Gratefulness Is Our Guardrail
You’ve might have said, or heard a friend say, “my heart on this matter is_________”. It doesn’t take a microscopic lens to discern a person’s heart. We shout it from our social media pages and plaster it on t-shirts. What excites us and what concerns us is on full display. It spills out in a million little ways: our speech, our actions, where we spend our time, our money and cast our ballots; who we hang with, and who we don’t; what we are thankful for, and what we don’t appreciate.
Finding Gratitude In Hard Seasons
If you’re like me, you too have experienced seasons where it was difficult to find anything to be joyful about, much less be thankful for; but it’s vital for our physical, mental, and spiritual health to navigate these difficulties well. SO…what are some ways we can navigate through these hard seasons and find some gratitude along the way?
Seeds Watered From Tears
God can use the tears of our pain to water seeds of great purpose. As I’ve walked through the unexpected pain of my husband’s sudden death and becoming a widow and single mom, these stories of purpose from pain encourage me. Not because the purpose justifies the pain or alleviates it. God never expects us to gloss over deep loss or circumstances that shatter our world. God calls us to lament and grieve, even as we grieve with hope.
The Heart of Home
If we focus solely on these external elements, we miss the deeper essence of what a home truly is. Could it be that God wants to restore and preserve the heart of the home? That home is more than aesthetics or décor? Yes, those things can reflect our style and great taste, but a beautifully decorated home can still lack what matters most: love, peace, joy, and the presence of God.