Sunset

"From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised." -Psalm 113:3

I took this picture on a particularly difficult night, I am normally one to admire the beauty in the sky, but not normally one to take a picture of it. This night was particularly hard for many reasons: postpartum hormones and emotions were overwhelming, I was struggling with a medication change due to thoughts of suicide, my husband and I were fighting, I had not been sleeping due to a sleep regression with our baby, amongst a million and one other things weighing down on my shoulders. I went for a drive to clear my head and all I could focus on was the sunset, so I pulled over and just stared for a while. I am not sure how much time had passed, but I just felt this fog lifting feeling and I thought back to a video I seen on Facebook that had a very powerful message.

This guy was giving his daughter or younger sister a bunch of bottles of water representing all the things we carry every day (work, family, home, appointments, tragedies, finances, accidents, groceries, bills, ect). Overflowing her arms rather quickly, he looked at her and said, "what are some things you can't control that I just handed you?" She said, "accidents, tragedies, work drama, other people..." He took those bottles into his hands and placed them in a bin stating, "great we will give those to God! We can control our attitude in situations, we can control our response to situations and people, we can pray on and over things, but at the end of the day, the things you can't change, just give it to God." `

I am so quick to bottle things up not wanting to burden others with my problems, but I can give all of my problems and burdens to God and he will never see me as inconvenient, a burden, a failure, etc. All the things I tell myself on why I can't talk to others I can talk to God guilt free, no questions asked, he is there for me. So this day and every day I will praise Jesus, our Lord and Savior, for he died on the cross to save me, you, all of us. He has done and given so much to me, even before I knew who He was and on this night he opened my eyes a bit wider showing me that He was able to take some of that weight off my shoulders. Clear the haze that was clouding my brain, to help me move forward.

Until next time, I hope you have found or are trying to find that relationship with God, because it is life changing! Thanks for reading!

-Dakota Onken-Baker