Glow On!!

cannot believe summertime is winding down already and school starting is almost here. AM! NOT! READY! for summer to be over! feels like I haven't had enough time with my kids and hubby and camping with friends and chasing fire flies and swimming and hanging out with my friends and............
am so thankful for work and a paycheck that hubby brings in, but..... man he's been working like a crazy man, and working like a crazy man means longer work days, more crashing on the couch after supper, less together time. and me being all needy like, misses that together time like everything, however if I can keep my focus on the thankfulness part, and remember, he's physically able to work, (and life in that way could have been so different) and remember there are those who want to work and can't find it and would do anything for a paycheck, to remember there are those who would love to have someone to miss, to watch snooze on the couch after a big day.
anyway this summer in all it's crazy fly by quickness, has had a lot of great memories, pool dates with besties, beach camping with awesome peoples, fourth of July family shindigs, and celebrations with friends, family campout weekends, campfire evenings, and Sunday worship in nature.
in a lot of these activities we've enjoyed there has been a certain object that has participated in these events, and the working and design of these little guys has kinda stuck with me and spoke to me how very much us and them and life is kinda the same, an this little guy is the, "GLOW STICK"
fourth of july we had glowsticks that were red, white, and blue, some that were hats, glasses, balls, wands and some that you created and did what you wanted with them. family campouts we had striped ones and ones with designs and words and all manner of craziness. these things continue to be a huge source of entertainment for kids, as soon as the dark starts to creep in when were camping the kids start to begging for the glow sticks, they decorate their bikes, and their tents, make scary monster like faces and some even break them and smear the glowy liquid on surrounding surfaces, or their clothes or unsuspecting victims within their reach. these cheap little guys have proved to be hours of joyful entertainment for kids! (ok, for the adults too!) :) as I think about these fascinating little sticks, it dawns on me that there is a tiny glow like cast to some of them when you first get them outta the package but when they glow their best and brightest is after they've been taken outta there currant safe surroundings and are broken and shaken up.........and there is where my mind sits and spins and sees my own self, and I wonder if my glow is at it's maximum potential, or if all the breaking and shaking in my life, if all the unfamiliar territory, the breaking open and pouring out, has been for nothing, if as time goes by quickly like summer I'm allowing the glow to fade.
I know my Heavenly Father hates to see me hurt, and grieve and stumble, I know my Heavenly Father doesn't cause these the breaks and shaking ups in my life, but I also know that He allows me to experience them, and carries me faithfully through them, even though I so often let go of His hand He's always waiting to take it again when I'm done running ahead. And I know that through the the breaking, shaking, and pouring out He allows us to go through He wants us to come out GLOWING for Him, to glow up the atmosphere around us with His love and faithfulness, to pass the glow on to others around us that are hurting, suffering, broken, to pour out our glow to "unsuspecting victims" He allows us to meet on our own personal glow run as we go about our life. To not toss aside the broken and shaken uptimes and let it fade but to carry on and Glow to our fullest potential. we never know when we glow fully for Him when even just a smile or kind gesture or word will change someones day and will pass the glow on!
I know life is so full of pain and questions, there's relationship struggles in churches and homes, friendships gone south and your left wondering how and why, betrayal of people you thought were there for you, people you thought were real and you find out are so fake, there's backstabbing and gossip and tearing down, there's saying goodby to loved ones and being stoned with grief, and marriages struggling and falling apart........................and all this cause our glow to feel stifled and faded and we wonder if it be easier to toss it ...... but......My Heavenly Father says, come take my hand again, I'll be here every step, you've got this girl!! Trust, let my me and my love be the pouring out and GLOW ON!!  for this my dear girl is the maximum glowing, the pouring out of my love, of my grace, my strength to you, bask in it, glow up your world and pass it on!!