Beautiful Heartbreak(s)

Hi! :D

I cried when I watched this video (all three or four times!). I saw it on another blog (Savor this Moment), and am so thankful to Annie for sharing it; I have to do the same. :)

I think we all experience times when we go through challenges which are so big, we may find ourselves pleading for the Lord to take them away. Sometimes they feel bigger than the biggest mountains, and we just don't know if we can make it to the top...

I figure we have two options when mountainous challenges like this come our way.

1. We can look down in despair, drop, and roll down the hill. We can even turn around and run from the excruciating climb by giving up. Sadly, the pain of it all just never seems to end...

2. Or we can take faith, hold our heads high, and just keep moving forward up towards the top of the mountain - one step at a time - no matter how hard it is or how much it hurts - believing that the hurt and challenge will come to an end...

Every time I choose this second path, the most amazing thing happens... Eventually - I DO rest from my turmoil, and all that is left is beauty. Haven't you had that happen? When we take the difficult path with faith (when we refuse to give up no matter what), we are strengthened. We DO overcome - even the "impossible." And ultimately, we experience the joyful, spiritual, breath taking, awe filled view of becoming...  and experience such gratitude for the journey - that we would leave it all the same if given a chance to go back and do it all again...

I have reminisced over some of my challenges in life lately. And I can honestly say that though I once thought my struggles were too hard to bear, and at times I actually wanted to die - I am so thankful that I endured well and went through these huge challenges. I wrote about one of my greatest challenges - eating disorders. Perhaps at the end of this post I will copy and paste the parts where I wrote of how that challenge blessed me and my life. For now, I hope you enjoy the following video, and that you are blessed with faith to conquer whatever mountains you are called to climb.

The summits of the mountain tops ARE challenging to climb. But the climb might actually seem easy - if we knew how much GREATER the BLESSINGS at the top are in comparsion to the price of the climb...
Corine :D

UPDATE: PS. For those who did not see this writing before (in which I very briefly write about how going through eating disorders affected my life)... and would like to share a section of that post here today:

Many blessings have come as a result of overcoming this challenge:

Because of this experience, I have learned to lean on God and find strength in trusting Him; I KNOW He will never let me down.

Overcoming this challenge taught me to continue living a life of prayer and of following through with the answers that He gives me. I have had other big challenges in my life in addition to this one which I have been able to get through because of the faith that grew from this challenge. I have changed and continue to change. I like this new me, and the person I am becoming. :D

One good thing that has happened as a result of this challenge is that I see people differently now than I did before the challenge. There was a time when I thought everyone should be around the same weight etc… I learned that God loves variety. I now love variety. I learned that there is so much beauty that comes in so many different packages. I now see beauty in people that I never saw before. I am in awe by the magnitude of beauty I now see in others; I can even see and appreciate the beauty in myself that I was incapable of seeing before. I am so thankful for these new eyes; people look so incredibly beautiful through them now.

I can not tell you of even one bad result this experience has left me with. Through this experience, I learned that I can bear hard things… and that through Him, I can change my life.

Because of this, I will trust in Him always.
And I will keep moving forward,
...with faith in every footstep.