Raining Roses: Become All You Are Meant to Be

By Theresa Leskovec

God knows how hard life is here on earth. He also knows the challenges and turmoil will help us grow into something better, but not overnight. Life takes time, and it comes with growing pains. There isn’t any way around it. We can’t go over it, can’t go under it, and must go through it.

In Raining Roses, author Theresa Leskovec offers a testimony of the power of God in our lives. She shows how he is here to help us navigate the challenges. Through personal examples and scripture, she tells how we must embrace the thorns to acquire the rose. God is transforming our lives, our country, and our world. He is transforming us individually and collectively. We will get through this as we hold tightly to Jesus and allow him to cover us with his umbrella of love.

Raining Roses shares the message that we already have everything we need to get through life’s storms. We hold the power to create the life God has intended for us to live. We can face any storm without fear, knowing with a sense of peace, that God is with us every step, helping us become our better selves.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781664289758

Theresa Leskovec

Theresa Leskovec created and directed the Busy Bee Day Care in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for twenty-five years. She retired to pursue her dream of writing and spreading the word of God. Theresa Leskovec and her husband, Tom, have three children and two Springer Spaniels. They live in Sagle, Idaho where she is active in her church and volunteers for outreach groups in her community.

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Copyright © 2023 Theresa Leskovec.

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-6642-8976-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8974-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8975-8 (e)

Scripture marked (KJV) taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture marked (NKJV) taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023901006

WestBow Press rev. date: 01/26/2023

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1Hiding the Light

Chapter 2Finding Strength in Weakness

Chapter 3The Seed

Chapter 4Imbibition

Chapter 5Germination

Chapter 6Rooted in Love

Chapter 7Sprouting

Chapter 8Gratitude Is Attitude

Chapter 9Something Better, Something More, Something Great!

Chapter 10Dancing in the Rain

Chapter 11Giving Your Zeal Back to God

Chapter 12The Rose

INTRODUCTION

Lord, teach us to dance in the rain as You cover us with Your umbrella of love.

You’re kneeling in your rose garden relishing in its fragrance and beauty. You reach for a rose and suddenly you are pricked by its thorns. Blood leaks from your fingertips and you shriek from the pain. You question the reason for the thorns. Why can’t there be roses without thorns? Sunny days without rain? Joy without pain? Happy without sad? Good without bad? Balance in a heavenly place.

Well, this was the case once upon a time, in the Garden of Eden, and it will be again in heaven. But between now and then, we have life. Our earthly lives are much more challenging than our heavenly ones. We must allow God to grow us through life on earth. We need to endure the rainy seasons in our lives, and we need to embrace our storms. Life and growth take time, and we are strengthened and made stronger through our storms.

We are made better through the healing of our brokenness. We become holier and grow closer to God. We must first become whole and righteous. We must be saved first from our brokenness by Jesus, who ensures that we do not enter the kingdom of God broken. The process of becoming whole often hurts us before it heals us. Through our pain, we are saved and transformed. We must learn to dance in the rain as we wait for the roses God is cultivating in our hearts to bloom. We must learn to endure the thorns that are there to sustain and protect us. Pain guards our hearts. We need to trust and have faith in God, especially when life hurts.

I’m so glad you’re reading this book because it means you have faith. Faith that things can get better. Hard times are only temporary and necessary for growth. My hope is that this book will help you to believe in God’s desire to cover you like an umbrella and protect you from the sorrows that may be raining down upon you right now. God can calm the storm that surrounds you and replace it with the sweet scent of roses sent straight from heaven to flood your world with joy.

Perhaps you’re not going through any difficulty at this moment but still recovering from a previous pain. Or maybe you’re needing some courage to fight the encroaching storms in your forecast. Regardless of your circumstances, and whatever pain is clouding your happiness today, please know that your sun will shine again. God gave us a rainbow as a covenant to remind us of this promise. That’s not to say it will never rain again but that it will never get to the point of flooding before the sun once again fills your days with light. The rainbow is a reminder that the rain will stop eventually.

Sometimes you need something to hang onto while you ride out the storm. It’s easier to endure the rain when you have an umbrella. And it’s easier to tackle life when you’re with God and His Word. May God be your umbrella when you’re needing shelter from a storm, and may you hang on to Him with all your might as he shields you from the elements of this world.

My hope is that these words, along with God’s grace, will give you comfort and strength to endure the storms of this world fearlessly. Be not afraid, for fear in all actuality is only false evidence appearing real. When we are afraid, we are actually saying that we doubt God’s power and ability to handle every situation. Fear not; He is with you.

The world’s challenges may be obstructing any rays of sunshine from sprinkling down upon you at this time, and clouds may be blocking you from seeing the vibrant rainbow strokes that are vigorously trying to paint your darkened sky. Or perhaps the endless beating rain has created hyposmia (yes, it’s a word and you can Google it) and left you unable to smell the rose fragrance that lines your journey’s path.