It’s been the busiest of summers and it feels a bit like this month has already escaped me. My girls are thriving, so glad to once again be together, right where they belong.

I’m in desperate need of some rest. Real rest . . . mind, body, and soul. I wish I could go away for the weekend by myself, and just relax and re energize.

But mostly . . .

Sometimes it feels as if I’m spinning around under the lights of a shattered, but pieced-back-together again, stained glass . . . here and there I see darkness, it’s life shattering pain. And here and there I see a beaming light, illuminating the space in between, bringing hope and light to the messy, and that’s just the world we live in. There’s hurting everywhere, but there’s “amazing” everywhere too. It’s easy to miss it if we blink . . . it’s easy to look away and not catch the tiny little miracles in someones life. It’s easy to look away and not catch the love in someones eyes. It’s just as easy to look away and not see the pain in someone eyes, too.

It’s been heavy on my heart this week to just really consider other peoples feelings when we want to assume the worst about them OR to imagine that if we were in their situation we’d have it all figured out by now. Y’all, you don’t know what other people are going through. You. Just. Don’t. Even if you’ve gone through something similar, it’s not the same. It’s uniquely their walk, their story, their “stuff”.

Just the same, nobody is ever going to understand exactly what you’re going through. Not your mama, not your spouse, not your best friend, not your child, not your sister, not your brother, not your kid’s babysitter, and not your hair stylist. They’re just not.

But God will.

Sweet friends, can I encourage you tonight? Whatever you’re going through right now, He’s got this. He’s got you. Because no matter what our lives looked like 20 years ago, or 20 days ago or even 20 minutes ago, the one thing that remains the same is Him. He can not change, not ever, and something that He promises us is to not leave us. He can make something good from the heartache in your life. No matter how that heartache got there, no matter how long it stays, no matter why – He can make something good come from it.

When the storms of life come raging and bring devastation into your life through the way of pain, illness, child loss, infidelity, divorce, financial ruin, career change, severed relationships with close friends, unspeakable hurts . . . all the things . . . He’s there.

It’s amazing to think He gives us each the grace we need to walk through this life in the circumstances we will.

It’s amazing that when the dust settles and we’re left feeling all alone that He’ll let us carry on, not holding everything against us, and so many times just blessing us with new beginnings and new relationships with new people. Just pray. Pray because you should and because no matter what it’s going to make a difference.

And be blessed by the beauty. (The beauty of it all)

A friend was telling me the other day how her cousin gets to go to the most extravagant affairs, she does makeup professionally, and attended a wedding to “prep” the brides party before the wedding. The bride was getting married to her soul mate. It was her 2nd wedding and his 2nd. He was a widower, due to a car accident. Her on the other hand, divorced. She’d been married for 26years before her husband and her divorced, and so becoming single in her mid-late 40’s didn’t believe she’d ever end up marrying again. A couple years later she met her groom and it was undeniable and happened in the most impossible of circumstances. So at age 55 and 47 these two love birds tied the knot. Can you imagine? Trying to start over again at that age? But because she was open to believing that God could write her a more beautiful story, because she prayed, because she wanted to be happy . . . she chose to be open to what may come – she has a new beginning. Wow! Can you imagine if they’d never took that leap of faith? If they’d never just went for it?

How many times do we do that? We get so used to the way things are, the way things have always been done, or so stuck in relationships or traditions that we we refuse to see past them and to what more there could be?

If you’re holding onto something that you just can’t shake, maybe you shouldn’t let it go! It’s all too easy to romanticize how something might be or could be, but then avoid taking the steps to get there. If it’s your soul mate, you already know, go tell him/her how you feel. Don’t worry about how you’re going to look, how tragic to think you’d let forever go.

If it’s a dream job, go full speed ahead. Don’t listen to others who may not understand how you could want one specific job, especially if you’ve worked so hard for another degree or vice versa, we all realize what we want at different times. Go get it!

If it’s the decision to pack up and move across the country, do it. Other people don’t get to dictate to you how you’re going to live your life and you’re not responsible for their happiness. Just go.

It doesn’t always look like we think it will, but I promise you it’s always worth it if we’ll just go for it!

We live our lives moment by moment, not fully pursuing what we want b/c we’re a people always way too concerned with what others will think about us . . . about what our decisions are. That’s no way to live. We literally only have one life to live. What wall are you running into today? The wall of fear? Scared to fail? The wall of peer judgement? Scared of what others will think? The wall of insecurity? Scared to get outside of your comfort zone? The wall of time? Scared of starting over?

We’re all waiting for something . . . what are you waiting for?

Go get it!