'Snow' Much Beauty & Fun

the gang...
skiers and 1 snowboarder
2015

Titus is a lover of skiing.  It is something he enjoys greatly and loves to pass it on.  He taught me, I didn't learn till we were dating and now he has taught our 3 sons.  His brother Tim and sister Ilona all enjoy the sport as well.

This has become a tradition that over winter break we take our families skiing.  This year it was our family and Wayne & Ilona and family that were able to go.

The snow conditions were excellent and the weather pleasant to ski.  The beauty on top of the mountain is BEAUTIFUL!!!  I had fun taking pictures along the way.  They had just received 2 feet of snow a couple of days before we got there, so the landscape was picturesque!

The hoarfrost on the top of the mountain
was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!
This was on our way in on Monday afternoon.

getting ready to go down the mountain

riding the lift

2 of the most favourite slopes... for some that is :)
these are 2 black diamonds -
Cupps Run and Shay's Revenge

The name of the place where we stayed

fabulous beauty on the slopes!!

Splendour and majesty are before Him,
Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.

Ascribe (give) to the Lord. O families of the peoples,
Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name;
Bring an offering, and come into His courts.

Worship the Lord in the splendour of holiness;
Tremble before Him, all the earth.
                                 Psalm 96:6-9

Broken Beauty

We all long to be beautiful.
We love beauty.
We want to be seen and known for beauty.
And we want to be loved.

It is our very core, for God created it that way.
But sin, loneliness, rejection, words mar our image of beauty and because it so much a part of our creation, we grasp, we search, we long for it.  And we cover.   Trying to hide the pain and shame inside with beauty outside or what we view beauty to be...

One day I was sitting in a hairdresser's shop waiting for my lady to get her hair finished, so I had a few moments and I began to see the 'world' around me.  I saw shampoos, hair care, people wanting their hair done to perfection, and the ladies doing it all.  I saw the fake, red coloured hair and the silver that pierced someone's body, and my heart ached...

My heart ached for what may be the stories beneath it all....
I ached because I, too, know the longing and reaching for beauty and perfection.  It's branded on our souls and yet seems so elusive.

Do we pierce our bodies to take away from the pain that pierces our hearts?
Is the colouring of our hair, trying to colour differently the pain that lies beneath?
And do the shoulders exposed tell us of a message that our souls have been exposed and been found wanting?

Does it all tell us of a deeper message that we hear ringing in our minds?  Does it point to something that we all long for?

I want to be found beautiful.
I long to be truly known for who I am.

But I feel as if I am lacking, found wanting.
And so... there's paint.  there's colour.  there's a piercing.  We dress accordingly.  We even smile.  All the while the ache lies deep within.  The lies we believe pierce our hearts and lodge within our thoughts.  Squishing out the true Truth.  God's Truth.

I am not enough...
I am too much...
Someone took advantage of my beauty.  Therefore it must be wrong...
I am not lovable...
I burned the beans, forgot to do...
We yell...

And the lies take root...

What is beauty?  true beauty?  Who gives definition to beauty?

Is it not the One who created it?  The Father who enjoys beauty and graced our world with it?

He created beauty and perfection.  The Garden of Eden is expression to that.  All flowers, animals, trees, fowl, everything was created perfectly and beautifully.  The fish have always caused me to marvel... talk about creativity!  flat ones, long ones, ugly ones :) pointed nose ones, gray ones, colourful ones, and all in the water where few men get to see them; unless you go to an aquarium or go scuba diving.  God LOVES BEAUTY and splashes in places least expected.  Beauty is sometimes in a place where it needs to be sought out and looked for.

The snowflakes, the crystal glow of trees on a winter morning, the sunrises and sunsets are all expressions of beauty.

And man.  Woman.  God said it is good.  Very good!  If we look at creation and see the beauty, would God create us as man and woman any less beautiful?  A child less perfect?

No.
I believe we are created beautifully and perfectly.  What changed all of that?  What causes us to believe differently?

Adam and Eve ate fruit from a tree that God had said would open their eyes to know good and evil.  They made a choice and that choice forever opened our eyes and hearts to know good and evil.  To not only know perfection and beauty, but evil and ugly.

Today choices are being made.  We make choices that affect us and others.  Others make choices that affect us.  We hurt.  We ache.  We believe something other than God's original intent for us.  We believe lies, just like Eve believed a lie in the garden.

And we hide.  We make fig leaves to cover our shame.

And God comes.  In the cool of the evening.  And asks us why we are hiding?
God sees. He knows.
He cares. And most of all HE LOVES. US. STILL.
He wants us.
He wants to redeem and remind us we are His.

So the choices are still before us today... believe the serpent of lies or God.  Believe the words that beat in your mind or the words of God's Truth.  Sin destroyed perfect beauty.  God now takes broken pieces and creates a mosaic of beauty.  He takes the messy and holds it gently in His hand and breathes His breath of Life once more on it and it becomes living once again.

I need to believe it...

Some days are easier to believe the truth of God and other days, like the last several ones, are a fight.  "Lord, show me.  Help me to believe You."
It's been a struggle to believe that I am worth something and that others like me...  To believe that I have something valuable to offer and that others even want it (like this blog).  To believe I am beautiful.

We all have words to put in the blank.  Words that may mirror mine or another voice that resounds in your mind.

But the GREAT NEWS is, that God wants to redeem it all.  HE LOVES US!!  GOD WANTS US!  HE WANTS US TO ENJOY HIM - HE ENJOYS US!

Let's say these words for each other.  Carrying each other to the throne of the Father, when we have a hard time believing them for ourselves.  Repeat them yourself.  FIGHT WITH THIS GREATER TRUTH.   This truth that trumps the reality of our lives and the story that is ours.

For some of us we have heard words that hurt.
Others have had physical pain.
It is true.  It is real.  But the greater reality and Truth is - Jesus and His Words.
I have called you by name.  You are mine.  Isaiah 43:1  Belonging.
I died for you.  John 3:16  Redemption.
I have loved you with an everlasting love.  Jeremiah 31:3    Love.
We're engraved on the palm of His hand.  Isaiah 49:15-16  We matter.

Jesus and His love for each of us, even in those hard moments.

Jesus knows pain.  the pain of rejection. denial. of beatings and mockery.  of scorning and being misunderstood.  In the midst of all hard, He loved.  He forgave.

Is less required of us?  We who want to be filled with His Spirit?
No.  It's not.

And isn't that beauty?  True beauty?  Paradoxal beauty?

I wonder if beauty doesn't look differently.  Different than what we think.  Perfection was marred in the garden.  Perfection is tainted on this side of heaven.  Perfection is Heaven.
We get glimpses of this perfect beauty in a sunrise or the unfolding beauty in a flower, but it is only a moment and then it passes.  Wrong choices have forever marred the unbroken beauty here on earth.  Jesus now creates beauty out of broken things.  He takes our pieces that we bring to Him and makes all things new.  Beauty out of ashes.  Redemption.

It's a miracle.  And Jesus is still in the miracle business of redemption.

Beauty is the broken pot that has been touched with His grace and put back together.
Or the marred piece of body that He has touched and said, "Be whole."  Redemption.
The forgiveness offered to one who has done the hurt.

It's the broken body of Jesus that offers us eternal life.
It's when we bring our brokenness to Jesus for redemption, that we find life.

Broken pieces in the hand of God = BEAUTY.

Beauty restored.
Beauty defined.

A choosing to believe....

And isn't beauty found in a heart that is at rest.  Rest from striving.  Rest from comparison.  Rest in the love of the Father who loves us so much!

A heart that hears the Father and sometimes needs to choose to believe the love He has for her.

You are loved. My friends.  We are loved.

(This is a piece of my heart... that longs to believe more fully my worth and beauty in Jesus definition; and I ache for all of us, because we have been marred and we need Jesus.)

I wish you Jesus. And may you see yourself through His eyes...  Beautiful and loved.

In Every Season There is a Purpose

In every season there is a purpose.  a reason.  If you're like me, you like the hard moments to have an explanation,  a reason or a purpose for the pain and turmoil.

But not everything can be explained or reasoned out.  Some things make NO sense.  But there is a purpose and that purpose is - to learn of God and learn to know His heart.  To catch a glimpse of His amazing grace.  To find Him and to see Him in the small moments.  To know His heartbeat and that heartbeat is LOVE.  Love for you so much He stretched out His arms and died.  He loves you with a passion.  He wants a relationship with you and me.  To be grateful.

And I'm realizing even the joy moments have a purpose beyond life going well for me. My 'success' or joy moments is to glorify Him.  Others must see Jesus in those moments, as well.  Don't forget the Lover of your soul in the midst of the 'not so desperate' moments.

There is a purpose for EVERYTHING.

And that my friends is a needed, daily reminder.  Our hearts in the middle of winter or the flurry of summer, can so easily forget and make it about ourselves.

But, my friends, (and to me) HE LOVES US! And nothing good or bad we do will change that.  The reality of that gets tarnished or tainted and even destroyed in the midst of our physical and tangible relationships here on earth.  The rejection.  The words that cut deep into our hearts.  Death.  We learn what we've witnessed and experience.  We take that knowledge and pin it on to the image of our Father, God.  He wants to redeem those experiences.  To change the pain to gain.

He sent JESUS.

Jesus came to show us something different.
He left perfection, so we could be perfect.
He left His Father, to show us the Father's heart.
He walked this earthen soil and felt the pain of rejection.  The pain of betrayal, of people not getting Him or the words He spoke.
He knows what it's like to lose a friend.  Lazarus.  He felt grief.
He knows.  He feels.  He sees.  He gets us in our hard things and painful moments.
He shows us how to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, and even mistreat us.

He loved.  loved the lovely and the unlovely.  the one who hurt and the one who worshipped.  The only way we can do the same is to be filled with Him.  with His Spirit.  to seek His face.  to learn more of Him.  to sit at His feet, just like Mary did.

He came to show us this way.  The way of Life.  The way to life.  Because we learn by example and role models, He came to set us a different example.  One that trumps the reality of our pain and hard things here on earth. A Greater Truth.  But we must choose to believe those Truths.  We need to dig.  We must long for Him. We sometimes need to be still and LISTEN.  Listen for God... And sometimes we need to persist... For the prayer of a person's heart that longs to know God for who He is and wants to find Him in the middle of messy and hard, will not be unanswered.  It won't be instant and may require you to keep seeking and praying, but it will happen.  He hears and I believe, it delights the very core of His heart when you want to know Him, personally.

It's messy, but beautiful!  just like the bare tree.  brown. vulnerable. bark flaking.  But when the Son shines on the mess, IT'S GLORIOUS.  IT'S BEAUTIFUL!

And it's something beyond my comprehension.. how His glory redeems my ugly.  It's something that only God can do.  for you.  for me.  but we must want it.  He will not push.  He draws.  He draws our hearts with the pain and joys.  the good and the bad.  He draws us to teach us His Truth.

His purpose in each season is to REDEEM.  To redeem the pain.  To take ugly and create beauty.  Eccl. 3:11 - He has made everything BEAUTIFUL in its time.  He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work from the beginning to the end.

Autumn - He strips us of our leaves to remind us our identity is not in what we do, but Him.
Winter - When the harsh winds blow, He wants us to put our roots down in Him.  To learn of Him, more.
Spring - The hope that sweeps in with the breath of new life.  The moments we see are His grace.   The 'air' is beginning to warm.
Summer - The season we feel productive and we see fruit.  The fruit of our winter is visible.  But the harvest is not for our credit, but God's.

And the cycle happens again and again...  the cycle of redeeming our identity and reminding us who we are to be rooted in.

The work God does in our hearts is a process and the change that happens deep within, happens without us realizing the depth or extent of it; until we look back and see the steps we have walked along the way.  Eternity is broad.  It is long.  It is forever.  It has no beginning and it has no end.  The work of God in our hearts has no destination here on earth.  It is on-going, and not in a discouraging way; but in a redeeming way.  We cannot handle redemption in one lump sum.  We would be overwhelmed with the enormity of it all.  It is step by step, process by process.  Like the threads of a screw, it comes around again, only at at deeper level and every thread gets closer to the point, to the core.

To find Him or to walk the path of the messy, the broken; you must TRUST the heart of God.  And to be able to trust, you must BELIEVE that His heart is GOOD towards you.
If you do not believe that or can't grasp it because of the pain deep in your soul, that's okay.  A lot of us have been there, but it's a moment when you must CHOOSE to keep a hold of the hand of God, the hand that won't let you go and pray every day, every moment of disbelief - "God show me.  I want to see You, but right now I can't.  Help my unbelief."  And He will.  Sometime.  You may need to wait.  God is not in a hurry.  He wants you.  Do you want Him?

The Breath of Spring

Spring speaks of new life.  Fresh, rejuvenating air to breathe in.  Hope.  Life anew.
The buds appear.  Life becomes VISIBLE.

After the grueling, cold and blustery winter, the spark of spring breathes hope in our weary souls.  It's the light at the end of the tunnel.
Yes, the wind is still cold, but the days are longer, the sun a bit brighter and the air a bit warmer.

And those blades of green poking out of the bare earth... ahhh... life peeking through.  hope.  I love the breath of spring as it sweeps over the bare earth, calling life to come forth.
It's also a season that I can become very impatient with... when the cold winds still blow among the days of warmth, and I want the warmth.  I want the hope of today to linger on...

We cannot live without the hope of spring.  Our souls would truly become hard and barren.  Spring thaws leave the hard ground soft and mushy once again.  The trees start to get those tinges of red hues as the buds push forth from the bare, brown limbs.  LIFE.  My heart takes a deep breath and thaws... softens a little bit more...  ahhhh....  breathe in, breathe out, absorbing the Greater Truths of God's heart.  His love.  His hope.  His Words.  Allowing the breath of His Spirit sweep over my heart to call forth new life.

Spring is when we get to see the new growth God has done during the winter of our souls.  To see the life that only He can bring forth out of what was bare and stripped.
Lazarus.  dead.  for 3 days.  Called forth by the Maker of life to new life.  Out of the barren grave, cold and dark.  Jesus wants to birth new life in your heart.  Will you let Him??  He wants to set you free!

The hard of winter won't stay forever... spring will come.  It must for without it we would wither and die.
If you find yourself in the middle of winter - bare, vulnerable, and stripped; spring will come in God's timing for your soul.  Keep holding the hand of the One who loves you VERY MUCH, grip it if you must.  Don't let go.  Spring will come...

The Heartbeat of Winter

Winter.
Winter is hard.  It's cold.  The harsh winds blow.  And it has a beauty all of its own.
We either want to hunker down, hide, run to warmer climates, or enjoy it.

But what really is winter??  What do the trees and perennial flowers do??  The trees are stripped bare.  Open for all the world to see.  They toss to and fro, bending greatly at times as the harsh, cold winds blow fiercely, at times.

If you look a little closer.  A bit longer...
There is a hidden strength that is majestic...

One November day as I was taking my usual Sunday afternoon walk,  I was wrestling, talking and crying out to God, and simply taking a few minutes to breathe deep the quietness of the moment.  No demands on me for this moment, no 'mommy-ing' moments.  Simply time to gather a few thoughts together.

As I was walking down the last hill, there are trees on either side, bare, brown, and stripped after the reds and yellows have fallen and faded away; and in the middle of that scene, a thought jars my thoughts....
"It's beautiful!"

I stopped.  Backed up a bit.  Looked at the trees that seem so lifeless.  There was the sun shining on the trees and yes, it was a glorious sight.  It was beautiful.

But HOW can that be? they're brown.  there is no colour like there was a few months ago.
Beauty in Barreness.  whispers in my soul.

I paused for a moment.  beauty. in. barrenness.
I contemplate.  I twirl that around as I walk up the last hill and into our lane.  It's a thought that drew me.  wouldn't let go.  invited me to something...

In the midst of rejection, relationship struggles,  personal aches, longings, and disappointments and not knowing what to do, I felt God calling me to Him.  To put my roots down in Him as the tree does in the ground during the winter's season.

And so, I listened, I learned, I cried out to God with the aches and unmet longings.  I wrote them down.  (the first time journaling worked for me.  I started writing my anger, my frustrations, my questions and it was amazing how that brought relief and also clarity.  I write as if I'm talking to God)  And I learned from the tree.

Over the next few days, I mulled this around in my head and heart, and took analogies from the tree.  I pondered and looked up the word - barren.  It means no life and I did not feel like that fit the tree or even we, as people.  Most times there is life, it just may be dormant or not bearing fruit and that's what bare means. (Webster's definition is: without natural or customary covering; without clothing, naked; without furnishings, empty; without embellishments, unadorned; to open to view, uncover; expose) So I switched the words to Beauty in Bareness.

Do you feel exposed? open to view?  without adornment, plain?  It is a moment where God wants to shine on you, for you to 'see' and remember who you really are...
Has death entered your journey?  Loss of any kind?  Are the harsh winds of winter blowing over your soul?  Winter is when we feel these cold winds and feel numb.  It's where we are called to cling to the hand of the One who is holding us.  Choosing to believe His glory is shining on our bare soul.

Here are a few tidbits gleaned from the tree...

- They have lost their outward adornment - leaves/fruit.  It is their beauty, their glory.  Yet, when they are stripped, they stand tall.  When I am stripped of something important or am feeling bare, do I give in to the weight of loss or do I stand tall knowing that my Father has me?

- They put their roots down in the winter, refueling, gaining strength for the coming summer's fruit.  What are your roots grounded in?  Are they shallow or going deeper in the love and knowledge of God?

- When there is a storm and the harsh winds blow a tree will bend or break.  Is your heart bending toward God when life is harsh and ugly?  or is it breaking away from Him, the One who loves you.

- As the trees stand there, naked, vulnerable, exposed; it is really the core of who they are and their strength is determined by the depth of their roots.  The leaves/fruit are only an extension of who they are.  In the same way, what you do is only an extension of you.  It's not what defines you.  GOD'S LOVE DOES THAT.  A peach tree is still a peach tree whether there is a peach hanging from it or not.  The peach does not make it a peach tree.

- And the next time the sun shines, take a moment to look at the trees, noticing the glory that illuminates them.  And the snow, how it covers and adds a beauty.  He washes us WHITER than snow.  God's glory can illumine our weakness and vulnerability.  And that's what's it's all about anyway - HIS GLORY.   And when the leaves are removed, the sun can be seen deeper into the forest.  In the same way, the Son wants to be seen in our lives.

- When leaves are on a tree, the forest is dense.  It's thick and you can't see through.  You see the fruit and leaves.  When the leaves are off, you can see more.  When our 'leaves' are stripped, God has the opportunity to be seen more, deeper if we choose to bend towards Him. to find Him...  A reminder that our true strength is in Jesus and not our ability to bear fruit.  That happens because of our connection to Jesus.

- A tree bears fruit.  It does not produce because it works to make it happen or it cannot be put on a branch.  It happens as it gets the nutrients from the soil.  The same for us, our fruit bearing happens because of a connection, the proper nutrients and that is Jesus.  Jesus' love, not based on what you do or don't do, is the foundation and security our hearts need to thrive and produce fruit.  His words of Greater Truth must be absorbed into the soil of our hearts.  Fighting the reality of what happened and the lies we believe about that, with the words of what He says.  Then FRUIT HAPPENS.  Without the striving and the working...


The next time you see a bare, brown tree in the winter, let it remind you of it's true, hidden strength found in the ground where its roots are bearing down.
The brown tree is more than brown.  it is vulnerable, renewing strength for the summer ahead.  It is resting.  And I remembered that feeling as I viewed the scene I described earlier - rest.

And I remember the call - to let go.  To let go of what I think should happen or be.  To let go of what defines me and remember that my true identity is in God , the One who never changes and what He says about me.  It's not what 'clothes' me, that defines me.  Because then my identity would constantly be changing.  Changing and depending on me to do it well, so that it says something well of me.

As scary as vulnerability is, it is beautiful.  There is a restful beauty in a vulnerable heart, that allows God's love to shine in and through it.

The flip side to vulnerability is hardness.  Not bending when the winds blow.  Again, like the tree, some stand tall, others fall.  They usually fall because there is no longer life in them.  When we become hardened and don't bend, the life of our heart is snuffed out.  These trees may have stood for a season or two, but sooner or later, they break.  We can hide for a while, but if our hearts are not grounded, it will eventually show itself.

We had a tree at the end of our lane for a few summers that was slowly dying.  We would wonder if we should cut it down and then half of it would produce some leaves.  Eventually, it was totally dead. We didn't get it cut down right away, and then I requested it stay there for a summer or two, because that's where I was at. Bare.  Brown. in the middle of summer's fruit and activity. So the tree stood and God whispered to my heart... "It's okay.  It's a season"  And it was.  There are times when winter is a season of our hearts, right in the middle of summer.  Right in the middle of other people's summers.  It's okay.
Eventually I was ready to let it be cut down.  You won't stay where you're at for ever.
Not with a heart bent towards him and grounding in His love.
Let the Son illuminate your bare soul.

A favourite saying of mine... "In a way, winter is the real spring, the time when the inner things happen, the resurgence of nature."  -Edna O'Brien, Irish novelist

** I know that some winters are extremely hard and long.  I do not in any way want to belittle or make you feel like you need to be strong when you are weak.  I know.  Sometimes all you can do is the moment.  I just want to encourage you to choose to cling to the hand of our Father, for He has not left you.  Read His Words.  Talk to Him.  He is BIG AND STRONG ENOUGH to handle your emotions.  His name is a strong tower.  Run to it and you are safe.  Proverbs 18:10

Autumn's Dying Splendour

Autumn is a season of splendour. Of fabulous colours.
It is in actuality - a dying.
It's the call to do those last minute summer things we wanted to get done before the cold winds blow.
The leaves will soon fall and cover the ground, leaving the limbs of the trees bare, exposed, vulnerable.

It is a stripping of all that we may feel we are. A stripping of an identity that we have created or is a natural ability or gift that we say, "That's who I am".  It is a taking away, so we can see better.  It is a stripping to rediscover who we really are.

It's easy to make 'summer's' activity a part of who we are.  The season of where we are prospering and succeeding. Of where we may be getting it right...

What 'leaves' of yours may be falling??
- talents?
-identity?
-friendships?
-accomplishments?

The trouble is when we place our identity in something that changes, when the change occurs, we become angry, disillusioned, withdrawn, etc.  Our identity must come from the One who never changes and who never leaves us.  (Hebrews 12:5)

If you are a good baseball or football player, you will always need to hit, throw, or catch well.
If you are a good singer, then singing the correct notes become important and doing it right is priority.
If you are an artist or writer, then what someone says about your painting or writing becomes very important!
I must get it right...  I need you to get it right... I must succeed... otherwise, who am I??

But if you are a daughter or son of God and know that deep in your soul, then being a baseball/football player becomes fun and you care about the one who may not be as good as you.  A good singer becomes delightful, for you sing from a heart that is loved.
If you write and paint, the colours and words flow out of heart that knows a bit more of His words in our story and how all the colours make a beautiful portrait.

Our lives become a symphony.  A song for Him when all is done out of being loved and known by the One who is Life and loves us well.

So, sometimes, a stripping is necessary to remind us of this truth.  His greater Truth.  Sometimes, we must experience a death to a dream, a failure to something we're good at.  Sometimes we need to miss the ball, to remember His strength is sufficient.
Our fallen nature wants to be top-dog.  We want to be the best, the brightest, the most right.  That's not God's nature.  His is humility.  Looking out for those around you.  Sometimes you are strongest when you bend down.  You are the best when you let someone go before you.  You are most right, when you are quiet or speak an encouraging word for someone else to succeed.

What has or is stripping you??
-a death of a loved one?
-disappointments?
-rejection?
-moving to a new community?
-a dream that seems to have folded under?

And so I ponder... if autumn's colours are glorious and in reality the leaves are dying and soon the trees bare, "Why do we think it beautiful?"  Could it be that as hard as the 'deaths' are in our journey, they display a glory to those who look on??  A tree is doing what it is meant to be and do, and when we do what we are meant to do - depend on God, choosing to look for Him and find Him in the middle of hard, it is glorious.  Because then we are being, resting in the One who created us to glorify Him.  To be an extension of Him.

Glorious, in the finished product, while the moment is hard.
All colours together create the whole picture.
Every black and white note creates the symphony.

If you, my friend, are in the middle of being stripped, out of comfort zone, it just may be that's where God wants you to be... (I say that gently...) He wants you to re-member Him and who you are in Christ.  He has the final Word of who you are.  You are loved. by. Him. no. more. no. less.
Take His words to your bleeding and wounded heart and let them soak in and bring healing.  For it is only in death (of ourselves and self-protections) that life (Jesus) can be birthed within us.  As a seed falls into the ground and dies, only then can it bring forth fruit.  John 12:24
There is a glory in death that we are not aware of.  that I cannot grasp...  It's hard.  It's painful.  It's a glory all of its own.

Your dream may be coming true, it just looks differently...
You may lose your identity, to find your true one...
You may fail, to learn of His strength
(and for me it is to remind me that my worth is not dependent on me succeeding... I am valuable because HE LOVES ME.)

And, maybe, the words you hear are louder and stronger than His words of Truth and so, I fight for you - YOU ARE WORTH EVERYTHING TO HIM.  HE LOVES YOU.  HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR YOU.  (say it to yourself, take it to the Father and ask Him if it's true, and listen to what He says.)

YOU BELONG.  (Isaiah 43:1)
   YOU ARE LOVED.   (Jeremiah 31:3)
      YOU ARE VALUABLE. YOU MATTER.  (Isaiah 49:15-16)
(these are truths that God gave to me and spoke to my words that were beating loudly in my heart.  these are truths that I need to go back to over and over.  Sometimes it's a conscious choosing to believe His greater Truth.  I share them here, because maybe someone needs to hear them.)  if you want to respond and don't want to here where all comments can be viewed, my email is jelsymphony@gmail.com

Autumn is a reminder of His grace.  A reminder of Jesus' strength and power in the middle of hard.  That, there is a glory that happens when we find Jesus to be enough.

Summer's Fruit

We all have a favourite season and each season has a glory to be explored and valued.

Summer is a time of sun, warmth, bare feet, swimming, planting, watering, growing...
It's a season of fruit.  The trees have leaves on their bare branches and the lawns are green.  There is growth, visible signs of growth.

It's a busy season, where there is lots of activity - parties, reunions, get-togethers, planting gardens and flowers and then keeping them watered and weeds pulled.  We cut the grass and work till dark. We can and preserve the goodies that we gather from our gardens and bounty's yield. It's where we run out-of-doors, no thought of a coat or putting on shoes.  Yeah, we get to wear sandals or flip flops!

We go on vacations and swimming with friends.  We laugh and breathe deep the scents of summer.  Life is full and rich.

It's a season of DOING, of giving, of prosperity and fruitfulness...  It's where we feel useful.  We feel like we have something to give.  to offer those around us.

And so, it's easy to dry up inside.  To give and give, forgetting the reason we live and breathe.  Forgetting to stop and remember Him who loves us so and wants us to love Him and to glorify Him.  Fruit is an outward evidence of an inner source.  
If we don't stay connected to Jesus, our Source, our fruit will only last a season.

So, even in the middle of summer's activity, we must pause and smell the roses.  We must stop and simply breathe deep.  Breathe deep of His love for us individually.  Refill our pitchers, so that we don't dry up and can continue to pour out what we experience and receive...

And by summer's end, I'm usually ready for the shorter evenings and for summer's work to end...  And so... autumn is next.