Bent, Broken and Beautiful

You aren’t actually thankful for something if you think you actually earned it. That’s pride, not gratitude.

You are only actually grateful for something if you see it as actually a gift — as an unearned gift that was bestowed unexpectedly upon you. That you didn’t earn it, that you didn’t deserve it, that you didn’t create it yourself. ~Ann Voskamp

A gift bent, broken, beautiful...

-I am thankful for this perfect sized green pan I have.  I've had it for years, maybe 8 or 9?  And somewhere in the everyday use or in one of the 5 moves since, it has received this huge dent.  The matching lid no long fits precisely.  It can still sit on top of it, but it doesn't cover the pot exactly.  But, you know what?  That pan is the perfect size!  It's not my smallest or largest pan...it is my exactly middle-sized pan I use for sautéing veggies for soups.  Or making scrambled eggs for more than myself (but not enough to feed a youth army.)  It still works perfectly, though it may not look "perfect".  There is some life lesson here, folks.  :)

-I am thankful for a broken heart.  Not in such a trendy-Taylor Swift kind of way...but I mean, I am thankful that I have a heart that can still break.  That I am not bitter or hard-hearted enough that I can still be moved and broken for the things that move and break God's heart.  His heart is strong, and yet it breaks.  And I have this same heart; the new heart He creates, in me.  Strong and broken.  Just the way I like it.

-I am thankful for my beautiful girl!  She is the happiest person I know...and always sees the beautiful in the mundane.  And she wants you to see it too...she HAS to share this that brings her such happiness!  She has the most perfect and beautiful freckles scattered across her nose and cheeks; I imagine that God took great delight in planning exactly where each one would lay.  And I get to call her mine.  Such a gift!