To those looking for that secret to a happy life, guess what?

In this life, we will have joy and we will have pain:

~~The day comes and we can hardly contain the joy when that new life bursts onto the planet, changing our world forever.

~~Then the days of pain and separation and death are so intense that we think our hearts just might burst, and our life will never be the same.

I suppose most have experienced both, just as I have–and just as dear friends have this very week.

How do we do it?  How do we bounce back and forth between the two emotions and do anything more than survive?

How do we savor the precious few moments that God gives us, taking the good with the bad and making the best of what we have been given?

I come back to my motto for 2015:

LIVE SIMPLY

CARE DEEPLY

SPEAK KINDLY

LOVE GENEROUSLY

and LEAVE THE REST TO GOD.

My heart is full as I grieve and rejoice all in the same hour.  The air I breathe is the same, but it feels different--I feel different.  An air of excitement blended with gloom, as my mind struggles to decide what emotion will take over…

… and it’s not at all a coincidence that I “stumbled upon” these words:

Just to be tender, just to be true,

Just to be glad the whole day through;

Just to be merciful, just to be mild,

Just to be truthful as a child.

Just to be gentle, and kind and sweet,

Just to be helpful with willing feet,

Just to be cheery when things go wrong–

Just to drive sadness away with a song.

Whether the hour is dark or bright,

Just to be loyal to God and right.

Just to believe that God knows best,

Just in His promises even to rest–

Just to let love be our daily key,

That is God’s will for you and me.

~~anonymous

LOVE says, “No matter what, I will trust my loving God and His plans.”  Love is what brings the most joy and the most pain.  It wouldn’t hurt so much if we didn’t love so much.  And it’s worth it.  Because love IS the key.  GOD IS LOVE PERSONIFIED

So I look to Him for help and for healing and words of wisdom and comfort.  I choose to believe that His loving hands are holding me–and those I love.  That HE understands my weakness, my struggle, my pain.  He can and will bring hope and healing. This God, Father, Creator, giver-of-life-and-the-very-air-I-breathe, is the same all-powerful, all-knowing Heavenly Father who will carry you and I through to the other side, even when we don’t see the other side.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33

Because, don’t you see, this isn’t all there is?! 

This.is.not.the.end!

We are given one chance at life.  One.  We choose which doors to open:. Life and love and trust or Fear and doubt and worry.  Opening the door to His love is the key to this life and the next…

“Listen! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and have dinner with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:20

Let Him in.  He’s asking you to trust Him.  He is trustworthy.

“For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

~~Vickie