Beauty for Ashes

My priority is to connect with God. Even when I don't read my Bible once throughout my entire vacation, God still likes to drop me a line here and there. So here is what God taught me on the beach.

I was sitting in the sand with the waves splashing over my feet and I was grabbing handfuls of sand and letting it wash away. Then this seashell literally flew into my hand as the waves washed back. It was a normal shape and a normal color but it had one large and one small cut on it's surface and through the opening was a pinky purple color. I had been talking to God about a situation that had really hurt my heart...on vacation, it was my chance to get away from it all and I really hoped to finally be healed. I just want to be done with it and not have to think about it every day. What I felt like God spoke to me was that I should be thankful that my heart was cut. It's through the cutting that the true beauty can be revealed. Each cut I receive feels so painful but it's making me more beautiful. For the most part, I am normal on the outside- normal shape, normal color- but my cuts are different than anyone else's- different shape, different color. The color people see in your cuts is beautiful too, but not the same as my pinky purple. We are each beautiful because we've all been cut open differently- different directions, different depths- and to reveal a different beauty. Our cuts hurts the same hurt and drip the same blood but God continually gives us beauty for ashes.

...to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment
of praise for the spirit of heaviness... Isaiah 61:3

Then when I turned the seashell over, I noticed that the pinky purple covered the inside. The beauty was there all along. Somebody just had to cut it out...

If it was God's will to bruise His own Son, why shouldn't He bruise me?

If God can accomplish His purposes in this world through a broken heart, then why not thank Him for breaking yours? -Oswald Chambers

So once I found this shell, of course I had to keep it- you know, for sentimental purposes. So what else to do with it so that I wouldn't lose it? I did what any other resourceful girl would do- stuck it down my bathing suit top!

=)

Relentliss

The purpose of this blog is selfish. I want to be able to look back and see the way that God was moving and speaking in my day-to-day life. I want to see what He did for me, how He blessed me, where He unexpectedly showed up, when He changed me, and why I love Him. I want to watch myself grow up.

Relentless has a personal meaning for me - I want to be relentless in pursuing God. No matter what that means, no matter what my circumstances are, no matter what it costs, I hope that Jesus can describe me as relentless for Him. As a very wise Jonathan once told me, "Carrying the mantle is not cheap or easy. But it's worth it."

Yes, I know that I have spelled it relent'liss' but that's because Liss is my nickname. Coincidence? I think not.

Also this represents a song from Misty Edward's CD Relentless.

You Won't Relent

You won't relent until you have it all

My heart is yours

I'll set you as a seal, upon my heart
As a seal upon my arm

For there is love, that is as strong as death

Jealousy demanding as the grave

And many waters, cannot quench this love

Come be the fire inside of me,

Come be the flame upon my heart,

Come be the fire inside of me,

Until you and I are one

P.S. Fantastic CD.