Healing.

Life can be very unpredictable. You are likely either going through a trial, about to go through one or just out of one. The good news is that God has a miraculous ability to not only sustain us through pain, disappointment, hard news, huge life changes, betrayal, etc... but he actually grows us in it. When we choose to look through the lens of "What am I supposed to be learning here? How do you want me to walk through this?", we tend to see things from a much larger perspective and we invite peace, hope, joy and meaning into our lives and situations. It certainly isn't a quick process and it's often the harder way through things but the end result is worth it. Beauty from ashes.

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

That's the beauty from ashes. That we would be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 

It's hard to share such a vulnerable side of life: pain. We tend to shrink back and want to either deny it or hide it but I know there is purpose in sharing it. And very often the things we have gone through are actually for the benefit of other's lives, too.

To hear more of my heart on this, check out the video below.

Have a great weekend,

Lindsey

Pretty Days.

Beautiful day here in South Alabama. Absolutely perfect weather. I woke up yesterday and knew we had to do something outside. We rented a couple kayaks and cruised the Mobile Bay Delta area. Although my kids ate all the snacks in the first 30 minutes, had to pee the whole time and played bumper boats at my expense...it was still wonderful. Being a mama to boys, you have to lay aside expectations on a day like this. You can't imagine a serene, leisurely kayaking experience where everyone is quiet and peaceful. If you want that, you'll have to go alone. ;-)  I have found over the years that just as refreshing (.....ok, almost as refreshing) as those quiet, peaceful times, are the times where you laugh your way through the day so much that your cheeks hurt.

We do a lot of that.

So when you get a pretty day, relish in it! And when you get an ugly day...relish in that too because it's still another day to breathe air, experience new mercies and be with people you love.

"Time is a monster that cannot be reasoned with. It moves like a snail at our impatience and races like a gazelle when we cannot catch our breath."

 Simon Burch

Enjoy time.