So if you are a part of the #FiveMinuteFriday group you know that the actual word for this last Friday in October was bacon…but with everything in me I just had nothing to write…and so I decided to break the mold once again and choose a different word. 🙂 I’m a rebel like that!

But it seemed fitting considering my week. Because the past few days I have been grateful for the opportunity to begin again.

It has been interesting to me that through the course of this series I have found that my own words have ministered to me just at the right time. Words that I know God gave me over a month ago. Words that spilled out furiously over the course of a weekend away….words I could not have imagined would speak to me.

But they have.

In a moment this week when I just wanted to give up, I found my post on hope and was reminded that even in this midst of a storm we can begin again.

I can choose how I want to respond, even if it is hard. So often I want to run away, especially when the problems I encounter are my own doing. But God is faithful, I really have seen it time and time again.

I remembered a saying that an old friend once told me, that we could begin our day over again at any time. We don’t have to let our circumstances define our entire day. We can choose joy, we can seek hope. We can start over.

This week has been a week of new starts, of recommitment to seeking God and allowing him to heal those parts of me that are still so broken.

There is so much work to still be done in this heart of mine, but I am willing and ready to allow God to do a new work in me. It begins with me, with me being open to His guidance. It begins with me recognizing that I can’t manage my own life. I need God, every moment of every day.

Beyond these words, and this series I am seeing how much I need to constantly seek God. Asking to see life through His eyes, to love people as He would and to trust Him with each moment of my day.

It isn’t a new idea, that’s for sure…but it is pretty exciting to be at this place of new beginnings.

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Because I am a part of this fun #Write31Days community I have something extra fun to share with you for the rest of this month! DaySpring.com is celebrating all of the amazing Write 31 Days readers who are supporting nearly 2,000 writers this October! To enter to win a $500 DaySpring shopping spree, just click on this link & follow the giveaway widget instructions. Good luck, and thanks for reading! I’d love to see one of my readers win this so enter today!! 🙂

It has been almost a week since we gathered together to celebrate a man who has had such an impact on our entire family.

My grandpa passed away suddenly a little over a week ago. It was a shock to all of us and while the weekend was filled with tears and the reality of our loss, it was also filled with precious time with family.

We found places to sit in all corners of my grandma’s home. Voices filled the air, sharing stories about grandpa and also about their own lives. The young kids found joy in playing with one another and giggled in the depths of the “hidey hole” under the stairs.

I met the husband of one cousin for the first time and heard stories of another who is teaching in Columbia.

We ate good food and celebrated family. It wasn’t the reason we had hoped to gather together, but we didn’t waste an opportunity to soak it all in.

We didn’t take a single picture. I had good intention to do so, but the reality was we just spent those hours doing life together. We don’t have a physical picture to remember the time but instead we created memories that will last a lifetime.

They are a gift.

I haven’t always appreciated taking the time to gather in that way. When we lose someone we love it is easy to feel guilty about all the opportunities missed. My husband had said just a month ago or so that we should take a trip up to visit my grandparents….he said we never know how much time we have left. We had no idea how true that statement would be.

We never made time for the trip and I wish we would have. But instead of focusing on those regrets that we can’t change now, we made the most of the time that we had together in that moment.

It is a honor to be a part of this family, this legacy of love and faith.

God brought us together and I was so aware of the strong family of faith that we have as a result. It is my prayer that I might carry on that legacy in my own family. It is why seeking after Him with my whole heart is so important.

My mom said it herself that my grandpa was a man that sought after God every day. Even in his death he wanted the focus of his funeral to be on God and not what he did…but all that God did.

Seeking God in our daily lives can have a lasting impact on our family. And the blessings that come from that faith are such a gift.