Engaging God through prayer is my passion. Helping others to enjoy prayer through connecting with their individual communication styles and interests is my calling.
Being a Certified Spiritual Formation Coach who also has a Doctorate in Practical Ministry, I have a wide base of knowledge to draw from to encourage powerful, fun, and effective prayer.
The past few months have been a wild
ride. In the process, I’ve lost a lot of my fear of death. With the diagnoses
of cancer, I went through all the typical thoughts:
Will
surgery cure me?
Will
I need chemo or radiation treatments?
How
will the outcome affect the people around me?
Will
I die from this?
How
will we pay for this?
Then,
how sick will I be from the surgery itself?
Then God did something amazing to
show me how much He loves me.
On the scheduled day of surgery, I woke up with a blood clot in my leg. I reported to the pre-op, had IV’s hooked-up, met with my surgeon, had an ultrasound, and met the anesthesiologist for my surgery. After five hours of lying around, I was sent home with an appointment to visit a Vascular Specialist. The next couple of weeks were a wild ride, with more ultrasounds, as the clot moved up my leg. The medication to reduce the lump made me sick, and fear of the cancer spreading grew as we waited for the swelling to go down in my leg.
Finally, a month later, surgery was again scheduled. In the meantime, we adjusted our medical insurance, which reduced our out of pocket expenses significantly. I had Christmas at home. God worked all things for my good. I calmed down, and my fear lifted.
The weekend before my surgery, a friend said to me, “I see an angel in the OR watching out for you.” I laughed, thinking what a random comment, but the morning of the surgery, my OR nurse introduced herself – “I’m Angela, your OR nurse. Think of me as your angel watching out for you during the operation.” God’s sense of humor strikes again.
Then the anesthesiologist for my surgery came in, and it was clear that God is in the details. I fear anesthesia because my body reacts negatively to the drugs. To put this in perspective, I had shoulder surgery three years ago. It took six hours for me to wake-up (in the end, a recovery nurse stuck an alcohol swab under my nose, so I would wake-up enough to go home), and I spent two days nauseated. However, a year later, when my other shoulder needed surgery, the outcome was different. The anesthesiologist, standing in front of us, worked a miracle, getting me out of the hospital within two hours without nausea. God postponed the first cancer surgery so that I would have this doctor taking care of my anesthesia.
I came out of surgery with little to
no nausea. Amazing, considering that there were six incisions in my stomach,
one of which was extra swollen because they needed to cauterize a vein. After
leaving the hospital, I never took narcotics for pain, and a week later, I
found out that they got all the cancer with clear/clean margins.
I realized, that for me, having
cancer is less fearful than surgery and that cancer treatment is scarier than
death. I know without a doubt that God has the number of my days perfectly
planned. In fact, I now see death as the ultimate upgrade – free of pain,
rejoicing in heaven with Papa God, having finished the race that was set before
me. Where are you in your journey? Are you ready for your ultimate upgrade?
The rainbow flag that revealed a new aspect of God’s love to me.
Living in a community where I regularly see rainbow flags flying, I shouldn’t have been surprised when God grabbed my attention with one on a Sunday morning during our Breakfast and Bible Study group as I looked out the window and saw a giant one flying over the city.
At that moment, I saw the rainbow flag through a different set of eyes. It was as if I got a God’s eye view of our efforts to be noticed and protected by Him. From my vantage point, the flag looked small in comparison to the vastness of the landscape around it, even though to the people under it, the flag would have seemed huge. A lot of the time, I think I’m doing something big for God, but is it?
The flag hung there limply for several minutes. Then I saw the wind begin to move the tops of the trees around us then move down into the valley, until the flag unfurled in a splendor of bright colors. It struck me that without the wind of the Holy Spirit, all my efforts are not worth much. I’m like that flag wrapped around the crane, just waiting for something to move me.
Yes, I lost track of what was going
on in our Bible Study, as I pulled out my phone to look up the origin of the
flag and what the colors symbolized. I also made a quick check of what the
colors often signify in the Bible. There are some differences, but it didn’t
seem important because my mind was already moving on in prayer, using the words
assigned to the colors by the flag’s creator:
Red – Life That life in Christ would become central in all our lives.
Orange – Healing That God would pour out healing and restoration on people and my community.
Yellow – Sunlight That the Son of Light (another name for Jesus) would shine on each person that they might know the warmth of His love.
Green – Nature That all would see the Creator through nature.
Blue – Harmony or Serenity That there would be calm unity in our diversity, which allows for real love and concern to be shared.
Purple – Spirit That the Spirit of God would move in our lives, that we would live in the fullness of God’s plan for each of us.
In the weeks since this event, I’ve been praising God for giving me new insight into His loving nature. Now, no matter where I see the rainbow, up in the clouds, or as a flag, I take a moment to pray for the people and communities under it. I hope the next time you see a rainbow you will join me in praying!
Growing up in a Christian home, my
family celebrated the season of Advent – the four weeks before Christmas. I
loved this time, not because I was waiting for my Christmas gifts, but because
we got to light a candle every night during our family devotions. We would dim
the lights, and my Mom or Dad would try to read from our devotional book. Each
week we would light another candle on the wreath until Christmas Eve when the
big Christ Candle would be added. Even with all the lights off in the
room, it felt as bright as it did when all the lights were on.
In my curiosity, I looked up the word
Advent: A coming into place, view, or being, arrival – onset, beginning,
commencement, start – the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event.
Sharon, Andrea and Debbie celebrating life by the glow of candle light.
My rabbit trail of thought then took
me to the idea that each one of us in a place, with a specific view, that
signifies the commencement of something that only we are designed to start. We
are the candle that brings light into the darkness. As we connect with others
who are also carrying light, we begin to change the environment around us. Yes,
our little light is important, but like the time my family spent around that
wreath enjoying the stories and basking in the light of the candles, we get
strength from being together and sharing the Word of God. We grow in our impact
on the world. We grow in our love and acceptance of others. We grow in faith.
In those moments, when our light seems to flicker, there are others around to
reignite us.
What if the blaze of our collective
light is what it will take to ignite our community with the transformational
love of Christ? What if I share my light with someone who doesn’t have it yet?
I want to see the whole wreath light up
with the Christ candle in the middle, driving back the darkness, giving hope
and joy to all who are touched by the glow. Do you?
Will you join me in finding one person this season with whom you can share the light of Christ?
Early this past fall I took a trip to Lake Chelan in Washington and had planned to write this as soon as I returned from my trip. However, when I got home, I was diagnosed with cancer. Everything around me changed overnight, and I have spent the last month coming to terms with the season I’m in right now. It’s not bad, just different
In contrast, the fall is so quiet, and I could hear the squeak of the geese’s wings resisting the air as they flew over my head. The water was perfectly calm, and at one point, I was the only person sitting on the beach. Peaceful is the word that comes to mind.
Beach time in the summer at Lake Chelan
Normally, my whole family
(four generations worth) gather in the summer to enjoy the cold water and
summer activities. However, this year, I had the privilege of a fall visit. The
difference was stark. Not just because there were only three of us in my
uncle’s condo (instead of 12-15), but the whole community was calm and laid
back. The summers are frenetic – lots of people, constant movement from one
activity to another – swimming, hiking, putt-putt golf, tennis, and more, with
the background filled with birds chirping, bees buzzing, jet-skis and boats
revving and people talking, laughing and shouting with joy.
The lack of activity and
noise gave me the space to take in the changing season. The trees that had
given us shade and fruit this year, had one last job before resting – to fill
the horizon with brilliant shades of yellow, orange and red – a feast for the
eyes. As their leaves fall off, details that went unseen in the bustle of the
summer stand out like significant memories to be treasured. Even as the water
of the lake was receding, things that were hidden in the depth and murkiness of
water in motion became vivid monuments to the surprises waiting for us yet to discover.
Creation reminding me that even now God is showing me new things – hidden
things.
Crazy Mad Squirrel
As the nip in the air, the clouds in the sky and the shorter days encouraged me to bundle up, I was prompted to grasp hold of the moment and enjoy it by a funny little squirrel who climbed up a tree to give me a piece of his mind. He had a plan and my presence was messing that up. I find myself doing the same thing to God at times. I have a plan and He seems to mess it all up. After a few minutes of gyrating and chattering at me, the squirrel moved on with what needed to be done. I know God watches patiently as I do the same thing, but when I realize that His love and faithfulness is there for me – no matter what – I’m able to move on with life.
I’m so glad that I had
time to sit back and reflect. God knew I would need to be ready for my next
season. I needed to know He still had things to reveal to me and that slowing
down can give me time to reflect on His greatness.
I know it can be
difficult, but I pray that you can find a quiet moment to absorb the wonders of
creation. God has something special to show you, too, no matter what season it
is!
I stepped across my “chicken line.” My friends, husband and I went out on our first Treasure Hunt (see the book by Kevin Dedmon), where we looked for people that God wanted us to find. I can’t lie, for me, there is nothing scarier than walking up to someone and trying to carry on a conversation, but this adventure takes it one step further. We needed to share with them something that God wanted them to know.
What if we didn’t find the person?
What if we got what we were supposed to say wrong? What if the person wasn’t
receptive? What if…what if? I had to believe it was God’s problem, not mine.
So, we sat down and asked God to give us clues to the person He wanted us to
meet. We used a form we found online with different categories like: Where is
the person? What are they wearing or is there an identifying mark? Do they have
something obvious for which you can pray? What does God want to reveal to them?
Ten minutes later, we had our
Treasure Maps filled out.
As a group, we decided to go to my
place first. We did a lot of people watching. I found myself relaxing into the
moment. Then something switched, and I became aware of each person walking by
as a God-given treasure. Even if they weren’t someone on any of our lists, I
saw potential in each person. It made me thankful that God loves the
individuality of each of us. I thought, that I don’t have to fit into a certain
box or fit into a preconceived pattern for me to be a valuable treasure in
God’s eyes. It was a freeing moment. In the half-hour we stayed in that space,
many people came and went. My husband and one of our friends, started
conversations with a few of the people, but we finally decided we needed to
move on to the next place.
We went to my husband’s place next.
It was a new grocery store in town. He was looking for a woman, with dark hair,
buying a yellow zucchini. He walked into the store and within the first two
minutes found his treasure. As he tells the story, he was so shocked he had to
take a moment to compose himself. Eventually he did approach the woman and told
her our story. She was polite but didn’t over engage. He left her with a
blessing.
Meanwhile, one of our friends found
two people that fit at least one clue on his list. He chatted with each of
them. He even got to pray with the ‘blue pants’ lady from his sheet.
Our whole group had an ongoing joke
about needing to go to IHOP. So, we went there next. Why not? We had just found
three of our Treasures. Maybe we would find more. The friend that hadn’t found
any of her clues was looking for a female, red hair, inside a building with
issues with her lower extremities. Our other friend who had already found two
on his list still had a strange clue of finding someone with a name he couldn’t
pronounce.
Our server came, and his name badge
was “Ilaya.” Our friend asked how to pronounce his name. Even now I can’t get it
right. The server said he was English, but his name was Russian. Wow, we just
found another one. Our friend tried to engage the server, but it fell flat.
What’s up with that God?
Then I saw the red-headed, female,
walking as if her feet hurt. She was a server in another section of the
building. My friend didn’t want to get up and talk to her, probably because we
had just watched the last conversation fizzle out. Anyway, we spent time
talking about changing our approach, so it didn’t come off as confrontive or
weird, but as a friendly blessing. I could see my friend still wasn’t going to
jump into a conversation, so I gave her a piece of paper and suggested she
write a note and give it to the server on our way out to encourage her
Treasure. Our other friend also wrote a note to our server as a blessing. They
passed them off on our way out. Though we don’t know how those notes were
received, there was a sense of accomplishment handing them to the Treasure.
Though I was the only one that didn’t
find a treasured person, I came away with some great treasures:
Be
aware of the people around you, they are God’s treasures, and He wants you to
see them
Instead
of leading with questions that would make people uncomfortable, give away words
of encouragement and appreciation
If
all else fails, write your message from God to them in a note
Even
if you don’t find your specific treasure, you have succeeded because you
stepped out in faith.
I know God was with us as we went on
our Treasure Hunt and we found Him working in strange places and interesting
ways. As an extreme introvert who almost failed her Evangelism class in
college, this adventure was way, way out of my comfort zone. It took a lot to
get me to step across my chicken line. However, I’m extremely surprised to write
that I’m looking forward to our next Treasure Hunt. I had fun! As the Hunt
finished-up I realized I didn’t want to stop looking. What if my person was
waiting for me and I just missed her? What if…what if?
Oh well, maybe next time I’ll be the
one who finds three people on my list.
This week my husband and
I celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary. Our story is a serious
God Hunt sighting. Only God could keep us together this long.
The week before our
wedding, I looked at my future husband and realized I didn’t have that gooey
love feeling that you see in movies. At that moment I wasn’t even sure if I
liked the guy enough to spend the rest of my life with him. It was terrifying.
Then I remembered that
God had orchestrated our meeting, through a series of dreams I had as a junior
and senior in high school that sent me two states away from my family to a tiny
college that wasn’t even accredited yet, to meet my future husband. The dreams didn’t include romantic promise
but promises of working side by side to do great things.
I’m laughing right now
because I can hear my husband in his home office, which is next to the spare
bedroom where I’m working. Working in adjoining offices isn’t new to us. We
spent eighteen years working for a church with offices right next to each
other, but somehow this is different. No longer having a regular paycheck means
we really need to depend on God and each other to make it through each moment.
I love it. We have arrived at the place that God promised me thirty-six years
ago as I sat in my room trying to decide if it was worth it to go ahead with
the wedding.
In the years since that
moment, we’ve done some crazy things. We ran a half-way house – living in a
tiny one bath, three-bedroom house with three to five guys in various stages of
recovery and need. When we finally bought our own home, we continued to have
people living with us, adults preparing for mission work, teens who needed a
break from their parents and even an eight-year-old whose Mom spent a month in
treatment. After several years of that, we decided it was time to adopt and we
selected a late-placed, hard-to-adopt child, while we were in the middle of
building a new home. The night we moved into our beautiful new home, that I
thought would be our forever home, we both looked at each other and said, “We
won’t be here long.” Eighteen months later we had sold or stored our furniture,
rented out our houses, and bought a twenty-two-foot travel trailer which we
parked in my mother-in-law’s driveway while my husband finished seminary. I
spent the next sixteen months homeschooling our new child, which lead me to a
day when I packed all my worldly goods and was ready to walk away from the
marriage. Obviously, we all survived, but it was touch and go for several
hours. When my husband finally finished seminary, we moved to Palm Springs for
his job.
Moving to the desert was
crazy for me because I had vowed as a little girl that I would never live in
the desert, be married to a pastor, or work as a secretary. Shortly after
moving to the desert, I became a church secretary at another church in the
area. We bounced around from house to house in the desert. At one point after
our son had moved out, we lived with one of our friends in her house. That
doesn’t sound that outrageous, but how we got there was. We had a perfectly
fine home at the time. However, God prompted both of us at a conference to call
our friend and ask if we could live with her. Amazingly she said yes, which
lead to a rich time of ministry to the youth of our church, as we used the
house as our meeting base while the church was going through a remodel. When we
finally moved out on our own again, both of us were working for the same church
and growing in our ability to work together.
When the time came to
leave the church, God had already prepared a new ministry for us to join – one
that took us back to the very beginning. We are back working with people who
are in various stages of recovery and growth, that often have the same
questions that the youth we worked with had, and a need for unconditional love
while they explore their relationship with God.
As I look, back at the
rich, full life I’ve had, I’m thankful that God reminded me that day when I had
iceberg feet, that He had a greater plan for our relationship than that
romantic gooey stuff. It’s a good thing since my husband isn’t the classic hero
type in a love story, but he is perfect for me. Every night when I fall into
bed, he is there to hold my hand. Just as I drift off into my dream world, I
know that my real world is so much better because of the man holding my hand.
The man God picked out for me long before I ever met him, the one that would
take me on great adventures and encourage me to be all I could be. Our story
has been an epic God Hunt for me.
I look forward to many more years of hunting down God sightings with my extra special husband at my side.
Praying that God blesses your day with extra joy!
For more information about our ministry go to www.live180.org.
I recently watched a documentary on
the Blue Angles, the Navy’s flight demonstration squadron. I have a love for
this group that goes back to my childhood in Seattle. Every year during
Seafair, my mother would make sure we went to Lake Washington to watch the Blue
Angels perform. We would find a place where their show takes them closest to
the ground. It felt that if my arms were just a little bit longer, I could
touch their wings. The rumble of the engines and feeling the rush of air as
they passed overhead is forever etched in my memory. The documentary was about
how they make that magic happen.
As I was preparing a team for praying
at a conference. Most of the people in the room had gone through this training
in previous years when it occurred to me that we were like the Blue Angels. As
we reviewed the guidelines for prayer with others, I saw a picture in my mind
of the lead pilot, slowly reading through the complete flight plan in the hours
before they were going to fly. I was struck with how important it is to be
ready to go into a prayer session with everyone prepared – to practice, practice,
practice – like the Blue Angels who spend long hours together training. They
hang-out with each other in their off-hours. The goal is to be able to think
and move as a unit, to trust each other with their lives. I love the imagery of
this in my faith walk. Spending time with God practicing spiritual disciplines
prepares me for the daily journey with Him. However, hanging out with God just
for the joy of it, is equally important. My ability to trust Him grows,
allowing me to think as He thinks and see the world the way He sees it. We turn
into a team that does amazing things.
I want the guidelines to be second
nature, so that I can be completely in-tune with what God is doing right in
front of me. I want to be keyed into His voice, His commands. I want to be so
in sync with His movement that I’m in the right places at the right times, even
when it feels death-defying. It’s exhilarating – my happy place.
In that space, I’ve seen bodies
healed. I’ve seen people tormented by regrets and anger set free. I’ve seen
people transformed to the point that they step into their true destinies. It’s
the fulfillment of both Luke 4:17-19 and Matthew 10:7-8:
(Luke 4:17-19 New American Standard Bible) And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
And
(Matthew 10:7-8 New American Standard Bible) And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.
I know that this only comes with
practice, sometimes failure, and the ability to own up to the times when I’m
out of sync, which is also something that the Blue Angles do at the end of each
flight. They debrief with each other and look for places where they can
improve. I feel that this is an area often left out of prayer teams, but it’s
important. None of us gets it right one hundred percent of the time, but when
we have others around us helping us to think through the process, we can improve
and grow in our ability to be in the middle of what God is doing.
The Blue Angels have a saying when
they are debriefing: “Glad to be here.” That is how I feel when I’m praying for
others, so glad to be the person God is using to show someone else how much He
loves them. It’s a privilege that deserves my full commitment to the process. I
encourage you to fly strong and safe with God.
While on vacation in Washington this
summer I had a major God sighting. It started with a promise to visit Index
Community Church, where my nephew-in-law is the pastor. It is the perfect
little country church on the edge of town.
I can remember my Dad driving me over to Eastern Washington via Highway 2 when I was a little girl. One of the many tiny towns along that road is Index, WA. The strange part of my memory is how scared I felt driving along that road, which didn’t make sense to me since I loved traveling with my Dad. It was just this stretch of Highway 2 that made me feel like something was going to jump out and hurt me. My dad loved to take me on adventures, like the time we detoured off the road and over a two-lane bridge into the city of Index. He would say when we saw Mt. Index, “Look! There is the mountain that points to Jesus.” It was a phrase that seemed to calm me down.
Back to the present: there I was, standing outside this little white church, thinking about how I had been praying that God’s presence would fill this valley for most of my life. Then walking into the church, I realized that my niece and nephew were part of the answer to those prayers. I finally felt at peace. I sensed God showing me that they have taken up the call to be pointers to Jesus. They hold the index of important words that this community needs to hear. The people of Index Community Church are full of the presence of God and want to share that love with everyone they meet – family, friends, neighbors, and people just passing through.
Though it is estimated that only 205 people live in Index, it is a spiritually rich community with the Index Community Christian Church, the Aquarian Tabernacle Church of Wicca and the Snowy Mountain Buddhist Retreat Center – all firmly established there. There is a sense of convergence, pointing to something significant going on in the spiritual realm. What a blessing it is to see my relatives stepping into ministry in this important piece of land. I’m praying that they have a big impact that is felt around the world.
Then I had another flashback, to a time I was sitting at my Grandpa’s kitchen table and he was praying for the generations to come that they might serve God with their whole hearts, that each of us would have a heart of ministry, willing to share the love of God with anyone that we come in contact with. Again, I am overwhelmed at how God answers prayers. Not only is this niece serving God as a Ministry Assistant at Northwest University and working with her husband here in Index, bu my other two nieces, are also in ministry. My middle niece is starting a ministry for single pregnant women at her church, and her husband also works at Northwest University. The oldest of my nieces is a missionary with her husband in France.
I am overwhelmed by the grace of God
that has helped me to stay faithful my whole life, and that I now get to see
answers to prayers that were prayed 30 – 50 years ago. Over the years, I’ve
sometimes wondered if God was listening to my prayers; but clearly, He has been
listening the whole time and just waiting for the perfect timing to answer
them. Don’t give up hope — even your simplest childlike prayers have an
impact! God hears them all and has answers waiting for the perfect time to be revealed.
Stay strong and have faith, maybe someday you will have crazy God stories like
this one.
Several years ago, a statue of Marilyn Monroe was temporarily on display on the corner of Tahquitz and Palm Canyon in Palm Springs. The statue made that corner a hub of activity, making it an opportunity for God to do something unique.
While I was at church on May 27, 2012, I felt God prompting me to gather people to be a presence for His Kingdom on that corner. I also wanted to test a theory that I had been exposed to – the idea that reading the Bible out loud made a difference. Combining these two inspirations, I asked the people in my church if they would help me read through the entire Bible out loud over the coming month near the Marilyn Statue. It was a wild stretch, but God worked in our lives, and we did it. We weren’t conspicuous. The goal was to read like we were having an intimate conversation with a friend or talking on our cell phones. We didn’t descend on the area as a group but fit the readings into our individual schedules over the four weeks. Each of us signed up for one or more section to read, which consisted of several chapters that would take between fifteen and twenty minutes to read. We then reported back what happened while we were there. The stories were phenomenal. People wanting to join in, people asking about faith, readers receiving emotional healing, and overall love and connection with the community that opened our eyes to the needs around us.
During that same time, a group of Christian college-age youth came through Palm Springs as they were traveling around the country sharing the love of Jesus. They made sure to tell us that they felt that God was going to bless this corner with more opportunities in the future to share God’s love with the community.
Same Corner Six Year Later Still a Gathering Place
Today – June 9, 2019
My husband and I were driving along Palm Canyon on Sunday afternoon and to my surprise and great joy there was a group of college-age students on the corner using conversation boards to start dialogs about faith in Jesus. Marilyn is long gone, but the corner is still a gathering place, and God is using it.
I’m looking forward to even more strange and unusual ways that God will inhabit that corner with His presence.
What are you dreaming about today? Is it a big God idea that has long-term ramifications? Are you bold enough to step through fear, embarrassment, and reluctance to make it happen? Are there other people who can help you accomplish your dream? If so, don’t let anything hold you back. For me, the risk was worth it.
Have you ever gotten a bruise and wondered, “Where did that come from?” I saw one of those on my hand the other day. It didn’t hurt; it was just several interesting colors. But what I noticed was an old scar became visible. When I was really young my dog, Kirby, bit me. That scar on my hand was red and bumpy for years. It used to bug me until it faded and got lost in my adult wrinkles. I forgot all about that day in the backyard – a day when I learned not to tease a dog with food. Yep, Kirby thought I was a piece of meat – my own fault.
Anyway, when I looked down at the bruise today, it made me think about all the scars I have that are invisible until something makes them come back to the surface. Sometimes I see something, or someone says something, that brings back a painful memory; or, like today, I’m not clear what has made my scar reappear, but there is no hiding when that happens.
It wasn’t a huge leap to start thinking about all the people that I’ve talked with and ministered to over the years that are wounded. We all have scars that are invisible until something brings them to the surface. We all have some things we would like to keep hidden or forget about, but those things are still part of our life story. Sometimes we need to do something about the scars, like the one on my elbow where the internal stitches are festering to the surface long after surgery. Sometimes, like the scar on my hand, it’s just a reminder of my youthful stupidity. But the bottom line is that our scars have helped shape us and mold us into the people we are today.
My goal is to embrace my scars as signs of my growth over the years and to find ways to use them to help others through painful moments. When someone’s scars are showing, I choose to have empathy. I choose to listen as they talk about the scars, to give away hope and to walk with them through the process of healing when needed. Honestly, making the choice not to turn away from scars isn’t always easy, but definitely rewarding. When I see a scar healing, fading into a distant memory or into something that spurs a person into a healthier, more productive future, my heart leaps for joy. I encourage you to take the leap and choose to use your healed scars as a beacon of hope and healing for others, whose scars have just become visible.
