Honoring The Brave Ones

My dear Bravehearted Beauties, you are a gift to my heart! Thank you for reading and rejoicing in the story of the big brother I always wanted but never knew I had. Thank you for your prayers as I wrestled with fear and struggled to step into my brave heart. Thank you for your patience as you waited and wondered. Thank you for your life-giving words in response. And thank you for journeying with me as the story continues to unfold. I don’t know all that God is going to do through this story, but I get the sense that it’s a story with wings and has just taken flight. I’m expectant and hopeful about what is to come…in my life, and in the lives of others.

PINIT

In recent years, I’ve developed a “brave radar.” As I listen to people share their stories, I listen for the ways they are brave…both in big ways and in small ones. Many times, I see brave where people can’t see it in themselves. I love to call the brave out in others. And I love to honor the otherwise overlooked parts of a story that culminate in a glorious crescendo of beauty and bravery.

I don’t know if this story I’ve shared has reached its crescendo yet. Only God knows. {Personally, I sense there’s a lot more goodness, beauty and healing to come.} But today, I want to honor the brave ones who came before me in this story. Their specific stories aren’t mine to tell, and my short sentences won’t do their stories justice, but I’m so in awe of each of these people and want to their brave and beautiful hearts.

First, there was a brave young woman who made a brave choice to give life to a son she knew she couldn’t keep.

And there was a brave couple who made a brave decision to adopt a son as soon as they heard of his birth.

Hearts breaking. Hearts opening. Love is so very brave.

46 years later, there was a brave sister who followed her intuition and bravely pursued a big brother she believed was out there somewhere.

And there was a brave brother who received word of biological siblings out of the blue and bravely said yes to more without knowing a thing about them.

Then there was another brave sister who supported her brother of 46 years in his decision to meet two brand new sisters, and bravely embraced them with hugs and chocolate.

And finally, there’s me…bravely telling the story God is asking me to tell, knowing I’m not entirely supported, but trusting that God will bring beauty to every broken place. And believing that somehow the telling of this story will usher in more healing and goodness than any of us can ask or imagine. {Ephesians 3:20}

Will you dare to believe in the MORE with me? Not just in my story, but in your own? Let’s keep partnering with God in His story by being brave with our stories each and every day…both in the little things and in the big things.

Love to you with all of my brave and beautiful heart,

 

 

P.S. You don’t have to wait until a story is made beautiful to bravely honor and rejoice in it. I’m very much in the middle of my own pain and brokenness right now. Some of it is related to this story and some is not. But no matter how broken things look today, I know this much is true: there is a particular beauty formed in you through brokenness. Will you be brave enough to allow it? And even embrace it?

“So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.”

2 Corinthians 4: 16-18, The Message