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Snow Delays and Unexpected Grace

Between snow days and half days of school I've fallen behind on my blogging and posting.  It's alright though.  My family and I dug out several snow forts in the various piles that accumulated, and I wouldn't trade those moments for anything.  Even while I was shoveling and my arms began to ache, I looked over my shoulder to see my seven year old digging away at the fresh snowbank I just made on the corner of the driveway.  He was hollowing out a side entrance, and throwing the excess snow right where I had just cleared.  I could have gotten mad at him but the scene was just too cute.

Snow kind of gives me another glimpse into what God does in the world.  My favorite time is right after the snow fall, where a layer of pure white blankets everything.  It's so pretty and makes everything look so clean.  Then the plows come through, with the salt and the sand, and a layer of grime gets mixed in with everything else.  Mind you these things are necessary.  We would kill ourselves driving on slippery roads.  But the purity of the image is mixed with the dirtiness of human action.  Even so you can still dig out a nice fort. 

I share this because life is a lot like that.  We get blankets of grace every single day, only for it to get mixed up with the messiness of human existence.  We try our best though, and every so often we get one of those pure moments that takes your breath away and you're overcome with God's goodness.

A good story captures those moments.  And the wonderful thing about stories is that they don't melt away when the rain comes, or when the temperature warms up.  They are always inside of you and you can break them out and share them whenever you want.  Perhaps sometimes you'll even give your listener a taste of what you've experienced, and their life will be enriched because of it.

So over the past two weeks I haven't done much posting, but boy did I get some nice stories.  Pay attention this week because I am so close to releasing me first resource.  I hope you'll enjoy putting it into practice as much as I've enjoyed developing it.  Until then, share your stories.

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