Softening in the Hands of God

Learning the hard way has kind of been my lifelong motto. I made bad decisions, wrong choices, and messy mistakes more than once. You know…just to be sure.

But life is full of THOSE things. And I’m not the only one who has suffered through them. That’s because we are imperfect people living in an imperfect world. And often we do not hear God, or…we simply choose not to listen.

But these things are inevitable and actually necessary in our life. Learning from each trial, mistake, and transgression is what builds our character. When we finally realize just how messy our world is we can allow God to be the potter. As we soften to his will we become the clay in his hands. He can then spin us, turn us, mold us into something quite beautiful. This is growth and this is necessary.

Isaiah 64:8 But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.

I met three beautiful people last night for the first time. And while I am still this soft blob in the hands of God, I’m glad they met me now and not twenty or thirty years ago. I’m not quite the same person.

All my life people have told me I am kind, but I know that my heart was not always where it should have been, and it wasn’t always kind, or even pretty. Do you recall your children ever leaving a clump of clay out of the container for days? Usually it becomes as hard as rock. When clay is no longer warmed by the hands that’s what happens. If (when) we choose to not listen to God, our souls become hardened as well. He sets us down and lets us figure things out. But he’s never far away. Once we surrender, God’s warmth softens us…again.

Today I am still learning and growing while being ever-so mindful about what I do and say. I no longer want God to set me down. I’ve learned over the years, that life without him is difficult and painful.

The person we are at the end of our life is what matters. Reality is that this life is a journey of faults and failures and growth and learning, and of softening in the hands of God.

♥️

Andi

Photo: taken by my daughter, Charlie, somewhere beautiful in Florida.