Puzzle Pieces

Have you ever felt that when your going through something in your life that you want to retreat!  It’s never pretty, it’s ugly, it feels like it’s oozing out of the pores and it smells. Why would someone want to face that!  I was deceived into thinking people who are going through challenges in their life are messed up.  This is what I believed for many years. Little did I know I was looking at a reflection of my own life in the mirror.

I want to paint a picture for you, anytime something came up in my life that showed any signs of not having it all together I would retreat.  For many years I have portrayed to others that I have it all together. I put on this front of being so strong and recognized that I am a perfectionist.  I believed, “That I have to be perfect”. What a false deception and a prideful way of thinking!  The reality is I am completely not put together and go through hard times all the time!  I am imperfect, broken and can be very critical of myself and others.  If I am being completely honest my flesh and pride are warring against each other as I am revealing truth about me! Ha! How about that, I just kicked the enemy in the face, POW!

I also believed that whatever I was going through was either contagious or showed signs of weakness.  So I would run for cover so no one would see me this way.  It’s like someone took every piece of my life and tossed it out of the puzzle box.  I was broken in so many areas of my life.  As I look at the different pieces I realized I was no longer in charge and that I could no longer run.  I recall how hard it was and how many times I felt like I was not going to make it. The pruning and growing pains hurt so badly that made me question, “What is wrong with me,  I’m such a mess”.

As I reflect today, it’s a beautiful process when brokenness is taking place in our lives. Yes I said, “That all the breaking and pruning that takes place is beautiful”!  Those out-of-place pieces helped me to see where I needed to grow and recognize my triggers. It allowed me to be okay that I have not been called to be perfect and will have challenges. God allowed certain pieces to take place that created a breaking within me.  It brought exposure to things that were in me that were not of him! I had to face things that were dormant and retreat towards him.  It drew me closer to the one that picked up the pieces of my life and placed them where they needed to be, my creator.

Beloved, if you can relate to my story and/or are experiencing different challenges and are feeling broken, I want to encourage you that it will get better and to keep going.  A refining is taking place within you.  God is picking up those pieces and placing them right where they go.  He holds the puzzle box which holds all the pieces together that shows the full picture of your life. Every piece that has felt out-of-place, he strategically has placed it there because it is part of the process!  Eventually you will step back and take a look at a this beautiful picture.  Where God will hand you the puzzle box, that is your life!

Life Application

1. Allow God to take those pieces of your life and lay them where they need to go.
2. Remind yourself that brokenness is part of the process of building your story.
3. Mediate on this scripture.,”But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong ( 2 Corinthians 12:9-11).
4. Share your weaknesses with others.

 

Carrier’s of Hope,

Sandy Cortes

Breathing Hope One Life at a Time!

 

 

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