On The Road To Beauty

The other day, I was thinking about makeup items I needed to purchase to make myself beautiful. So often, our society gets caught up in the outward appearance of beauty.....clothes, shoes, makeup, perfect body......I could go on. All of this to be considered beautiful.

But what if you were stripped of every luxury that pertained to that? What if, you couldn’t buy clothes, shoes, makeup, get that gym membership.....would people still consider you beautiful? You know, would your personality be uplifting, would you smile at people just to make them smile back, would you give people hope, would you reach out your hand to someone in need, would you be a pillar for someone to lean on, even if you felt weak at that moment yourself? This kind of strength and beauty can only come from God himself. 

I started thinking about all of this when I saw a homeless lady. She had nothing. Just carrying bottles in her hand, so that she could eat that night. She had no makeup, no shower, and definitely no luxuries. 

The things that make us beautiful far surpass just materialistic things. I love how God can get our attention through simple things like that. So.......would you still be considered beautiful if you were stripped of all the luxuries in your life?

Seizures

When you become a parent, you never imagine how hard your life can get. I never thought it would happen to me. I never thought I would be the one with a child with any sort of disability. My son was diagnosed with epilepsy almost 2 years ago - 1 month before I had my third child.

When we first were going through his seizures we had a ton of hope. I remember telling the doctors we wanted to hold off on giving him any medication for the first couple of months, thinking he would be okay.....thinking it was just a fluke and it was going to stop. Quickly we realized that they weren't going to stop and now he has been on so many different medications and nothing has worked.

So how as a parent can you sit and watch your child go through this day after day - especially when he is having seizures most, if not all of the day? I'm not sure. Although I never been one to really cry....some days I break down. I can't take watching him go through this anymore. He has so much love for everyone....I've never seen anyone with so much love for people.

Maybe God is using this to teach me to love more....to take less for granted.....to cherish the moments. I still have hope that he will get better and not have to deal with seizures anymore. I know that God loves Silas so much and that everything is in His hands.

I guess from here, we will be going to yet another EEG and possibly another MRI where he has to be sedated. It was really hard the last time we had to watch him get sedated, so I'm not looking forward to all of the emotions that will go along with that. Please pray for our little guy in these upcoming weeks, as we hear from the doctor for what's to come.

Hand Picked

My husband gets me flowers from time to time. The thing about Paul is, he doesn't just grab the first bouquet he sees. He actually goes in and hand picks flowers for me. Not just any bouquet will do. He inspects them, admires their beauty, and then will bring the perfect ones home to me. And he hopes that I will appreciate the time he took and look at them in the same light that he does.....that they are perfect. 

So why did I choose to write about my husband bringing me home a bouquet of flowers? Well, after all these years of Paul doing this, I finally realized something. In the same way that Paul goes to pick out flowers for me, our heavenly Father has hand picked us. He choose us before the world was created. He wanted you - you were hand picked. 

I really think we are all, in a sense, like flowers. You see, we all need people around us who will be the fertile dirt beneath us, who will help water us, and give us sun light so that we can grow. And then there is the other side of it. As we grow, God is producing gifts and talents in our lives with the help people around us, so that we can also bless others - the pollen if you will. And what is pollen used for? Well, to produce honey in the life of others. We are all part of this. Each one of us was hand picked by the Father. Even if you don't see it, there are people around you who need you to uplift them and help them grow. They need your love and support, encouragement to get through the hard times in life, and just someone to be able to laugh with.

Life in the SLOW lane

So many of us live so much of our lives in the fast lane with day to day activities.....paying bills, taking care of kids, doing dishes and laundry, scrubbing the bathrooms and floors throughout the house, going to work, making dinner.....the list is endless. We often get so caught up in our lives that we forget to enjoy everything we are blessed with - or enjoy being in the SLOW lane.

I was fortunate to be able to take a step back on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. We had to spend the night in the hospital with Silas and that is where we rang in the New Year.....not what I had planned at all. We had to cancel plans with friends for that night and I wasn't sure what we were going to do with our girls, since they weren't allowed to stay at the hospital. God always provides for us even when we don't know how things are going to happen. A wonderful friend of mine, who has such a wonderful heart, offered to stay with my girls and didn't charge me. She spent the night with them and was with them for close to a full day. I mean, what a blessing to have a friend who would drop everything when you need them!

Life in the SLOW lane can really be a wonderful thing when you are taking time to be thankful for the friends, family, and even the things we have that we take for granted on a day to day basis. Have you ever been on vacation and just enjoyed the scenery around you? People honking at you from behind to hurry up, but you just can't......you want to enjoy the beauty. Enjoy the SLOW lane of life.....your husband or wife, your kids, your families, being a stay at home or working mom, doing dishes, doing laundry, whatever ever you put your hands to. God has blessed us all with so much to be thankful for!