What is it about her anyway?

Earlier today I was torn away from the computer to give my kids some morning lovin' and get them breakfast. I had kind of gotten sidetracked in my blogpost anyway, so now I am back trying to bring back my original thoughts and make sense of them for you to read.
I was humbled, once again, when earlier in the week I started getting emails from people via Carrie {Colbert} Batt's blog. She and I met at my awesome scrap event in Birmingham back in April. We talked maybe 10-15 minutes, snapped a photo together and I remember thinking how I could never imagine being her- tall, smart, beautiful, young and seemingly had life all figured out.
Anyway, she blogged some really nice things about me, and I am grateful to her for that. I didn't beg her to say those things, there was no exchange of money...nothing like that. I did however, earlier in the week, pray and ask God for my blog to touch someone who needed to hear a word from Him. I asked God to use me for His purpose. And do you know what? The next day I opened my inbox and had more than one note answering this prayer I had just prayed.
I don't know why I find it amazing. I mean, I should totally expect that God would do something so simple- such as my blog. I mean, in the past He has used burning bushes, floods, giant fish, small loaves of bread, blindness, prostitues, tax collectors, donkeys, angels, and even rods and snakes to make Himself known. So, why I should I be surprised that in this century, He even uses words on a computer screen?
My point is that I want to make it perfectly clear, that I am not the one responsible for who I am and how I have been able to respond to the difficulties in my life. I have had a personal relationship with God, who has held me together when my world was falling apart. He has shown grace and mercy and given me more blessings than I deserve. I have a hope that there is something beyond this life that He has waiting for me someday. If it were not for my faith and this hope, life would simply be a cruel hoax.
Instead, I have found that God is true to His promises- offering me comfort and peace and joy in my life, despite my doubts, anger and hurt. He has taken the brokeness of my life and transformed it into something that makes me look good most of the time. =)
I know that not everyone shares this same faith that has sustained me in life's most trying times. I know that life still has some rough spots ahead...just as it holds for many of you. It may be financial struggles, relationship issues, or physical conditions that strike to the very core of your heart and mind. And yet, I believe that it is at times such as these, that God wants us to hand Him all our problems. I think He wants us to realize there is nothing we are able to do about these things on our own. When we recognize this need, and then hand Him the problems we are facing, the questions we are asking, and the pain that we are feeling, it is in these things that He makes Himself clear. Perfectly clear...if we are willing to seek Him with our whole heart.
That is what you see in me. {I hope.} That when I had nothing but pain and hurt and anger and bitterness and emptiness to offer this world and those around me, THAT is when God began to pour Himself out into me and make me something totally different.
I am constantly seeking to become more of that. I choose to ask God for all that He can be in and through me. Anything good that you see in me, comes not from anything I could have said or done on my own. It comes only from being willing to be a vessel for God to be seen in me. That's what my faith is about. I encourage you, if you don't share this faith, or if what I am writing creates more questions for you, that you will simply ask God to make Himself known in your life. If you have hurt, anxieties, challenges, or any issue consuming your thoughts and clouding your joy, I urge you to hand them all to God. Ask Him to hold you and your mess, and I promise you that you too, will be amazed at what God can do- just by piecing the broken parts of you back together.