He Repairs With Gold

image found here

The idea that we can be better off for our brokenness is a hard concept to grasp while we are 

surviving the threshing floor called suffering.

The thought that He can use it for our good and His glory- is just slightly overwhelming.

But the scriptures tell us this very thing. Found in the eighth chapter of the book of Romans.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and who have been called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

I have both experienced it and wrestled with it.

Sharing my heart with the Creator of heaven and earth, that there is no way, that any of this is going to be used for good. 

This.

The thing that catches our breath and causes us to feel deep grief and sorrow and pain from the sheer thought of it. 

The things that have happened that cause us to be bent over double emotionally. 

We couldn't make it right if we tried. And oh how we've tried. 

But He can.

He makes good on all of it.

Actually he makes it all gold.

When we hand over the cadence we've constructed within our own lives and stop trying to heal our own brokennenss with our own definitions of healing and attempts at trying to right the wrongs...when we surrender to Him.

He repairs with gold.

And in exchange we walk away with healed brokenness and freedom.

I learned that the Japenese have an art form for this.

It is called Kintsukuroi or Kintsugi.

It means this, "To repair with gold."

Image from Etsy shop here

I cannot tell you how much I love this.

I hope to find a special piece like this one day, to display as a stone of remembrance. A reminder of His healing power.  A testimony of how He works even our brokenness together for our good and His glory. 

For all of those who are wondering how on earth any of the suffering you are currently walking through could ever be used for any good at all...wondering if any of the suffering will ever make any sense...the hope is that the truth of His word will bring encouragement.  

There is a high value placed on brokenness.

As a people, we are cracked and broken with unmet needs and unhealed hurts. Our hearts are held together with hopelessness and despair. We are surviving circumstances and situations and disease and illnesses that require of us that which we never imagined.

There are marriages that ache so much it hurts to even breathe. There are families that are ripped apart with offense and unforgiveness. There are friendships and relationships and business partnerships where evil and wrong doing and hidden motives were the intention from the start and we are left feeling betrayed, to say the very least. There are the hard things that we carry every day that we can't even talk about because it is just too painful.

We ache with the weight of it all.

And we are all cracked in one way or another.

Somehow we still have to do life. We still need to work and provide and hold our families together...

But there is a high value placed on brokenness in God's word and His word is a healing balm.

He is a God who heals. Who restores. Who renews. Who offers us an imaginable recompense.

Thankfully, He tells us that He will make it all gold.

Our God is the original mastermind behind the art of Kintsukuroi.

We have to surrender our broken pieces and unfair things to Him.

It is time sweet friends.

And watch as the Master repairs with gold...and makes us more beautiful for it.

"Then He brought them out with silver and gold. And among His tribes there was not one who stumbled." Psalms 105:37

"You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz, the diamond; The beryl, the onyx, the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; 

And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were created, they were prepared." Ezekiel 28:13

"And I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are My people,' and they will say, 'The Lord is my God.' "  Zechariah 13:9

"He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness." Malachi 3:3

"So that they proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 

1 Peter 1:7

"But He knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold." Job 23:10

"Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours." Isaiah 61:7

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. " 2 Corinthians 4:7-10

The Pearl Event IV ~ Chattanooga

Good Morning Glories,

I am equal parts honored and humbled and overjoyed to share this news with you all today! I share with great faith and legs shaking that He has orchestrated and organized and gathered together an incredible Pearl Event for you all this year. 

It is going to be worth the wait!

So for all of you who have asked, the early bird tickets will be released today at 10:00 a.m. (CST)

These women.

They are vessels who pour. Who serve. Who love. Who give.

Who sow into the hearts of women.

They use their platforms and social media influence for good and for the kingdom.

They are encouragers and lovers of God's word.

They are truth tellers and have hearts full of love and humility.

And their stories...their "But God" stories of hope and faith and redemption and recompense.

You all are going to be so blessed.

We have some of your favorite bloggers and writers joining us this year. A Pearl Girl from each of the last two events and some new and very special friends!

Our theme this year will not come as a surprise if you've been a reader here for very long.

I've written for years here about my two favorite words in the bible and I am so grateful for

how God can truly use every, single thing we've been through, for our good and His glory.

These women have some of the most incredible "but God" stories you've ever heard! 

Glorious Impossibles!

I will share more later today in a separate post but wanted to announce the event and leave a link to

the ticket page for those of you who have been waiting for the next Pearl Event!

We have a limited number of discounted early bird tickets and then once those are gone, the remaining tickets will go to full price, so if you want to join us this year, please get your ticket right away!

Here is the link.

www.thepearlevent2015.eventbrite.com

Cannot wait to see you all in April! 

Rewrite

Print by: Made By A Girl

For those of us who want to rip pages out of our story, He offers us a better way.

He offers us a rewrite. 

A new story. Not a perfect one.

A new one that is filled with hope and redemption and recompense and restoration.

I love this scripture found in 2 Samuel 22:25. (MSG)

God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to His eyes.

I've written about this one little word before, but it is so powerful and found so often in scripture.

When.

We are hoping for a new story, a better story, without sometimes even realizing that the author of it all is the One who holds the pen. Who carries the script. Who redeems. Who renews. Who restores.

And Who Rewrites.

Ask Him for this today. 

Write it down in a journal and date it.

And watch as the pages of your life are rewritten with hope and new beginnings.

Rewritten where He is the main character and we are His beloved. 

There are pages of my story where unforgiveness was the leading character.

By His grace, He rewrote a story of love and forgiveness and redemption in that area.

Maybe there are pages of your story where loss and failure and heartache were the leading characters.

He can not only give you new pages, not only new chapters, but an entirely different book altogether.

In a completely different category.

He specializes in this and is glorified in our lives in these ways.

I'm trusting Him for some very special rewrites in my life right now. 

The pages that I had filed away out of fear and unbelief.

He wants our pages sweet friends.

He wants the ones that we have tossed over in the corner. The ones that we've ripped to shreds

and thrown in the trash. The pages of our notebooks and dream books and "maybe someday" books. Pages that we've filed away. Pages that we have dog eared and highlighted and marked up with hope. He wants the pages that are labeled disappointment and despair and hopelessness too.

He really wants those.

Because He is the One who can do the unthinkable and the unimaginable.

He can restore the years the locust have eaten.

Every, single one. Even the ones where we think, there is "no way" this circumstance, this situation can be redeemed or restored.

Even those.

We can take the limits off and set our pride or disappointment or frustration aside, and extend whatever we have tried to pen for ourselves by simply and humbly asking Him for a rewrite.

His story is always better...always.

A Christmas To Remember

I remember those Christmases the most. 

The ones where I stood in between heartache ten feet deep and grief and shame that ripped through my soul like a tidal wave of what felt like the entire world against me.

I even considered that life was this painful because I wasn't supposed to be in it.

Sorrow that cuts to the bone and marrow will do that to a person. Will unravel a person. Will break us open and bring us to our knees in the darkest corner of our soul, howling in the midnight hour with the pain of just trying to do life - all wrecked and messed up inside and wishing that life could please be gentler, kinder even, just once.

But even still...

I would look at those beautiful brown eyes staring back at me and the absolute sheer perfection that called me Mama...

And I held her and loved her and sang over her and let the tears fall as I watched her sleep and brushed those gorgeous curls and told her while she was sleeping how sorry I was.

For everything.

For the mama she had. For everything I was. For everything I wasn't.

For the 1.99 Happy Meal we had to share and call it dinner.

For the trailer. For the pipes that froze. For no running water. For no electricity multiple times. Too many times. For the cabinets that were bare. For the empty fridge. For the car that barely ran.

For the smocked dresses that weren't in her closet and the pink bows that weren't in her hair. For lacy turn down socks I didn't have the money to buy. For new patent leather shoes that weren't on her feet. For the few dollars of a paycheck on the 15th of December that was all I had to give her some kind of a Christmas. 

And for the wedding band that still wasn't on my left hand.

And every year I would wish that it was the Christmas to remember. The one where I was happily married with a house full of babies and siblings for my Macey girl. And enough money to pay all the bills and buy all the presents and still keep the electricity on. The one where we baked cookies and decorated gingerbread and wrapped gifts and watched real ballerinas on a real stage.

I would look at other mothers through the eyes of comparison and wonder what on earth they had that I didn't. How they were able to make it work or capture the heart of another or even how on earth they were married, divorced and married again?

I couldn't for the life of me figure out the formula.

And then the holidays would unfold each year.

And during the holidays we had to share our daughter.

Every, single time I would plead with a God that I didn't know, that the drop off wouldn't kill me.

That He would help me.

That He would hold me up.

That the missing wedding band didn't identify me. And the trailer park and eventually apartment complex we called home didn't define me as a mom who loved her daughter less.

The empty car seat and barbie on the floor board of our car after the drop off would send me into a whirlwind of sorrow and despair and a sudden need to pull this car over because I can't drive it while slumped over the steering wheel- emotional breakdown.

I was a failure. By every definition. 

And if I didn't know it enough myself, I had an army of people waiting in the wings to tell me so.

But the years wore on and I learned a few things.

I learned that Christmas in a trailer, or a tiny apartment with no heat, or with only a gift or two under the tree- if there was a tree in the first place, or a left hand without a wedding band for any number of reasons, or the painful drop off- pick up with our children, didn't mean that it wasn't a Christmas to remember. 

Or that we as parents had failed.

Because the King of Kings was conceived in the womb of a young teenage unmarried girl and was born into an absolute mess of a place without heat or running water or crown molding and magnolia wreaths.

God set it up that way.

We have a Savior who knows. 

Because He has been there. He lived it.

I learned that no matter what our circumstances, it's always a Christmas to remember, Him.

And we can hold up our emptiness or our empty bank accounts or empty trees like an offering by measuring everything we don't have and everything that isn't the way it should be or the way we think it should be...

Or, we can kneel down, in a tiny apartment floor, in a drafty trailer, or in a big beautiful home and say to the Author of it all....

Thank you for the breath in my body to praise Your Holy name.

Thank you for the freedom to worship You any time, any place, in any way that I choose.

Thank you for waking me up this morning. For another day. For another Christmas.

Thank you for this tree or a single gift at all.

Thank you for a small bite of food. Thank you for the ability to eat and taste.

Thank you for the ability to visit a church and see the candles and hear the music and worship You.

Thank you for my precious children and for the ability to hold them and tell them how much I love them whether it is on Christmas Eve or Christmas day or any day.

And we can thank Him for the wedding band on our hand, or the one that isn't there this year for any number of reasons or for the one that has yet to circle our ring finger at all. 

Because married, divorced, single, single mom or single dad- 

It is still a Christmas to remember, Him.

And the God Who loves us more than we can even fathom, inhabits the praises of His people.

We can revel in His glory while we watch our child sleep or while we share a two dollar meal because He has made us in His image. In His very likeness.

We can still revel in His goodness even if our house, bills, holidays, friendships, relationships, marriage, etc. is not what we dreamed about or isn't what we hoped it would be, because He promises us that He will use every single thing we have gone through, for our good and His glory. 

We can still revel in His very nature to love us and to draw near to us because His word says that He is close to the brokenhearted.

We can still revel in the fact that it is Christmas, whether there are gifts or trees or not. Whether we have a house full of family or we are standing completely alone. Because the God of heaven and earth has promised us double honor for our former shame and that He is the author of our lives and we are to trust Him with the pen....

From someone who has been on every side of the holidays known possible, I write these words.

I write them to give you hope, to point you to the One who created you and to remind you that no matter what, it is still a Christmas to remember.... Him.

May you feel the wonder of His love above all ...

Merry Christmas sweet friends.