{Beautiful Things}

Picture from here - Words by me :)

My favorite flower, the peony, blooms in the spring.

AFTER

Its weathered the hard winter. 

It's an example of a beautiful thing that came after a difficult moment.

When I look at my life and the most beautiful moments. Most came after some of my most difficult moments. 

Winning in sports, after months of hard training

Getting into the education program, after having to take remedial English courses

Understanding true forgiveness, after confessing my sins to those I sinned against.

 Wining  the UMAC conference our senior year, after starting out losing 10 games in a row. 

Our life in Haiti. 

Marriage, is filled with beautiful moments, usually after some refining. 

Lia Marie, after months of pregnancy and labor. 

There are many more moments that I could talk about. Being new parents is hard. There are many difficult moments, where decisions need to be made. Sometimes we agree on how we should handle those moments, other times we don't. We hurt each other in the process. When we give each other grace and forgiveness, there are beautiful moments that come after. 

 This is one lesson that I want Lia to learn early in life. While I would love to protect her from hurt and pain of this world, it's something I just can do.  It's important for her to learn that beautiful things can come out of difficult moments. Even at 3 months of age she is learning this. Whether its rolling over, crying during nap time, etc...there are some things, that if I help her through and make them less difficult, aren't nearly as beautiful as when she experiences the hard moments. 

Keep pressing on in those hard moments, beautiful things are coming.