The word broken comes with a lot of negativity, but I don't really see it that way.
If you think about it, when something breaks & then is put back together, it is different than it was before it was broken & it will never go back to being perfect. It will never go back to how it was before. It is forever changed.
Broken things have character & a little bit of charm to them. They stand out & they don't "fit the mold" anymore. They are unique from the second they break.
People are the same way... there are a lot of stigmas & negative connotations surrounding people who appear to be "broken". But if you think about it, everyone is broken in some way. No one can really escape it. People may pretend to be perfect & unblemished, but everyone is broken in some way.
That is the beauty of humanity... it makes us all different. Our broken pieces make us all unique and one of a kind. There is literally no one else on earth just like you or me.
Since this is the case, why are we all so scared of being broken & showing other people our broken pieces. Why is there so much shame surrounding this? Why do we look for how other people are broken, so we can feel better about ourselves? Why do we compare our broken selves & put others down who we perceive to be more broken than us? Why do we try to hide who we really are?
I personally feel that the more broken we are, the more valuable we become. With every break we learn something. We experience something so hard, that it breaks us, and we come out of it a little wiser on the other side.
I feel that these cracks and breaks aren't flaws, but they are a way for the light & love of God to shine through us. A way for us to be able to touch other people's lives & help make them better. With each break we gain understanding, compassion, empathy, love, ect.
This life has never been about who can make it back to our Heavenly Father unchanged and perfect. Although our ultimate goal is to make it back to him as perfect as we can be, I feel that the only path to perfection is through these experiences that will break us, change us, and mold us into what our Heavenly Father knows we can become. The path to perfection is meant to break us.
So if you are feeling broken & your self worth is suffering because of this.... just know that you are amazing & beautiful. You are completely unique & there is no one in this world that could ever be just like you.
If you are feeling shame because you don't "fit the mold" just know that we were created to break the mold & come out a better version of ourselves. You can't "break the mold" without a few cracks.
- Jess
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Saturday, May 23, 2020
It Is Well with My Soul
It is well with my soul.....
Just saying these words make me take a big sigh. I'm sighing because to get to where this is who I am all of the time would be amazingly peaceful. I'm also sighing because it feels like an impossible goal to reach, it's a bigger mountain to climb than I have the strength to do.
I have been thinking about this concept for a while, and recently it has been on my mind a lot. How do you actually get to the point where most of the things that are going on in our mortal journey sit well with our souls?
Maybe it's just me, maybe everyone is pretty close to this and I've missed something important. But lately it feels like there are a lot of things that aren't "well with my soul" and I'm struggling.
People we love dying, addictions, divorce, chronic illness, mental health issues, trauma, abuse, suicide.... whatever it is that is going on in our lives right now that is hard. How do we reconcile our souls to be "okay" with whatever life is giving us?
Maybe "okay" is not even the right word to be using. How can anyone be "okay" with any of this? Maybe a better word for it is "acceptance". How do we accept life just as it is?
To find acceptance I feel that we need to look for understanding. We need to look at why things are happening. Why people are making the decisions they make, why something hurts us so much, why am I reacting the way that I am? The better we understand, the easier it is for us to find acceptance.
Finding understanding is really hard though.... painfully hard sometimes. It forces us to step outside and think outside the box. To really look at things from another perspective. Then we need to feel things from these different perspectives. To realize that our view & understanding of the world is specific to only us. There is no way we could ever really know what someone else is thinking or feeling. Even if we have been through the same experience, it's still different for everyone. Everyone's lives are different, their thoughts & perceptions are different. Every experience is different for everyone and we all handle and react differently to everything.
Then there is also the part where I know that God could change all of this in a heartbeat & he doesn't. He literally has the power to take away all of our pain and suffering. Some days understanding and acceptance of this concept are hard for me.... if I'm being honest, most days this concept is hard for me. This isn't always well with my soul.
Why do good people have to get sick and die? Why do people have to suffer at the hands of other people? Why can't we understand just how much we are loved and really know our own self worth? Why can't God just heal all of his children? Why, Why, Why..... if you dwell on these questions too long you will eventually go crazy.
It's not that God isn't willing to heal his children, it's that we need these experiences to help us get to the understanding and the acceptance. This is really the only way we can learn anything. God's healing comes to us as we are learning to understand the chaos around us. He's teaching us empathy and compassion. He is teaching us to see the world through his eyes. As we learn to accept all of the things that are happening and that is out of our control, we take on the characteristics of God, and he helps us heal.
I feel that our purpose here on this earth is to become like God. We need to learn to understand God. Learn to understand his will and his specific plan for us. Then we need to accept what is expected of us. True and lasting healing comes to us the closer we become to being like God.
Only then can we fully understand and accept the harshness of this life. Even if we don't like what is happening and we wish things were different. Even if we feel that this life is too hard to navigate at times. We can at least gain the knowledge God wants us to have so that at some point in the middle of the mess we call life, we can say "it is well with my soul!"
I don't know if any of this makes sense.... It feels like a jumbled mess that came bursting out of my brain. I have a lot going on in my mind right now & this bit felt like it was trying the hardest to escape. I hope this is helpful to someone other than myself.
Take care of yourselves,
Jess
Just saying these words make me take a big sigh. I'm sighing because to get to where this is who I am all of the time would be amazingly peaceful. I'm also sighing because it feels like an impossible goal to reach, it's a bigger mountain to climb than I have the strength to do.
I have been thinking about this concept for a while, and recently it has been on my mind a lot. How do you actually get to the point where most of the things that are going on in our mortal journey sit well with our souls?
Maybe it's just me, maybe everyone is pretty close to this and I've missed something important. But lately it feels like there are a lot of things that aren't "well with my soul" and I'm struggling.
People we love dying, addictions, divorce, chronic illness, mental health issues, trauma, abuse, suicide.... whatever it is that is going on in our lives right now that is hard. How do we reconcile our souls to be "okay" with whatever life is giving us?
Maybe "okay" is not even the right word to be using. How can anyone be "okay" with any of this? Maybe a better word for it is "acceptance". How do we accept life just as it is?
To find acceptance I feel that we need to look for understanding. We need to look at why things are happening. Why people are making the decisions they make, why something hurts us so much, why am I reacting the way that I am? The better we understand, the easier it is for us to find acceptance.
Finding understanding is really hard though.... painfully hard sometimes. It forces us to step outside and think outside the box. To really look at things from another perspective. Then we need to feel things from these different perspectives. To realize that our view & understanding of the world is specific to only us. There is no way we could ever really know what someone else is thinking or feeling. Even if we have been through the same experience, it's still different for everyone. Everyone's lives are different, their thoughts & perceptions are different. Every experience is different for everyone and we all handle and react differently to everything.
Then there is also the part where I know that God could change all of this in a heartbeat & he doesn't. He literally has the power to take away all of our pain and suffering. Some days understanding and acceptance of this concept are hard for me.... if I'm being honest, most days this concept is hard for me. This isn't always well with my soul.
Why do good people have to get sick and die? Why do people have to suffer at the hands of other people? Why can't we understand just how much we are loved and really know our own self worth? Why can't God just heal all of his children? Why, Why, Why..... if you dwell on these questions too long you will eventually go crazy.
It's not that God isn't willing to heal his children, it's that we need these experiences to help us get to the understanding and the acceptance. This is really the only way we can learn anything. God's healing comes to us as we are learning to understand the chaos around us. He's teaching us empathy and compassion. He is teaching us to see the world through his eyes. As we learn to accept all of the things that are happening and that is out of our control, we take on the characteristics of God, and he helps us heal.
I feel that our purpose here on this earth is to become like God. We need to learn to understand God. Learn to understand his will and his specific plan for us. Then we need to accept what is expected of us. True and lasting healing comes to us the closer we become to being like God.
Only then can we fully understand and accept the harshness of this life. Even if we don't like what is happening and we wish things were different. Even if we feel that this life is too hard to navigate at times. We can at least gain the knowledge God wants us to have so that at some point in the middle of the mess we call life, we can say "it is well with my soul!"
I don't know if any of this makes sense.... It feels like a jumbled mess that came bursting out of my brain. I have a lot going on in my mind right now & this bit felt like it was trying the hardest to escape. I hope this is helpful to someone other than myself.
Take care of yourselves,
Jess
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