Mom Heart Moments #277

Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

LONG AGO, I realized righteousness is something each person must reach for personally and in private. Only I knew how I cultivated faithfulness in my heart when no one else could see. Only I could choose to believe God every day. Only I could choose to be thankful and to observe the tangible beauty that He had placed in my life for my own pleasure through creation.

Since that commitment was made, decades of my life have been invested in faith and hope. As a consequence, I have seen repeatedly how the Holy Spirit, as a spring of living water, fills my soul at the least expected times, giving me the ability to go on one more day, one more hour. My perspective has changed and deepened as I have learned little by little to let go of the things my hands grasped for in this world and to open my heart to eternal priorities.

The Holy Spirit springs up through living waters in my heart, enabling me to find peace and freedom from the bondage of pleasing others, more joy at small gifts —a sunset, a hug, a friend’s kind words, a Sunday morning breakfast with all six of us laughing, discussing Scripture, sharing in our close fellowship and belonging as a family. My life is more centered in Him and less in my preoccupation with myself. This didn’t happen overnight, though; it has come through many years of building little by little in this direction, amid a lot of stumbling and getting back up.

Are you carrying many burdens? Write down the things that concern you, using the written page as an offering to the Lord. Ask Him to show you where you can offer thanks for good things you might not see on the surface. Dedicate the things that concern you to Him, and ask for His love to be poured out within your heart!