Beauty from Ashes - A Continual Process

This title is somewhat ironic, considering I struggle with cutting away the mind clutter!  But that's just the point!  Not to mention March Madness!  Today my mind is racing about all the racing, and it's a lot of good stuff that's racing through!   But. I'm. slowing. it. now.   There is too much information out there for me to process.  I can't possible drink it in.  I don't want this blog to be another "thing" that gets in the way of people really living!  I started this blog because I wanted to bring hope to people with anxiety.   I did not set out to prove that one can ask for, and have anxiety divinely removed.  I hope to share that when we surrender our anxiety to God, we can believe He will use it for our good.  We all have a weakness.  It can either drive us to God or away from God.  If it's not anxiety, it's something else...it doesn't matter what it is.   With the beautiful truth of Easter upon us , I ju...

The following is actually the text message I sent to my kiddos and hubby this am. Since I post my heart, I'm sharing it with you. Maybe just one of you sometimes gets stuck in the compulsive apology cycle, and forget that Jesus doesn't want compulsive, He wants real. Compulsive is when I am trying to do it all right, and fix it every time I do it wrong - IN MY STRENGTH. I don't like me when I'm stuck there!  It literally feels like a chain around my neck and a brick on my chest! GRACE is when I see my desperate need of a Savior Who forgives, and enables grace-filled living, dependence, and humility. So much easier and safer to rely on Him than me! So here is my heart split wide open again. Not going to think this one over.  I pray God splits my heart wide open with His Word every day until I'm with Him. Hebrews 4:12-16,  " For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, be...

I desperately need the Holy Spirit to take this heart, the one that needs grace in order to be joyful, and I need Him to throw down grace. I need to be hands and feet of Jesus right now in order to distract this human brain. This brain is so often tricked by what I see and know. God sees and knows everything, and has it all mapped out. It's so much bigger than these 24 hours/days/weeks...I know that DAVID wrote it out until the writing turned around. He never left a psalm undone, and we can never leave a day undone. His glory is reflected when His love flows through us to the broken, from the broken to the broken. He was broken for us, wasn't He?! How do I turn this around? It is selfish to just let it churn into the monster it can become, the aching empathy, the empathy that Jesus came to carry so that I would not ache from it. Yes, empathy has it's place, don't get me wrong. But there's place I know I go, where I have to say, OK, enough, TRUST MY MAKER! Why...