reaching out

Sometimes I get "stuck" in my grief and just want to sit and be sad.  And there is definitely a time for letting the tears flow, that is very important.  But we can't get "stuck" in it.  One of the best - and most difficult - pieces of advice I was given was that when grief consumes, try to be a blessing to someone else.  Really.  In encouraging or supporting or reaching out to help someone else in their time of need we bless them, but we also bless ourselves.  God uses our compassion towards others to comfort them and bring a joy and a smile to our own hearts.  Life is so very difficult.  Trials and sorrows will come.  I have some precious friends going through some hard stuff right now.  But when we lift our heads up and acknowledge the sorrows our friends and companions are walking through, we are allowing ourselves to be God's hands and feet here on earth. And allowing God to work through us, allows His joy to flow through us as well.  Doing the "hard stuff" is rarely fun, but is always worth it.  It's where we truly live.  We feel deeply in the trials, we learn to love passionately in the trials, we allow our hearts to break for others so they can be filled with His love in the trials.  Not until we step outside our comfort zones, step outside our cozy worlds we have built to protect ourselves, step out to take the risks, do we truly experience the depth of Christ's love.  When we reach out to take on another person's heartache and heartbreak, we are learning to follow Christ's example of the suffering and service that leads to the greatest joy of all.  Start small - find a way to bring a smile to someone's face today and see if it warms your own heart with a joyful smile.  And then don't stop there...  😊