Vulnerably Beautiful

i dare you to take a moment and think about your life. to think about the people who have influenced it and to think about your everyday activities and what those entail. how many times a day are you asked "how are you?" ? how many times do you give an honest answer? almost every single conversation i have with people daily goes something like this "hey! how are you?" "good, how are you?" 90% of the time, i will say that i am good, whether it is true or not, most of us will. which leads me to DARE #1: actually tell people how you are doing when they ask. now, i am not saying to tell every single person all day about how much your life sucks at the moment, but the people who care and genuinely care about your well being, tell them. tell them, about your struggles or what is getting you down that day. they genuinely want to know. DARE #2: let people speak into your life. so going off #1, tell people how you are, but let them hold that hope for you. let them ...

so i don't know about you, but i suck at being vulnerable. it is not something i am good at and never saw the reason for having to break down and share things with people when people are so inconsistent. that all changed recently. since my concussion a couple years ago, i have gotten to see people in a whole new light. chronic migraines, concussion, fibromyalgia, and many more illness' are invisible. when you look at the person with them, they look normal, like they are perfectly fine. when i broke my ankle. everyone gave well wishes and was sorry that i was in pain. when i got my concussion, it was invisible, so people told me how good i looked and that i must be better. at the start, i was okay with that, it wasn't a big deal, i wanted people to think i was strong and recovering well. when things didn't get better, and people still told me that, it really started to hurt me. i started questioning if i was trying hard enough to get better, that maybe i didn't h...

so i don't know about you, but the hills are much easier, and more fun than the valleys are. but guys, the valleys are so so worth going through. the valleys, as hard as may be, will be for good. it will show God's great power that can't be done in simple situations. i can't say I've seen what the world deems a huge miracle, but i did see a man get open heart surgery to replace a valve, and a month and a half later run a 5k by my side. if that isn't a good enough miracle for you, then i don't know what is. at the time, i would not have said that open heart surgery was good for anything other than to keep that man alive. it put stress on him, and his wife, and kids and family, but look at the good that came from that. that man has completed 3 FULL IRONMAN races (2.4mile swim, 112mile bike, AND 26.2mile run--consecutively), more half ironman races than i can count and many half and full marathons throughout that. God is so powerful to allow that man to do ...