Protective Shell.

"I have learned in the last year you have choices to respond to hurt. In my hours of waiting [for Josh], I went from vulnerable and willing, to being a turtle crawling back inside its protective shell and relinquishing trust, words I'd shared, and trying to be beautiful..."
~ Edited paragraph from an e-mail sent to friends entitled Cinderella & Pollyanna

And instead, what I have come to, what I have concluded, is my heart's desire and truth, and embossed stamp on me: that God cares with deep love, with deep respect and commitment and worth. And what he does then, in this, is he cares deeply enough to dream big dreams for me, to make purposeful plans, to cut out nameplates over me with his insignia: chosen, beautiful, adopted, redeemed, beloved, Lily of the Valley, and purest bride.

It is His cross I wear. It is His name who comes off my lips. It is His heart that is spread across and on and over me, and it is to his best that I pray, and cling. So back under his wings I crawl, I take refuge, I find my home. In my rock and my redeemer, and underneath, my protective shell, once again.