2017

Hurting Alone vs Healing Together

We cannot have empathy and connection until we first arrive at a place of vulnerability and grace. So here we are, unraveling the complexity of people and the brokenness behind loneliness until we arrive at the place where grace binds us all together.

I had spent some time reading through past journals that were scribbled in through times of deep loneliness in my life. However, it was one sentence that explained the depth of it in such an honest, yet heartbreaking way that made me wonder if there were not hundreds of others out there struggling with the very same thing. I have read statistics that college age people suffer from loneliness more than any other, but I have noticed that we also suffer from the lack of vulnerability that would ever bring us to that conclusion. This statistic does not devalue any other age group that would possibly suffer from loneliness as well. But, my heart broke for these people, from the sadness embedded in the words I had once written, and from the lack of hope loneliness had entailed in my life.

Across a tear-stained page was written, “I’ve made a friend with loneliness and it has become a better friend than I have ever known”

I have been through some depths of loneliness that were rooted in lack of faith and partially rooted in deep hurt, and yet it was that same loneliness that deepened my faith in unexplainable ways.

I have learned two things that counter loneliness. The first is that people have the potential to be extremely complicated and conflicting which often results in a complete withdraw. The second is that relationships are often far more complex than not which results in the fear of rejection or ever initiating one to begin with.

Due to the two combined we have allowed the enemy to convince us that loneliness is better than the destructive effect from either or. On spiritual and scientific terms. My heart broke as I read the statistics and realized how my generation has allowed a major decrease in spirituality through the effect of loneliness. Scientists may not have released this knowledge for the sake of spirituality, but we can still see that our lack of spirituality is being proven through this science. Everything we lack leads back to a lack of God in our lives. Statistics show:

“More recent data show that one in five millennials have no friends at all. And a survey released in 2020 found that 71 percent of millennials and almost 79 percent of Gen Z respondents report feeling lonely—a significantly greater proportion than other generations.”

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-young-americans-are-lonely/

“Loneliness and isolation can lead to a wide range of negative health consequences including:²

Cardiovascular disease
Depression
Substance misuse
Stress
Suicide”

https://www.verywellmind.com/intimacy-versus-isolation-2795739

Whether we realize it or not, loneliness has a major negative effect on us spiritually, physically, and emotionally.

“It is better than the pain people could potentially inflict on us.
It is better than enduring another heartbreak.
It is better than the backlash and backstabbing.
It is better than the mock-ups and those who once masked themselves as friends.”

We allow the negative effect of loneliness to become our internal purpose. We allow ourselves to live our lives with this concrete mindset that loneliness is a safety net. Our hearts, though grieving, are guarded by the stronghold of seclusion. There is unexplainable sorrow that hides within the atmosphere; though sadness embeds our hearts, we have synchronized the meaning of security and sorrow to play their roles in such a way that one could not coexist without the other. Loneliness has converted itself from being a feeling to being a friend. Within the seclusion lies safety and security in which has never been experienced outside of the sorrow loneliness offers.

It’s better. We have convinced ourselves of this. The familiarity shifted within those two words have been implemented in partial bitterness, but in even more personal heartache than anything else. And I know you feel it, too.

What breaks my heart the most is that somewhere along the line, out of all of the self-inflicted sorrow, we have allowed the enemy to convince us of this:

Hurting alone is far better than to be hurt by another.

So we endure loneliness. Because it is better. Or because it is familiar. We have grown to enjoy the taste of familiarity when there is nothing else to grasp on too.

But it is not better; not when it takes a toll on your life completely.

Not when it negatively affects you and the people who are relying on you to be the person God has so distinctively created you to be.

It is better, until…

The sweet taste of friendship touches the corners of your life, and you realize the depth of your loneliness is nothing but self-inflicted pain.
That God did not create each individual to be isolated, but rather to be united.
That isolation is the very thing that suffocates every good thing from your life.
And that maybe there is more beyond our hurt, grief, and pain that could become the transformation towards the healing, grace, and purpose we so desperately need in our lives.

People are broken, and there is always a risk in loving, but that is exactly what grace is for.

Did God not take a risk when He sent His son to die on the cross knowing that we would not all accept His gracious gift of Salvation?

Maybe, our lives, though broken and shattered in many ways, were meant to be tied together by Grace all along.

Loneliness is not better, but maybe it has taught us how to better ourselves along the way; how to show up with grace in the intensity of complex relationships and worn-down friendships.

At the end of the day, life was never meant to be lived hurting alone; when we could be healing together.

Love and blessings,

Moriah Grace

Forgiven to be Forgiving.

An unforgiving spirit will only hold you hostage of your past and minimize every good thing that is present now.

Have you ever silently prided yourself on loving people as they are, never to hold a grudge, or even past events against those who have wronged or harmed you only to find out that it all sounds good until really complicated expectations of forgiveness are required in order to do the right thing or to be the bigger person?

I have often equated forgiveness with approval, and I have even falsely forgiven people only to receive favor in return, but all I have gained from doing so is stored up bitter feelings buried in the corners of my heart that I never knew existed.

I recently was inspired to write out past events & buried memories on a 3×5 card that I thought had been long forgiven, but they still somehow triggered bitter emotions and feelings that I never quite felt like dealing with. Hard feelings are hard to deal with, but if they are never dealt with then they only make navigating through this life harder in the long run.

I began writing out every incident I thought I had left behind, completely forgiven, until I had a pile of 3×5 cards laying out in front of me only to recognize how many seemingly unforgivable memories had been replaced with bitterness rather than forgiveness. I then grabbed a red pen, to cross out each of those jarred memories and mishaps in my life, knowing that Jesus’ blood has covered every one of my mistakes so why could it not cover those who have done me wrong as well? Forgiveness truly offers us freedom from our pasts, but also the freedom to live our present lives without bitter feelings resurfacing whenever a past memory is evoked. We’re forgiven to be forgiving.

I can now say that I am thankful God has forgiven me, because it allows me the opportunity to also forgive others— forgiveness does not equate to favor, but rather allows us to live our lives in the freedom that God offers us every single day!

Love & Blessings,

Moriah grace

Actually, I’m Not Enough.

I’ve learned that self-confidence has much to do with taking self out of the equation entirely in order to implement the kind of confidence that can only come from Christ.

The less we focus on self, and the more we focus on God & people the better we are at living out the life God has called us to live. Because life is not always about us, and because there is more to life than us. A hard truth to swallow- I know. I’m swallowing it, too. But if you can’t get through that one then might as well stop reading before you get any further.

I keep asking myself, “How could one feel whole in a world that’s placed a hole in them?”

Society has coddled us to believe that we’re okay just as we are, it has provided a hypothetical grace-movement, and to make us feel even better about ourselves they fool us into believing that our faults and failures are just a part of who we are. I mean, that’s how God made us. It sounds super good, and I wish I could believe it. But what about in the Bible where it says that God made us in His image? He did not create us to live in sin. “But what about the sin that has wrecked our lives ever since everything in the Garden took place?”, you may ask. God made us in His perfect image, and sin did separate us from that, but that doesn’t provide an excuse for us to live in sin.

And although God made a way for us to be forgiven and loved and whole; He did not do it because He tolerates our sinful condition. He did it because He loves us. And when people ask me what I think about love that’s the kind of Love I want to tell them of. The kind of Love that while loving us at our lowest, continues to lead us towards a higher calling.

God went to the cross and died for us, and then goes on to tell us to deny ourselves and pick up our cross to follow Him. And that’s why I can’t bring myself to believe in so many instagrammers captions and blogs that I read. It’s not because I don’t love the people behind them. I cheer many of them on, and I love that they have a desire to live for Jesus. I really do. But what I can’t do is bring myself to believe a message that contradicts God’s Word. And anything that makes me feel good about myself in order for me to remain comfortable with where I’m at in my christianity is not something I desire- Because I’ve learned that living a life that honors Christ is not about being comfortable.

God did not create us to live in sin, but because of sin and everything that took place so many years ago we do have the temptation to sin, and we always will. That’s where grace comes in, but grace does not equate to living a comfortable life; it leads us to living an uncomfortable one.

I cannot bring myself to agree with the status quo that invites us to settle for living a life that does not honor Christ. And I refuse to use it as an excuse to do so myself, because although I fail so many times and I’m so very far from where I should be in my walk with Jesus I still desire to live a life that brings glory to His name and not my own.

The longer I live for Him the more I realize that to be whole I have to spend time with the Holy One- which goes beyond the surface level of any instagram post or caption.

A real relationship with Jesus cannot be surface level; it has to be intimate and real in order for it to make a difference in your life.

And I know too many of us believe we are enough just as we are, but I want to go ahead and contradict that false illusion that is given to so many people in society today. We are far from enough, and if we were enough on our own there would be no place for Jesus in our lives. I think that’s what has messed so many of us up- sin has a way of doing that. It puffs us up and makes God small in our eyes when it should be the other way around. I don’t know about you, but my heartbeat is to live every second of my life for the One who gave me Life eternal.

If you’ve gotten this far, then thanks for swallowing some hard truths with me today. God has been moving in my heart a lot over the past few weeks, and I’ve spent much of my time reflecting over this past year. I have so many regrets, and all of them lead back to the moments where I thought I was enough on my own. It breaks me to think that though God has been so good in so many ways I have failed to be my best for Him. So much of it points back to what society is feeding our minds and influencing our actions to live a life that says “I’m enough just as I am.” It does not allow us any room for growth. And if you’ve read this far, then this might be another hard truth to swallow: You’re not enough. And neither am I.

I’ve grown so weary of seeing modern christianity being lived out the way it has been- because anytime we live a life less than what God has called us to live should break us to the point where we would be willing to give up anything for His name’s sake. He has called us to live pure and holy lives, and if that contradicts everything society has told us to believe then that’s okay. Because I’d rather live an uncomfortable life that has no place for settling and conforming to the ways of this world than to live a life that allows me to be comfortable in what society has told me to be true. And I hope that you would, too.

Love and blessings,

Moriah grace

The Truth Behind Seasons of Loneliness

These words are being written from my heart to the one who has/does feel just as empty on the inside as I have felt so many times.

I’ve written on the topic of loneliness many times throughout my life, but I somehow find myself experiencing it all over again.

And the more I come back to these feelings, thoughts, and so-called seasons, the less lonely they feel. I used to think this was because I have experienced these feelings and seasons in my life so many times that some how my heart has become a little calloused to them, but then I began to wonder if maybe God is beginning to show me a little bit of truth behind these seasons that we call lonely in ways that I have never understood before.

God tends to do that. He is so patient with us when we don’t learn things the way we should have the first time. It may seem kind of unlike God, because our mindset is so often on comfort and goodness and love, and when God desires to grow us it’s hard to see any of those things the way He does.

I started teaching this fall. And I’ve learned a few things about God while doing so. When I’m with a student who is struggling to understand the concept of something I explain it and have them repeat it to me. If they still don’t understand, I explain it again or in a different way in order for them to understand it better. I rarely give them the pleasure and ease of simply knowing the answer without understanding the process behind it. Not because I enjoy doing so, but because I desire to see them grow.

I’ve seen this same thing to be true in my relationship with God. He teaches me over and over again, because I don’t fully understand or take the time to understand the lessons He is teaching me the first time. And since He desires to make much of me He takes the time to do so. I so often just want answers. I want to understand. I just want the “why” behind it all without actually having to experience the pain and humility behind the process of learning.

Yet every time I do something happens in my heart because I allow God to happen in my life.

When we allow God to be the Teacher, and when we take the humble position of the student a whole new meaning and understanding behind the heart of God becomes so inevitably clear.

I could give you a list of reasons why my heart should be feeling empty and lonely, but I would rather share why I am not struggling as much as I feel like I should be when every reasonable explanation should be pointed towards the season of life God has me in. It should be one where I accept the pity party life has handed me, but instead it has looked a lot more like accepting the purpose filled passion God has given me

God’s heart is not to suppress our hearts, but rather for our hearts to surrender to His heart.

So as I surrender to sharing these words that have been rooted in my heart for some time now I hope we can discover a little more about how loneliness might be more than a season of discouragement.

I’ve begun to realize that seasons of loneliness aren’t really seasons of loneliness, they are simply seasons. And we’ve given them the title when our lives aren’t quite filled with the people or things we want; the things or people that once gave us past fulfillment or enjoyment.

It is more of a mindset and a state of heart that we coverup as something else in order for the most reasonable explanation for the echoing silence in our lives to distract us from the promises of Jesus and the purpose He has for us during times like these.

So our season may not be lonely, but our hearts may be. And while we may not be able to change our circumstances, we can certainly allow God to change our hearts.

We all know the feeling of loneliness that echoes through our hearts from time to time. But how do we conquer this feeling? Simple.

We let God be God.

And when we give God our lives He fully satisfies and fulfills. All it takes is learning the art of surrendering our desires to God’s desires for us.

God has been changing my mindset & heartbeat behind so many things in life.

One of them being when I find myself in these so-called ‘seasons of loneliness’ it is not because God is trying to place me in a suppressing position, but rather a set apart one.

And it does not make me any better or worse; it simply shifts my mindset to the realization that God does have a purpose for my life when all odds may seem against it.

And when God sets us apart for a set purpose it usually includes the taking away of many things in order for the including of more intentional, well-meaning things in our lives.

And by that, I don’t mean God doesn’t want us to cultivate and grow the friendships or relationships in our lives, but that He wants us to cultivate the right friendships and relationships in our lives in the right time- His time.

He sets us apart in order to use us more fully for His glory, and other times He sets us apart to deepen our relationship with Him in order for every other relationship in our lives to be where they need to be.

So I want to share every reason why God has reminded me during this season that He does not place us in these positions because we are indifferent or unloved or any other unreasonable excuse the enemy may use to fill our minds, but simply because God is working in our lives to enrich and deepen the value of it in ways that could never be done before.

God has been filling my heart with passion for the life right in front of me rather than the one I wish I had, and I’m not sure I can explain it all because I have yet to understand it. Other than the abundance of being in His presence has certainly filled every other area of my life with His abundant goodness.

Because I’ve learned when we surrender our everything to God; everything becomes good, because God is good.

So, I’ll end our heart to heart with this: God desires to give us an abundant life, and sometimes it looks a little funny and we question it over a cup of coffee in a cafe all by ourselves, but I promise there is more to it than the title we place over these kind of seasons in our lives. There is purpose and passion and detailed planning behind the moments we wish were different. And it’s often these “different” moments that make the biggest difference in our lives. Let’s not be so quick to disregard them, but let’s make room for them. They may seem a little uncomfortable in the beginning, but then again, that’s where every good thing begins. When we take our discomfort to the One who can give comfort. When we become a little less dependent upon everything, and a little more dependent upon the God of everything. When God becomes our everything.

Love and Blessings,

Moriah grace

The Heart of Surrender

Surrender is so sweet, but when it comes to surrendering those things in our lives that we hold a little too closely it suddenly seems more like a burden than a blessing. And that is when our perspective of surrender is so misplaced. It always brings me back to the love of Jesus and I have to ask myself, “How much do I love the One who gave His life so I could have Life in me?”

I follow it with, “Do I hold the things of this world more closely than I do the One who holds the world?”

When I feel like He is asking too much and I don’t really understand the whole concept of giving He takes me back to the greatest Gift ever given- and when He takes me back to that moment in time- I then feel as if I could sacrifice my world for the One who gave His life for the world.

He doesn’t ask us to sacrifice as much as He did when He gave His Son, but He does ask us to surrender our lives so He can give us abundant life.

Sometimes our surrendering requires the kind of sacrifice that means giving up those things that block our hearts from giving- He asks us to make a hole for Him, so He can make us whole.

I’ve noticed a pattern in the surrendering of ourselves & it always leads back to sacred moments with our Saviour- just like that sacred moment back in the history of time that changed the history of the world- And when we look towards the Cross we see how Close we can be to Him. I wonder if our willingness to give is more dependent upon our love for Him than His love for us- we know His is always sure & steadfast- so when we replace our misplaced perception of surrender with the idea that it is more about becoming closer to Him we can then simultaneously give more to Him.

And I believe, that is the very heart of surrender.

Love & Blessings,

Moriah grace

The devils doubts can’t outweigh God’s promises.

The devil is so cruel. And we often are so blinded by the crafty ways he works and moves in our lives.

I know that may not be the most encouraging words you have ever read, but I want to be as real and vulnerable as possible right now. I can’t stop thinking about how much the devil has been trying to manipulate my thoughts into so many heavy lies over the past few weeks. And I know I’m not the only one he does that to.

I know I’m right where God wants me in my life, and the devil hates it so much. I know this to be true because doubt has been my constant companion over the past few weeks.

Most mornings I wake up to it- and it’s so real to me that I try to convince myself I’m doing everything so wrong, but it’s really just the devil placing lies inside my head in hopes that they will eventually get to my heart.

If I wasn’t in God’s will I know that doubt wouldn’t be so vivid in my life- I know the devil wouldn’t be fighting SO hard.

I know I’m where God wants me and I hate that I feel as if I have to convince myself of it when He has already given me SO much peace about it, but I also know the devil hates when we follow God in surrendered obedience, when we sacrifice things of this world to draw a little closer to His feet, and when we strive to live a life that honors Christ.

I know blessings will come. I know joy will follow. I know there is peace in God’s will. And I’ve experienced all of that and much more over the past few weeks, but sometimes, we make following God to be a bed of roses. And I want to be so perfectly honest on here- it’s not all that. Following God has always been about saying no to our fleshly desires and sometimes giving up our own dreams in order for His so-much-better ones to come along.

It’s a painful process to be honest. It involves tears and emotions, but God offers peace and comfort. That’s when you know you’re in His will- when even amongst the tears and hurt and sacrifice you know you’re right where you need to be and that there’s heavenly peace even amidst your pain.

God’s been pressing into my heart the importance of living in His Word daily and weighing out His truths in my life.

The only way to combat the devils lies are to weigh them out with spiritual truths, and I know sometimes it is so hard. It is so easy to give in and believe how worthless we are out of Christ, and how maybe God could never use us, but when we weigh them against spiritual truths we can see God wants nothing more than to use our lives for His glory, to give us an abundant life, and to help us walk in His grace every single day. (2 Cor. 12:9)

Last week I told myself, “I’m never writing again. I’m so tired of having to give things up. I’m so tired of being the only one trying to live right. I’m so tired of trying to do GOOD.”

But God’s grace is so sweet and it shows up in the kindest of ways. I know sometimes we get to that place in our lives where we feel so alone and this world feels so cruel, and the biggest reason I’m sharing this is to say you are not alone in those feelings. But they’re simply feelings. God’s grace is something that’s REAL and even on your worst of days it will carry you through. So don’t give up just yet. Better days are coming and trust that His goodness is waiting for you right around the corner even if you can’t see it just yet.

When you’re in God’s perfect will His promises will be there to, but rest assured the doubter himself will be there, too. And it is up to you to choose what you believe to be true.

The devils doubts will never outlive nor outweigh God’s promises that lead us to a more eternal, heavenly life. That is one thing I know to be true, and I hope you do too.

Love and Blessings,

Moriah grace

Ruth 3 – Naomi’s Selflessness

While reading Ruth chapter 3 I couldn’t help but think how easy and tempting it would have been for Naomi to want Ruth for herself, as her only daughter left to keep her company, and to be a help around her home.

It would have been easier and much more comfortable for Naomi to have kept her mouth shut and let Ruth stay with her. And with the humility in which Ruth approached each day I could see her not having a second thought about staying to help Naomi. She never would have brought up the matter, and this is where I see Naomi’s selflessness shine through.

We often have such a shallow idea of what being selfless really means. We consider it giving up something small because someone has asked or because it was asked of us, but it is so much more than that. There is much greater value behind it when it is out of a genuine heart for the persons best interest rather than our own. And we see this in Naomi- she desired the best for Ruth.

Even though Ruth selflessly went out to the fields every day to gather wheat for her and Naomi it was still selfless of Naomi to send her out knowing that Boaz would be there.

In this chapter, Naomi had the plan all laid out. Verses 1-4 are of Naomi telling Ruth to go to the feet of Boaz because he is a near kinsman of them. Ruth does it out of obedience and when Boaz realizes what she has done he is blown away by her kindness. He tells her, in verse 11, that he will do anything she asks because of her righteous and pure heart.

What a beautiful picture that is painted of Naomi’s selflessness to knowingly send her daughter away and Ruth’s blessings from being obedient and pure in her motives. It is so easy to twist this chapter from what it really means if it is being compared to today’s age, but back then things were done differently and it was seen as something virtuous that Ruth had done.

We see in this chapter that being selfless in our actions and motives can change one’s life. If Naomi had never sent Ruth away she would have never experienced the joy of seeing her daughter blessed through her obedience and selflessness.

We can’t expect to have God’s blessings in our lives if we are being selfish in our motives and disobedient in our actions. If we take one thing away from this chapter may it be this: Our actions have an impact and that impact is entirely up to us. Giving more of ourselves in order for others to have something is such an underrated quality. God gave His Son- who are we to say we can’t give? A humbling thought. ❤

Love and blessings,

Moriah grace

Ruth 2 – Ruth’s Faithfulness

In Ruth chapter 2, we see that Ruth had asked Naomi if she could go out to the fields to glean corn and wheat.

I feel like Ruth is someone many of us could strive to be like- humble and obedient in the ordinary and mundane of her everyday life.

Two things I struggle with, daily.

But that only means one thing: there is room for steady growth and where there is room for growth there is hope for improvement, however small it may be.

This chapter reflects Ruth’s humility in such a distinct way that it makes me stop and think “God really wants us to learn something about humility in this chapter” there’s no way around it (I checked), so we’re gonna walk right through the middle of it.

The reason I struggle to talk about humility is because it makes me realize how much I lack it in my life and then I have to pray for it, and that’s always been a scary prayer for me.

It brings me back to sitting next to Naomi while Ruth is out in Boaz fields gleaning wheat, barley, and corn in all her humble beauty to be obedient to that which the Lord had called her to do.

I wish I could say I was like that- that when God asks me to do something small and tedious and not so lovely that I would jump to it in a humble manner rather than sitting back and telling him all the reasons why I simply could not do that certain thing- whatever it may be.

This happens to me in a drive through window when He impresses on my heart to speak of His love or when He asks me to befriend someone that’s not quite like me or when He wants me to do something kind for someone, but it’s incredibly inconvenient for my, so I think, busy life.

But what a sweet reminder that Ruth has for us. As she stayed faithful in taking care of Naomi by going to the fields to collect leftover barley and wheat.

While she was out there on her knees, in the heat of the day, collecting all the leftover grains. I can imagine it was far from an ideal situation.

But I think, if Ruth believed one thing it would’ve been this: God is faithful and He always rewards the obedient in heart.

And the truth remains the same today, God is SO faithful. And all He desires is our faithful obedience to Him in the everyday, ordinary of our lives.

If only we could learn to be faithful in our everyday lives. I think many other things would fall right into place.

Stay faithful in the seemingly small things, my friends !! You can always see how big God is when you’re faithful in the small things.

Love and blessings,

Moriah Grace

Ruth 1 – Naomi’s Afflictions

Naomi’s heart, “I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty”
Ruth 1:21

These words resonate and resound within my own heart as I sat outside on a Thursday morning, reading Ruth chapter 1.

I knew I wanted to do a study on Ruth simply because it’s a book that I love, but I didn’t realize how much I needed it during this season of my life where hope seems like a distant thought and my cup seems to be empty like the times I sip my black, folger coffee a little too fast and I quickly realize that the sweet times can only go so far and that, in life, there is also a bitter taste of disappointment at the bottom of our cup, sometimes we call them the grinds. They make your nose cringe, and your mouth fill up with the bitterness of the acidic taste, and how tenderly does this resonate with the story of Naomi in Ruth chapter 1 and maybe even, myself.

I think Naomi and I would have gotten along just fine. I’m great at throwing pity-parties for myself when life doesn’t go the way I had once planned or imagined, and I often blame God for it, too.

I’m so perfectly flawed when it comes to this area of my life and I wish I could say I wasn’t, but the humanity of my heart shows it so evidently. It’s a secret place in my heart that I have to continually revisit with the humility of grace knowing that I cannot always be everything I wish I could be.

Disappointments come and I often welcome them into the doorway of my heart as if they were an old friend, creating a place for them to stay for a little while until they leave a mark of bitterness stained so vividly on my heart.

We can see in Ruth 1:20, “And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me”

I just see myself, sitting next to Naomi and talking about all the ways our lives could be better.

We do that, don’t we?

Now Naomi, she had it tough. She had lost her husband; she was widowed. And she had to flee from her country leaving one of her daughters behind while bringing the other one with her in fear.

I don’t know what your life looks like right now and I certainly could not understand the kind of disappointments you may be dealing with. When they’re personal, the pain is felt so much deeper and it is hard to make sense of the complexity of it all, so I won’t pretend too. But I do want to say there is more to your story. Disappointment is never the last word. It is just a passing comment that will soon see it’s glory in the end. God wasn’t done writing Naomi’s story at the end of chapter 1. And can I say this? He’s not done writing yours, either.

I know it’s hard to understand when things don’t go the way we once thought they would or when a sudden unexpected turn of events shakes up our comfortable lives simply to throw us in a frenzy, panic of “What am I going to do now?”

I’m sure Naomi was not expecting to be left widowed or to flee from her country, but the only way to get across those valleys are to walk right through the middle. And only until we have enough faith to do that, will we see His victory on the other side.

I know during these times in our lives hope may seem so far away. But my heart, if nothing else, is that you will be able to take hope in this: HE IS STILL WRITING YOUR STORY. And it’s only the beginning.

Love and Blessings,

Moriah grace