how to use a broken heart (part one)

 
I will probably post this after Valentine's Day. But in spite of that, in the spirit of all that is candy and relationships, I want to take time, slow down and talk about the topic of broken hearts.

I had some deep talks with God about my past and how He healed me when I never thought I could be healed, it's so awesome!!!!

So I want to extend a little bit of what is on my heart for those who might need it.

Broken Paths
Let's take a trip back in time, maybe about three years ago….this is when I first experienced my first real heartbreak….a break up.

I had invested two-ish years into a relationship that I had no business investing in. It was my first relationship, and so I easily handed everything over in hopes that I would essentially end up married, but it didn't happen. Instead I was handed a plate of….well heartbreak.

I found myself flailing around in a sea of "where the heck do I go from here."  My whole future was placed on this relationship, talk about pressure. I was left with my dreams shattered on the ground and all I could do was stand over it and cry, hoping that this wasn't my fate.

I had always thought that the first guy I dated would be the guy I married. I never anticipated that I would give a guy everything and then hit a dead end, that was for "stupid girls."

Truth is, I wasn't a stupid girl, I was a girl with a broken heart.

I write a little bit of my story in hopes that you will find yourself in the midst of my story too. Because my story doesn't end there with a broken heart.

My broken heart positioned me to find so much more than I could anticipate.

The Beginning of Something Good

The first part of that road was what I like to call the restoration period.

Right after the break up, I somehow found myself in the book of Hosea
(this was even before I started going back to church or heard of Redeeming Love, so you know it as God!).
In Hosea 2:14-15 it reads:

"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt."

Let me translate a little bit better:

"I am going to romance her back to Me, a place where she must depend on Me and I will speak truth to her. I will restore her dreams, her heart, and her future. I will give her back more than she could ever imagine. There she will fall back in love with Me and again I will be her first Love."

Season of Restoration

This time for me was a lot of God speaking to me, breathing life into old dreams and bringing to life new dreams I never knew I had.

God didn't bring me another man, there was no other human really involved.

It was God and I in the "wilderness."

It was God pouring into me His love and His hope.

It's a rough season at some points, but other times it was the best season of my life. God did new things within me and restored me in a lot of ways I couldn't have been if I had stayed in the relationship or gained a new one.

I am so thankful for that season of restoration.

And I pray for any young woman reading this with a broken heart, that this is the beginning of your restoration period.

It will look different than anyone else, God is personal and is going to romance and allure you in different ways. Don't peg God to do something, because He has something greater in mind.

Use your broken heart to reconnect with a God who loves you to death, literally.

Use your broken heart to give to God. It's His to restore and His to love.

Let me use some tough love also, don't use the broken heart for bitterness or for destruction. Don't use it to get the love you want from God from another broken man. That road ain't for you honey.

You were meant for restoration. Claim it.