Choosing to ENJOY the journey!

Choosing to ENJOY the journey!

 

Lets talk about the process of enjoying the journey and letting go of anxiety along the way!

How do you manage your stress and anxiety when life is busy, stressful and complicated?  The answer is a little more simple than I want to admit…Accept the process.  Don’t allow the details of the day to day steal your joy and the little victories along the way.  No matter what you are facing, you have a CHOICE in how you are going to respond.  No one else can make that choice for you.  That’s up to YOU.

As someone who has struggled with anxiety most my life, I understand when everything seems to spiral out of control.  BUT GOD.  Am I leaning into Him and listening to the peace of His voice?  Am I bringing my requests to Him and letting Him fight the battles?  Sadly, not enough.  But my desire is to take each day and find those victories and celebrations.  I want to live from a place where JOY.  Not happiness.  Happiness is just a feeling that is fleeting.  BUT JOY is my portion and He has the ability to reach others in and through me.

So my challenge to MYSELF and anyone else who needs a little pep talk is to REST IN HIS TIMING AND PROCESS.  Rest in His perfect leadership and enjoy the journey.  Tomorrow is not promised, so how will we live TODAY!?  In peace and rest.  And it is a DAILY CHOICE!  Hard?  Yes.  But doable? YES YES YES!

I am rooting you on and cheering for you from the sidelines!  YOU have the ability to CHOOSE to live a life fully pleasing.

Take a deep breath and let the process perfect you in love!  It is worth it dear friends and I am on the journey with you!

xo,

Rachael Dee

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The season of singing has come: Finding hope in trials

The season of singing has come: Finding hope in trials

Life. Hope. Tragedy.

It all comes at us like a hurricane.  Winds of testing and winds of refreshing… yet some seasons seem to hurt more than others.

A little over 3 months ago we lost our second baby to the ache of miscarriage.

No one warns you about how its going to affect you.
I mean, honestly, how could they?
Yet as I share my story, I’ve come to learn that so many other women have gone through the same thing.  SO many have not had a capacity to process or feel known, grieving in silence and sometimes even shame.  And that breaks my heart.

No pain has touched us deeper yet no trial has drawn us deeper.
The very thing that the enemy meant for evil… for tearing… for offending our hearts was the VERY thing that drew us closer to the Father.  He who formed us, held us.  He who called us and our child by name wept deep tears with us and drew us close.

You want to know what actually anchored my heart these past few months? Hope in the promised restoration of ALL things.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.” And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”
-Revelation 21:3-5

He WILL make all things new in that day.
He WILL wipe away every tear.
He WILL vindicate all that the enemy has stolen.

My hope, my anchor and my rest is in the reality that I will be forever united with the Father and restored to my 2 beautiful children.  They are IN HEAVEN now with perfect understanding.  They are WITH GOD now, praying for my husband and I to stand firm and hold fast to faith.

I don’t always understand why things happen the way that they do but I know that He is working ALL things together for our good.
I trust that He is perfecting me in love and my life doesn’t end in this age.
I get to live FOREVER with God.

That my dear friends has been the very thing that has given me my voice back.
He will make ALL things new, just in time.

My beloved speaks and says to me:
“Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away, for behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone.  The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come… Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.  O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the crannies of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.”
-Song of Solomon 2:11-14

If you have walked through grief and feel the weight on your shoulders, know that this is not going to last forever.  The Father will declare the time of singing has come.
If you are weighed down with every pressure and burden of life, know that this season will end.  The Father will declare the time of singing has come.
If you are lost and without hope, take heart! He has promised that there will be a day where the winter is over and past! The time of singing will come.

Arise, beautiful one, and run to the arms of Love.
Run into the arms of the Father and weep on His shoulder.
He is big enough to carry you through the darkest storms.

Trust Him today and know that He sees you, hears you and sings a song of love over you.

In Him we trust and to Him we sing.

Please know I am praying for you.

xo,

A bittersweet celebration of Mothers Day

A bittersweet celebration of Mothers Day

 

 

 

Some seasons come with joy.
Other seasons come with pain.

Heartache.
Challenges.
Grief.

Yet in the midst of it, hope remains firm.
Constant. Brilliant. Beautiful Hope.

And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
-Romans 5:5

For us, these challenges have not been easy the past few months.

Yesterday I celebrated my first Mothers Day…

Two months ago today, on March 9th, our precious first baby went to be with Jesus.  Only a few short weeks after we found out that we were pregnant, the pain of miscarriage swept in like a flood.

A silent pain that so many women walk through, yet rarely talk about.
The loss of an unborn child.
Death. Grief. Aching.

To be honest, I imagined my heart to spiral into depression.
To lose heart and forget faith.
Yet something amazing happened.

I leaned into the pain and let Jesus simply hold me.

Waves of sadness and grief washed over me in the days and weeks to follow and instead of numbing out, I let my heart FEEL the sadness.

Through this process, I FELT GOD DRAW NEAR.

I wasn’t afraid to be honest with Him. To sob so deeply. To let Him know my pain.  I chose to NOT turn my face from Him, but see that He was sitting with me in my sadness.

It was deeply comforting to know that He was with me…

My husband was given a beautiful picture of our baby with Jesus, in perfection… praying for us.
This picture the Lord gave him has graced my heart with such hope.  My amazing, wonderful little baby has a greater knowledge of God than I have ever experienced in a lifetime.  How beautiful His mercies are to our hearts.

Its been 2 months and my heart has felt that sadness sweep over me this week as Mothers Day approached.
I let the tears flow freely and chose not to stuff my pain.
We celebrated, because we know that tiny, little life began at conception and forever we will be parents.

It was important to acknowledge the sadness and let the tears come.

Today I embrace the promise of HOPE.
Hope that I AM a mother.
Hope that I will be with my child for all eternity.
Hope that there is an age to come with no more death, no more sorrow, no more tears.
Hope that in the end, we will be united with God forever.

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
-Revelation 21:4

I am a motherone of the greatest dreams of my heart.
I am a fighterwaiting and hoping for the restoration of all things.
I am a lovertrusting in the process and beautification pain brings.

I will not allow despair to steal the HOPE He has given me.
Hope rests and remains in the age to come and I will always lean into that grace.

For those of you who have lost precious babies, or the pain of infertility, and felt the sting yesterday, know that you are not alone and that I am praying for your heart, mind, emotions and body.

You are beautiful and you are loved fiercely by your Heavenly Father.

I pray you feel His affections resting on you today.

xox

Just Be You.

Just Be You.

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Ok.
So I have a thought and need to know if I am the only one… Or if perhaps, there are many of us in the same place.
My thought is about the importance and value of being JUST YOU.

I’m talking about being ALL IN, no matter the season. About loving FULLY, no matter the heartache. About being all that God has made YOU to be, even when its downright HARD.

YES. HARD!

My heart is reflecting this morning on BEING (who God made) ME (to be).
Just me.  Quirks, humor, personality, dreams and desires… ME!

Not comparing myself to my nearest and dearest friend.
Not being what I presume my husband wants me to be.
Not living under the shadow or cloud of who I was a year ago, but JUST BEING METoday.
And you know whats amazing about this?
I AM ENOUGH!  Just the way I am. TODAY!

Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:13-14, ESV)

Did you catch that?
THE WAY IS HARD.
From the mouth of Jesus Himself!

HARD!!?  But everyone said that when I came to know Jesus, life would get better, easier, simpler, blessed, money, provision etc…
Anyone heard these phrases?  Lived under them?  Questioned God when life didn’t go quite the way you thought??

He gave us a tender yet sober warning that the WAY IS HARD…  Hard, but so incredibly and deeply worth it.
Shame tries to silence us and make us believe that we are not good enough, strong enough, pretty enough, skinny enough, patient enough or loving enough to truly walk in the fullness of God.  Yet the moment we allow shame and condemnation to take even the smallest foothold, we are allowing those lies of the enemy to crush us into despair and a false identity of who God says we are.

The silence and isolation that follow shame are real and debilitating in the process of allowing others to speak life into the deep places of our heart.  How then do we crawl out of the pit?  How do we walk as God made EACH of us to be!?

My challenge to us all today is asking The Lord what HE sees and thinks of us in every aspect of our lives. EVERY Arena.
Its not about what others think.  At the end of the day, God’s opinion of me is the ONLY one that matters.
He is the giver and of life and breathes truth into my weary soul… He gives abundantly when I ASK.

YOU ARE ENOUGH.  You are created in His image.  You are FEARFULLY & WONDERFULLY made!

My mother always told me growing up that “Hard is not bad, its just hard.”
There is always a light at the end of the tunnel.  Weeks, months, years of wrestling produce a patient endurance inside of us.

Let your heart be free today to just be you.  Thank The Lord for making you EXACTLY the way you are.  Take a deep breath (literally) and thank Him for your beauty, your strength, your wisdom, your friends, your family and your eternal relationship with Him.

He is near to you today and LOVES every part about you.
Ask Him to reveal a deeper measure of His nature and character today and let the beauty of who YOU are be enough!

Comment below in any capacity you would like to share and let me pray with you, agreeing with the truth that He speaks over you.

SO Today…
Just. Be. You.

Live & Love Happy,
Rachael Dee

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