Today was the first day in the last few weeks that I’ve been able to rest, sleep in and breathe! Whew! Between shooting three weddings, designing and building a few albums, losing my grandfather AND starting a big contest, I’m just plain tired. It’s been tough keeping up with everything!

I’m so thankful for the busyness of the last few weeks and I’m excited to share the two weddings I just shot AND share the albums I’m designing for my clients! I’m so thankful for how different this year has been than last.

For my dear family who is grieving, for any of you grieving or going through a tough time, I wanted to share this great entry from my devotional:

“Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. (2 Corinthians 6:10)

A stoic person despises the shedding of tears, but a Christian is not forbidden to weep. Yet the soul may become silent from excessive grief, just as the quivering sheep may remain quiet beneath the scissors of the shearer. Or, when the heart is at the verge of breaking beneath the waves of a trial, the sufferer may seek relief by crying out with a loud voice. But there is something even better.

(*** see my note at the bottom!!)

Forty years was a long time to wait in preparation for a great mission. Yet when God delays, He is not inactive. This is when He prepares His instruments and matures our strength. Then at the appointed time we will rise up and be equip to our task. Even Jesus of Nazareth had thirty years of privacy, growing in wisdom before He began His work. John Henry Jowett

God is never in a hurry. He spends years preparing those He plans to greatly use, and never thinks of the days of preparation as being too long or boring.

The most difficult ingredient of suffering is often time. A short, sharp pain is easily endured, but when a sorrow drags on its long and weary way year after monotonous year, returning day after day with the same dull routine of hopeless agony, the heart loses its strength. Without the grace of God, the heart is sure to sink into dismal despair.

Joseph endured a long trial, and God often has to burn the lessons he learned into the depths of our being, using the fires of prolonged pain. ‘He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver’ (Mal. 3:3), yet He knows the specific amount of time that will be needed. Like a true goldsmith, God stops the fire the moment He sees His image in the glowing metal.

Today we may be unable to see the final outcome of the beautiful plan that God has hidden ‘in the shadow of his hand’ (Isa. 49:2). It may be concealed for a very long time, but our faith may rest in the assurance that God is still seated on His throne. Because of this assurance, we can calmly await the time when, in heavenly delight, we will say, “All things [have] work[ed] together for good” (Rom. 8:28 KJV).

As Joseph did, we should be more careful to focus on learning all the lessons in the school of sorrow than to focus anxious eyes toward the time of our deliverance. There is a reason behind every lessons, and when we are ready, our deliverance will definitely come. Then we will know we could never have served in our place of higher service without having been taught the very things we learned during our ordeal. God is in the process of educating us for future service and greater blessings. And if we have gained the qualities that make us ready for a throne, nothing will keep us from it once His timing is right.

Don’t steal tomorrow from God’s hands. Give Him time to speak to you and reveal His will. He is never late – learn to wait.

He never shows up late; he knows just what is best;
Fret not yourself in vain; until He comes just REST.

Never run impulsively ahead of the Lord. Learn to await His timing – the second, minute, and hour hand must all point to the precise moment for action.”

Streams in the Desert, March 20 AND March 22

Ok, so I typed up all that and realized when I was done that I turned too many pages! But I think they mix together very well!