Our Amazing God: Time Goes On

Last year, right around this time, a lot of craziness started in my life, and it's difficult for me to believe that that was a whole year ago now, while at the time, I didn't think that it would ever end. Today I looked out of the window and saw a tree beginning to change colors in my back yard, full of bright reds and oranges and yellows, and was transported back to last year.

I had my computer staying on the dining room table during this era in my life, and I would do my homework, and work on National Novel Writing Month outlines and whatnot each afternoon in this room with this big window facing this big beautiful colored tree. I watched as it went up in flames in the oranges and reds of Fall, then as the leaves fell one by one to the ground, Winter approaching slowly. Then, as if to prove that there was still life under those mounds of snow, I watched this tree slowly bud into small flowers that quickly turned to healthy green leaves, the image of the reds and oranges from Fall stuck in my head for all of these months. Throughout all of the junk in my life during this time, it was the image of that tree that was running through my head constantly, and now I see why.

The tree began to change colors again just a day or so ago, and I am beginning to see the bright colors of Autumn once again, and I can not believe all that has happened in these twelve months. I think this is God's way of showing me that it was truly Him who got me through those trials, even when I thought I was alone, He never left me. Now I look at myself, and I'm a different person because of it, and a much better trust in God. If only I had stopped pushing against our Creator in my time of trouble, and trusted that time would move on and that He would bring me through it, I would have had a much happier year. Every Autumn when this tree begins to change, I will watch it, and take a few moments to praise our wonderful God.

I wasn't stuck in that time of troubles, and neither are you. I know it's difficult to look past the here and now when you're in those moments, believe me, I know, but God has your back in everything. Remember, time moves on, and with time, God brings healing. Let the fiery trees that will soon be surrounding us remind you that God's love for us burns brightly and fiercely, and that He will never let us go.

Beauty 101: Gray Hair and Wrinkles

So I didn't get right on writing that series on Beauty, but here's another one! :)

Gray Hair and Wrinkles

Not so long ago I overheard a girl about my age telling her friends that she would rather die young then get old and wrinkly. I stopped dead in my tracks and just stared for a few moments. How could someone rather their life be cut short than being old and wise? It doesn't make sense to me.

We have this viewpoint of it being a bad thing to get old. We're all trying to prevent wrinkles and gray hair from ages as young as fifteen years old, and once we reach a certain age, our birthdays are no longer something we look forward to, but rather, a day that we dread. But why? What's wrong with having experienced life?

I guess that this entry isn't necessarily only geared to girls my age, but women of all ages. Age is something to be proud of. No, I'm not wishing my life away, but I am excited to live those years. Those years where I've lived enough life to be considered wise, and where people are looking up towards me for advice. I want to be middle aged some day, and I want to be a grandmother. Wrinkles aren't a feature that we should spend hundreds to thousands of dollars trying to make disappear, gray hairs aren't things that we should spend hours a year dyeing.

Love the stage of life you're in. Love it. Whether you are a child, a pre-teen, a teenager, a young adult, an adult, middle aged, or a senior, love life! Yeah, of course every stage of life has it's difficulties, but each one comes with even more benefits. And guess what, you're beautiful in every single stage. The second part of the verses that we looked at in my last post, 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 4 says "Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight." The key part of that verse that I want to look at is where it says "the unfading beauty". That means that when you're looking at true beauty, it doesn't go away with age, it doesn't run and hide when wrinkles reveal themselves.

Beauty doesn't leave, and it doesn't hide. When you think about it, it's actually kind of silly to think that as you get older you lose your beauty, if anything, you only get more beautiful as you learn to understand the ways of the world. No matter how old you are, go out today, and embrace your beautiful self, and don't let anyone, not your best friend, your spouse, your worst enemy, your sibling, and especially not society, tell you that you aren't beautiful.