Thursday, April 11, 2013

Do I smell?

This idea that brokenness brings sweetness, that beauty comes from ashes, that deep strength comes from professed weakness. I love it.
I live there.
I think most of us do.
As a foster/adoptive mom, I realized with a bit of pride this weekend, that the ashes and beauty, and the weakness and strength is on the surface maybe a bit more in our lives.

I attended a retreat for adoptive/foster moms and those who work with orphans. As I found myself sharing meals and beds, sharing struggles and joys, tears and laughter, I found myself amongst "my people". It was so sweet.

We were a lodge full of amazing women. There was so much strength, power, perseverance, tenacity, love and beauty. It was overwhelming at times.
We were all gathered, carrying the brokenness of our own lives, as well as those of the children we love, yet I was overwhelmed by the sweet incense that poured out of these women. Some of us came crawling, some of us came weak, or poor, but the common denominator is that we came.

“God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.”
― Vance Havner

I'm believing this quote. I'm praying this over so many of the women I came in contact with this past weekend. That from the brokenness that we have chosen to live in, from the brokenness we have encountered in the orphans of this world, that God would continue to bring forth goodness.

I left the retreat, I left these women, feeling as if I carried with me their incense. I left feeling as if the openness and rawness of it all deposited in my spirit a sweet perfume that came straight from the throne. And for that I am so so grateful to many of you who were there.

I met a lot of amazing women. And I can't wait for next year. I hope that so many more of you can join us!


“A broken soul is not the absence of beauty, but a cracked and torn soul reeks of the sweet incense it contains.”
― unknown



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