Glory To Glory

"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."
~ 2 Corinthians 3:18

Tonight while doing the dishes I got a chance to listen to one of my favorite motivational speaker. She named her talk, "Glory To Glory". She explained that life is not a pattern of success following by failure. It's not taking one step forward and two steps back. None of that is true.  It's about living every single day, in every situation with the mind set that everything is a glory. 

In 2012, I started First Position.... Glory. 

I started with 22 students, in my first season as a dance company....Glory.

Three months into starting, the place we were having practices had to do some remodeling and asked us to leave... Glory. 

One month after that, 4 students dropped out...Glory. 

September of 2013, we started a new season at First Position and we doubled in students...Glory! 

I've learned through this business that I can look at things as failure and successes or I can embrace God's glory in my life..and see that this too will make me who I am to be in the future. 

Ever had your heart broken by someone you loved? Glory. 

Have you ever gotten that promotion at work? Glory. 

That time you got a flat tire, or ran out of gas? Or your car wouldn't start? Glory. 

Have you ever had to say goodbye to someone, but knew they were going to a better place? Glory! 

Have you ever been rejected by someone? Glory. 

Glory to Glory to Glory to GLORY!  

In life, there are no mountain top and valley experiences. There are no tug of war between success and failure. Our life is a beautiful sequence of glory to glory. It takes time to see, all those things you look at as failures...they aren't you. You are not a failure, don't you see? It's just glory to glory. Success and failure are not an exclamation points. They are not who you are. It's about how you evaluate the things, when they go wrong. How am I going to evaluate this? Am I going to laugh at this? Am I going to be sad at this? Am I going to choose to have this glory mentality? 

Broken and Beautiful

It's an interesting feeling you get when you look back at your life and realize that it isn't they who have changed but you. Today marks the last year I will be a teen. Being 19 years old doesn't feel much different but when you look at the life I have lived, it all seems so bittersweet. If you told me a year ago, that I would go through the stuff I have, I would have sat and cried. I would have wished it away because there was so much that I and my family have had to go through in the last year. The song I keep listening to is “Broken (Beautiful) by Chris Sligh.

“Can we move on, can we move on..from the love we've left behind?
Can we move on , can we move on..from the love we will never find?
The world is broken, in so many pieces, but the brokenness is beautiful. It's beautiful. My heart is broken, by beauties mysteries but the brokenness is beautiful. It's beautiful.”

It makes me smile when I hear those words, because it is so true. It's in our brokenness that we are made beautiful because it isn't our own strength but God's that keeps us breathing. They always say that if you could do it over again, would you have gone through it all again. I can honestly say that I would. Not because it was all so pleasant but because of who I am today....

“We want to avoid suffering, death, sin, ashes. But we live in a world crushed and broken and torn, a world God Himself visited to redeem. We receive his poured-out life, and being allowed the high privilege of suffering with Him, may then pour ourselves out for others.” ~ Elisabeth Elliot

What wonderful words. To suffer for the good of this world is a high privilege. To suffer with Christ. Being broken isn't a bad thing, because when we are broken, we can feed a multitude! Just like Jesus did.

I feel like spring right now. I want so badly to bloom flowers, and see myself grow from the rain, but the snow keeps coming. But just like the spring, we can bloom even in those snowy days.


So, today..I turn 19, and my life is gonna change just as it always does. “..Love mixed with pain, and hope raised again..” I look forward to what God is gonna do. Where He is gonna take me, and who He will bring into my life.
Goodbye 18, hello 19.