Beauty really does come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. It all depends on your perspective and angel.
Viewing a brilliant mountain sunset can be all about the incline or all about the glowing orb in the sky. It can be all about the painted sky.
Or it can be about the tiny patch of flowers at your feet that will be trampled if you take another step.
Viewing an enormous crisis can be all about the chaos of sights and sounds or about the multiple dilemmas that have just been added. It can be all about the loss of time, money and energy.
Or it can be about the tiny hand grasping yours that is desperate for reassurance and comfort.
It all depends upon your vantage point.
So, what do you see?
Where is your focus?
Beauty is all around you if you can only open your eyes to see.
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18
My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.
If you’re moving forward, there’s going to be pressing.
If you have no pressure, no pressing points which have become uncomfortable, you’re probably not developing.
Just as a flower has to break through the seed and push up through the ground, when you are going to bring about change, there has to be a breaking, a crushing, and finally, a breakthrough.
So, if life is heating up, and you’re feeling the weight of responsibilities and decision making deepening around you, stand strong and walk proud.
Not in conceit or arrogance. Only in humility and respect can you truly survive.
But if you’ll rise to the occasion, grasp the reigns of opportunity and ride it to probability, you can thrive under the constraints.
You can succeed under the strain.
And when you do, not only will the blooms be beautiful, but the impact on those around will be spectacular, too.
My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Psalm 73:26
We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.
Proverbs 4:18-19
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
So many live out their lives in fear. Reacting to failure. Reacting to pain. Reacting to violence. Reacting to disastrous times.
No precept. No plans. No purpose.
Only reaction upon reaction to circumstance, feelings and desire.
Not enough live their lives by sheer courage. Having courage is choosing to be equipped. Choosing to be intentional. Choosing to be in the moment. Choosing to make the right choices regardless of common ground.
Know preparation. Know purpose. Know peace.
Choosing to respond or not to respond. Speak or not to speak. But always thinking. Always alert. Always deliberate of the choice.
That’s courage.
It’s not having all confidence or even all knowledge. It’s never about being the strongest or having the most.
Courage is the choice to do right and to be right no matter who stands against you. No matter who discourages. No matter who disagrees.
Have courage today. Be different. Make a difference.
And you can change the world.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
John 1:9
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
The best piece of advice would actually be two statements given by different people, but the statements work together:
It takes 1,000 tiny miracles to make a marriage work.
Marriage will only last best when Christ is at the center.
These might sound a bit cliche, and if you don’t have a relationship with Christ; then, it might not even make sense to you. Or if you’ve “been a Christian but everything went wrong in my marriage/in life,” then, it might be a difficult concept for you to accept.
Let me say this loud and clear and long:
Just because the statement did not/does not ring true in your own life, does not make the statement untrue.
That’s why these two statements work so well together. It truly takes a 1,000 tiny miracles to get the right two people together, at the right time, in the right location, under the right circumstances, and in the right context, in the right season for each.
Much more is it tiny miracles that keep those two love birds together over time. After all, he is marrying a woman. And she is marrying a man. Imagine that. Lol. They think differently, act differently, speak differently, react differently, even feel differently. How in the world can that work?
And that’s where God comes in. He is the Creator of our very lives. He designed every part of us and breathed breath into our lungs. How could He not be the miracles working within our lives? But there’s one caveat. He allows us to have the freewill of choice.
You heard me right. He’s the Almighty, great Creator of heaven and earth and all that we see. He is the Master Designer of all creation and of the intricate, complex beings called humans. He is the Alpha Omega, the Beginning and the End, meaning He can create and finish life and everything in it and around it.
Yet, He in His ultimate design, He gives us the ability to choose. We can choose Him or not. We can choose love or hate. We can choose life or death. We get the beautiful freedom of choice.
And what we do with that choice will determine the beautiful finality of those 1,000 tiny miracles that it takes to make a marriage work. What we do in choosing determines where we end up in life and who we end up with. What we do with the choices determines how we think, how we speak, how we act, interact and react, and it determines how we live our lives.
Every. Single. Day.
Every. Single. Minute of that Day.
Every. Single. Second of that Minute of that Day.
These choices don’t automatically make us somehow perfect. They don’t make us sinless. But if we’re daily choosing Christ and the things of Him, it will make us seek perfection, and it will make us sin less. And if two people are seeking, choosing, sacrificing and loving in these ways, it surely helps to support and strengthen a healthy union.
So, what will you choose?
Or better yet, WHO will you choose?
And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
As we walk forward in this life, the ground is always shifting and changing shape.
When you step in the sand, footprints are left, and sand follows you.
When you step in the grass, shoe prints are left, and grass collects on your soles.
When you step onto the bus, dirt is left, and the smells surround you.
When you step onto the road, unseen impressions are left, and the cars consume you.
When you step into your own, intimidations are left, and confidence embraces you.
So, step up.
Let that ground shift.
And keep on walking.
Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
My journey didn’t stop with mere time travel or writing; it led me to become one of the most sought-after empaths, a soulful psychic who reads the hidden depths of the human spirit. I’ve been blessed—or perhaps burdened—with an ability that allows me to feel the emotions of people from every corner of time.
I am a licensed psychologist based in Greece. My love for housekeeping has inspired me to create this blog about home management and family relationships. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing!
Dedicated to movie nerdom, nostalgia, and escape. In the late 90s, I worked at Blockbuster Video where they let me take home two free movies a day. I caught up on the classics and reviewed theatrical releases for Denver 'burbs newspapers and magazines. Today, while raising two young, beautiful daughters with my amazing wife, I look forward to anything rated R and not Bluey. Comments and dialogue encouraged!
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