Those who sow with tears
will reap with songs of JOY.

Psalm 126:5

 

Over and over I have told the teens in, Girls Nite In, that...."life is messy". It just is. We live in a world that is not perfect and everyone knows it. It's not God's original design. It is a fallen world with imperfect people. At every GNI meeting, I tell the girls that we (the leaders) are here to help them navigate through this messy life. I wish I had someone to mentor me and help me through my teen years. But I didn't...so I crashed and burned around every corner. The Lord has created me with an undying passion for these girls!!! I want them to know HIM....to walk with HIM....and to let HIM love them with an everlasting love.

 

This past weekend, we finished our last meeting for Girls Nite In (for this school year). Our topic was "Loss & Grief"....one that I know too well and could probably write a book about. I had so many things I wanted to share with the girls and just a ton of thoughts marinating in my mind. It was hard to narrow it down to just 30 minutes of a my heart poured out for them. We had a few girls who had lost their mom or dad in the last year or two. We had other girls who's parents had left them through divorce.....and still others that were suffering through so many changes in life, it just all felt like LOSS.

 

I was confident that the Lord had planted Truth in me to give out to them. It was a night that I will never forget. Tears, broken hearts, sweet faces looking up at mine. I will always remember how the Lord took my pain and His love....and gave them tangible, mind blowing HOPE. A hope that is like no other. It will never end. He gave them this Truth in

Isaiah 40:31...

"but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. "

 

In this life there will be suffering. We cannot avoid it. In the past 2 weeks, I have attended a double funeral, read a journal of a teen whose mom died of cancer, shared the heart of another teen whose dad died one year ago and comforted a friend whose dad died yesterday. Our grief comes in so many forms...not just the death of a loved one. But for me, this is the very thing that moved me deeper in my walk with God. Losing my Mom made me question my JOY, my HOPE and my LIFE. God answered my questions and spoke mightily into my life. He brought me Girls Nite In. He doesn't waste our pain. He uses it for His glory and to bring us closer to Him. I praise God all the time for the pain...for the grief...for the loss. Not because I have suffered....but through my tears He has brought me great JOY!

 

Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of JOY.

 

It is the hardest thing I have ever done.....To trust God in the midst of suffering; To believe Him at His word; To let Him move each foot forward when they are weighted down in darkness. BUT...when I did these things, He turned my tears to joy.