There is this great encourager in the blogosphere named Lisa-Jo Baker. On Fridays she writes, unedited for 5 minutes and invites others to join her in the quest to write without fear of anything…just write. Most weeks I play along.
If you have never participated, give it a try. The rules are simple. Check them out and get the button code here.
The word for today is: LOOK
Did you ever meet someone that looked right through you?
Deep into your soul, not just LOOKED at you, but LOOKED at you?
It is kind of scary, for me anyway. But it is the people that REALLY look at me from whom I learn the most. Because they care.
Because they want to know me.
Because they are more concerned with what is inside of me…who I am rather than what I am wearing or the handbag I am carrying.
They want to know me! And my heart.
I want to be that kind of person. The person that looks deep inside and makes someone feel warm and welcomed into the circle.
To do that, I have to open myself up, let others come in…be less judgmental, be more open minded.
I work in a liberal, very liberal, work environment. It is a place where there are a lot of people that are different from me…different values, different lifestyles…everything is different. But we are ALL God’s children…all created by him.
I want to see others that are not like me, like God sees them. Not like I see them.
I want to really LOOK at them. Not judge them by their outward appearance or lifestyle.
But the Lord said to Samuel,
“Do not consider his appearance or his height,
for I have rejected him.
The Lord does not look at the things people look at.
As the weeks have drug on it has been easy for me to lose hope.
Will things ever get back to some type of normal? People were not created to live in isolation.
Will we be able to see someone smile or will we always look at them and only see their eyes?
Will people gather without having to sit 6’ apart?
I don’t know the answer and I’m not posting this to debate the news media’s portrayal of the pandemic.
I’m sharing this today because I spent some time with the Lord thanking him for the things I DO have and not focusing on the things I don’t have. The things I have lost since March.
I looked up scriptures about hope.
I made a list in my prayer journal of things I’m grateful for.
Life goes on. Life crisis continues even during this pandemic. People die naturall and tragically. And babies are born. And weddings happen and new lives begin.
This crisis in our world isn’t a surprise to God.
And my hope and security is in Him.
If you scroll through the photos, you see things that made me smile this morning and reminded me of the goodness of God - even now.
With all the grief and sadness in the world I wasn’t sure how I would handle today. How I would allow myself to grieve this loss? Today when there has so much WRONG in our world. In a post @deidrariggs shared today she reminded us that life goes on. And I realized that today this is my life. And I can grieve this loss. My life goes on... I am thankful for the 4 days we had her. On Friday I will remember each event of her last day and I will remember her dying in my arms.
And I will be both sad and grateful. #infantloss #trisomy18 #stlouischildrenshospital
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