I came across this scripture in my reading yesterday.  Wow, what a promise!

Do you ever have days when you feel as if the life has been sucked right out of you?  I do.

God never promised that we wouldn’t have hard times.  But He does promise that He will be with us through it all.

I have to admit that it’s hard to keep my head above water some days, when it all comes crashing down. Sometimes I feel like a failure as I focus way too much on my circumstances, wondering where God is in the middle of it all.  But He’s right there, beside me, in the thick of it.  He’s never left me.  And He never will.

God promises to give us abundant life.  And when you feel as if you’ve had the life sucked right out of you, He promises that He will restore you to life, and lift you up once again.

Hang in there friend.  It will get better.  I promise!

Now it’s your turn to share encouragement here at The Weekend Brew.
1.  Share a post, photo, scripture — anything that breathes life and encourages.  (Please only link one post.  Multiple posts from the same site will be deleted.)
2.  Grab the button to use in your post, or simply link here.
3.  Visit the person who linked up before you (and a few others if you have time).

The post The Weekend Brew: He Restores Me To Life appeared first on My Freshly Brewed Life.

Song

That’s right, my friends. YOU are a song!  It doesn’t matter if you feel like you can’t sing.  It’s not about making a melody or harmony, with perfect pitch.  But it’s about allowing yourself to be the YOU that God created YOU to be.

No one else has what you got, sister friend!  You are a song, birthed in the heart of God.  He has given you a voice, beautiful to His ear, and one that resounds as a crescendo up to heaven, one that desires to be heard, to bring glory and honor to His name.

{Oh, I can hear you humming along now!}

Only YOU can sing the song that God put in YOU!  Open your mouth, dear one.  Open your heart, beloved one.  Open your soul and spirit and breathe in deep and allow that heavenly sound to arise.

He’s waiting for you to sing, my friend.  YOU are a song, created in the heart of God, to be sung for all the world to hear!

The post You Are A Song! {Five Minute Friday} appeared first on My Freshly Brewed Life.

I’ve been putting this post off for a while.  You see, I wanted to be so much farther ahead in walking out this part of my One Word journey — to simply love, to simply live and to simply give.

To simply live, “breathing in fresh air and smelling the fragrance of each new day.  I want to see God in the simple things in life.”

The truth is, I am so far from where I want to be.  It would have been easier for me to skip down to the third part – to simply give.  I am making strides in that area, or so I believe.  But after wrestling with the Lord and giving Him all of my excuses as to why you wouldn’t want to read a post where one admits failure in an area, He gently reminded me that I promised to be real here.  So folks, I will give you the real part of this journey, as frustrating as it is.

I set my expectations high.  I wanted to come here and tell you about how God was messing with my priorities, how my home and my heart have become uncluttered, how I have gotten rid of things and how I was soaking up the sunshine and leaning into the whispers of heaven every time I stepped foot outside my door. But the reality is this pull to live simply is just plain hard.  At least it seems that way, and perhaps it’s because I am the one who complicates it by choosing not to look past the chaos that I can see in front of me.

My life is just as busy as it was at the beginning of the year.  We are faced with many of the same situations as a family and I am still trying to juggle a million things with just two hands.  Even though I cannot yet see the manifestation of a life lived simply, I choose to believe that God is doing a work, in both my heart and my home.  And this is where I wanted to give you my “10 tips to living simply”, but it’s just not happening.

I think I’m okay with admitting that I haven’t yet figured this out.  Sometimes life is just complicated, messy, ugly and better off stuffed into the back of a closet somewhere.  But this is my reality.  As I strive to stay in a place of rest while God reorders my priorities and shows me how to rid my life of the clutter and chaos, I pray that He will lead me down the path of living simply, whatever that may look like.

*Linking up with Melanie today for her One Word check in link up.

The post To Live Simply: One Word Check In appeared first on My Freshly Brewed Life.

It’s hard to see the beauty in our lives sometimes.

And even harder yet to see the beauty that resides inside each one of us.

As Mother’s Day approaches, I’ve been reflecting on my own heart as a mom.

All I can see are my shortcomings and failures, words too quickly spoken, the grace I did not offer.

I want so much to always offer hope, encouragement, grace and patience to my children.

Yet I fall short.  Often.  Daily. Every moment.

Life becomes mundane, mediocre and my focus becomes fixed on the less-then-perfect, the ugly.

In the dust of motherhood and all that it entails,
will you believe with me that there is beauty?

When chaos and distraction surround you,
will you believe with me that there are moments of beauty?

When ugly and imperfection stare you in the face,
will you believe with me that you and all that you are speak of beauty?

He makes beautiful things, He makes beautiful things out of the dust.  He makes beautiful things out of us.

Let’s purpose together to walk this journey in pursuit of beauty.  We may not always see it, but He promises that if we seek it out, we will find it.

All around, hope is springing up from this old ground.  Out of chaos life is being found in You.

I want to share this video with you. It’s called “You Make Beautiful Things Out of The Dust“ by Gungor.  Please listen, and soak up every word!

Now it’s your turn to share encouragement here at The Weekend Brew.
1.  Share a post, photo, scripture — anything that breathes life and encourages.  (Please only link one post.  Multiple posts from the same site will be deleted.)
2.  Grab the button to use in your post, or simply link here.
3.  Visit the person who linked up before you (and a few others if you have time).

The post The Weekend Brew: He Makes Beautiful Things appeared first on My Freshly Brewed Life.