Reminders, Part 1

I’ve been absent in the blogging world for 11 days. When you’re writing a fledgling blog, that is a lot of days. But, I needed time to recuperate; Valentine’s Weekend was rough on my heart. I felt like such a hypocrite – writing about how to take on the world when in reality I was huddled in the corner bawling my eyes out. I needed time to breathe through the pain.

After the pain there was lots of good things though! I spent Valentine’s weekend working on Beautifully Broken with my bestie Jordan, spent V-Day with a friend and her husband, then during the week I bought a new car, went on an exceptionally fun blind date, and had some amazing girl talk with gals at LIFE group. Yes, all in a little over a week. Big changes in the Shartrand household.

I want to focus on what was discussed at LIFE group, because God gave me some amazing nuggets of truth while I was chatting with two of the ladies after our meeting. We are all mid-20-something, single, and have wandered off our narrow paths in the past. We all are also unbelievably strong and courageous. During our discussion, God was just pouring into us with His truth about our singleness, our brokenness, and our hope for the future.

He reminded us that He freely gave the garden to Adam and Eve. Just because He loved them so much. They didn’t have to beg for it, or jump through hoops, or complete crazy challenges to earn Eden. God just gave it to them. He was speaking to my heart that He wants to give us good things. No strings attached. And we don’t always have to fight tooth and nail for them; simply believing in His faithfulness is enough. We are so accustom to the Sisyphus scenario where we struggle to push that boulder up the mountain only to have it roll back down, probably right over our toes and everything! All we seem to know is the struggle of our worldly lives, so that when God gently hands us good things, we are very confused about why it is so easy.

He reminded us that He knows exactly how we function; we need Him to help us take baby steps because trusting Him is hella scary. He knows precisely how you learn best, and how He can help you the best. He won’t ever throw you a curve ball without first guiding you through batting practice!

He reminded us that singleness is not a punishment for our past. He doesn’t look down His nose at us and shake His finger and say “well you’ll be single for another 5 years for that one, missy!” He has perfect plans for us, especially in our time of singleness when our focus isn’t divided or compromised. Singleness is not an issue that we need fixed for us. It is a time of growth that we get to experience in a unique way, a version of refinement that yoked couples must sometimes endure together but we get to embrace it solely with Our Father.

I walked away from Sunday’s small group with my heart bursting and my mind blown with all the truth He spoke into my life in such a short period of time. I hope He’s been blessing y’all with nuggets of truth throughout the week as well.

xoxo
Heidi