I'm so glad you realized that I meant that people like yourself are my teachers to learn to be more humble.
Here are my testimonies:
Faith testimony:
I cried out to the Lord when my husband was dying at a very young age. I needed a great Comforter to help me care for a disabled husband, young child, home and business. Being Agnostic didn't get in the way at that point for some reason. When you finally get to that humbled childlike state of being, and you cry out to the Creator of the Universe, "God if you are real, I need to know you."
I heard a voice speak...not in the room but in my mind. The only difference is that the voice was male. He spoke with power and absolute love at the same time. Of course my feeble human mind panicked and immediately thought to myself, "oh no, I'm hearing voices...I'm loosing my mind" (I knew I had been under stress for a long time) As soon as my mind thought those negative words, I felt an embrace of love that I can't put into words. It was the first time in my life I had ever cried tears of joy. Silly me had never understood tears of joy. You don't cry if you are happy right? I finally understood what it was all about.
Of course I'm missing a part of the story....the voice simply told me... to read my bible. I had just tried reading the bible a week or two before and got frustrated with it and gave up because I didn't understand it but after my embrace I opened my bible and the words just popped and I cried tears of joy again because I realized that I could now understand what I was reading.
So I hope you can understand why I believe the bible is important. It helped me understand the power, love and saving grace of our Mighty Creator God. I may have had an inner knowing that told me to reach out to Him but it was my crash course of the bible that allowed me to be successful in the day to day life I needed to live right now. With it's help I was able to lead my unbelieving husband to the Lord before he died and I was able to successfully raise my child and keep my home and business running while I was still only in my 20's.
So yes, I can see where you would be able to learn much of the fruit of the Spirit by life's hard knocks but what about people who have never had our life lessons? Are they doomed? If you had a book that could guide you to humble yourself and seek the Lord wouldn't that be a blessing for those people?
I feel blessed to have had the hard times. Hard knocks will get our attention but it's where our eyes seek healing from the pain of those hard knocks that makes the difference. Thanks for sharing...you got me to share my story too. I will always have this special memory with you. :)