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The Pieces that Shape the Heart

Those moments in life that break us... shape us. Who we are depends on what we choose to do with the pieces. If we run from them, they remain scattered and you become lost amongst life’s distractions. 

We create something beautiful when we find a heart of gratitude for the pieces.
To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives-the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections-that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only truly grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for.

Let's not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God. ~Henri Nouwen

Don’t allow the moments to ruin you. Choose to let them shape you. Don’t let the moments bring you shame. Choose to see where they have brought you. Don’t run from the moments. Choose to be grateful for them.

What are your moments? How are you allowing them to shape you? Is it time to wake up with a heart of gratitude and find the beauty?

Because I like to communicate through music, I'll leave you with this:

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