Turn mistakes into gold

I've recently been presented with family dilemma. Life takes a turn that you don't expect, that you aren't prepared for. Loss, disappointment, guilt and grief fill your head and your heart. And in a moment, you wonder what foundation you are really built on and how it will hold under pressure.

And a single line of a song has really calmed my heart: "Gonna rise up, turn mistakes into gold."

Thank our wonderful God that this is an opportunity. We are not defined by our mistakes. We are not our weaknesses. I am not limited by my previous misgivings. What a wonderful chance we have for redemption from our mistakes. If we admit fault and ask for help, a deeper treasure lies in our failings.

And in all honesty, the hard times, the times that some might see as defeat and misfortune are the times when I see who truly cares about me and my family. Those without judgment but with a soft and loving heart and listening ear, those are the ones I see Christ in.

And I see how the sins of the father and their father and even their father manifest and take shape in my life right now. And how we can never run from problems and trials. How either way we slice it, it's there. And not leaving. Whether on a permanent record legally or whether it's a lifelong scar. But i am not a collaboration of my scars. If anything, a scar is just a reminder that I'm a survivor. I'm more than surviving--I'm living.

"Such is the way of the world you can never know. Just where to put all your faith, how will it grow? Gonna rise up, burning black holes in dark memories. Gonna rise up, turn mistakes into gold. Such is the passage of time, too fast to fold. Suddenly swallowed by signs, low and behold. Gonna rise up, find my direction magnetically. Gonna rise up throw down my ace in the hole." --Eddie Vedder

And I will not be defeated by obstacles. I will push through.

In this moment, I truly see where character is developed. Gonna rise up, turn mistakes into gold.