The Best Is Yet To Come!

My child, never forget the things I have taught you. Store my commands in your heart. If you do this, you will live many years, and your life will be satisfying. Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them...

[everybreathisasecondchance]

A friend took the photo I based this sketch on. Over the last month, and especially during this fast, the Lord has really been dealing with me on the idea of holding everything loosely even, and especially, the things He has blessed me with. What I’m learning is God can’t, more so won’t, bless you with more unless you’re willing to let go of the old. That doesn’t always mean you lose the old, you just have to be willing to let it go if that’s what God asks. Honestly, that’s how we should hold everything we have, but the longer we have something the more we tend to want to hang on to it. I want to be so desperate for what God has for me that I don’t miss it just because I’m too busy trying to hold on to things the Lord wants me to let go of.

[quotemadness]

“Hope is not a substitute for pain. Hope is in spite of pain.”

— Jon Foreman

[ifthe-sun]

“Face your shortcomings. Sing about your deepest fears. Don’t pull punches. Swing as hard as you can. You’re not alone.”

— Jon Foreman

[everybreathisasecondchance]

“I think it’s true that we all live and die through everyone else’s eyes. It’s why my heart beats when the telephone rings, it’s why I try to say funny things. It’s why I’m singing this song, we just wanna be loved.”

[maddy-elaine]

[winaprimasuri]

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I wanna love you, forever I do. I wanna spend all of my days with you. I’ll carry your burdens and be the wind at your back. I wanna spend my forever like that.

[karacuin-blog]

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When I’m with you, I swear to god, I’m who I wanna be.

[everybreathisasecondchance]

So, I wrote a book y’all. Not sure how many people follow me anymore or if anyone will notice, but here it is.

I wrote this from my own experiences growing up with Treacher-Collins Syndrome and learning to love who I am and see myself through the lens of who God says I am.

Maybe you don’t share my faith, but I still think you can learn from my experiences to learn to love yourself and who you were created to be.

[everybreathisasecondchance]

I’ll likely be jumping ship here soon. You can find me on Facebook, instagram, Snapchat or on my blog @ bbarke00.wixsite.com/reflections

Message me if you’d like one of my other forms of communication.

[everybreathisasecondchance]

Throwback to the early 2000s with a little Jimmy Eat World. "The Middle."

[everybreathisasecondchance]

Dry Bones, Come Alive

Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’ - Ezekiel‬ ‭37:12-14‬

This passage, starting in Ezekiel 37:1, is one of my favorites. The Lord takes Ezekiel to a valley of dry bones and asks him if the bones can live again. Ezekiel replies, “Only you know, Lord.”

This passage represent a time during the exile of God’s chosen people where the remnant had lost all hope of ever returning to the land that had been promised to them. They felt abandoned and forgotten. The dream of going back to what they’d known, if any were left that could remember it at all, had long since been abandoned.

Oftentimes, we have these grand dreams of who we’ll become, what we’ll do, who we’ll marry (B.C. or “Before Christ” I always wanted to marry Jennifer Lawrence! Now, my goal is to marry Taya Smith of Hillsong United. Mostly kidding! Mostly.), or where we’ll live (somewhere warm and sunny?). Some of these dreams are good dreams, and others are what I like to call God dreams. Good dreams are things like where we’ll live or who we’ll marry, but God dreams are the ones that inspire passion in your heart and make you feel like you’re heading in the direction of your purpose. Oftentimes, like the Israelites, we lose sight of and give up on our dreams. Sometimes, they die. Sometimes, they just get buried for a while.

I want you to know, that there are dreams that you’ve let go of, dreams that you’ve either buried or let die, that God is going to breathe life into again. What dream have you let go of that God is telling you to speak life over? What dream is it that God is saying will come to pass, that it’s not too late, that you haven’t missed out on?

Dream again. Believe again. Speak life over your dreams and watch God bring them to pass exceedingly and abundantly more than you could ever imagine!

Side note: I’ve been jamming to Lauren Daigle’s “Dry Bones (Come Alive)” lately. Check it out!

[everybreathisasecondchance]

“You’re a writer,” I tell myself as I stare blankly at the screen willing something to appear. 

I desperately long for inspiration to hit me as I sit here at the Starbucks I happen to work at. Today, I’m on the other side of the counter. Today, I’m a customer, staring at a computer sipping on black coffee wishing I could think of something inspiring to write, but nothing wants to erupt from my mind. Nothing wants to spring forth from this unruly mind onto the blank canvas that is the screen. 

“You can’t be a writer if you don’t ever write anything,” I scold myself, “you’ve been putting this off for far too long.” My inner monologue unfazed by the chattering of the people around me and the incessant droning of the Starbucks playlist.

Instead of inspiration, I’m stuck here writing every little thought that passes through my brain writing this drivel still clinging to the hope that there may be some gold within these words.

If you have read this post, I applaud your persistence and, more than likely I apologize that you are bored enough to read this, probably also hoping to find some gold within these thoughts.

Maybe, just maybe, there is something within this rambling. Maybe, it’s okay to ramble sometimes. Sometimes you’ve just got to let out all the random thoughts within your brain to make some space for the more important thoughts. So, here we go: Just keep writing. Not everything you write will be a masterpiece. In fact, most things you write will probably be total garbage, but I’m learning that if you wait for the right things to write, you’ll never actually write anything at all. So, write. Write often. Write about your dreams. Write about how you can’t write. Above all, just write whatever you want to. Some of it will be good, some of it will be bad, some may be boring, and others inspiring, but all is beneficial. Just keep writing.

[fuckedupmiki]

[everybreathisasecondchance]

This is love! Coffee and cookies! Going back to the mountains that sparked my interest in becoming a coffee master! Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is my favorite!

[everybreathisasecondchance]

My bank account is off in the corner crying right now. In other news, I bought a bass!

[everybreathisasecondchance]

Life is short; live it well. (Cover) - Switchfoot (Live it Well)

[the-pundertaker-deactivated2020]

Every time I say never, God laughs and rubs his hands together.

My pastor when he told me about the time he said he’d never be a pastor (via gods-little-punk)