Hello community!  I hope you will be encouraged by this poem I wrote sometime ago.  God bless you all.

IN HIS IMAGE^{©2002 Sharon Smalls}

The choices you make at times lead only to despair

Life's challenges may fill you with sadness or fear

Your best at times may seem to miss the mark

And though it's light outside, the path may seem dark

Sometimes the voice within or a voice without

Sows into your spirit disturbing seeds of doubt

It feels at times like you're in the midst of a fire

Or that floodwaters surround you, rising higher and higher

When your soul is weary and your focus is hazy

Remember: God's creating in you something quite amazing

For the beauty of silver comes only after the fire

A diamond went through pressure to become something admired

Through pressing and spinning the potter's vessel takes its form

And only after pruning is the rosebush more than thorns

So the next time you question the value of what you do

Remember: the Loving Master is patiently at work in you

The trials they mold you, the heartbreaks are His pruning

The pressure and the fire are the tools of His fine-tuning

When your soul gets weary and your focus is hazy

Remember this truth - it's really quite amazing

You see, the diamond may adorn the neck of a queen

The roses may be found in the palace of the king

The silver may become an exquisite thing of beauty

And in the grandest home the pottery may do its duty

But none of these share the splendor

Or partake of the royalty

That belong to the men and women

Who have made Jesus their King.

For with all their beauty

This one thing for them is not done:

TO BE MADE IN HIS IMAGE

Being conformed to the likeness of His Son.