We all have a story and God brings us into community in so many ways to be a support, to lift one another up and at times to carry one another. Sometimes He brings us into community at work, at school in a neighborhood and sometimes on social media. This morning on FB I was encouraged by the community I saw their reaching out with HOPE for one another. There are so many of us with such deep, deep wounds. Truly only God can cleanse those wounds.

It has been a few years now since one of my deepest hurts and betrayal was experienced.  It has been few years since I really wondered if I would ever laugh and have HOPE again. During the deep darkness, light would peek through and it would come through a word or a loved one that God had sent for me. Early in the darkness He brought the word HOPE to me. I really didn’t feel like I had hope and I knew I needed to focus on this word He sent.   I filled my home, my mind and my space with everything I could find that had HOPE written on it. I wrote out bible verses with the word HOPE in it. I found coffee cups and little plaques and t shirts and note paper with HOPE on it. Even though one might say it was just a word and they were just things I can tell you they were more than that, they were something concrete for me to focus on. With each glance at the word I remembered that my HOPE was in the Lord and He would somehow bring me through this.

It’s been more than six years since the on start of the deep betrayal and six years since my hope “collection” began and I still get excited when I see the word HOPE somewhere! I am still discovering verses in the word that speak of HOPE!

 I sit here today with a huge smile on my face because I not only see the word HOPE I feel HOPE and I know HOPE!  Be encouraged my dear sisters when you can’t feel the HOPE see it, know it. See it on a coffee mug, see it on a t-shirt and truly see it in the community the Lord has put around you and the WORD He has given you.