If anything, this past year has been a time of abundant growth and unlike what I had expected, growth is not always perfectly done. My growth has been more like growing into a swan. The swan does not begin its days with brilliant white feathers and the most graceful form. 

There are many undesirable things that the adolescent swan must endure before entering into the future of life-long love, beauty, and grace.  

The world for the swan gets cold and lonely before it becomes dreamy at times. That little swan must risk its life and venture through many places of discomfort before it finds the love of her life and enters into her dreams. 

The baby cygnet is familiar with rejection and hardship. But somewhere deep inside, she knows that her future will be framed with beauty and she will forget the horrible way things started. 

In a similar way, I had to learn many things the hard way this year and I found that there were many who were very unkind and unwilling to give grace for imperfections. 

I was criticized for those mistakes by the gossiping types, but God told me to just keep shining because He loved the imperfect beauty. I love the heart of God so much. This journey is about growing and intertwining with the heart of God and it does not require perfection. It requires humility, obedience, and trust. 

Sometimes growth starts out strange and awkward, like growing into a swan. We have to adapt and learn what works and what doesn’t. We have to learn to forgive others for their imperfect growth too. We also have to forgive ourselves for what we did not know before we knew. 

We all grow imperfectly and if anyone denies their imperfect-looking growth at times, then they are not being honest with others or themselves. The only one who ever prided themselves in perfection was the devil and those who follow alike. 

We are allowed to make mistakes and we are allowed to grow and learn. I literally had to die to my fears publically when I was going through this journey and I openly shared the pain of walking by that kind of vulnerable faith. 

Of course, there were critics, but those same critics will also witness my rise. God will always defend our honor when we follow the path that He has given for us. 

 I would rather learn from a leader that I saw the battle scars and heard their stories of living by faith than someone who just put up a perfect-looking image and expected others to trust that he knows anything. 

I would rather have an imperfect one that is real than a phony who actually has no real-life experience of living out a promise from God. 

My ugliest swan growth moments started many years ago. When I first started to hear from God prophetically, I shared it with the wrong people. I didn’t understand the importance of keeping some intimate things sacred back then. 

They were not bad people, but they were not yet healed of the religious mindset and they practically burned me at the stake when they misunderstood my words from God. 

I have never known more hatred in my life. Not only did they hate me, but they hated my innocent children. I will be honest that it was hard not to give that hate back as my response. 

What God had shown me was highly personal and I should never have shared that with them–and I know that now. So many bad things went down after I did and it was heartbreaking to endure. 

I remember going to their church meeting once and they all sat behind me and gossiped about me and snickered at me with the harshest judgment. They didn’t even bring their kids to church that night because mine would be there. They called me all of these horrible things (which I knew was a lie). 

I remember closing my eyes during the church worship and trying to forget that I was so hated. I focused on Jesus and tears poured from my eyes. At that moment, I was alone with God and there was no one who could take me away from Him. 

In God’s love, I was perfect and I was loved without conditions. As much as it hurt to be so vastly rejected and scorned by those people, it gave me a lasting beauty of intimacy with God. 

I spent my days alone with God after that and for many years I would never trust another person again. It took me so long to forgive those people and to release the venom of their judgments and verbal assaults. 

Now I see that they were just like Joseph’s brothers and they misunderstood a message that was not for them. It was between me and God, period. 

Although they acted very ugly, I understand that it was part of their growth. I have not seen any of them since that time so many years ago. However, I have hopes that they have grown out of the awkward stages of becoming a swan and into the most beautiful places of being a fully loved child of God, who loves all. 

I try to never think badly of anyone now if I can help it. When I do, I know that I have an issue that I must bring to God for healing. Many times we don’t see that the way others treat us is a reflection of unhealed parts within them. It is never about you or me, I can assure you. 

I know all of my mistakes and the false accusations that have come against me over the years. God always brings me quickly to repentance when I am at fault and He also shows me the accusations that are out of line and an attack. Not only that but God gives me promises to make them right and to set me back up in His honor. 

Moving into this year, my hope is that you will give me the grace for my past growing mistakes and to keep growing into the vision that God has for me. I also pray that I will give you the grace to grow without judgments or unkindness. 

Whenever we hold an offense against another person, we are only hurting ourselves. It does not hurt me when I am rejected or unforgiven by man anymore, because of how badly I endured it in the beginning. 

Because of those attacks, I know who I am in Christ and I know what God has given me to share. If the love letters from this blog are not received, then it doesn’t change those promises for me. They are still precious in my heart and I will live to see them all fulfilled. 

I share because that is what God has asked of me and it makes no difference to me if you or anyone else share in them too. I share the things God has taught me and there is never any pressure for those things to be received or reciprocated. I also add prices on certain things when God tells me to. He has promised that I will prosper in all that I do, just as you will also prosper too. 

It’s a blessing to share the love of God and it makes my heart bloom like a rose anytime that I do. So for those who have watched my mistakes over this year or those before, I pray that you will give me the grace to grow beautiful. I also give you the grace to grow into the most beautiful you. 

I love you and I am so excited to see the new flowers blooming for us all, after this past year of being so delicately pruned. No more pressure to look or be perfect, just be your beautiful and most wonderful you! 

Once the swan becomes an adult, the awkward adolescent years are quickly forgotten. Instead of remembering the days of ugliness, we bask in the awe of the full beauty that the cygnet has become. 

So graceful, so beautiful…one would have never known of the very humble and difficult past. 

Love and blessings! 

Dannette

https://diamondsfromthedust.com/