Perseverance

"Fall seven times, stand up eight."

- Japanese Proverb 

He Is Part Of Your Story

“The parts of the story you want to cut out are the very parts that God wants to write in...

He wants to take where we’ve been and show us He was there.

He wants to show us He saw the loneliness in our eyes and heard the cries that went unshed.

He causes the events of our struggles to coincide with His timing –

to help us understand He rescues us,
when we can’t put the pieces back together again;

to love us when we feel unlovable,
so that we can no longer deny His undying faithfulness to us."

- An excerpt from When We Try to Kill Our Stories by Bonnie on her blog Faith Barista

Times For Letting Go

"But there are times for letting go, too. Times when holding on means to neither live nor die, but merely to roam. Our perseverance and tenacity can become twisted into something it was never meant to be, leaving us bitter instead of strengthened and a mere specter instead of a person."

- An excerpt from Letting Go by Billy Coffey guest-posting on Hey Look, A Chicken!

Are You Living The Best God Has For You?

"Flats, blowouts, disappointments, hurts, failures, and all the like are part of life, but sometimes we mistake the ability to get going again as a healing. We’re not reaching our potential. We aren’t living the best that God has for us, and it’s all because we need something more than a temporary fix or a band-aid."

- An excerpt from Whoa! Living on a Spare by Jason on his blog Connecting to Impact

Beauty On A Shadowed Background

"Sometimes beauty is brighter on a shadowed background.

This isn't a new idea. But it struck me that sometimes God shows me things that I would normally overlook by first making me aware of the troublesome or difficult aspects of my life.

I can understand rest only after an exhausting week.

I can see goodness in my daughter's heart after she's told me yet another story about the mean boys at school.

I recognize safety and rescue after I hear a horrible story on the news."

- An excerpt from Beach Combing by Sarah Markley on her blog The Best Days of My Life