Good morning and Good Friday, Friends!
This post contains quite a bit of my journey with Jesus so if this isn’t your thing, please skip the words and scroll down to the bottom for the Pinterest finds of the week. I appreciate you being here!
However, if you live with a foundation rooted in Jesus then I hope you can relate to what is written here. Connect with me – I’d love to hear how God is working in your life.
Good Friday, to me, is the brick wall that brings me to my knees in reflection of the love and sacrifice that Christ has for each of us, to go through what He did, to bear OUR sins and OUR pride and OUR selfishness, in order to live with us for eternity. How much love He had for us to do this.
I also think about his mother and what she might have felt, watching her son be tortured and beaten to the point of being unrecognizable. To be spat on and humiliated. To want to cry out and beg God for him to stop it – He can move mountains why make Jesus go through this torture?
To watch your child go through the agony of knowing this had to be done as it was God’s plan, but still feeling so helpless. As a mother you want to protect your babies from pain, but yet, Mary couldn’t. How excruciatingly painful for her to watch the whole sacrifice unfold.
It makes me realize that no matter how much I love my kiddos with every part of my being, they are not mine. I am only here to usher them into the role God has planned for them. NOT MY PLAN for them. But God’s.
To ensure that by the time they are 18 and stepping foot into this big world by themselves I have prepared them with a solid foundation in God. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Point your kids in the right direction— when they’re old they won’t be lost.”
In this world where everything is pointing to worldly things – the best cars, the best houses, the fanciest clothes, the most social media contacts…how you LOOK ON THE OUTSIDE is beginning to take more precedence than what is happening on the INSIDE of your soul.
This world gives recognition and admiration by it’s own standards, and if you live for those you will be hustling for your worth the rest of your life.
Jesus knew what needed to be done on that cross and the sacrifice that needed to be made. Mary knew Jesus was not hers but her Heavenly Fathers.
But it was still excruciating.
This world will give you heartache. There is not one person who leaves this earth free from ever experiencing one or more painful experience(s). Even Jesus left this earth in pain – a complete physical and emotional pain.
But the promise of the cross is that pain will only be temporary. Freedom does come.
Even Mary’s pain was temporary. The emotional agony she endured in the previous days immediately turned to joy when she realized it was Jesus standing next to her.
This is what gives me hope.
Regardless of how heavy life gets or how I don’t even know where I will find the strength to take another step forward, Jesus has already been there. He knows exactly how I feel. He knows how we all feel.
We each have a story that is devastatingly painful. Some of us have several experiences that have left us broken.
For me, several experiences have left me broken so badly I had to rebuild from ashes. I have been beaten down emotionally from someone who said they loved me but used me as a place to deflect their pain, shame and insecurities. Jesus knows what it feels like to be unfairly broken, to be lied to, to be the victim of someones selfishness, to be overlooked and cast aside.
This Easter I will spend my time thanking Jesus for the sacrifice He made to take my burden as His own so to give me freedom.
I thank Him for setting the example of loving and praying for those who intentionally or unintentionally inflict pain.
Easter is a time for celebration, the promise that pain will not last forever.
We should live our lives not searching for worldly recognition or admiration, but strive to have the same kind of love that Jesus had for us. He paid the price of sin even though He had no sin. He endured unfair and unjust pain for you and for me, who are so unworthy. But He endured what he did out of LOVE.
I hope you enjoy these weekly reflections and inspirations of the week I found on Pinterest. This week I guess with all this reflecting I’ve only been looking at words. Although, I usually connect with words on a deeper level as they relay how I’m feeling when I just can’t find the words myself. Anyone else like this? I’m thinking it may just be an #INFJ thing?
Again, I would love to hear about your faith journey, and what Easter means to you.
Have you checked out our Etsy shop? There are numerous digital downloads available there that have a special place in my heart. ***SEE THEM HERE***
Enjoy your day, Friends.
♥ ~JB
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JB Photo and Design, LLC | Jenni Blake is based out of Leavenworth County, Kansas but proudly serves the areas of Lawrence KS, Tonganoxie KS, Basehor KS, Eudora KS, Leawood KS, Mcclouth KS, Spring Hill KS, Gardner KS, Eudora KS, Lenexa KS, Olathe KS, Bonner Springs KS, Leavenworth KS, Overland Park KS and surrounding areas. We love to capture images of seniors, families, children, events, landscape, maternity, and macro. But we also love to bake homemade items with love from our kitchen.
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