How come it doesn't say "make your life easier"?

After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. I Peter 5:10

So I was looking at this verse today, and I'm thinking of registering a complaint. I would like for it to say, "After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you...and make your life easier." Why doesn't it say that? Don't get me wrong--I'm all for being perfected, confirmed, strengthened and established, but it would sometimes be nice to have things be easy. Just for a day. Even for half a day. But that doesn't seem to be how life works, does it? I would love to tell you that every day I am in Russia, it gets a little easier, but that would be a lie. It gets better, but not easier. I adapt to what has to be done, but what has to be done doesn't change. I change in relation to it. The best example of this in my life right now is my "new" dryer. After being so excited about it, writing about it, and making my parents listen to it on the phone, I went in Monday, exactly a week after it arrived, to discover that it wasn't working. The brains of the machine appear to be fried. Everyone has looked at it, and now we have to have a repairman over to see if it can be fixed. If you looked up 'discouragement' in the dictionary on Monday, I'm pretty sure a picture of my face would be the illustration. I cried. I prayed. I even threw a tiny tantrum about it. Guess what? It still didn't work. So I'm back to washing, hanging, and ironing in order to get our laundry clean...at the rate of two loads a day, which puts me perpetually behind, something that drives me crazy.

So what is God teaching me through the dryer debacle? He's teaching me the same thing He's been teaching me since I got here, since we began this process, really. It does not matter to Him if I am caught up on laundry. It does not matter to Him if my dishes are always clean. It does not matter to Him if my children have peanut butter smeared on their faces in front of company, or that there is a perpetual layer of construction dust on everything in my home, or if I end words correctly in Russian. The only thing that matters to Him is my relationship with Him. I was reminded yesterday of something Elbert said at FPO. It struck me so much I wrote it down. "He is not calling you to save the nations. He is calling you to Himself. If you seek Him, He will be found, and you will be a success on the mission field." And so I wash and hang and iron, and, most of all, I pray for more of Him and less of me.

Well, I should run make breakfast. We are having guests tonight, so I should start getting ready for that. On a complete side note, my nephews Ben and Matt Fair are having a party this afternoon to celebrate their graduation from college, and I'd like to tell them publicly how proud of them I am. I know you THINK you have the best nieces and nephews, but I actually do. Ben and Matt are smart and handsome and talented and wonderful...and I love them both very much. I'm so proud of the two of you, and I am so glad I get to be your aunt. Being Aunt Kellye to Dan, Amy, Jason, Ben, Matt and Katie is one of the great privileges of my life. Wherever you are in the world, I hope that your prayer is more of Him every day, and that you take time to be thankful for your wonderful nieces and nephews. Blessings to you and yours!

His,
Kellye