Hannah Morrison

Knox isn’t mine

Today my sweet Knoxy boy is 2 months old. I just can’t believe it, y’all. Time really does fly, and I am soaking in every second I can. I am so overwhelmed by how much my love continues to grow for this little man I have only actually known for a couple of months. I have thought a lot about what all I get to teach Knox as I raise him. I can’t wait to take him on dates with mommy, or for when he will say his first words (“mama” of course), how I will handle certain conversations, how I will discipline, and -most importantly- how I will raise up a man of God. Our prayer for Knox since he was in my belly has been that he would have thick skin, a tender heart, and love Jesus a lot. But I have got to admit that it’s a lot easier to speak those concepts over your kid when they’re still inside of you and completely untouched by the world. Let’s face it, having a kid is a whole lot easier when they are in the safety of your belly. How am I actually going to teach Knox to have thick skin and love Jesus a whole lot?

A couple weeks ago Paul and I got to stand before our church family for baby dedications. This was our time to commit to raising up Knox in a home that puts the Bible before everything else. What it means to “dedicate our baby” is to recognize the gift he was to us and that nothing in this world is actually ours. It’s an act of obedience to say before our church and, most importantly, to God that we know Knox is ultimately His. He’s not mine. Every good and perfect gift is from above- a reflection of God’s love for us (James 1:17-18). S0 even my son, who I carried inside of me and sacrificed my whole body to for 9 months, isn’t mine. I feed him, I clothe him, I give him what he needs to stay alive. But, Knox isn’t mine.

My humanity makes saying that so hard it almost hurts. But, it’s the truth.

Knox Chandler is the Lord’s. I get to be used to pull out the best in him, encourage him, teach him to love others by how I imitate the Lord’s limitless love, how to be gracious because God is gracious to us, how to appreciate people who look different than him, to be compassionate, to be selfless, to be bold, to be courageous… As Knox’s mom, I get to play a role in creating an environment that allows for the best Knox, how God designed him to be in the fullest, to flourish.

My spirit reminds me that saying Knox isn’t mine is also the greatest relief. 

Not one is perfect but Jesus, as the Bible says. I fall short of the glory of God daily, hourly, by the second. But, if I seek first Christ and my relationship with him, then his grace and goodness will extend into Knox because Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross made the way for me. Like every other area of my life that I need the life and work of Jesus on the cross to cover my imperfections, it also covers my inability to be all that Knox needs me to be. I don’t have to nail it. Praise the Lord for that, right?

Because Knox isn’t mine, I don’t have to nail this crazy thing called parenting. 

I can breath again.

‘But me—who am I, and who are these my people, that we should presume to be giving something to you? Everything comes from you; all we’re doing is giving back what we’ve been given from your generous hand. As far as you’re concerned, we’re homeless, shiftless wanderers like our ancestors, our lives mere shadows, hardly anything to us. God, our God, all these materials—these piles of stuff for building a house of worship for you, honoring your Holy Name—it all came from you! It was all yours in the first place! I know, dear God, that you care nothing for the surface—you want us, our true selves—and so I have given from the heart, honestly and happily. And now see all these people doing the same, giving freely, willingly—what a joy! O God, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, keep this generous spirit alive forever in these people always, keep their hearts set firmly in you. And give my son Solomon an uncluttered and focused heart so that he can obey what you command, live by your directions and counsel, and carry through with building The Temple for which I have provided.’ 1 Chronicles: 14-19 (MSG)

Dang, this verse is so freeing. Everything I have comes from above,  and in my time on earth my job is to simply give glory to God with everything I have been given. Without recognizing where every good and perfect gift comes from, I am merely a wanderer without purpose. Everything I am given to build my home for worship- in my personal case this is my husband, my son, and everything we have to our names- is not even mine to worship God with without God giving it to me to worship him with in the first place. You following me?

God doesn’t care about the surface, what I look like or what I “produce”. He cares about my inner most being. And then, by giving my whole heart to the Lord and dedicating everything I do to his glory being made known, by my example others will know the love of God and live in obedience, too. I.e. how I live for the Lord will directly effect the things I want so desperately for Knox to know and be- thick skin, a tender heart, and to love Jesus a lot.

Knox isn’t mine. He is the Lord’s to work out and bring the best out of. He is a gift to me that by living for the Lord in my own life will grow and flourish more than he ever would if I tried to bring the best out in him on my own. It feels backwards to say Knox isn’t mine until I remember it is in fact the most liberating truth I can live by as a parent.

Happy two months, love bug. If you’re a mommy figuring this parenting thing out- remind yourself daily that your job is to give glory to God in all things and love him above all else. The rest works itself out. It’s that simple. You will fail… at a lot of things in life. Your parenting will not be perfect. But, praise God for a perfect savior who covers all our imperfections.

xoxo, Han

Simplify

Here we are going on two weeks into the new year. Feel different? Probably not. 😉

Already broken a goal or resolution? Probably.

Regardless, I do love how the new year makes me feel. It’s like a deep cleaning for my soul and spirit, a time to be reflective and hopeful. I have set goals for myself personally, for my marriage, for my business, and as a mom. I have set a word for me that I hope to live into personally this year, as well as a word for our marriage like we always choose for us every year.

But, at the core of it all, it seems I have one hope for my 2018: Simplify. 

Everything I have written down and what I am aspiring to make happen this year starts with simplicity. It starts with pitching and tossing, and welcoming in more silence, more quiet, more of less. Have you ever tried to sit in silence and after about 30 seconds feel awkward? Yeah, me too. I want to change that. Funnily enough, I feel like so many people are saying the same thing for their year. I have read it over and over in my feeds and heard friends say, “I want to live more simply.”

Perhaps it is because after a year of so much tragedy and rockiness in our world, we finally are starting to understand collectively what actually matters and what doesn’t. The fluff is unnecessary. Or, maybe you are sick of devoting your every waking hour to work and not enough to people and relationships, and loneliness was the result for 2017 because of it. Or, maybe your state of being can be defined by “cluttered”, and you’re over it. Cluttered by toxic friends, negative memories, bad habits. Whatever your reason might be, it’ll be different for us all, simplifying life seems to be the goal for so many of us.

In my efforts of simplifying, I aim to drop the phone and computer to replace it with more face to face. I want to read more. I want to sit in silence more. I want to be okay with silence. I want to soak in every inch of my growing son, and memorize every detail. I want less distractions, and more intentionality. I want more scripture, and less of the world’s opinions. I want to get rid of the negative, and full of positive influence and relationships. I want to forgive quicker, and hold onto hurt shorter.

I have read the scripture over and over, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things will be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33) For the longest time, I thought this meant that if I say I am a Christian, I will get what I want in life. Truth is, though, that’s not what this is saying at all. Believe me, brokenness and hurt still come after faith. What changes is hope accompanied with faith within the brokenness. But see, when we truly seek first the kingdom of God, our desires become his. That’s what this is getting at. And, it is then when we can see our desires come to life, because they’re really his for us. When we seek the kingdom of God first, above all else, when we wake up and give him our first thoughts, we spend time in the word daily, when we devote our first fruits, we grow to want more of God’s heart and less of our own wants. It comes naturally by putting him first.

But in order to hear God’s heart and know it, I have to silence my mind and simplify. Choosing less for immeasurably more.

I hope your new year has started off with every dream and desire in your heart burning holes deep within you with great passion and persistent pursuit. But, more importantly, I pray you simplify enough to hear from God what it is that will truly make this year the best year. Your best life is waiting in the silence, the simplicity. Be still, know God, know his heart, know his desires for you.

Love you sweet friends! And, though 9 days late, happy new year.

xoxo- Han

Patience in Advent

Advent season has begun, and more than ever before, I feel like I get to experience true anticipation of a gift closest to what it must have felt like waiting for Jesus’ birth as it was foretold, and what it feels like to anticipate the return of Christ.

See the season of advent is a time of celebrating and reflecting on Jesus’ birth, the anticipation of the best gift that was ever given, which is the entire reason we celebrate Christmas and what everything Christmas (whether you believe Jesus was Lord or not) circles around. Christmas is so magical and full of anticipation for a reason… it’s all about the best love story ever told. And who doesn’t get giddy over a good love story? Jesus told us to live with child-like faith (Matthew 18:3), and Christmas is a season that embodies that command more than any other time of the year.

As my due date inches closer, this child could literally come any second, I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas morning so that they can finally unwrap that gift under the tree they know is the gift they asked for the most. The best part is, like so many of us before we discover a relationship with Jesus, my gift I am waiting on… I didn’t even know the extent of how much I wanted or needed it until I saw it wrapped and waiting for me to open it. It wasn’t until I experienced pregnancy that I knew what this love was. How sweet to experience this kind of love and agonizingly long wait now, during Advent.

Isn’t it beautiful how much those gifts under our tree that we so meticulously picked out and wrapped for the people we love truly represent? The gifts you bought for mom, dad, your husband, your best friend… they represent Advent. 

Now, because the Lord has given me a platform, I wouldn’t be using it well if I didn’t share with you the story of Jesus’ birth.

You may be a Christian who has ready the story of Jesus’ birth in Luke hundreds of times, or you may be a brand new Christian still figuring out this CRAZY story. Or, what really gets me excited, you might be here on my blog for some random reason -maybe the first time ever- and you do not claim Christianity. I am SO GLAD you’re here. You, my friend, are supposed to be here today. Right now. Yes, I am talking to you.

So, yes, the story of Jesus is crazy.

Like, if you really think about it… it’s a wild thing to believe what I believe. That is, that God sent a piece of himself in the form of a baby to grow up and walk with us, fulfilling a prophecy foretold hundreds of years before, and bringing the promise of oneness with the creator of the universe again following the fall of man in The Garden of Eden….

Cricket, cricket.

Yeah, it’s a little crazy. But I believe in it with every single bit of me, because I have experienced a relationship with Jesus that makes all of the crazy make sense.

Jesus’ birth was foretold from the minute God started the process of redemption after Adam and Eve separated themselves from God by listening to Satan’s lies and welcoming sin into the world. But there was always a plan of bringing us back, and the Old Testament into the New is the story of how God proved time and time again he was real, at work, and redeeming. As it was said it would happen, the prophet Samuel chooses David as King -son of Jesse- and the process of redeeming God’s people continues. Then in Isaiah, the prophet gives a word from God that the process of redemption is still happening (can you imagine being the people of God waiting thousands of years… hoping for oneness with God again?… ahhh the spirit of Advent!).

Read Below to see what I mean:

Isaiah 11:1-10

“There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. His delight is in the fear of the LORD, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears; But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.”

Isaiah 7:14

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

So far, so good. All the proof is in the pudding, everything has happened that people said God told them to share would happen hundreds of years before. Then just as it was said, fast forward hundreds of years from David, and the king of the universe, the bright morning star, was born in Jerusalem from a virgin betrothed to Joseph from the lineage of David who came from Jesse.

You can’t make this stuff up. It sounds crazy, but crazy love is hard to grasp. God is hard to understand. 

Jesus’ life, he did exactly what he said he would. He did exactly as the prophets of old said the son of God would do. He lived a life you couldn’t live because of sin, and then died the death you deserved because… again, your sin. He was sinless, he did as he said he would, and on the cross the story of redeeming love was complete. He absorbed the wrath of God, God hates sin and hated we were separated, and Jesus soaked up every bit of that as the replacement.

It is THE greatest love story. Period.

Now we get to pray and talk to God in constant communication because Jesus did what he did, and God did just as he foretold for thousands of years. (Have I said that enough yet?)

BUT HOW GOOD IS THAT? And, sometimes my logic tells me I am crazy for believing this stuff. But, I cannot deny the relationship I have with God. When I doubt HOW we got to where we are, I cannot deny the perfect love I have felt and live in daily. Faith the size of a mustard seed is all God says we need, and I can say I definitely have that. As I said above, my relationship with Jesus daily proves the crazy just enough to me.

I can’t deny my finger has healed the week of my due date after having a pregnancy tumor removed at an unreal rate. I have watched a miracle unfold, but of course I have… I prayed for it and God cares.

“For all the promises of God find their YES in him (Jesus). That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory.” 2 Corinthians 1:20

I cannot deny that at 12 years old I asked God to make me nauseous on every single date I went on until I met my husband. And, because I prayed it, of course it happened. You can’t make this stuff up.

There are so many instances in my life I have seen God unify my heart in crazy, God ways with people, timing, and circumstances. That I have been prompted awake from my sleep to pray for things I had no explanation for, but come to find out was timely and needed at that second.

God is so real. That is what I am trying to get at here. The story of Jesus and his birth, the story of Christmas and all that the season of Advent represents, it is proven to me daily throughout the year in my relationship with Jesus.

Advent is a season of waiting and reflecting, just as the people we read about in the Old Testament did for years and years, generation after generation waiting for Jesus. They waited for this king to come, like a gift that they anticipated unwrapping underneath the tree. Like at 39 weeks and 4 days pregnant, waiting for a baby to finally be born.

Like Mary who was told she would be the one to carry the child of God for 9 months, and had to -at the worst timing ever- ride with her betrothed to Bethlehem on a donkey for a census BECAUSE Joseph had to go to the city of his ancestors… Jesse, David… Can you imagine? As a very pregnant women myself, no. I cannot imagine.

“And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David.” Luke 2:4

You tracking?

God is the God of answered prayers, miracles, and fulfilling promises.

I hope you experience this Advent season in a new way like I have been able to already as I wait for Baby K to come any day. I hope you feel the anticipation of Jesus’ return in a way you’ve never experienced. I recently read that we are in between two different Advents right now. We reflect on the first Advent, the thousands of years God’s people waited for Jesus to fulfill the prophecy of his first coming and redemption. And, now, we are in a season of Advent waiting for his second return as it is foretold throughout the New Testament after his death and in Revelation.

I hope you know love like you’ve never known this Christmas.

Merry Christmas, my friends. Happy Advent. Happy waiting, happy anticipation.

xoxo- Han

Every Good and Perfect Gift

One year ago, as I was writing my Christmas cards and thinking on 2016, I was beyond grateful for a year of starting new things and slowing down drastically in other areas. A year ago, I was also coming out of/still enduring the hardest year of my life personally. But, I had finally launched my dream of The Cake Shop just weeks before as The Cake by Hannah continued to grow, and I was truly overwhelmed with excitement for 2017. I didn’t know what was coming, but I did know I had all the ingredients to have the best year of my life.

Let me tell you what… that seriously is exactly what I had. The absolute best year of my life.

Things have always been “good”,  I have victory in all things because of Christ’s death and resurrection (1 John 5:4). I have just failed to recognize and be as grateful for what I have or what’s been done for me in other seasons as much as I have in this one. 2017 came after a year of personal storms, intense anxiety, and a lot of late nights filled with prayer asking God to show me what it is he really wants from me.

But friends, It’s always darkest before dawn. A daily surrender to my flesh, begging God to remove fear and anxieties is what 2016 felt like. It was exhausting, but what a beautiful dance it was.

In the surrender came life. 2017 brought blogging full-time for me and becoming a small business owner that has been both successful AND a fun outlet for my creativity. Paul and I chased after a crazy extensive plan of fixing up an old farmhouse that I left a letter on the gate of the year before to end up leaving that dream behind in order to buy our first home that was less of a doozy… because we found out we are expecting our first baby. We moved into our first home, bought our first family car, and have had the most life-giving year of marriage to date. We were laughing a couple nights ago as we drove to a date thinking about how if this is the difference 3.5 years can make in our marriage/life/finances… what on earth will 3.5 more years look like? By God’s grace, I pray it’s just as fruitful, just as life-giving, and just as stable. I find myself saying “thank you Jesus for your favor” daily, multiple times. We feel so beyond blessed by God. And, we know that we literally get to take Z E R O credit for absolutely everything that has panned out for us over the last year.

I mean that with everything in me- I truly recognize that without God’s favor and grace in our lives, we would not have had the year we just had. I spent an entire year worrying over things, and he could have very well been a God of no mercy who said, “Why in the world would I bless you and bring you the desires of your heart when you failed so badly at trusting me for so long?”

But that’s not the God I love, worship, and serve daily. I am constantly being wrung out and reshaped. The process never ends. I am an imperfect being in need of a perfect God.

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6

So here I sit one year later, looking at Christmas card photos and addressing envelopes, and I cannot believe all that has unfolded over the last year and that we are days away from the arrival of our son. A year ago, having a baby was not even close to being on my radar. A year ago, I still didn’t want kids until I was 30. A year ago, I just wanted a home desperately and to finally do full-time what I felt called to do with my life- both of which I felt stuck in and trapped behind a wall that seemed impossible to get by. Debt that we needed to pay off, credit scores we needed to raise, money we needed to save, and so much more. (All of which we successfully, by the grace of God, accomplished- and with dance parties every time our credit jumped and debt was chipped away at!). I wanted to figure out a schedule with my husband that didn’t run me down ragged between multiple jobs. Funny how God works in the hearts of his children, and how he unifies husband and wife. Paul’s and my heart truly are knit together, and it’s so incredible how we get to watch our hopes, dreams, and desires align over time in perfect time. Not only did God bring to life the desires of my heart that I knew I wanted, but he brought immeasurably more than I could have ever hoped or imagined.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” Ephesians 3:20

God is faithful. He cares about every detail.

There is so much to be thankful for, so much to see the Lord in. And, there always is. The whole earth is a reflection of his glory, and there is always much to worship the Lord in. I wish I could feel as much gratitude as I do now in all seasons. In seasons of overwhelming joy, and just as much in seasons of darkness, loneliness, angst, anxiety, or frustration.

I have kept the following scripture close to my heart as we prepare for Baby K to make his entrance into the world, and as I reflect on all of the amazing things that happened this past year for us:

“So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.” James 1: 16-18

Every good and perfect gift, every single thing we delight in on this earth, is from God. These gifts are extensions of his love and overwhelming glory. Every single bit of goodness, it’s his reflection, it’s his light. Nothing is given to us to hurt us, nothing is given to us to tease us. God is true to his word, he is good in all things and through all things, and gives freely because it’s just who he is. His grace is good, his love is limitless. Just like this child that Paul and I are about to have is an extension of the love we have for one another, so is every single good gift and day of life that we get from God.

God has been so good to us. 2017, it’s going to be really hard to beat you, but I can’t wait to see how 2018 somehow does. As for you, The Cake Community, who have truly become part of my life… thank you. Thank you for everything. Thank you for celebrating the highs with me and encouraging me in the lows. Thank you for loving this growing little family of mine, and I wish I could hug each and every one of you.

Merry Christmas, sweet friends.

xoxo- Hannah, Paul, Baby K, and Presley

Scroll for More Family Photos by Cottonwood Road Photography

Venue: The Nest at Ruth Farms 

Paul’s Outfit:

Shirt | Chelsea Boots

Scroll to Bottom For Similar Dresses to Hannah’s 

 

Similar Dresses to Hannah’s (The one pictured is out of stock):

Always Something

When I was a teenager, burnt CDs were the thing. If a boy made you a burnt CD, geez almighty that meant you must be getting married. A whole burnt CD of Iron and Wine songs, and you know that boy was digging your chili. Gosh, kids these days… they just will never know the beauty of receiving a burnt CD as a gift from somebody haha. And I mean, let’s be real, I had one made for every mood of mine. I had Taylor Swift albums, High School Musical Mixes, one called “Depressing Love Songs”, and another called “Party, Get Loud”… the list goes on and on. Unfortunately, burnt CDs always met that day after much wear and tear that they would start skipping or get stuck on the same line and keep repeating over, and over, and over. My T Swift Fearless CD got to the point that it literally always repeated the same line, like a DJ Remix, on The Way I Loved You at “2 Am and I’m cursing your name.” I would have to press “next” and never hear the rest of that song, because it couldn’t move past that one line.

Like my favorite Taylor Swift CD became after lots of wear and tear in my silver Escape, Angie, I have found myself the last couple of weeks saying over and over, on repeat, “It’s always something.”  Then followed every single time by a half-hearted giggle attempt to press “next”, all while adding another tally to my “things I would rather not have happening right now”. Slowly as the tallies add up, the weight I feel on my shoulders from the events of the past weeks weigh me down all before inevitably cracking. There is crying, there is anger, there is feeling like a victim, there is frustration and bad moods… no matter how the weight decides to unload itself, it none the less comes out and I have to sit and sift through all the reasons I feel this way.

I always end back up at the tally board.

It’s okay to be frustrated in days, or weeks, or even seasons of “one thing after the next”, where you feel like the same line is stuck on repeat. It’s okay to feel the burden of the world, because we are human and are going to experience the weight of humanity that only God can bear. But, the freedom in that is that we are not made to carry the weight. We are not made to keep tally or score of what has gone wrong in our day. Rather, we were wired to daily open our hands and release our cares and worries to a gracious God who is WAY better at carrying them for us, healing our wounds for us, fixing the things we can’t fix for FOR US. We just forget that we are made to NOT carry our burdens. Sounds silly when you say it out loud, right? We are literally created to worship God and daily remind ourselves of who he is and, because of how human we are, we are daily reminded of who we are not. But, we forget. Proper recognition of who God is leads to a beautiful relationship with him. It’s one that says, “I know where I stand and it’s at your feet, because you already conquered this. There is already victory.” But, again… we too often forget. We can’t, but He can. How liberating when we remember that, right? That’s why God says his mercies are new every day. Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Steadfast, meaning He is constant and unwavering. New every morning, never ceasing, because he will never say “you have been stressed out one day too many.” That’s not how he works (thank goodness).

So, here I am fully aware of the freedom that comes with saying, “I can’t carry this today, Lord”, yet I find sometimes that even when I think I have released my cares and burdens, I never really did because I find myself back at the tally board counting the things that have gone wrong in the last month, two weeks… year, whatever your timeline on the tally board might be. If love keeps no record of wrongs, not only am I failing my earthly relationships when I keep tally of wrongs, but I am failing to acknowledge how good God is when I keep record of  things I feel wronged in.

“Well God, this happened, and then this bill came, and then our car broke down, and then we fought about this, and then our tire popped, and then we fought again about all the things we are stressed about… are you there? Do you care? Are you honestly just watching this unfold? I think we have maxed out our tallies for the month.” Tally tally tally. Adding up all the things we feel unjustly wronged in, which will always end in a state of victimhood. Ouch, yikes. Who has been around people who live as the victim in everything? It’s hard to be around isn’t it? You want to get away from that real quick. Well, newsflash, if you’re keeping tallies of the bad things that have happened in the day, week, month… you’re no better. Remove the plank, my friends.

OOOWEEE, we are preaching this morning. 

So, what’s my encouragement for you today? Be upset, cry a little bit in the bathroom to feel the weight of “another thing”, but then release it. And I mean actually release it. Not just a “God, I need you to fix this for me” prayer, while then sitting around watching for instant relief. And if it doesn’t come, tally. I mean, release it. God, you are working all things for your good. And, I know that you love me, therefore, this will end well. Somehow, some way, this will end with you receiving glory and shining through this situation.

Then, “next”. Enjoy the next song, sing it as loud and zealous as you possibly can without getting hung up on the last line that kept repeating. Feel the weight, pray, breathe, toss it up, and trek onward.

On a separate note, I want to say how absolutely devastated I am over the massacre in Las Vegas. I feel that weight, I have been trying to shake that burden, but I carry a righteous anger for innocent lives lost. Be angry about this, be shocked, be sad. I have been in shock for the last day, praying for Jesus to make himself known and turn this devastation into something beautiful… somehow. Far beyond my ability to comprehend how something so horrible could be made into something beautiful, I am still believing in it because that is who God is and that is his character. Good will rise from ashes. Pray, love, and now- more than ever- bite your tongue against arguments that aren’t worth having in the midst of people’s pain. Sure, let’s have necessary conversations when the wounds of devastation are not still gushing. Humility is recognizing your opinions don’t matter as much as love does.

Be kind, friends. Love people well. In the midst of chaos, in the midst of a time in this country where it feels like EVERYONE is on a different page about something, fight to love those who look different than you, act different than you, voted for somebody different than you *gasp*, have a different religion than you, kneel or stand during the National Anthem… Yeah, I am going there. I am hitting it all.

Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, asked or -how icky to even have to say it- deserves to be mindlessly murdered. I have seen such ignorant comments on social media about those who were lost, and I have wanted to vomit at some of them. Those were moms, dads, brothers, sisters, children, hard workers, dreamers… the list goes on, and all of those roles, relationships, and titles just ended in an instant. Let us be mindful of this. Let us be pushed toward love, without pointed fingers and without taking someone’s devastation as an opportunity to push opinions. I truly am speaking from both ends of the “political scale”, if you will. I could give two craps about who you voted for, what you believe, or what cause you fight for. I love and appreciate your passion. So let’s take that passion and put it toward loving people, of all kinds, and recognizing it’s ok for us to differ but it’s not okay for what just happened to happen. We can find unity in that. Let’s take a stand together in that.

xoxo- Han

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