Contrast

Without anger there can be no forgiveness.  Without sadness there can be no joy. Without pain there can be no healing.  Sometimes hate is even followed by love.  Through the other side of hurt, the good stuff always comes at a cost, but is always worth it.

I hate change, but I know how to embrace it. 

I hate pain, but I always know the healing will be beautiful.

Contrast

I have always loved it.  Even in the middle of the most painful times of my life I have had a shadow of excitement and wonder as to how it is going to work out.  I always know that on the other side I will come out a stronger, better me.  I never face anything truly alone.  Though a lot of times I may choose to handle these things on my “own,” I am NEVER without God.  All the times of my life I know God has been right there beside me.  He cries when I cry, and he is happy when I am happy.  He loves me when I’m silly and He loves me when I am sad. 

LOVE

Love is a powerful thing.  Someone once said, “love is infinite you can always make room for more.”  I believe that with my whole heart.  Just when you think you cannot love someone any more than you already do, a little bit more spills out.  When you have your circle of people around you and then one new person comes around, boom, you find a little more love to stretch around them.  I like to think of my love as a blanket.  I have to be careful of it, though.  A blanket feels good when you are cold, but if you use it too long you can get warm and even worse if you put it over your head, you can suffocate!  Love is a powerful beautiful thing.  It can also be scary as hell!  When you love someone you become vulnerable to them.  They have the power to hurt you.  A lot of times, they do.  More times than not, it isn’t intentional.  Opening yourself up to love is painful, but it is also the most fulfilling and wonderful feeling ever.  There is an acceptance in love that you cannot find anywhere else.  We all crave it.  We all want it desperately.  But a lot of us fight it.  In my last blog I posted this quote: 

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” Rumi

How true is that.  When I look back on my life, even as much as I have loved, I have created barriers in my life to keep me from it.  Because I know there is vulnerability in love and that can be devastating.  I have felt the cold side of it too many times in my life… many of us have. 

So what makes us keep loving?

God.  God created us in love for love to love and to be loved. 

“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.” 1 John 4:7

It was His love for us that teaches us the true sacrifice of love; the true meaning of love and the beauty of it. 

Beauty from ashes…. the biblical

You never realize going through grief or pain that at the end, His beauty will shine out.  Since God is love we must understand that this life hurts and takes, but God heals and restores.  His promises to us are endless…

“To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the LORD has planted for his own glory.”  Isaiah 61:3

“So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” John 16:22

We are bound by grace and His love is merciful…His love endures forever….

This bible verse, as you will notice, is the true reason for my “blogs.”  When I went through my break up with my ex, I was surrounded by so many lies; I didn’t know the truth anymore.  I didn’t trust anyone or anything.  The only One I trusted was God, but I sure didn’t trust myself to hear His voice!  I was truly lost.  But this verse was my saving grace.  It helped to restore me, to find the truth in God, in life and in love….

“Show me Your ways, O Lord, teach me Your paths; guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my savior, and my hope is in You all day long.”  Psalm 25:4-5

That verse means so much to me.  I would whisper night and day “Lord, lead me by YOUR truth.”  I needed to find His voice again, because losing a guy was hard, and sad, but losing my faith in myself and losing my trust in hearing the Lord, that is unacceptable.  That became my fight.  To find His voice inside of me again and distinguish the difference between what I wanted to hear, and what He was really saying to me.

I don’t always know for sure if I have heard Him until it is fulfilled by verse. By verse, I mean the bible.  The answers are truly there, if we listen to Him and not to what we want to hear.  God’s voice isn’t always loud, but when you hear His truth, it thunders!

Today I pray for all who read this, even if only very few, that God would speak to your heart in a way that would move you.  Move your feet into the path He has for you.  Move your heart to a place of peace within His arms and move your mouth to express to Him how much He means to you.  Because we can know for sure that His love for us is limitless and endless. 

God bless you friends and remember to SHINE!