A Beautiful Mess

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When I first heard the theme, “A Beautiful Mess,” I thought, Yep, that pretty much defines my life! Life can be messy, I’m sure you’ll agree, but the really awesome thing is that God is able to make a beautiful masterpiece out of your drama and your pain.

This morning I shared on the topic of A Beautiful Mess at my local MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group. If you have kids, you know kids are messy. They spit up, spill things and leave toys lying all around for Mom and Dad to clean up. They fall off bikes, fall down stairs and fall behind on homework. They have fights with friends, make amends and then get hurt again. Raising children is messy!

But what about us . . .

There are several seasons in my own life that I would call “messy.” Through each of these situations, all I could see was the junk. I didn’t see how things could possibly work out and it seemed there was no end in sight. I didn’t have a fast forward button or futuristic vision, but I clung on to some thread of hope, knowing somehow, someway it would be okay.

My Teen Pregnancy

I think back to when I learned I was pregnant at 17. If you’ve read about my life, you’ve heard the story in detail. I remember feeling like I had fallen into a deep pit . . . I was lost, hopeless and unsure about my future. Why would God let me get pregnant?! I wondered. Uh . . . duh! LOL. I had a huge pity party fest, invited all my friends (which by the way didn’t help me feel any better) and lamented, “Why me?!” It wasn’t until I had an encounter with God and He said, “What’s a tragedy today won’t be a tragedy tomorrow,” that I could see a small glimmer of hope. Now, nearly 15 years later, I can say God turned that situation into a beautiful mess!

My Marriage Woes

No one ever said marriage would be easy. If they did, they must not be married! After getting preggers at 17, my boyfriend and I had the bright idea to get married (actually we were “strongly encouraged” by some folks, who will remain nameless). I was 18, he was 21. We were so unprepared! The story isn’t finished on that one yet, so I’ll save the ending for another time, but I can say that messy as it was and still is at times, I see God’s faithfulness time and time again.

God is able to turn your mess into a beautiful message.

Have you ever noticed that God specializes in messes? If you’re not familiar with Scripture, you might not know what I mean. But pretty much everyone God used in the Bible had some kind of crazy drama in his/her life. Some of these stories were down right scandalous! Several years ago, I stumbled upon a list of folks that God used. We’ll call these the least of the least. Folks like Moses (a murderer), Leah (the ugly duckling) and David (an adulterous murderer). All of their lives can be categorized as a beautiful mess once God was done with them.

So if I can offer you any encouragement, like I spoke to the MOPS ladies today, “Embrace your mess!” If you trust God with it, He can make it beautiful in his time.

He has made everything beautiful in its time.- Ecclesiastes 3:11, NIV.