Your Beautiful Story

It didn’t feel very beautiful. It just felt like a lot of fighting and a lot of struggle–a giving up and a giving over. The cycle was monotonous and so was God’s grace–never ending, always overflowing. And day-by-day I was living it. Over and over.

I’d gotten rather used to the miraculous power of grace, the gift of full & present peace, the falling & (in God alone) rising again. So, after I opened up my heart once again…I waited for her reply. And do you want to know her first sentence? These were her lovely first words I read as I opened up the email—

“Wow…Sierra, what a beautiful story you are living right now.”

Up until I read those words, I didn’t know what to share with you. I had no idea what to write, how to encourage, the things I should share…but then I read those words.

And they stuck in my heart.

As the day went by, I began to realize just how right her words were, and how easily I lived forgetting about beautiful. I am such a careless heart living with a redeemed soul. I forget how it is God that carries me through the day, lifts me up, holds me close, forgives my sin, and comforts me in life weariness.

I don’t make this story beautiful, but God certainly does. Every single day, He covers me in grace, offers me hope, gives me strength to fight hard, and helps me find rest in the battle. I can talk about my never-ending struggles, the new heart battles waging war, the old ones rising up and totally forget to remember how God, because of grace & fullness of love, is making this story beautiful for His glory. Not mine.

I am living a beautiful story, because I am redeemed.  I am living a beautiful story, because of God’s love. I am living a beautiful story, as a result of God’s grace! It’s a beautiful story, because God makes it so even when I make it a mess.

Her email continued as she shared her heart. When I go back to read it, do you know what I see?

A beautiful story, because of God

Both of us living separate lives, in separate places, struggling with separate things united in the beauty that God makes. He is a great God and He can transform these old & tired hearts to be beautiful vessels of His glory and praise. It is not beautiful in neat little squares. He will make beautiful how He sees fit. And His way is always best.

So wherever you are, with an old & tired heart, your story is beautiful. It is because God makes it so. His love covers you, His grace blankets you, and His strength is with you in battle. You do not make your story beautiful, but God does. Don’t rebel against what He has for you, draw near to God within your tangled story and you will know unimaginable beauty.

Because God is the Great I Am and He is not making your life old & tired. You have a redeemed soul… so remind your tired heart of that. And remind that small, fighting heart that God makes new. He makes beauty…and He often does it in unexpected ways that we don’t understand.

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previously: 

You Have Permission to Be Brave

I Sat Broken on a Piano Bench

Married or Not