Church of the Highlands is my home church in Birmingham, AL.  We are currently in one of my favorite annual series, “At The Movies.”   Each week our pastor plays clips from a movie, then makes great spiritual applications.  It is creative, touching, hope-filled and a great evangelism tool.

I have a real life, but I have asked myself, if my life was a movie for all to see, what clips would I want shown? What clips would offer hope, and sway people for God?

Here are a few clips, from my real story that  I would want in my “reel” story:

1. When you have rough beginnings as a child, God still has a plan for your life. My life growing up was quite difficult, yet God had a plan to find me, change my life and use me for His glory.  How life started does not have to determine how it ends.
2. When life doesn’t turn out like you had hoped, allow God to take your lemons and make lemonade. The woman who led me to the Lord was never married. She wanted to be married and have a family of her own, but it never happened.  Yet, she allowed God to use her to be a spiritual mother to many.  I am a product of her encouragement and training.   I can only imagine the number of people she touched, who then touched others, who then touched others.
3. When you’ve messed up, forgive yourself. I was ridiculously hard on myself for the mistakes I made as a wife, mother and woman of God.   I allowed mistakes to hold me back way too long.  There is life after mistakes!
4. Choose to enjoy life. There will be periods of hardship, periods of deep grief, periods of unfairness.  Don’t let those drain you of joy forever.  Live again. Laugh again. Love again.
5. Serve others. By nature, I am very introverted and could spend most of my time alone.    As I have allowed God to use me in a variety of settings, not just teaching, I have found there is great joy in being His servant.
6. Leave a legacy. At the end of movies, there are often paragraphs flashed on the screen.  Those paragraphs tell the rest of the story, and often the legacy left behind. In my “reel” life, my hope is for paragraphs that say, “She made a difference for God – a tangible difference in the lives of family, and in the lives of those with whom she crossed paths.”

We all have a real life.  But, what if you had a “reel” life?  What would the story say?  Your story is still being written, and you can still make a “reel” change.  Live life to its fullest; live for God.

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”  – Ephesians 2:10