I walk into a room of young women with smiles on their faces. They laugh, chatter, share about work and school. You wouldn’t know they all have hard stories. That they are all orphans in some way. Resilient, beautiful, brave warriors who are so much stronger than they look.
You wouldn’t know those things about them either when we hold paintbrushes and scissors and glitter in our hands as we do our art journaling for the week. You wouldn’t know it when they sing as they work. Praises sometimes soft and low, other times joyous and loud.
You wouldn’t know…and I want you to know. I want you to know about the girls of Saving Grace. About how they inspire me. How they’re changing me. How they’re setting my heart free in ways I didn’t know I needed. How they’re helping me be a Mama anyway.
Every Thursday I go to Saving Grace to be part of Soul Restoration. Melody Ross created the online class and Becky Shaffer and D’wana Villines are the two main facilitators for us. I’m not quite sure what my role is but they let me come and that’s enough. Lately I’ve been bringing dinner too. Because you don’t have to go halfway around the world to feed someone’s belly or heart.
When I walked into class the first night, I thought I might pass out. I’ve never considered myself a “crafty girl” and the tables covered with art supplies seemed powerfully intimidating. But surrounded by these Brave Girls in this place where brokenness is beautiful and just part of the journey, I learned that we are all artists on the inside.
Isn’t art what we partner with Jesus to create when he takes the mess of our lives and turns it into something lovely? We all pick up the paintbrushes and the scissors and the paper every day and we let ourselves make and be made into something new.
“I’m convinced that God, who began this good work in you, will carry it through to completion on the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 1:6)
You are a masterpiece in the making. You are broken and whole. You are courageous and afraid. You are a lot more like the girls in those room than you know.
And my hope, my prayer, is that I can become even more like them. Because in so many ways, they remind me of Jesus.
XOXO
p.s. You can find out more about Saving Grace and how you can be part of it here.
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Welcome to Coffee for Your Heart! The concept is simple: You’re an encourager so I’m asking you to pour out a little love with your words every Wednesday. The writing prompt I gave you last week was this question, “Who inspires you?” Now it’s time to link up your blog post or leave a comment sharing your answer.
Pretty please use this button in your post so others can easily join in with us {link the image back to https://holleygerth.com/coffee-for-your-heart-love/}…
The next writing prompt is this: “A small thing that makes a big difference is…” Write a blog post on that theme and link it up here next Wednesday. If you don’t have a blog, you can simply leave a comment.
