Your story and my story

I saw a plaque recently that said “home is where your story begins“. Now that rings true for me, largely because my childhood home was  a happy place to be. My home as an adult is a happy place to be as well. In both places, I have been encouraged to follow the right path, develop my talents, be an example, and even more importantly, I was shown how to do that. Would my story and life been different if my story began differently? Of course it would! 

Even still, when I established my own home, and when I married and we started our home together, we made changes. We knew that our home HAD to be a place of physical, spiritual, intellectual, and emotional safety. That was non-negotiable for both of us. You see, home needed to be a place that we could regroup, challenge ourselves, and restore. With rest and restoration, and validation, one can live to fight another day, no matter what the battles may be.

Life and people can be cruel or life-affirming. We have all had tastes of both, I assume. I hope today that wherever you are, someone crosses your path this day that is life-affirming. You see, this crazy old world needs you. It needs your unique gifts. It needs your heart. Someone, somewhere, needs YOU. I pray that the loving heart you possess will be strengthened and enable you to reach out.

No matter what has discouraged, angered, or hurt you, I pray that today, yes, exactly today, you step forward and know that the world is better because of you. The world would be FAR WORSE without you in it. Please, never forget that. Take heart. God bless your day.