Fire-Trials

I read a quote today on Pinterest that said, “God doesn’t give you the people you want, He gives you the people you need. To help you, to hurt you, to leave you, to love you, and to make you the person you were meant to be.”

Despite the glaring fragment at the end, this quote really caught my eye. God sends us people to hurt us and to leave us? This made me stop and think. Now, I’m no Bible scholar, and I don’t really know if God does that. I think He allows such people in our lives for our growth. And that makes sense to me.

I always tell my closest friends that I am never afraid to fight. What I mean by this is that if I have an issue with a dear friend, you can bet anything that I am going to confront that person, lovingly, and work it out. Conflict tests relationships. It refines them, like a precious metal. However, if a relationship isn’t worth it, such conflict will destroy it.

This year has been like a walk through the fire for me with certain relationships. One that I thought was very important shriveled up and disintegrated at the first and only conflict that it encountered. But do you realize how good that is? That means that it wasn’t a life-long relationship. It wasn’t meant to stand the test of time and hardship.

The conflict had an impact on me as well. I’m burned, scathed, scarred. The fire was hot, yet it didn’t destroy me. My scars are not permanent. I am healing a little more every day. I think through it all, once I am fully healed, that I will be a better person for my burns.

Maybe God doesn’t give us people to hurt or leave us, but maybe sometimes he allow these fire-trials in order to refine us, to bring us closer to Him, and to make us better people in the end.