Those nights when you can’t sleep because to everyone else your life on the outside looks so perfect, when in reality you’re dying inside and you just don’t know into how many more pieces your heart can break or just how much more sorrow you can take before it. all. comes. crashing. down.
I’m tired of the Facebook façade. You know the one. Where all is sunshine and roses and smiles and laughter. I thank God there IS a lot of that! But life is not a series of either mountain top or valley experiences. It’s not one or the other. It’s more of a journey going along on parallel tracks made of joy and sorrow running side by side each other often at the same time. So, yes, we have a tremendous amount to be thankful for and joyful over, while at the same time we continue to be blasted with enough sorrow and pain to last us a lifetime.

Is that your story too? If so, I’m so sorry. We are told in Scripture that this world is not our home and that we will, as Jesus did and all who follow him do, experience suffering. But. Don’t you love the word “but” in Scripture? “But God… !” But if we know Him we are not without comfort. We are not without hope or strength.
We’re strong in the Lord. It’s in our weakness HE shows Himself strong. He carries us. HIS GRACE IS SUFFICIENT! Every single time.

Aren’t we all just broken vessels? And when we stop hiding the cracks and let our brokenness show, that’s when more of His light can seep out into the darkness around us, helping to illuminate someone else’s dark path they’re on.
I’m afraid what spills out of my brokenness a lot of times isn’t the light and love of Jesus. It’s fear, doubt, and the anger of heartbreak. But I pray that through all this, He’s changing me.
In my brokenness and failures, I want HIS light to shine and for this earthen vessel to be softened, yielded to His loving hands shaping me into His image, not mine, using me to further HIS kingdom and plan, not mine, and to ultimately pour out comfort to others and bring glory to Him. That is what I pray is the end result. That’s the goal, right?
It’s okay to say things aren’t perfect and to admit you’re hurting. I know friends who are. I know family members who are. I am.

How about you? Need prayer? I love to pray for people. I believe in it. I believe in the One Who hears our cry. My hope is in the Lord. Let’s pray for each other in the sweet, powerful, mighty name of JESUS believing that He hears, He cares, and He IS completing the good work He’s begun in us! Amen!

Love, blessings, and prayers to you.

Becky