MacKenzie is intentional, she is compassionate, she seeks the Lord in all things, and she seeks to make those around her feel known at every turn. She is constantly choosing others before herself and it shows. One of the very first times I talked to Mackenzie was about how much of an impact she had on someone I loved. She makes a difference in people’s lives constantly and she sees the good in all things.
As unexpected as it seems, I look at the moments when I’ve cried alone in my room, feeling so broken, as the most healing times I’ve ever experienced. But it didn’t really seem like that while it was happening. A lot of times, the bad stuff hurts so bad that the good is hard to make out. I’ve asked myself, how could God be making me better when I’m full of anxiety and fear? I feel lonely, isolated, unwanted. Above all, I often feel inadequate. My fallenness becomes more apparent every day. This is just real stuff I don’t like admitting to myself. Through trials this year, I’ve learned that when I’m the lowest, God brings the biggest lessons. Being in the valley (figuratively) doesn’t feel good, but think about a valley for a second. All the water from the hills flows into the valley and the most growth happens there. Trees and flowers and animals and lots of life blooms in the valley. When you’re in it, it might feel like a forest or a dark place that you’re lost in. When you get to the mountain again and look back over the valley, you see all the growth that happened while you were down there, however scared and confused you may have been then. Times of trials can end up looking like the most abundant growth and teeming life than any other place on the map of your life. Now imagine these things as an analogy for your life as a Christian: When a metalsmith cleans metal before it cools, he heats it up and scrapes the impurities off the top again and again until he can look into the metal and see a clear reflection—Refinement. When a gardener trims a bush, he cuts off the branches that are dead so new branches can grow—Pruning. As a kid, your parents set up rules for you so you don’t hurt yourself or make mistakes as you’re growing up—Discipline. In the same way, God goes through pain with us because our growth is worth it to him. Sometimes we need to be in the ‘forest’ for a time to learn what He knows we need to learn. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
– John 15:2
Endure hardships as discipline; God is treating you as his children…No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
– Hebrews 12:7-11
I WANT that endurance and deeper knowledge of God. I WANT that character growth. And it’s not easy. But when trials come, I want to be the one who digs in with joy and says ‘refine me, prune me, discipline me,’ because I know I’ll come out the other side looking more like Jesus.
Stuff With K-Huff 