by Leigh Ann Dilley on November 21, 2024
Greeting Ladies, I have missed communicating with you. It has been a season of travel and retreats for me. All good things, but good things can still create busyness and leave us distracted, disoriented and tired. Whenever that happens, it’s time for an identity check with Jesus.
As we approach the busy holiday season, may this poem be an invitation to slow down and delight in your Savior. Trust you are a precious daughter to the King of Heaven, with a promised inheritance that you can’t even imagine.
May your advent season be full of light, hope and life!
Shiny
Words by Caroline Saunders
Everything seems shiny, but you don’t have to be. You can be uncool; you can wear the wrong thing. You can choose what nourishes over what glistens. You can choose not to speak and instead try to listen. You can shelf the quest for likes and invest in the slow. You can toss out anything that threatens your soul; maybe guard the moments the screens try to steal. Maybe savor each bite of your favorite meal. Maybe exchange some of the shallow to make space for the deep. Maybe take the time to rest, to dance, to weep. Maybe wisely withhold from the world what you feel. It doesn’t mean you’re not open; it doesn’t mean you aren’t real.
Instead, bravely share with those who know more than your name-ones you trust, who hear when your voice is tinged with pain. Maybe choose quiet when the world bids you to get loud. Maybe choose the unseen rather than play to the crowd. Did you know the hidden things hold the greatest treasure? That the most valuable things are what the world cannot measure? That the things undisplayed offer the greatest light? That in your weakness is displayed the greatest might?
LIFE doesn’t need producing, doesn’t have to be a show. You can forget the sparkle and instead “be still and know.” You’re seen by the One who is life, who has all you desire, who’s bore your sin through His strife. You can be with Him each second, each monotonous day. You can give your whole self to Him. You can learn about His ways. Then, you will step into the world with courage instead of hustle, able to do what He asks with lended supernatural muscle. And in so doing, darling girl, what will we see? A kingdom that does more than shine – it gleams!
