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Week 11: Beauty for Ashes

This past week I have been reading a book called Beauty for Ashes by Scott A Livingston and I'm obsessed with it. It's all about how we respond to mistreatment in our lives. It encourages us to take the ashes, the pain and sorrows of life, and turn them into beauty by responding to situations as Christ would. I recommend it to everyone!!!

One of my favorite quotes says,
   We talk in great generalities about the sins of all humankind, about the suffering of the entire human family. But we don't experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually. That means he knows what it felt like when your mother died of cancer-how it was for your mother, how it still is for you...He knows that moment when the brakes locked and the car started to skid...He knows about PMS and cramps and menopause...He knows all that. He's been there. He's been lower than all that. He's not waiting for us to be perfect. Perfect people don't need a Savior. He came to save his people in their imperfections. He is the Lord of the living, and the living make mistakes. He's not embarrassed by us, angry at us, or shocked. He wants us in our brokenness, in our unhappiness, in our guilt and our grief." (Cheiko Ozaki, Lighten Up!)

It is so comforting to know that Christ knows it all. He has experienced every individual pain we go through. He's the only one. We can turn to Him and find comfort and solace when the world around us seems dark. It is my goal to make "beauty for ashes" in my life and seek to respond as the Savior would.

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