Tag: grief

Bible, blessings, bravery, challenges, courage, dream, faith, forgiveness, freedom, God, God's grace, God's will, grief, Jesus, loss, mistakes, moms, perserverance, positivity, religious, scripture, sin, spiritual, women

Set Free from Sin

katietkennedy

Your childhood probably looked different from mine, yet most of us will agree that we made plenty of foolish decisions and experienced some sort of loss. Trust me I made a plethora of mistakes, just ask my high school and college friends. Better yet, don’t.

The great thing about our loving and forgiving Father is He does not hold our past against us. We can turn our sin over to God, say we are sorry and ask for His help going forward. That’s it. It’s that simple. His sacrifice on the cross made a way for our sins to be washed clean.

You and I have experienced much loss. My mom took her life when I was 20 and I denied myself from grieving for 17 years until the weight of it finally took me down. Thankfully, my loving God was there to catch me and help me turn over my pain to Him.

We all have sin and pain in this life. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t.

Here’s the good news. You don’t have to let it hold you back and keep you from moving forward.

The Lord’s transformative power freed me to share my story today. The heaviness of my sin and grief was preventing me from becoming who God made me to be. I thought I could handle everything in my own power. I was wrong.

As I learned to turn everything over to Him, He gave me freedom beyond words. I am free to write, to put myself out there, to take risk. I am motivated to be obedient to my Heavenly Father and trust that His plans are better than mine.

I am concerned with pleasing and praising God, not the world. I am thankful He loves me more than anyone on this earth, for His love is never fleeting.

Don’t let your past hold you back from the wonderful plans God has for you. Don’t deny yourself the freedom and peace that comes only from believing in Jesus.

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Transformation through Paint

katietkennedy

We recently painted my daughter’s room from pink to blueish gray. There are so many activities we can’t do now, this is one thing we can. 

We moved into our current home when our oldest daughter was six. At the time, she requested a bright pink color for her bedroom. This April she turned eleven and her tastes are maturing.

When there was a small patch of pink remaining on the wall, my middle daughter said, “The pink is almost gone, that’s sad.” After this statement, I got nostalgic and realized my little girl who loved pink all those years is growing up. It was kinda sad.

When the room was complete, we remarked how one can of paint completely transformed a room from bright and youthful to calming and serene. The ambiance of the room had morphed.  

For the most part, the room was new, remade, ready to take its owner into a new season of her life. Even though the room took on a new persona, the pink still remained underneath. It existed behind the blue, and maybe along a few edges.  

This reminds me of God and how He transforms and renews us just like we modified my daughter’s room. God doesn’t wipe away our past, it will always remain just like the pink paint will always be there even if it can’t be seen. Our past is a part of who we are and where we came from.

We get to bring the difficult parts from our past to God and He makes us new again. I tried to hide and ignore the hurt and pain I felt from losing my mom to suicide when I was twenty. When I finally transferred the baggage I was carrying around to my Heavenly Father, He restored me. He gave me a fresh coat of paint and a new passion for life. I can’t change my past, but I can accept His love and grace and use my story and grief for His glory.

The previous version of me will always remain. My mom is still gone and that will never change, but He is using this part of my story to transform me into the person He created me to be. I have a new paint color, a renewed spirit.