life’ As it is! Love your friends, as you love yourself At the same time, the more you love your friends, the more you love yourself and are able to love them even more! Be who you are and give what you have! Love one another as God has loved you! Be the friend who you want to have.New Paragraph
Why hello again! I feel it's been a little bit since I’ve posted a blog or even gotten to write. So here we are. I write or post my blogs on what I feel inspires me that week or if something fun & exciting happens. So they might be all over the place & I apologize for that, but that is also just who I am. All over the place! With that being said, let's just dive into it. Have you ever felt you couldn’t make the choice to just say “yes” and go after what you want? There might be a few of us. It’s never easy, just to make the choice to say “yes” it comes with a lot of feelings behind it. Fear, anxiety, not thinking positive, just being scared, scared of the outcome, I mean there’s a lot that could be stopping you. The catch is.. WHAT IF YOU CHOSE TO SAY “YES” I’m not saying there isn’t going to be a lot of work behind it and scary, don’t get me wrong. It is scary, but there’s always the other hand. The hand of choice that you, yourself get to pick. You get to say “yes” even if it's scary in the middle of the storm. If you are going to be brave enough(which I know you are) to say “yes to the choice” you must also have the courage to stick to your vision because it will be tested. That I can promise you myself. Now that I’ve entered the new chapter of a season of life it hasn’t been easy. I won't lie to you. It hasn’t been butterflies & rainbows. Probably because if it was, it wouldn’t be worth it. With every challenge comes a storm. You just have to know you will be tested. That you are stronger than what you think, because of you. Yourself knows the outcome you want. You don’t stop until you get there. The work has been & be will cut out for you, but how are you going to keep working towards what you want? I’m here to say that because you have a choice to say “yes” you have the steps to move you forward, you have a choice to use what you’ve been gifted. It’s a gift you’ve been given. Especially when it's something you want to go after. When others might be questioning you, or you yourself even might be. Know you are strong enough within yourself because you said “yes!” Nobody else did or did it for you, but YOU! You said it for yourself to set your goals & dreams out to whatever they are. Don’t care what others think. This is what you get to pick for yourself. When you might be having those hard days, or questioning yourself because you will have those. It's something that just comes along with it. Know that it is completely normal to have those bad days because that is what makes your YES even stronger. You’ve committed to yourself. You owe yourself everything! Always be proud of what you are going after! I’m proud of you for saying “YES” even when it's so scary & you aren’t sure of the outcome. Write YES on a mirror you see every day or even something you see that can remind you, of what you are going after. Some of the littlest words are yet so strongly. I'm so excited for you to move forward & keep one foot in front of the other. YES! YES! YES! Go say “YES!”