I enjoy sharing my story of how God has taken some really dark days in my life and made something so beautiful out of them. I love to encourage others to know that my story is unique to me, but God’s love and faithfulness is something that each of us are privileged to experience if we give Him the opportunity.

Life has a way of not turning out the way that we had hoped or expected, but God is shaping it all into something greater than we can even imagine. God wasn’t taken by surprise. He already knew before we were born what we were going to face. He doesn’t always stop it from happening, which sometimes is hard to comprehend with our limited human reasoning. He allows it, but we choose how we are going to respond to it. We can either curse it or we can allow God to bless it. Yes, bless the mess that we are in so much that He turns the mess into a miracle.

So what do we do in the mean time between the problem and the promise? Between the pit and the palace? We do that which our flesh hates. We wait. Not just any waiting, but waiting with intention and purpose. It’s not a careless time of non-activity, but it’s a time of seeking God, finding out where He’s working in our lives, and immersing ourselves in the middle of it. Waiting means being patient and letting God call the shots. Waiting means letting God lead. Waiting means He is God, and I’m not. Waiting means loving God enough to let Him do those painful things in my life to get me where He wants me to be. Waiting changes everything – even me!

In the waiting time, it’s important to enjoy life and all of the blessings that God gives us. It’s so easy to get focused on the outcome of what we want that we forget that there is a process in getting from point A to point B. It’s not a pretty package tied up with a big, bright red bow. It looks more like a gift torn open with the wrapping paper thrown all over the floor. It’s like a ball of yarn all tangled up in one big jumbled up mess. The process is very rarely a straight line. It’s more like…over here, over there, then back over here again – repeating this pattern over and over again about a hundred times before we get to our intended end.

We aren’t able to see where God is taking us, but He does. When we surrender to His plans and purposes for us, then it might not turn out the way that we had hoped, but it will turn out even better because it is hand picked for us by The Master. We just can’t get impatient in the process. He is molding us and shaping us into His beautiful and prized creation that He had in mind from the beginning of time. We might have been through some scrapes and scars getting to where He wants to take us, but each scrape and scar tell a story. They tell a story reminding us just how far God has brought us and just how much He loves us. He’s the God of healing those scrapes and scars unseen to others, but not to Him. Scrapes and scars that bring glory to Him. Remember, that’s what it’s all about in the end anyway. Bringing honor and glory to Abba Father, the one who gave it all for us.

So enjoy the journey each and every day, even in the waiting…and remember to take some photos along the way!