This week's favorites

So I thought that I would try keeping track of a week by cutting and pasting the words and pictures that have found the deep places in my heart.  Maybe even sometimes I might actually say something original... :)

Slumber party :)

"Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. "(2 Corinthians 12:7-10 MSG)

Even when the rain falls

Even when the flood starts rising

Even when the storm comes
I am washed by the water

-needtobreathe

Why in the world was it that she caught her reflection in the smudged window over the sink that evening, right then, and the realization of it caught her in the moment and returned her — that wherever she was, however she was, SomeOne did always long to be with her.  Belonging wasn’t about some club, or cool clique, or country — belonging was about Christ. Who never stopped longing to be with her, who said she always belonged because she was always His beloved. 

No matter how many days she felt lost in her  own skin, no matter how she struggled for breath in her lungs that didn’t hurt, that didn’t make her ache, no matter how she kept looking for a home and a place of her own and to be known and roots that would never let her go —  there was always One who longed to be with her — so she belonged.  

Crazy — a holy epiphany over a sink of dirty dishes and tomato sauce smeared across the counter, her reflection there in the window.

You never belong until you believe you do.       

And it’s only when you believe you belong, that you believe you are beautiful.  

And she stood there looking at her reflection in the window, His presence all around her —

and all the beautiful unfurling on the inside of her like tendrils of roots wrapping round everything and being held.

-Ann Voscamp

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2013/07/when-you-feel-like-you-never-belong/

A little more Ann...

Breathe. It’s how life works. It’s the way beauty is always born —

Breathe in: Lord, I receive what you give.
Breathe out: Lord, I give thanks for what you give.

That’s it right there.

That’s the prayer for people who can’t remember to breathe, the prayer for when you think you might hyperventilate, the prayer when you can’t remember what comes next — just these 7-8 syllables that perfectly settle into the rhythm of breathing.

It’s the syllables of sanctuary, a surrender to His sovereignty.

It’s the only cycle of sanity:

Breathe in: Lord, I receive what you give.
Breathe out: Lord, I give thanks for what you give.

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2013/07/a-letter-to-kate-7-way-to-labor-deliver-your-best-life/

My oldest is now taller than me...