Better than a Hallelujah

I think it can be hard for people to present themselves as anything other than perfect sometimes.  We try so hard to look good on the outside, whether it be how we dress, how we act, or how we talk.  Sometimes people feel like they have to be that way with God too.  Always singing songs of joy, songs of praise, songs of hallelujah.  What I'm learning is that our cries of misery, our tears in the nights, our pleas for life or death, are all music to God too.  They may be a different melody, but they are still songs to God.  And they are real.  

As we are nearing the end of this year, I find myself exhausted, physically, emotionally, and mentally.  I have had to walk through some hard things with struggling children.  I don't always feel like singing "hallelujah", but that's okay.  Sometimes the silence when words won't come or the tears over what's happened are better than a hallelujah.  Because for the time being, they are real, they are honest.  God hears them.  And he sees the beautiful mess that we are.  

-Melissa

*Inspired by Amy Grant's song