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.