It's spring...that beautiful time of year that so many look forward to! They look forward to leaves budding, plants coming up, warmer days, and flowers blooming. Those who know me know that this is not my favorite season because I love the coziness of fall and winter nights, the colorful beauty of a cool, crisp fall day, the clean white snow on a cold winter day.... and I LOVE snow!! I know, I'm not normal, but that's me, never have been, never will... or should I say never want to be!! :) I have to admit, though, that I do love to plant flowers and see them come up and I do love to see the beautiful butterflies when they finally show themselves. But just a day or so ago as I thought about this beauty of trees, flowers, and butterflies, I couldn't help but think about the struggles that happen during spring time in order to see this beauty. This was a pretty wild, wonderful (for me) winter with FEET of snow. Many of those plants were under all those feet in total darkness with the weight of all that snow on them. Even when the snow finally melted all away they were still under the hard packed soil. Those plants and flowers have to struggle to push up through the hard ground, even the leaves struggle to push open on the trees. We all know and have heard and maybe have seen the struggle of the most beautiful insect-the butterfly. What a tough time it has breaking out of that chrysalis! And I'm sure we have heard the story of the man who felt so bad for the struggling butterfly that he tried to help it out of the chrysalis. This only ended up killing the butterfly, not because he was too harsh or anything, but because the only way the butterfly can be strong enough to survive is because of that struggle that it has to go through. Because it wasn't able to go through that struggle it wasn't strong enough to survive. What reward we see when those struggles are through...there is such beauty- TRUE BEAUTY! We couldn't see it or even imagine it during the tough, cold winter months, but that beauty was there just waiting to show itself in the spring! I keep thinking about this spring...so many people I know right now are going through struggles, frustrations, and strife. Physical/health needs, family stresses, deaths, financial struggles, stress of seeing family or friends struggling or hurting, work problems, so many things have reared up this spring. It's almost like those feet of snow that weighed so heavily on the earth... many things are weighing heavily on many hearts. Though it doesn't seem possible that there could be any good that could come from these struggles, frustrations, and strife, we need to push up through those things trying to hold us back or hold us down, and break through to see the beauty that God is trying to show us. My friend, Sharan, gave me the book Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapman. I am reading, and thoroughly enjoying this book! It shares what she has learned through the struggle of dealing with the loss of one of her daughters who was accidentally killed by one of her sons. One part of the book talks about how God is an artist with a painting, and when we are really close to it, it's too hard to see the beauty of it, but if we back away from it, we can finally see it come into focus and see how beautiful the painting actually is. God makes beautiful things from our struggles if we let Him. The other part is just the title of the book. Mary Beth Chapman often talks about the fact that through the struggles and sadness she was going through, she needed to "choose to SEE". To "SEE" what God was going to do in her family through this tragedy. And as a friend shared with me recently, it's about "choosing to SEE" the good! That's not always so easy, though. God wants us to be beautiful for Him, and He allows things to happen in our lives that we may not like or understand. Things that may not seem fair or fun to deal with, but if we don't allow Satan to allow these things to weigh us down and steal our joy, God can use them to make us that picture of beauty that He wants us to be, but also that others can enjoy and take delight in. He has a purpose and a plan for everything that happens in our lives, even the bad, sad, or what we would think of as unfair things. But before we say to ourselves how unfair something is, or tell family or friends how unfair something is, or even tell God how unfair something is-stop for just a minute and ask, was it fair for a perfect, sinless Lord to go to the cross for our multitudes of sins, which includes complaining about what is unfair? Was it fair for Mary to have to see her precious Son treated in such an awful way, being beaten and bruised for us, but also for so many that would not ever believe on Him? Through that struggle of the cross comes the joy and beauty of salvation and eternal life. What beautiful things is God trying to show us through our struggles if we would only keep our hearts and minds open and "choosing to SEE" the good? Lord, I need to be reminded of this often! Help me to "choose to See" the beauty that you are trying to create in me through my struggles. Help me try not to complain, or choose to see the negative, but to look beyond the struggle, frustration, and strife for the beauty. I won't be able to do that without your help, so please help me. Help me to try to be a blessing to others, pointing them to your beauty and the beauty that you want to create in me, and most of all help me to "choose to SEE" your goodness!
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