Sometimes the harshest trials paint the most beautiful pictures.

So today it was -2 degrees outside. Isn’t that a non number? The weird thing about Western New York, it that it gets prettier and prettier the colder it gets. When the sun shines on frosted glass it literally looks like little sparkling diamonds. As I was thinking about that I realized that cold weather is harsh, yet this state bears it beautifully. Because the harshness of the season brings out the beauty within. The same is true with us, except unlike the city we have a choice of how to react to harshness and trials. We could like Western New York grow more and more beautiful or we could do the opposite. Today God reminded me that hardships are not meant to break us and make us ugly. Quite the contrary, they are meant to build us up and make us beautiful, if we would, like this city, choose to walk through it. Trials hurt, but they also make us beautiful.

“Blows and wounds scrub away evil, and beatings purge the inmost being” (Psalm 20:30).

So what am I thankful for today? Non numbered weather… 😉