Beauty in Hard Places

The hard things in life do not your life make. They are just situations, moments, and they pass. When we focus on those things that break our hearts we can be fooled into thinking that that is just the way life is. Please don’t be tricked into believing that. If you do, you will become yet another person in the world who is wrought with constant, intractable anxiety. Or worse you will notice a bitterness in your soul that will slowly but surely permeate your entire being and ooze out of your pores.

Don’t become that person, my sweet friend. You were created to be so much more than that.

I spent some time on the Navajo Nation this past year and the beauty of it continues to mesmerize me. The sunsets, the blossoming cacti, and the altitudinous red peaks often caused me to stop and stare. While driving to a new friend’s house one evening the shadows began their long stretch across the small two-lane road and as I was unfamiliar with the twists and turns I was concentrating pretty hard. However, as I topped out over a rise I nearly ran off the road because the beauty that swelled before me was all-consuming. Large and craggily red ridges and deep flowing crevasses were alive with the wash of golden light from the lowering sun. I pulled over just to watch the shadows ebb and flow and to witness the tucking in of the earth and life around me.
As I followed the rays of the languishing sun as it touched the face of the cliffs I was amazed at how such hardness could become so soft. Beauty in the hard places. That is the living of life.
The hard and difficult times teach us so much. The situations we overcome add a richness of compassion and empathy to our souls. They are what the crags and crevasses are made of. When we acknowledge and learn from those difficulties, as we age our lives become bathed in the soft golden light of time. Who we are in our humanness, becomes like beauty on display for everyone around us to see.
Don’t allow the sad, the difficult, and the painful to mold you. Look those times right in the face and see them for what they are, moments, and opportunities for growth.
You can do this thing called life sweet friend. All the things that try your patience, cause you moments of regret, and break your heart are things that the Father can make something beautiful from. When you trust Him,  He will not allow your hurt to be wasted. He will indeed create something beautiful from something that was meant to destroy.
Keep moving your feet forward. Don’t give up. Don’t give up. Don’t give up.

Love and peace,

Joycesarah