Whew!  Here I go again...tons of thoughts jumbling around in this big ol' head of mine that I want to get typed in and see if we can make sense of them!  I had a great night with my girlfriends.  Girlfriends who uplift each other, pray for each other, make each other feel we are valued, talented, and beautiful!  Here are some of my girlfriends who are so special to me!

(Isn't that artwork in the background cool?!  I know the artist and she's great!  )

All of these ladies are my gifts from God.  He has given them all to me for this season in my life to help me make sense of things.  God truly gives fabulous gifts! 

So, I spent a wonderful evening with my friends, then on my way home I was rockin' out to some Mandisa (which I love to crank up loud when I'm in the car alone while pretending I'm on stage in front of all my adoring fans!)  The way I had to take to get home took me right past the townhouse we lived in this time last March.  That townhouse was also a gift from God at a season in our life when we needed it.  As I drive past the townhouse, which dredged up a few bad memories of this time last year (feel free to read old posts in regards to that), Mandisa starts singing "Broken Hallelujah".  She sang it to me, yes to me alone, at Women of Faith in October and at that time I was extremely broken and that song hit a nerve with me.  If you haven't heard it, I'll attach the link at the end of this blog for you to take a listen to.  Beautiful song.  Beautiful message for all us broken souls out there.  The song is about when life falls apart, as it often does, that we can still bring praise.  It may be broken and not so pretty, but bring it anyway!  Choose to look at life through the lens of blessing instead of a curse.  Funny how that song is what happened to come on as I drove past a place that brought some painful memories of brokenness.  God is sneaky like that.  :)

Back to my night with my friends...
My BFF, the one I'm posing with in the purple sweater above, is my strongest encourager.  God tells her to do things for me and she does them.  She is very in tune to how God wants to use her to bless others.  She gives me a gift tonight that brings me closure and finality to a year of brokenness.  She gives me these:

Pretty, aren't they?  But she doesn't just give a gift because it's pretty.  Her gifts are always attached with deep meaning.  She gives me these pearls to cast before God to remind me that I have been brought out of darkness into His glorious light!  John 8:12 says "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life."  For a short time, my life was shattered and broken, but is now brought into the light.  I learned a lot in the darkness.  I found God while I was in the darkness.  I no longer fear the darkness.  Now, I am in the light and I will forever walk in the light.  So, I'm trading my sorrows, my pain, and my whining...and laying it down before God. 

Closure.  Healed.  Hallelujah.

"NO" isn't always negative

So my husband is unemployed.  So what?  So he has been getting way too many rejection letters and denial letters for jobs.  So what?  I have learned that "No" is not always a negative thing.  "No" is not negative when I tell my child she can't have a chocolate bar for dinner.  "No" is not negative when I tell my child he can't ride his bike too far from home.  Sometimes "no" is for our own good.  I'm starting to see that now.  God is saying "No" to some things right now because He has said "Yes" to something we can't see right now.  He is God....I am not, so I'm putting all my eggs in His big ol' basket!  He is forming our future into something exciting and marvelous...we just screw it up on our own.  So, hands off the wheel.  The "no's" are not negative, they are just boundaries making way for the big YES that's coming soon! 

When I need a pick me up, I pull out Hillsong United.  They write their music just for me in case you didn't know.  Well, maybe some of it's for you, too!  Since we are all human and go through the exact same things, I guess it's for all of us.  So, I'm sitting here in the quiet tonight listening to my Hillsong CD.  On comes "Desert Song"...have you heard it?  No?  Well, I'm glad I could let you listen to it with me tonight.  If you are walkin' around in the desert with me tonight, lets realize together that it's for our own good.  There are many lessons here in the dry patches of the desert.  When the breeze of God's love gently blows, we can feel it way more when the desert sands are hot.  I truly feel I could spend the rest of my life in the desert.  Now, I'm not saying I WANT to, but I could.  This song says "All of my life. In every season.  You are still God.  I have a reason to sing.  I have a reason to worship."  He's God in the desert just the same as He's the God on the awesome sunny days filled with lush green grass.  I'm learning to enjoy the desert. 

No pity party here tonight!

"There is a limit to our affliction. God sends it and then removes it. Do you complain, saying, "When will this end?" May we quietly wait and patiently endure the will of the Lord till He comes. Our Father takes away the rod when His purpose in using it is fully accomplished.   If the affliction is sent to test us so that our words would glorify God, it will only end once He has caused us to testify to His praise and honor. In fact, we would not want the difficulty to depart until God has removed from us all the honor we can yield to Him."  ~Charles Spurgeon

I had a blog written about this, but I just hit delete.  I am in a penchant to complain at the moment, but God is gently reminding me to do everything without complaining (Phil 2:14)  I don't really have anything to complain about.  Just some minor life inconveniences. Instead of complaining and having my pity party, I'll just focus on this quote & understand that everything that causes me inconvenience right now WILL bring glory to God if I keep the right perspective.  "So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up." (Galatians 6:9)