One year, my family spent the Thanksgiving holiday with a friend’s family. We were asked to prepare a dish at their home instead of bringing one already done. I had agreed to make Banana Pudding, one of my favorite desserts to whip up.

When we got there, my friend did not have some of the ingredients that she originally thought she had, so some things I was accustomed to putting in my Banana Pudding were missing. Still, I figured it out and finished my dish.

After dinner, when time came to put the desserts out, I noticed my friend did not display what I had made. But her husband, who was a huge Banana Pudding fan, asked where it was. When he tasted it, he said it was one of the best Banana Puddings he’d ever tasted! It turned out to be a big hit with all the guests.

My friend admitted, “Child, I stuck that Banana Pudding in the back of the fridge because it looked so ugly.”

Yeah, y’all, she confessed that she dissed me. She ain’t have to do me like that. We both started laughing. I didn’t know she had deliberately hidden my dessert until she outed herself, but I didn’t get offended, because it wasn’t the prettiest thing I’d ever seen either. Without my usual ingredients, I couldn’t make it look as it good as it would have.

“I wish I had brought it out sooner, though,” she said after tasting it, too. “Because it was delicious! I learned my lesson. Something can look ugly and still be very good.”

Now, ain’t that the truth?

Sometimes we get so caught up in the way things appear and don’t believe they can be good based on what we see. We make this mistake in our spiritual walk too, just as the Pharisees did.

In Mark 3:1-6, Jesus healed the man with the withered hand which was a good thing. But He did it on the Sabbath and broke Jewish law which didn’t look so good from the viewpoint of legalistic Jews.

“Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil?” Jesus asked the Pharisees (v. 4). He knew they were more concerned with things looking good than being good, so Jesus offended them on purpose. Jesus had come to fulfill the law and introduce grace which required disrupting the status quo and challenging traditions.

Friend, when God wants to do something new and better in our lives, He interrupts our routines, challenges our traditions, and plops us down in the middle of ugly circumstances. He has done that to me, especially by allowing me to sustain brain trauma a couple years ago. It was an ugly situation, and it has been hard for sure! But something so beautiful has come out of it. I have become more authentic, transparent, and real in the process. He is using my experiences to help me reach those I could not reach before. And I just believe that God has even better things in store for New Dianna.

He has good things in store for you, too.

Listen, even if things to appear to be in shambles today, God has something special in the works for you. In Isaiah 61:3, He promises to give you a “a crown of beauty instead of ashes,” which is what I’m stirring into your cup of inspiration.

As you drink down the contents of your cup, declare over yourself, “Something beautiful is coming out of this.”

And it is so.

It may be ugly now, but it won’t be this way always.God will turn your tears to joy, your pain into purpose, and your trial into the greatest triumph of your life. He will cause the ugliest set of circumstances to work together for your good. And you better believe, my friend, that it ain’t over until it’s good!

Let’s pray.

God, thank You for reminding me that You are the God who takes ugly things and makes them beautiful, broken things and makes them whole, and tragic things and makes them triumphant. By faith, I know You will do this for me, and I thank You in advance. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

If you desire prayer, please allow me, along with my intercessory prayer team, to stand in faith with you for breakthrough. We would be so honored. We have seen God work over and over again. There is power in agreement. Click here to request prayer now.

As always, thanks for reading and until next time... may today's cup of inspiration uplift, encourage, and empower you!