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And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose

(Romans 8:28). Bonus Reading: Romans 5:3-4; 8:28-34

In a small Southern town there is a monument to the boll weevil. Years ago, everybody in that area raised cotton. Then the boll weevil came and threatened to put everybody in the poorhouse. But the farmers learned to diversify their crops. They began to raise peanuts and other products that brought more money than they had ever made in cotton.

Some of us could rear monuments to disasters that frightened us into thinking that we were ruined—financial reverses, great bereavement, physical infirmity, loss of position. But adversity taught us to find a better way. We developed fresh resources, cultivated fields we had never tended before. What looked like a demon turned out to be an angel.

Remember that the [Key Bible] verse we like to quote about all things working together for good goes right on to tell us what God's purpose is: "to be conformed to the likeness of his Son."

If the boll weevil has struck your cotton crop, don't despair. God is jolting us out of our groove that we may find a better thing to take its place.

Vance Havne in It Is Toward Evening

What challenge might God have sent you to help you "diversify"?

Nothing fails like success because you do not learn anything from it. The only thing we ever learn from is failure.

Wayne Dyer

Credits: Adapted from--Thursday: Path to Victory (International Bible Society, 1993)

1999 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity. For reprint information call 630-260-6200 or e-mail mail@menofintegrity.net.
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