When You Least Expect It...

Life is hard. We all know this. We all have our tough times, our hidden hurts. Sometimes, we can look at our pain and at someone else's and say "I could have it much worse" and we find comfort in that.

A lot of times, though, our pain is so great that we don't find solace in those comparisons. Our pain is very real and very close - it consumes us so easily. When our lives don't go the way we wanted them to - when someone hurts us - when we hurt ourselves...it's all too real to ignore, too present to push down.

Our pain is our own and no one else's. And it needs to be felt...needs to be processed...

And it needs to be used.

It MUST have a purpose.

And God has surprised me consistently with how He has used mine for His good.

Marked by our Maker

This is my beautiful girl at her best - relaxed and happy and comfortable. She makes me so very happy and overwhelms me with loveliness.

 

She is beautiful, inside and out. She is a constant reminder to me of God's goodness.

Baseball!

Mason has always liked baseball, but since he watched The Sandlot a couple of weeks ago for the first time, it's been all that he wants to do. He's been constantly asking Randal to play catch with him and has been trying to figure out how to throw better, so we've been working on that.

I took this video to just catch a good father-son moment, but it turned into something much more entertaining about half way through.

Things to learn from this video:

Mason has a delayed reaction to injury.
Randal is fully willing to leave his children for the animals.
Getting a bruise is REALLY exciting.
You MUST have a hat to really play baseball.
Madison is very concerned about me wearing my flip flops.

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn0cg6m-o-Y

Thoughts from an emotional girl...

The past few years have been a great experience for me. I've finally gotten to know and understand myself in a way that I should have done years earlier. I've learned what makes me tick, my strengths and weaknesses, my love languages, and what tugs at my heart strings more than I've ever taken the time to understand before. It's made me more in tune with those around me and how things affect me. It's revealed some deep seeded truths to me. It's helped me express myself more honestly and without shame.

Most of all, it's shown me how I'm made just the way God knit me together and it's shown me how His character is built into me and how He can use that for His good.

I've always been an emotional person. For the majority of my life, I've tried to suppress that. Let's be honest - most of us usually view "emotional" as the equivelent of "weak". That's the way the world works  and if we want to be seen as strong people, we can't let our emotions get in the way. So since I wanted to be perceived as a strong, independent female, I tried to push my emotional side back down where no one could see how "weak" I truly was.

Now, I see that I was terribly misunderstanding emotions. I was letting the world define my emotional nature, and not the One who made me that way.

Thought you got rid of me didn't you??

Ok, so it's been a couple of weeks since I posted. My apologies. But little did you know that I secretly have about 10 posts waiting in the wings...but I'm blocked. Stuck. Mostly because I've been holding myself back on them. But as soon as I can muster up the courage to put on my big girl panties, you're all in for it...we're talking posts on emotions, beauty, transparency, surprising ministry opportunities, and birthmarks - yes, birthmarks! You've got lots of great things ahead of you because God's been doing a great work in me, so hold your horses!

But for now, you get a family update - can I get a hoorah!?!?!  Yay for a little peak back into daily life at the Schafers house. Never a dull moment here! So here's what we've been up to: