Some times when I am overwhelmed or too tired, the only thing that really makes me FEEL better is a good cry. (Bless my Husband’s heart!) This season, as joyful as it is, comes with its share of tears too… because I am always a little more overwhelmed than usual, things rarely go exactly as “Norman Rockwell” as I envisioned them going and in my valiant effort to make everything just right, sleep is usually the first thing I let slide right off my list of top priorities. Not smart, but tis the season!
A few days ago, I read Psalm 56:8: “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.” My heart did a little leap to think that God sees every tear and knows all my sorrows – the real ones and the ones I create for myself by thinking my crazy family is ever going to look like a still depiction of the “perfect” Christmas-y group. I flipped to Revelation 21:4… “He will wipe every tear from their eyes” and then my finger wandered up to verse 3 which reads, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.”
Isn’t that what Christmas is, really? God loving us so much that He came to wipe our tears with His own hands, to wash our feet and take our sins and teach us to pray and know what it is to be the creation rather than the Creator? Isn’t Christmas about God understanding us and saving us? He has always cared so much about our tears that He bottles and records every one. In Jesus, He came to experience and know our sorrows – to cry His own tears. And, even though we missed His first coming, one day, He will take our faces in His loving hands and gently wipe all of our tears away. THAT is love. THAT is hope. And THAT is joy – even when things aren’t going exactly the way we would like them to go.
Speechless Ministries 
Jan 25, 2014 @ 07:48:33
Hello Jolie, I wanted to take this moment to share with you the door God opened for me after I yielded myself to HIM completely and it was you at Elloree FBC ladies conf that played such a big part in it. You may not recall, but I was so pressed upon by the Holy Spirit to come up to you afterwards and just tell you how grateful I was to be there and that I was in love with the Lord and just wanted more. I was tearful and could barely get the words out, yet you took my hands and hugged me, then led a prayer that was prophetic, although it seemed unaware. Your encouragement to me and msg was prophetic. It would be the next month that I would begin a weekly in-home ladies Bible Study and He would bring me into a ministry of service to unsaved as well. Ten months later the weekly study continues and ladies are bringing their husbands and the greatest blessing has occurred, my family members are coming to know the Lord Jesus. I appreciate your diligence to serve the Lord on that Saturday in 2012 and taking time to minister to a sister who wanted a closer walk with the Lord.