Simple and Surrendered...: No Matter What...

Our day is being spent in the craft room with Mal intently focusing on school work & MaKayla intently focusing on sewing projects. Thankfully, today is unfolding much smoother & more peacefully than yesterday. Putting it mildly, Tuesday was a roller-coaster, frustrating & difficult day for MaKayla. Until... She was able to spend a few hours at Jon & Jane's caring for baby bullies & loving on their momma's. Once she settled into her "element" of the bully world (the canine kind), the nerves & frustration of a sewing machine that wouldn't stitch properly, melted away. ♥

She crawled in kennels...
She cleaned...
She did laundry...

She talked to puppies...
And put their momma's on her lap...
She straightened (making sure everything was positioned at right angles)...

She fell in love with at least one...
A little bully girl...
White with brindle...

One that she helped deliver...
And stimulate to life...
One that isn't spoken for...
Yet. ♥

Yes, I wish I had had the camera...
But surprisingly, I didn't.

Mal corralled the babies on the floor as MaKayla cleaned & scrubbed.
It's always a delight to watch them enjoy this blessing of "employment".
Lots of work...
But so much fun.
With the bonus of such special friends who affirm & encourage our girls.
It all equals out. ♥
And we end up getting the better end of the deal. ♥

As I watched MaKayla allow the stress of the incorrectly stitching sewing machine wreak havoc on her day, I couldn't help but admit that she had learned such behavior from me. Her mom. The one she has watched & observed & patterned her coping mechanisms from for nineteen plus years.

A humbling realization...
Coupled with heartbreak & sorrow...

But then I was reminded of a Scripture I read out of John earlier this week...

In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.

The light that shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

~John 1:4-5

How many times has that Life that lives within me...
That Life of light...

How many times has He tried to outshine the darkness that dwells within my life...

Those situations that I allow to cast a dark cloud rather than a ray of sunshine...
Frustration...
Irritation...
Not-go-as-planned circumstances...

Crunched for time...
Too many things to get done...
Something that won't work right...

Yet I would have nothing to do with it.

I insisted on my own coping mechanisms and...
Gave way to anger...
Emotional outbreak...
Impatience...

Or that the Life of light was attempting to radiate...

Attempting to push out the darkness...

Those difficult, can't figure it out moments that...
I defaulted to dealing with the difficulty in the ways of the world.

But I did not understand it.

Or chose not to.

He is the Light...
And He is always shining...

But all-too-often I decide rebellion...
Or ignorance...

Thankfully my rebellion & ignorance could never nullify the promise, fact & truth that the light of His life will remain bright. That is unchangeable.

But with that rebellion & ignorance comes consequences...

It effects those I love most...
It prevents the light of His life from radiating through me...
It steals my joy...
And robs my happiness.

It fills my heart with despair...
And guides me down dead-end roads.

It inhibits me from being a witness for Christ...
And diverts the glory from the One who deserves it.

It digs my pit deeper...
And my trench wider.

It gives the enemy a victory.

This week has been one where God is allowing me to see things from a different perspective like never before.

He's challenging me to choose JOY...
No matter what.

For darkness & rebellion & ignorance will never produce fruit that points to God.
Never.

If I desire to make much of Him as I say I do, I must allow the Light to shine...
I must choose JOY.

Even if I don't feel like it...
Even if I don't want to...

I can't change what our girls have learned from me in the past, but I can establish a new standard.

Today...
I choose to allow the Light to shine...no matter what.
I choose JOY.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

On this Wednesday, my heart is thankful...

For fun craft projects created...♥

For waking to laundry neatly folded & stacked that I forced myself to do yesterday afternoon/evening (yes, I am very particular about my laundry...)...