Gratitude changes everything.

Life is full of circumstances that we cannot control. In any given moment, things could be better and things could be worse. It’s all about how we choose to respond to our current circumstance.

Making the choice to be thankful—to find something (no matter how small) to rejoice about—has the power to shift our heart attitude. This choice is not always easy. I have found myself struggling with this recently. It feels like if I have a thankful attitude, it means I need to be ok with the pain and heartache of the hard stuff. It goes against my human nature.

I think at times we can be hard on ourselves, wondering why we don’t go from a seedling to a mature plant overnight. We try to force growth and then wonder why we can’t sustain the demand when it is simply because our seed didn’t have enough time to sprout and produce the amount needed for the calling placed on it.

The word “depth” has a few different explanations of what it means. In one definition it can mean “the distance from the top or surface to the bottom of something.” It can also mean “the quality of being intense.”

My days were busy, my life chaotic, and then… I got pregnant. I realized then that I needed to go to the depths of my pain in order to confront and move beyond  everything that it affected in my life. The journey, still continuing years later; has been the most  intense, emotional, heartbreaking, restorative experience I could have ever allowed myself to go through. Here are the Top 5 things I learned through this ongoing process: 

We were born into this world with purpose. But often we forget the true importance of what living life really means. Are we filling our lives with purpose and design God had planted in our hearts since he brought us here on earth or are we letting the world consume us? We were born with purpose, HIS purpose. He knew you before He formed you in your mother's womb. 

We can find belonging more wholly in generous relationships, when our confidence isn’t coming from others. And not only can we find it for ourselves, but we can also create it for others: making spaces where people are welcome, loved unconditionally, and authentically desired.

A few years ago I was at a multiple day conference with a couple hundred women. I found myself in a space where I felt extremely uncomfortable in my own skin. Nothing had happened in that space to cause me to feel uncomfortable; the feelings were rising up from inside of me. Familiar lies rose to the surface in my mind and with them tears threatened to spill out from under my eye lids. 

It’s a wonderful world!