Some people’s passions lead them to headline making, world changing careers.
Most of us spend our days in smaller ways.
And we often feel like our tiny efforts create barely a ripple in the giant ocean of human experience.
But I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to be brilliant, rich, beautiful or perfect to make a difference in someone’s life.
All you have to do is care.
Read the rest here: Making a Difference is Easier Than You Think
I’m a little tender today.
It’s my mother’s birthday-the first one she will celebrate in Heaven and the first we will mark in her absence.
So I’m turning again to quotes that help my wounded heart.
Reading reminds me I’m not the first soul to travel this way.
Others have been here before and left breadcrumbs.
Read the rest here: https://thelifeididntchoose.com/2019/09/22/saved-bits-for-a-broken-heart/
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Child loss is not a hammer in the hand of God.
He didn’t “take” my son so He could mold me into the person He wants me to be.
But He will use this pain and sorrow if I run to Him.
Sometimes I resist but His Father heart is steadfast in its love toward me.
God doesn’t give up and decide I’m “too much trouble” or “too far gone”.
NO!
He’s the Faithful Father watching and waiting with open arms for the Prodigal to return.
He will weave even the darkest and most tangled threads into a beautiful, redeemed tapestry if I let Him.
He’s the God who stays.
Always.
Forever.
Amen.
I spent long hours with Mama in the last years of her life.
That gave me plenty of time to mine her memory for details of stories I’d heard for years but never took time to really listen to closely.
I knew (although I had no idea how soon it might happen!) that I wouldn’t have her forever. I wanted to gather all the bits and pieces I could hold that would remind me who she was, who she loved and what made her unique so I could always, always remember.
When she left us last September I felt like I had a treasure chest of tales and precious mementos.
It wasn’t that way with Dominic.
I never imagined I’d need such a thing.
I never thought I would be the one left behind with questions about what motivated him to this or that, go here or there, what brought him particular delight or made him stay awake at night.
Time was on my side.
He was young and vibrant.
No need to dig for bits to tuck away in case he wasn’t here to ask.
I was wrong.
I confess.
When I used to drive by an unkempt yard, a run down house or bumped into an untidy person, I would think, “Goodness! Don’t they care about their yard, home or appearance? They need to do better! I would NEVER let my (fill in the blank) look like that.”
I don’t do that anymore.
Because I’ve learned that there are all kinds of reasons a body may not be busy mowing a lawn, painting a porch or even putting on matching socks.
Read the rest here: Life Happens
I’ll be the first person to tell you that there’s no sin in voicing your heartache.
In fact, I am a firm believer that if we don’t exhale sadness, frustration, doubt and despair there is no room to inhale the strength and grace of God.
But there is a place where honest lament can cross over into questioning the character of our ever faithful, loving Heavenly Father.
The writer of Hebrews addresses that danger in these verses.
In every relationship be swift to choose peace over competition, and run swiftly toward holiness, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. Watch over each other to make sure that no one misses the revelation of God’s grace. And make sure no one lives with a root of bitterness sprouting within them which will only cause trouble and poison the hearts of many.
Hebrews 12: 14-15 TPT
Hebrews 12 follows what is often called the “Hall of Faith” where the writer lists many of those previously chronicled in Scripture (and adds at the end there are really too many to mention) as heroes of the faith. The theme that runs through THAT chapter is that even those who lived and died after Jesus ascended into Heaven, did not attain the fullness of every promise of God.
Some saw one promise or another fulfilled but it will not be until Christ’s kingdom comes in its final form that ALL promises will be made manifest.
So the writer of Hebrews continues in Chapter 12 referencing the previous chapter, “Since we are surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses…” meaning now that you have excellent examples in mind, let me tell you something else.
He goes on to remind us that life is and will be hard.
He talks about some hardships being the result of sin and God’s discipline (not every bad thing is the result of personal sin as you and I both know). He cautions us not to harden our hearts against God because things are not as we wish them to be nor hope they would be. (Remember that there is unbelievable persecution going on at this point in history when the book was written.)
Finally we come to Hebrews 12: 15: “Watch over each other to make sure that no one misses the revelation of God’s grace. And make sure no one lives with a root of bitterness sprouting within them which will only cause trouble and poison the hearts of many. ” TPT
So what IS the “root of bitterness”?
I believe the root of bitterness is turning away from the truth that God is faithful, loving, gracious and good.
Once a heart denies THAT, it is easily led away from the grace of God and the mercy of God.
The bitter root bears bitter fruit and has the potential to defile everyone around us and beyond.
Because when a heart embraces bitterness, it is never content to be bitter alone. It offers up the wretched fruit to anyone who will taste it.
Circumstances that perplex us need not drive us to despair. Instead, they can take us to new depths of faith. They challenge us to trust solely in the promises of God, rather than creating a god of our own design in order to make sense of what perplexes us. …After all, attempting to always make sense of God’s mysterious purposes isn’t actually faith. It’s accepting only the parts of God that we are comfortable with or can explain to ourselves. If God is God and if you and I are not, then we can accept that our limited vision will see only a snapshot in time, while our sovereign Lord has created, upheld, sustained, purposefully determined, and worked through every moment from the beginning of time. Faith is not living a life without feeling perplexed; it is to live in trust while feeling perplexed
~Kristin Wetherell & Sarah Walton, Hope When It Hurts, p. 56
I admit there are many things about life which perplex me. I wonder why this person is spared and that person is not.
If I focus on what I don’t know instead of the God I know I can trust, my heart will lead me down a dark path.
But when I focus on Jesus in my brokenness and despair, bringing my lament to the Throne of Grace, trusting that even though I can’t trace His hand I can rest secure in His love toward me, I cultivate a root of faith.
Then my life bears the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Like many families in the United States ours has entirely too much stuff.
Homeschooling four children over twenty years and living in the same house for longer than that added to the pile of memories and tokens tucked in boxes and corners.
This week I decided (along with my youngest son) to tackle a couple of storage buildings we have. It was definitely time to clean out, throw out and pare down the piles.
So together we opened the doors and dug in.
Boxes that hadn’t been opened for years spilled out souvenirs from childhood, teen years and early adulthood. It was tempting to get lost in remembering but the heat of summer spurred us on.
More than once tears threatened and I had to take a deep breath to keep going.
Cleaning out is especially hard on my heart.
Just a couple months before Dominic ran ahead to Heaven I had gone through a ton of homeschooling papers, memorabilia and odds and ends, gleefully culling them down to a few representative bits I thought I’d box or scrapbook into a keepsake for each child.
I filled my truck bed with boxes and boxes and took it to the dump. I enjoyed tossing them on the pile and relished the now organized space left at home.
What felt like freedom then, feels like regret and longing now.
Because what I have left of the physical presence of my son is represented in the scraps I have kept-the clothes, the notes, the scribbled comments in the margins of his notebooks and college texts.
So I’m careful about what gets tossed and what I keep.
And regardless how many bins and boxes I sort through on a given day, I’m exhausted by the end of it.
It’s ALL heavy lifting for my heart even when it’s light in my arms.
❤
I don’t get to choose.
I don’t get to plan the way life is going to be.
Oh, I bring out the calendar and mark down the days: birthdays, holidays, special events and obligations.
But then one dark morning a knock stops the clock and makes the world spin faster all at once.
I’m suspended and plunged under in the same breath.
Read the rest here: https://thelifeididntchoose.com/2016/09/17/not-what-i-had-planned/
I remember thinking in the early days, weeks and months of this journey that healing was impossible.
The wound was too great, too deep and too devastating to allow for that.
No amount of work or help or wishful thinking could undo the damage.
But I was wrong.
Little by little the shattered pieces of my heart began to reassemble themselves into a very fragile, not-quite-the-same, semblance of the old shape.
When life knocks me around (as it still does quite often) a bit falls off here and there and I have to begin again to put my heart back together.
It’s not simple.
It’s not a straight line.
It’s not a once and done thing.
But it’s possible.
At first grief felt only like sorrow and longing and brokenness.
Then it felt like confusion and anxiety and despair.
A little further along this journey it mostly felt like apathy.
Now it feels like love.
Read the rest here: https://thelifeididntchoose.com/2019/09/23/grief-its-really-just-love/
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