L3 Challenge: Joy & Pain

I cannot seem to get through this book because I am savoring each page, sentence, word...
And I must quote Ann Voskamp to round out this day as I contemplate my priorities, dream for the future of my family, pray for the wisdom in choices, and thank God for his always goodness, always grace, always compassion.

I eat a bit of chocolate, watch the rain drops tap the parched and browning leaves...and I read::

.: Joy is always worth the wait, and fully living worth the believing:.


.: it was God's necessary tool to reshape me, remake me, rename me, and now how could I stop being...full of grace?:.


.: Joy and pain, they are but two arteries of the one heart that pumps through all those who don't numb themselves to really living:.

those who don't numb themselves to really living...

And I pray :: Oh Lord give me the eyes to see you in the daily joys and pains. Open up my heart to feel. If it is goodness Lord, guard me from taking the credit. If it is hardship or suffering, Lord, give me the humility to be full of grace. Bring me low, Lord, and give me the compassion to stay there with you. I thank you Jesus, now and always. Amen.

One Thousand Gifts - A Holy Experience

L3 Challenge: Overcoming Failure

So I fail. And I fall. And there is evidence of things broken.

for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again...

It isn't always sin that causes failure, but disappointment, discouragement, depression. The 3 D's.

I have to face these three anew each day it seems. But it isn't the falls or the failures that define me. It is the rising again. New life promised, and new life lived. New life loved. 

I see the contrast of pain and beauty. Contrast of color in this season. Pastel green grass covered in frost, bright red leaves, pale blue morning sky. It is all the seeing of the difference that makes the difference. 

When I stay fallen, I don't see the beauty of rising. Certainly the rising is difficult. It is a discipline. But it is a grace. A gift. 

A gift received and a gift given. Risen life gives and serves. It shares. 

On this day of the challenge I will look for the contrast. See and believe that there is a gift to be received today, and a gift to give. My whole self for another.