Annie Johnson Flint

Her name was Annie Johnson Flint, and she was born on Christmas Day in 1866 in Vineland, New Jersey.

She was a glimmer of hope to her parents, and the promise of a joyful and overflowing life was theirs. Because what could be a lovelier gift on Christmas Day than a new life? All of their hopes and dreams had been realized in this little bundle of joy.

But her mother and father had passed away by the time she was six years old. Her father took her and her sister to live with a widow of an Army buddy who had died in the Civil War. Annie and her sister soon realized that they were not welcome in that home.

There was a family nearby who adopted her — the Flint family. The Flints had heard that two little girls needed more care than they were receiving, and soon after this, their father passed away. But the Flints were Christians who raised the girls in church and provide love and Godly values.

She accepted Christ as her Savior during a Methodist revival meeting. She graduated from high school and became a school teacher.

However, she became so racked with pain from arthritis that she became unable to walk not long into adulthood. Later in life, the arthritis was so bad that she could not write with a pen or pencil, but she used her knuckles to type on a typewriter.

I want to share with you two poems that she wrote.

God has not promised skies always blue
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through
God has not promised the sun without rain
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.

God has not promised we shall not know
Toil and temptation, trouble and woe
He has not told us we shall not bear
Many a burden, many a care.

God has not promised smooth roads and wide,
Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;
Never a mountain rocky and steep,
Never a river turbid and deep.

But God has promised strength for the day
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing kindness, undying love.

She knew pain and heart break. She knew what she was speaking of when she wrote:

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow
greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labors
increase;
To added afflictions, He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half
done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

Your life may less than delightful on this Earth, but you have the promise from a Promise Keeper, “I will be with you. You will make it through.”

to those who are burdened,
– Caleb