Not just a walk on the beach

This morning I was rudely interrupted by my husband's pointless cell phone alarm. It annoys me that he does this every weekend because he claims he sets it so that he can wake up early. Which he never does, so needless to say I get woken up early and he falls back to sleep. This time I decided to be annoying and every time he fell back asleep I woke up him over and over again until he got out of the damn bed.

During the interim of me being really annoyed a word from God began to flood my mind. At first, I thought I was day dreaming, but it seemed very biblical so I wanted to share it with you.I visualized "Lauren" (a factitious person) walking on the beach close to where the water begins to meet the sand. - Which is actually one of my favorite places to be. As she was waking the sand turned to mud. At first the mud was only deep enough to cover her toes, but then it became thicker and covered her ankles. As she continued walking the mud became less and less, but she had stains of mud around her ankles symbolizing what she had just walked through (a lot of anxiety related emotions were present during this experience). Eventually, she reached a clearing of clean sand and the calming water began to hit her toes again. It was a beautiful section of the beach, no one was around and the sun was pleasantly reflecting off of the water.

She stopped and looked as the waves splashed in the ocean and she was thankful that the mud was gone from her ankles. As she turned and looked back to where she had come from she decided that she didn't want to go back that way through the mud. So she looked forward. As she looked forward up the coast she saw a lot of rocks along the coast of the beach. The rocks were dark black colors and appeared sharp. She was too frightened to go forward, because she feared her feet would get cut up. But as she looked past the rocks she noticed that there was another clearing. It looked like a boardwalk with a lot of fun places on it. The problem was that the only way to get there was to pass over these rocks. Lauren decided that she didn't want to through the rocks and she'd rather stay in the safe clearing she was in for a while.

Then God spoke to me. He told me that I was this person. I had gone through the mud and I should be proud that I survived it. However, right now in my life I was in the "safe clearing" and I was afraid to move forward because I didn't want my feet to get cut by rocks. He also told me that the trip over the rocks would be painful and that I would get cut, but the end result would be worth it. He also said that after I got cut, I would grow new thicker, stronger skin. In fact, the journey would be very short. He acknowledged that He knew I was afraid to go through the rocks because I feared the pain.

Ultimately, it was my decision to decide what I wanted to do. My response to Him was thank you for acknowledging my feelings and letting me know that you're paying attention to my life. But I am in fact afraid to cross through the rocks. I think I'll stay in the "safe clearing" a little more because I can only deal with a certain amount of pain at one time. I just got over a lot of pain and I need to protect myself from having to deal with those emotions for a little while.His response. I leave it up to you. I have showed you what you need to do and I'll be waiting for you when you're ready.