Thrilling Guest Thursday: Rachelle Parezo

This week I would like to introduce you to my friend, Rachelle. She is a woman seeking after God's heart like you and me. She's a wife and mother, who wants to love boldly. She reflects on her life through journaling and occasionally gives glimpses of her heart through notes on Facebook.

Here is an offering she wrote last fall:

Epiphanies or “Aha” Moments

I’m probably seeing the last of the hummingbirds this week.  It’s supposed to get cold again soon.  The one I just watched drink from the feeder and fly away looked different than the ones with the red and green that I have watched often all through the summer.  Maybe hummingbirds are already migrating and this one was getting a little nectar to take him a little farther?  Once they are gone, it will easily be May before I get to enjoy their flitting flying patterns, their fierce battles for reign over the feeder and their high little chirping noises they make to one another.    

The flowers are all fading, and one season is coming to a complete end soon.

I didn’t sleep much last night – it happens more and more often.   Also, Dennis & Jonathan had to head out very early this morning for a Weeblo-Ree event with cub scouts.  They left here at 5:30, and that was on my mind to get up early enough to get them out the door with all their reminders, their stuff, the hot cocoa and coffee and microwave breakfast to eat in the truck. 

Since I was fully awake and had also had my morning coffee, I decided to head out to enjoy the morning before the sun rose.  I love the quiet and peace of the very early morning.  I love the cool dew of fall mornings – seeing it rise in a mist as the sun comes over the horizon.  As I walked and listened to all the morning songs of the birds, I heard a honking and looked up to see the V formation of geese flying … north?  Curious! 

The pear trees have various shades of fading green, orange and bright red.  The maples are beginning to be more and more orange.  The morning rays of the sun reveal these colors best.  Then as I got to the bottom of the hill, the sun’s first rays were casting their light on the steeple of the little church next to our fire station.  All the while, my heart was singing “Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty, the whole earth is full of His glory.”  I breathe deep, I listen hard and I look for the places where God’s hand is evident. 

Ann Voskamp’s wonderful book One Thousand Gifts  is challenging me to look for beauty more and more.  As I enter the rays of the sun, and see my shadow become evident, I also notice that the air is still crisp enough that I can see my breath in the light.  When things feel hard, I remind myself to breathe in and breathe out and relax myself this way, it is easier when you can see your breath!

I got a chance to visit with my mom on the phone awhile the other day and she was telling me things she had told me before about how God never gives us more than we can handle and how hard things make us stronger. 

I suddenly had an epiphany while talking with her (that I usually refer to as “aha” moments) that God indeed has consistently given me way more than I can handle.  Yet, He’s never given me more than He can handle. 

Also, much of life has buckled my knees at times, but His Word says that when I am weak, He is strong.  So, yes, life has made me stronger in some ways, but only so much as I’ve learned to lean into the only One who is strong, and allow Him to fill in all the gaps created by my many weaknesses.  Yes, lots happens that is more than I can handle, but as long as I run to Him with the difficulties, and practice and learn to rest in Him, then I can watch Him resolve the issues that may trouble me at that time.