Jealousy, the expired compliment

My friends, beware. A compliment that rests inside your heart and mind but goes unsaid may decompose and cause rotting within.

If they came in boxes I believe that to be their warning label.

There are many things I struggle with and am learning in this season of life however, one thing I have found God's wisdom on at a very early stage is the art of a compliment. When I notice traits on a woman that are different from my own and that I admire I hand those thoughts out. Not only is it uplifting for her (and I'm a big proponent of encouragement) but it brings life to me.

See I believe that a compliment can spoil if it isn't given out. Have you ever looked at a woman and thought:
'I love her hair' or men 'I wish I could grow a beard like that'? It's at this stage, when the thought enters that it should exit into the ear of the person you are admiring because when it doesn't, more often than not this thought turns rancid and starts to sound like:
'Why don't I have hair like that? Must be nice to just be born with great hair...whatever her hair isn't that great'.

And a wall begins, brick by brick, dividing you from someone who might just need you and you them.

wild horses and butterflies

I've heard it said and, much like my 'favorites' list on my ipod, have had it on repeat in my mind, "God offers His hand to us so many times to step down from off our wild horse and if we don't take it He will allow for us to be thrown from it to save us from the inevitable were we to stay on."

I have been thrown from my horse and what's more, the horse has trampled me but I am still alive, breathing and I am wide awake.

So I find myself at the beginning of turning into a different being. I am on the verge. I am in a cocoon and it's tight and painful and uncomfortable and unbelievably terrifying, as often times butterflies do not even receive their chance to emerge. Yet I feel God's hand on the small of my back, gently tugging the wings inside of me, His whispers tell me "I'm here, I'm here, I'm here". So there is this peace amidst it all and the honest truth is that I couldn't be more excited to become the butterfly that emerges, to see myself turned inside out, far from the cocoon and even further from the horse that threw me.

Courage

Who knew that the title of a blog I created a few years back would end up being my anthem a few years later? Funny how those things work out...like how we are given a permanent title fresh out of the womb and eventually end up belonging to the meaning of that title. Bridgette means "exalted one" so we'll see how that one turns out ;)

courage (n.)
    c.1300, from Old French corage (12c., Modern French courage) "heart, innermost feelings; temper," from Latin cor "heart" (see heart) which remains a common metaphor for inner strength.

I'm learning a lot about this.

Life has taken a very sharp right turn which ended up being a very wrong turn and now I must get out of it's current vessel and walk back home, barefoot.

I'm not even to the end of the street yet.