Unique And Beautiful

Some days we get too wrapped up in our past and forget to be who we are today. Too many insecurities bind us and paralyze us in fear. Your past may have taught you a few good lessons that add to your story but it doesn’t define you or legislate who you are. You are more than your past! What they called you yesterday, you are not today. You are unique and beautiful in your present moment and your situation calls for someone just like you to be brave, stand tall and face it head-on! Sooo…whatever it is you need to do, just do it!

Psalm 27:1
“The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?”

Isaiah 41:13
“For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.”

#soulnotetoself

Beautifully Imperfect

So I know it’s a big world out there and a very COVID crazy, and fragile one with a lot of broken pieces scattered in all directions. A lot of broken people and a lot of Humpty Dumpties that have fallen to their despair from walls of isolation and loneliness. Some beautiful souls have fallen, paralyzed by fear and insecurities and some hurting souls, have fallen prey to the world and their present circumstances. The new normal looks bleak and many broken hearts stand in need of repair. So much brokenness ~ so much pain! Yet all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put them back together again. The souls at stake are ‘our’ souls, precious souls and beautiful souls and some are the innocent souls of children caught in the crossfire and strife of it all. What are their options? How did it all begin and where does it all end? Will it ever end? Tender and compassionate hearts can help but our all-knowing God and the One who specializes in transforming hearts and lives and making beauty from ashes can lead you through it! It took some time to get there so it will take some time to get out but a decision to walk with God in obedience is your best option. We don’t have to be perfect to be blessed and we don’t have to be perfect to be used by Him. So for those failures that haunt your soul ~ give them over and choose today to make a difference regardless of your circumstances. God is in the business of getting us out of deep trouble and leading us into the safety of His home and the shelter of His arms. Rest there ~ with Him and find peace for this troubled hour and troubled heart.

The Sovereign, the omnipotent King and the one True God ~ creator of life itself, has all the brilliant credentials and the awesome mastermind to put you back together again. Begin now! Be clay in His hands! Walk with Him and listen to His counsel. ~k

Isaiah 61: 1-3
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion– to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of His splendour.

#Soulnotetoself #SafeInHardPlaces

Mom’s World

So you’ve just wiped up spilled milk, scrubbed crayon off the wall, threw in your fourth load of wash for the day, wrestled up a quick, nutritious lunch for your hungry brood, kissed a hurt and sealed it with a band-aid! You’ve rocked, and lulled, and sung sweet lullabies, while all the while just wanting to have a spare minute for yourself but you can’t find one anywhere. The day wears on and the hours are tedious and so the same with whines, and cries, and fussiness and wet diapers, and quarrels, and how come no one ever told you that motherhood assigned you referee credentials? So, you’re a mom, and when you signed up for parenthood, you were unaware of its strange mix of excitement, fear, joy, panic, happiness, sorrow, fun, or anxiety. But it is and there you are right up there in the top ranking of it all, and it’s awesome but it’s scary, and it’s sheer delight but it’s frustration, and it’s rewarding but it’s so time-consuming. Oh, so time-consuming!! Yeah, motherhood; there’s really nothing like it on the planet! Its challenges are out of this world and it’s rocked yours to the moon and back. It’s got you booked solid ~ hook, line and sinker and drowning in its many demands! The hats you wear are ridiculous and next to impossible and your sanity? Well, it’s gone south for a break and right now as you think you might go under for the very last time, know that you won’t! You won’t because your job is the toppest of the top-notch jobs in the whole wide world.

You’ve been entrusted with gifts from heaven, all ‘little life’, wrapped up and so tenderly placed in your lap. And there you are!! Smack dab in the middle of days that don’t end and nights that don’t sleep. Those gifts of life are yours to cherish, to love, and to nurture, guide, teach and train and when that journey overwhelms your beautiful soul, remember King Lemuel’s mom had some good words of advice for him in Proverbs 31: 10, 17, 25, 26, 28. She told him exactly how fortunate he would be to find a woman of noble character just like you. You may be tired and exhausted but your value is outstanding… “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies…….she sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks…she is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue…Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also and he praises her.”

God hasn’t promised pastel rainbows for your days of motherhood, in fact, some days might just well be purple and red, but He has promised joy to the mom who seeks Him and grace for the one who walks the ho-hum of the daily journey by His side. No, your rewards won’t necessarily be seen nor given out today there in your little kitchen nook, but your loyal works and your tedious steps will etch their memories into little hearts that will grow big and strong to become mom and dads of their own little gifts of life. So mom, take heart! Your tasks performed faithfully today will navigate back and will find their way into your seasoned heart of hearts when all you have left are the memories of the long lost, good old days. So yeah, beautiful Mom, enjoy these joyous but trying days of motherhood. They’ll be gone all too quickly.

Sweet Peace

Peace? That unexplainable “Letting it all go” feeling that transcends all understanding. How can we do it? How can we let the big things that exhaust our minds just fall away from our thinking? So much ‘stuff’ overwhelms and so many issues are at stake. Still, we are called to peace and trust; trusting in a God that we can’t see!

Because in His presence is peace

We need a firm faith both strong enough and transparent enough to “see Him” through His past faithfulness as He reached to us in our past moments of conundrum. Yeah, He was there all the time ~ through it all ~ through the thick and thin of it all. He was there when the heart was torn, when the fears where real, when our spirits were crushed and when even the slightest hope had dissipated from our shattered world! And now ~ this moment He still is ~ right there at your blind side, ready to give you insight for the next step and ready to give that peace we will never understand in our humanness. He has that for you too! Step into it and let all the issues go ~ Drop them into that pierced hand and into His care. He’ll take it from there and He will serenade you with perfect peace that you won’t comprehend. That’s what He does! I love how He does it.

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14: 27
#brokenandloved