Happy Thursday

I've been meaning for some while to get back on track and become as regular as possible with this blog. I have to admit...carrying a full time job, running a home, and chasing after 4 super awesome little people has pretty much consumed my time... along with the laundry, always the laundry. So, bear with me... I'm working on it.

Another issue.. I love having readers, but please feel free to unselect my blog from your reading list if my "posts about God" offend or bore you in any way, shape, and or form. I am not now, nor will I ever be afraid to tell someone to buzz the heck off if you don't like what you're reading. My faith is the center of my being. If it is on my heart, I'm gonna write about it. Let me tell you, God, is literally the only reason I have sustained as a person. I'm gonna let my little light shine, let it shine, let it shine...and there ain't nothing you can do about it!

Now, do I still do cool stuff with my kids? Well, two weeks ago they made a diet coke fountain in my back yard that was followed by a GIGANTIC finger paint fight...which, I must say, wasn't entirely my brightest idea with a 16 month old in toll.. Anyway, the answer.... YES!

 

 

 

Now, tell me..do those little faces look bored? =) When you wonder where my stories have gone... it's because I'm busy living them. I've still got secrets to share, and things to try...but all things in good time.

Should you see fit to stay, I promise, you won't be disappointed. If there's one thing that I love, it's living out loud. Reaching out in places that don't get much attention. So, here's to finding cool things to sneak smiles out of our children and make our mother-in-laws shake their heads and assume we're crazy! =) 

Good night to you all, blessings and love as your weekend begins!

xoxoxox,

Audrie 







Have a little faith

Tonight I felt a tap on my shoulder. I feel like there is someone that will come across this, and have some hurts healed. So, to whoever you are... the message for you tonight is just this.. "There is beauty in brokenness. You just have to have Faith."

 Leaving the "Early twenties" phase of life has left me with a few pearls of wisdom that I'd like to share. I once "broke" my silence, and gave everyone a brief insight to my background. I hid for many years behind a front. The kind of front that makes you forget who you really are because you are trying so hard not to let anyone see you weak. Man, I was so broken. I went to extremes in life that I never though I'd touch with a 10 foot pole. Through that brokenness, and bitter confusion... and hurt.. when I actually let my walls come down, I found something magnificent...my life. The one that had been waiting, patiently for me. 

One of the first an most important things I have learned in my life...was simply this: Have Faith, in all things, at all times, and when it gets rough, have relentless faith. And pray...about everything.

The thing about Faith is, you never know it, until you've lived it. I don't really think a person understands Faith, until they have been through a situation where Faith is all they had. A place where you fall on your knees and bitterly weep, and ask God to lead you, because the path is so dark, cold, and long...you fall in the middle of that path, totally unable to carry on...then all of the sudden a little warmth hits your skin. Just enough to revive your weary heart long enough to realize that you've made it through the fog, and are safely on the other side. You can't figure out how you got there, you don't remember getting up... but you're there. There's sunshine and birds singing... You survived. That is the kind of Faith I'm talking about. The kind that crumbles mountains instead of moving them, the kind that finds you after the storm.

Everyone is going to go through storms. We are going to loose people we love, make bad decisions, fail, cheat, have people be cruel to us. We were never promised that life would be perfect or fair. However, there is silver lining in the grey cloud... God promises us that there will be a time that he will restore the things that are taken from us. If you can make it through your storm, even though your weary, and weak...He promises that he is going to make good on those trials. He's going to give back those years. He doesn't tell us when he is going to give them.. but he promises. If your still in a place where it's cold and dark...then your still in the storm.

You can't expect to be lead through the fog if your still holding on for dear life to a tree root. In other words, You have to let go of whatever it is that is tying you down. We like to think that we are the master's of our emotions, but the reality is.... They own us. Emotions like fear, hurt, doubt, sorrow... enslave you. As hard as it is to let this stuff go... Do you really think that your family member in Heaven is hurting? If we are to believe that God restores their body and soul, is it fair to think that he doesn't restore their hearts too? Of course not! They have seen Heaven!

When I think of that.. I think of my Granny. I can picture her in Heaven... walking the streets...having a cup of tender coffee with the Angel's at God's kitchen table...Looking down over us and saying.. "Hey, when you're done being a mess. There's coffee up here." When I think of that, I can see her smiling face, hear her laugh... smell dew kisses.. I can see the beauty. She gives me hope that there is such a place. I can almost feel the air, and grass. I know that once I make it through this storm, I'll be ok. I know that I will survive, and I know that the world hasn't ended. 

I think sometimes, we just get too caught up in what is flying all around us. When our storms hit, any and everything that is hurtful and painful, are thrown up in the dust cloud. Just to do that, cloud the bigger picture.  Picture yourself in a tornado, right in the middle. If you allow yourself to be grounded in the middle, all you will see is the stuff that is thrown up around you. On the outside of that twister, there is still green grass on the ground, there is still a blue sky, there is still sunshine. If you don't cut your ties, and let the wind fling you out of that black hole your in, and let it take you somewhere new....you will be left with nothing but destruction. 

So, my thought, and my dare for you... is simply, just this. Cut your ties. Let faith have a chance to get you through. Reach your arms out, close your eyes, and walk. This world is going to do it's best to blind you. If you will close your eyes, and open your heart... I promise you, you will be able to weather the storm, and after every storm, there is always a stillness. Perhaps, it's in that stillness,that you will find that these storms are just what you needed to find your glimpse of faith.