Friday, February 20, 2015

Five-Minute Friday: Open



Acceptance.  We long for it.  To be included.

Acceptance into college; Accepting a proposal.
An award; recognition.
Accepting an invitation.
To a party; to dance
And what greater joy is there than to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

Acceptance can also be very difficult.

Accepting that I will be a grandmother before I am 40 years old.
Accepting that my daughter will have to grow up too soon.
Accepting that my husband and I don't share the same faith.
Accepting a broken relationship; that some people may never change.
A diagnosis.
Shoot, let's just cover it all:
Accepting that life did not turn out as expected.

One thing I have learned: Acceptance does not give something your stamp of approval.  Acceptance is simply acknowledging that fact that "it is what it is".  Sounds a lot like surrender.  Surrender is not all bad,  you know.  Surrender can be sweet.  It's opening my hands and giving up my despair. It's trusting the God I know is always good.  Why is it I can accept - even expect the good from His hand, yet be so angry and doubtful when things are not so good? 

Now what?  Now that we've opened our hands in surrender what do we do next?  I know what I won't do.  I won't despair.  I won't pine.  I won't be consumed.  Accepting a situation allows me to move forward.  May God give us the wisdom to do the next right thing.  I can be joyful that God is bringing a precious little boy into our lives.  I can watch my daughter's growing belly and acknowledge that something beautiful is happening.  I can love my husband and see what a gift he is to me.  I can be thankful for the difficult things that have made me real. This. Is. Freedom.

Will there still be moments of sadness and longing?  Of course.  But we don't have to live there anymore.  May we always keep our hands open in surrender to the God who has proven Himself to be trust worthy over and over again. 

- Liv


Mistakes are welcome over here where I have linked up with other writers for five minutes (or so) of writing freely on the given prompt.

6 comments:

  1. Hmmm, it's true, isn't it? Open and Freedom (or acceptance and freedom) seem unlikely relations and yet they are best friends. Blessings over you as you step into some hard places and expect God to bring about the good of those who are called according to His purposes... YOU! And He will :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, Marcy. Glad you stopped by!

      Delete
  2. "May God give us the wisdom to do the next right thing." Yes, this - and to see the beauty and His goodness even in the pain and unexpected - the unwanted that He will prove to be better than we can imagine. Touched by your words today, Liv. Blessed to be an FMF neighbor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! And yes, He gives more than we could ever hope or imagine!

      Delete
  3. So appreciative of this timely post today!

    ReplyDelete

I love to hear what you have to say!