Excerpt from Stasi Eldredge's new book, Becoming Myself, Embracing God's Dream of You.
"The story that I have lived with - make that live with have helped to shape me into the woman I am today and the woman I am becoming. My scars, my struggles, my failures, my joys, my private lonely agonies have been forging my soul into something beautiful. Eternal. Good. Yours have too.
Now, we can fight that process - or we can yield to it. My dear mother had her rough edges, you have yours; I have mine. We can choose to let suffering soften us or harden us. We can choose whether we will allow it to make us more compassionate or let our hearts become jealous of others. We can choose whether we will love Jesus in it or resent him for it. Only one set of choices will make us more beautiful.
The pain we experience, the sorrow and the agony, serve a purpose. God is working all things together for our good. He is etching a masterpiece of stunning design. The beauty being forge in us through the transforming work of suffering is one that will leave us breathless, stunned, and forever thankful. And the crowning glory will be that because of the pain we have endured, we have come to know Jesus in a way that causes us to treasure the trial as one of God's greatest gifts to us. Amazing."
Words that spoke straight to my heart.
I have known women who chose to let life's circumstances make them more beautiful and women who chose to let life's circumstances make them hard and bitter.
5 comments:
Your second page made me laugh out loud. :) I don't want to be a crusty old woman either and I am constantly working on forgiveness and acceptance so I won't be.
You're one of the least
crusty women I know, Mary:)
Softness....you exude it.
-Jennifer
I don't want to be a crusty old woman either! I'm just coming out of a hard church experience and trying to sort through it all. It's good to remember, if I don't want to be a crusty old woman I better not be a crusty middle aged one. :P
Oh me either Mary! I'd much rather be a kind of goofy but fun old woman who forgets her age, and who lets things roll off of her that could discourage. And of course a woman like you who encourages so many others with sharing from her heart like she does so that others can heal too.
What a beautiful journal page. It really spoke so much truth to me.
♥Lee Ann
Mary, It's been awhile since I've left a comment on your blog. I love your pages and transparency! Thank you. I am laughing and echoing the sentiment in this one as "I don't want to be a crusty old woman" either. :)
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