Beautiful in Your Heart

Tonight Hazel and I sat staring in a koi pond as I waited on my take-out order. She was giggling and pointing and loving the turtles and fish that were moving around below. The turtles came to the surface every now and then, and she asked why the fish never did. I was explaining how God made every animal with different needs and purposes. Fish to live underwater because the air would in fact hurt them, and the turtles with the ability to swim underwater for a time, but needing to come up for air to breathe every now and then. I went on to tell her that if they didn't stay where God made them to be, they wouldn't survive. And I realized it was such a teachable moment... for me . Today I got a "no" on a situation that has, to this point, been a "maybe," and I was hoping might be a "yes." If I'm honest, I felt disappointment and might have shed a few tears. But so clearly I felt the Lord saying, as He has been for the past few months, "I...

It's funny what we treasure in this world. All of the things our hands will hold. All of the things that pass through them. And all of the things we long for that are just out of reach. Or maybe it's not funny at all. It convicts me so deeply to see what I value most some days. We all know that people and relationships and love matter more than material things. If we were asked to make a list of what we are most thankful for, I can't imagine anyone who would list stuff above their family or friends. But do we live that out? I recently came across this verse and it struck my heart: "We all come to the end of our lives as naked and empty-handed as on the day we were born. We can't take our riches with us." Ecclesiastes 5:15 And y'all, I couldn't get off of that word empty-handed . It's true that we all came into this world empty-handed. And it's true that we can't take anything in physical form with us when we die. But what a...