Note the looks on their faces. Somewhere between, “This is Stupid” and “I hate you for moving us.”

Emotions run wild.

On the first day of school. Wherever you are. Whoever you are.

Check out the rooftops below. The newness. The growth. The sun. So much is different and yet all is the same.

I wish I could take that same picture every day. Day two was filled with smiles and a little less, “I hate you.”

I wish I could show the progression. The houses being finished. The becoming. The growth. Courage. Strength. Success.

I wish heart growth wasn’t invisible. I wish my kids could wear courage like a badge of honor around their neck. I wish they could receive recognition for being brave and learning new things and “doing it afraid”. I wish the pictures could catalog the strengthening of their resolve and the opening of their hearts and the banishing of fear.

They (and we) live in a world of Facebook and instagram and Twitter posts that look like perfection but feel like lies. No bravery or vulnerability in sight.

I considered posting the cuter picture, the one where they were smiling. I considered trying to wrap this up in a bow, falling into old patterns, achieving, performing. But God is doing a new thing here in Texas. And in my heart. He has assured me I have a bigger, better, braver story to tell.

The real one.

No, we can’t wrap this up in a bow with a pretty picture. Not yet. Maybe not ever. Because a picture can’t do this journey justice. A picture won’t show how we are becoming who God designed us to be. A picture will never show our trust and our surrender.  It can’t convey how those things make us stronger. It can’t capture the transformation of our hearts.

No, we can’t see what matters in a picture.  So we tell our story.

He is trusting us to be brave and to tell the story well.

©2014 Sue Bidstrup, Great Big Yes™ All Rights Reserved