#keepingperspective

[allthatisfalsewillfadeaway]

https://youtu.be/hRLYhQowD_g

[dnnnysha]

#realitycheck #keepingperspective #lavidaesbella #lifeisbeautiful

[tangledskeins]

"The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff." #mirror #artiseverywhere #ourplaceintheuniverse #boredinbelden #keepingperspective

[saviorandlord]

God is all we need.

I don't want to experience it again unless God needed me to. To feel as though God was the only friend you had left and you had one foot out the door of life. For you it could be an addiction, a vulnerability, a toxic environment, unruly friends, difficult parents, tough home life, mental illness, or perhaps even a combination of these sorts of struggles. I am thankful that in the grand scheme I see how the difficult circumstances I had to face were for my own benefit. When God says jump, I want to say: "How high Lord?" and get moving in that area. There's no doubt that in scenarios of affliction and trial, that we're made stronger in aspects of our character, faith, and integrity. It's easy to see that looking back, but difficult to decipher we're in the furnace and smoke clouds our view. I don't pray for more challenges, obstacles, or trial. I pray that God would bless me with the strength, wisdom, prudence, and discretion to tackle existing ones and future ones as God sees fit to allow me endure.God molds us into the people He wants us to be through many of these situations in life. When you're up against the ropes, and you have nowhere else to turn, you remember that at the end of the day God is there. When push comes to shove He is there through good, bad, and everything in between. Thankfully, by His grace, it's been mostly good in my life. He's called me to love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. He's called me to love others as I would love myself. Even still I should hate everybody compared to how much I love God. Of course, praise be to God, that these aren't mutually exclusive. We can fully commit ourselves to God's work, and not only still love people, but it's a core part of our mission as believers. Great reminder. He's blessed me much more than I deserve, my present sacrifices and struggles are completely trivial compared to the sacrifice Jesus Christ endured for me. Compared to the undeserved grace that counts me among the citizens of Heaven, despite being a wretched sinner."26 If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— 29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple."Luke 14:26-34 (NKJV).Dear God, Give us the strength to know you're all we need, and to be willing to give up anything and everything that helps us draw nearer to You and your plans for us! Help us to understand the costs involved and pay all of them. To understand that the greatest price ever paid was paid by Jesus Christ for us, so we wouldn't be slaves to sin. We've been set free, and true freedom is found in obeying you. Not freedom to sin, but freedom to renounce the desires of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life. Freedom to be bold as a lion, because You deserve that and infinitely more.In Jesus precious name I pray!Amen.