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Righteousness & Restoration at the Cross & the Empty Tomb

As soon as I understood the significance of Jesus dying on the cross for me and rising again, I was thankful. I was in awe. I knew it mattered, even if I hadn’t lived a lot of life yet.

Then after some times of wandering, when I truly saw my sin and felt shame for the first time, the cross held even more value. He was willing to carry my punishment and give me a clean slate. That amazed me and still leads me to amazed, thankful, worship today.

Now as I study trauma and try to reconcile what cannot be reconciled – a good God and the rampant abuse hurting innocent people – I stand in awe of the cross of Christ and His resurrection for new reason. And I want to elaborate on that a little bit today in an effort to explain what I’m beginning to grasp!

Jesus took our sins we have committed upon Himself, and that made us righteous – justified- just as if we had never sinned.

We know this and celebrate it well.

But He also took upon His body and psyche the sins committed against us, the things done to us, and that made us capable of total restoration.

How? How does the cross and the empty tomb promise total restoration of these griefs and traumas we endure?

Just as sure as we can believe in the total righteousness He earned for us on the cross, we can believe in the total restoration He earned for us in the resurrection.

Will we sin? Yes, unfortunately. Will we undergo trauma at the hands of others? Yes, unfortunately. So, yes, we do have these realities in our lives!

But the weight and the power that the sin and the harm had has been stripped of its life altering agony, in Jesus’s name.

That weight and power was placed on Jesus INSTEAD and He overcame it. He overcame the hopelessness. He overcame the shame. He overcame the despair. He was crushed, but didn’t stay down. He made it to where what should have ended us does not have to.

Because of the cross and the empty tomb, all wrongs are given the proper wrath from God.

That wrath either falls on the sinner, who is unrepentant, or it fell on Jesus. The rightful wrath of God is no longer upon any of us who plead the blood of Jesus over our lives. We are forgiven and can walk away from the heaviness of our own sin, and we can know that those who have wronged us are being held into account, 100%. When we want God alone to be the accuser, the judge, and the executor of His wrath, we have stepped into true forgiveness and can even pray for our abusers – Lord, have mercy, because He takes sin more seriously than even we do. He can take our wrath we are holding against ourselves and others, and fully execute it rightfully. When we stop carrying wrath and unforgiveness, we are already moving toward that total restoration that is ours in Christ!

Satan can no longer keep a victim bound to their brokenness nor can he keep a sinner bound to his sin.

He was reduced to merely lying to people about being a slave to the power of sin and the power of trauma. Oh yes, they’re real. But the weight of these things, the eternal baggage, was ALL put on ONE MAN at ONE TIME, thwarting Satan’s plans to attach sin, pain, and trauma to ALL MEN at ALL TIMES.

In the resurrection, Jesus showed He was able to endure this and literally get up and walk away – restored to new life! No one in the world could do that besides Him!

But now, because He did, so can we.

Will we? That’s up to us. Satan wants us to think we can’t, but that’s a lie. Our sins and the sins done to us do not have the power we thought they did, in Jesus’s name. Just as total righteousness can be ours in Christ Jesus, so can total restoration!

While I’ll never understand why some aren’t protected from the worst of mankind’s sins, at the cross and the empty tomb I see Satan’s plans for that sin and trauma declared empty and powerless for all who will believe in Jesus. As we suffer, we have hope; as we wait for the redemption of our bodies, our souls can be well as we trust in Him, the One who has felt it all, hit the ground, and got back up again.

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In Sorrow

Last night, I was supposed to pick some songs to lead at our Bible study at church. I chose Raise a Hallelujah and Goodness of God because they felt right in light of the chapter we were reading in our book, Rekindled Flame, that week. As our evening of talking and praying went on, someone spoke about the shooting in Nashville, and it led to such a somber time of acknowledging our sorrow, confusion, and even doubts and fears. And that was the exact moment the Bible study leader asked me to go into our worship through singing time…

I was thinking to myself:

Seriously?

How do I do that?

I don’t feel like worshipping right now!

I feel like sitting at His feet, yes. I feel like asking lots of questions in His presence, yes. But worship? Praise? Raise a hallelujah?

So I prayed. I reminded my heart and those in the room of truth. We decided to bring a sacrifice of praise. We decided to focus on His sovereignty, His place on His throne, and ultimately, we decided to have faith…the messy, real faith that acknowledges our feelings but also acknowledges our decision to trust the Lord.

I was rightly convicted when the Bible study leader asked us if we could share a time that we praised God and worshiped Him through thanksgiving in the middle of pain and suffering. I felt like I really didn’t have a time to say, because in the worst of times, I will fall to my knees and pray – I will speak truth, I will trust – and I know this is worship, too – but do I praise Him then and there? No, not really. It feels inauthentic. But I see there is a difference between celebratory praise (which may truly feel inauthentic in grief and I think we need to hold space for that) and worshipful adoration of Him through reading Psalms, praying our thanks, and even singing.

We are in such a sad time of history. But I don’t know that any other era was better. It’s just incredibly hard and sad. So what do we do? There are many ways to express it, but for me, here are 3 things I want to be faithful to do.

I want to run to the Father. I want to take my real thoughts and feelings to Him, rather than turn from Him, letting my mind get stuck on the “whys”. Our hearts are breaking. We either take those broken pieces to Him, or we take them somewhere else. The people who will take their fears, doubts, pain, and anger to Him will find healing, joy, and comfort. We are promised trouble, even though God is good. We are promised suffering, even though God is sovereign. And we are also promised peace, His presence, and that He will make all things work together for good for those that love Him and are called according to His purpose (John 14 & Romans 8).

I want to submit to His sovereignty. Part of the beauty of genuine worship is that in His presence, often with the help of scripture and songs, we are once again reminded of the truth of His wisdom and power. Does it take away the pain and questions? No. It doesn’t always do that. But when I submit to His sovereignty, His authority, His choices, His ways, I am enacting my faith and my identity as a child of God. I am not saying I’m okay. I’m not saying I understand or like what is happening. I’m not saying I’m over it. But in submitting to His sovereignty, I am humbling myself and taking my rightful place, which does change my perspective on the big picture.

I want to activate my spiritual gifts for the good of the Body. We all want to do something in times like these. So, we should. Pray. Ask the Lord how to pray, who to pray for, where to pray. Encourage. Ask the Lord how, who, where, when. Teach. Ask the Lord how, who, where, when. Give. Ask the Lord how, who, where, when. Serve. Prophesy. Show mercy. In my class on Tuesday, which is a Women’s Ministry training time, our leader used her teaching gift to lead us in a precious time of learning and surrender regarding the Nashville shooting. She shared how even in this horrific story, God shows His “metanarrative” of creation, the fall of man, redemption, and restoration. We are easily focused on the “fall of man” part, an easy piece to grab onto with our focus and fears. But we know His heart is for redemption and restoration, too. Maybe it will be redemption on earth – Jesus trading sorrows for joy, Jesus touching people’s lives with the seriousness of life and death and bringing them to salvation. Maybe the restoration will happen in Heaven, or here on earth as He displays His love and might through healing these broken hearts, I don’t know. But I know He will do it. How can you and I be a part of this redemption and restoration?

Lord Jesus, may Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Turn us to You. Mend our hearts. Send us out. Amen.

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ethiopia, here i come…

In less than a week, I get to go to Ethiopia and be with Jesus and precious people He loves.

I feel so excited, and also a little sad because I will miss my family. As friends prayed over me today and mentioned my husband and children’s names individually before the Lord, I was struck, again, by the beauty of my LIFE that I get to live here with them.

As I have said in recent posts, family life is hard. Sometimes I’m grieving, sometimes I’m confused. I am not saying it is smooth or easy. But it is beautiful.

About four years ago, I got my first tattoo and it was a step of faith – not the tattoo, but what it said and meant. It says “life is beautiful”. It was a time in my life where my daily existence didn’t feel beautiful, but I was proclaiming what GOD said about it! A year later, I went back and added three more lines to the tattoo, each saying “life is beautiful” in the three other languages that have greatly blessed and affected my life: Bambara (Mali), Amharic (Ethiopia-adopting Yemi), & Haitian Kreyol (Haiti-adopting Eva & Zoe).

Although I will keep it covered in Ethiopia most likely, the Amharic line goes with me next week as I live and abide in this truth: Ethiopian lives are beautiful. Each are created in the image of God. The ones living in the garbage dump in Kore, the ones working at the daycare, preschool, and kindergarten, the ones begging on a street corner. I am already overwhelmed (with heavy gratitude and awe) to foresee how many eyes and faces and hands and souls I will come in contact with, and I have ONE prayer…

That through the power of the Holy Spirit, my eyes and smile will convey that I value them, that Jesus loves them, that Creator God is for them not against them, that they are seen and known by Him, and that this Holy Spirit interaction will indeed enact desire for GRACE BY FAITH in Jesus.

Other than my last time in Ethiopia, I can’t think of a place I have gone that I could not speak at least a preschool version of the language. In Amharic, I’ve got nothing! How awesome to know that my lack and inability will be so deep and wide, making lots of room for Him to speak in the spirit realm.

As was confirmed with my sweet friends this morning, it is my lack and inability that truly is the “new wineskins” that Jesus needed me to prepare for Him to fill with new wine. Maybe the old wineskins were my laws and my self-righteousness, my abilities and commitment level and strengths. Now, both in this Ethiopian trip and in my new desire for the counseling and prayer ministry, I only have this to offer: Me (weaknesses & all) plus the grace and presence of Jesus. And how clear it is in this moment that my beautiful life was not meant to be anything but that.

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Coming Close

This morning, the thought crossed my mind that if I have done anything “right” in following Jesus (which is in itself by the grace of God) I have always believed I needed to come to Him, physically as well as spiritually, rather than expecting Him to come to me.

This sounds really simple, because it is.

This looks like a daily quiet time of reading the Word, praying, sometimes journaling, and very often singing His praise and my surrender. I meditate on Scripture and pray it over people. I go to Him in prayer about my problems and continue to learn to trust Him, whether I feel like I have answers or next steps or not. Just time with Him is enough. I’m coming close to draw from His life and perspective of life. My conversations almost always lead to the Lord and how people are growing in His love and acceptance.

But coming close to Him is more than daily choices like these, it is also a posture of the heart–For example, coming close looks like not being cynical when I am given the opportunity to participate in different worship styles or creative worship ideas such as nailing a post-it note with my sin written on it to a big wooden cross or asking Jesus for miraculous healing or, like last week, going to a “revival” knowing full well that the same Jesus-power at Asbury was also at home in my prayer closet. If I can come to Him in these ways, I absolutely will.

I am simply not afraid or embarrassed to believe, ask, enjoy His presence, forget myself, and be a little ridiculous. When it comes to Jesus, I never really know for sure how He is going to show up! But He says to come near. He says to ask. Through time with Him, we begin to share a mind with Him, share a heart with Him. Is there any greater thing? Life with Him is a treasure hunt…We are the seeker.

He has already come near to us, He has already sought us, by sending Jesus and then by sending the Spirit to dwell in every believer. But sometimes we think He is supposed to do more and more and more to get a hold of us! By His kind grace, He does. He seeks us like the lost coin, the prodigal son! But He also tells us to COME TO HIM.

If you want more, come more.

I think of the act of walking down the aisle to pray with a ministry team, and I know my church doesn’t do that anymore as part of the service. For awhile, I thought that was cool because “why make people uncomfortable?” But I feel now like the step of faith of coming down the aisle matters. Hopefully people are doing that, in just a different way, like in small group settings or taking the risk of calling someone to meet for prayer.

As a believer for over 30 years now, I walked down an aisle at a service to receive prayer last week and that was an act of humility, and it was so so good. God blessed it. Could I have prayed alone? Sure. But it required radical humility to step out and God gives grace to the humble.

So…Yes…It matters.

Getting out of our seats to go up and take communion.

Bringing a friend with you to your knees.

Going to God every day with open hands and open Bible when no one else but He knows.

A posture of the heart and body that says “I don’t demand from God; I come to His altar to connect with Him.”

Is your inner and outer life hard enough to where you need Him every hour? Mine is. If it wasn’t, I probably wouldn’t come to Him like I do. So praise the Lord for the constant need!

Come just as you are. The best words!

The reason I am writing about this today, so boldly even, is that after having this incredibly random thought, my Bible reading for today held these two passages:

Leviticus 10:3

“Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD meant when he said,

‘I will display my holiness

through those who come near me.

I will display my glory

before all the people.’””

Psalm 65:2-4

“All of us must come to you.

3Though we are overwhelmed by our sins,

you forgive them all.

4What joy for those you choose to bring near,

those who live in your holy courts.

What festivities await us

inside your holy Temple.”

Lord, thank You for allowing us to come near. You are good and Your love endures forever!

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I Get to Serve the Lord!

I am so thankful! I am so thankful that God hears our prayers and wants to walk this life with us. I’m so thankful His Word is true and His heart is love.

Last Thursday, I finished my courses in order to be a Certified Mental Health Coach with the American Association of Christian Counseling. It was a wonderful program and I am continuing, working to add on a specialization in Biblical Counseling now. So far, every hour has been incredible, both for my growth and edification and for being equipped to help others.

Later that day, my daughter and I were scheduled to visit Asbury University, so we went and ended up spending a lot of time in worship and prayer as REVIVAL had broken out on campus! While there, I was wrestling with the Lord about several things regarding this “new calling” of counseling ministry. Here are some of the particular wrestles:

-I am just a coach, not a licensed professional counselor. Will anyone take me seriously? Is this just embarrassing? Is this humbling on purpose? (If so, I’m glad!)

-When I pass around a business card or meet with someone for coaching and prayer, am I trying to make myself sound “all that”? Am I prideful? Or am I actually just being obedient and faithful?

-Is it wrong for me to be SO EXCITED about using my gifts in this way? Is that annoying? Is that going to feed any part of me that is self-centered?

-What will this look like? I know the Lord told me to prepare new wineskins for Him to fill and I feel like He is telling me what those are, but how much time and availability do I actually really have? I don’t want to sign up for more than I can do while remained super-centered in abiding in Christ, my own health, and my home/family.

I could go on, but you get the gist of the anxiety.

As I wrestled with God and all my questions, the speaker at the front of the room said if you would like prayer for being salt and light in the ministry God has set before you back home (as many of us had traveled to be there), come up. So I did.

All my circular, messy thinking converged in that moment of just walking up for simple prayer.

It was a simple prayer. But I agreed and believed along with every word, and sometime in that day or the next, a joy bubbled up inside of me that said: “You get to serve the LORD!!!!”

I felt the Spirit saying: Stop apologizing. Stop talking about it. Stop making less of it or light of it. Stop making more of it, too. Every believer is called and commissioned to do this! Millions of us are to be filled with the Word, the Spirit, His body and blood, and with our spiritual gifts, edify the body and bless the world!

No, it isn’t about us. But knowing our gifts, knowing ourselves, knowing our God, knowing where and to whom He is sending us, is not self-centered or bragging. “It is not by might not power, but by My Spirit”, says the Lord. This has been covered. This is old ground.

Here are the precursors to serving. Do this and then GO in Jesus’ Name!

-Abide in Christ and His Word.

-Trust in the Holy Spirit and lean not on your own understanding, reputation, or self-image.

-Be still and know that He is God.

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A Prayer for Our Children

O Love that will not let me go,

Please grab a hold of my children-

Not so that I can sleep better at night, not so that I can maintain a godly reputation, not so that I can feel better about my parenting, but so that my children can know You, separate from me, face to face, heart to heart, in the secret place.

If they are close by me, please be working in their inner man –

If they are in the “far country”, please be working in their inner man –

If they have to face problems, persecution, and pain, brought on by their own sin or just because we live in this world, please be working in their inner man.

O Love that will not let me go,

Do not let them go.

You have done in me what no parent, no mentor, no teacher, no counselor, and no experience could ever do.

I am trusting You right now to do the same for them.

Do what I cannot do. Be where I cannot be. Even in the grief, the tragedies, the things that “shouldn’t” happen, yet do – I will choose to know that You are sovereign and against all odds, You bring healing, a wholeness that is created from You putting pieces back together again.

Help me to not be afraid of the things that shatter me.

Help me to not be afraid of the things that shatter my children.

For You do rebuild ancient ruins, You do make oaks of righteousness. You do change ashes to beauty. You do give gladness for mourning. You do take clay down to the simplest form and with Your own hands, create in Your likeness. You do.

I trust You.

As I watch their lives, Lord, I am really watching for You.

Do what I cannot, and keep me in this hiding place of total trust.

In Jesus’ beautiful name,

Amen

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It’s Okay

I’m sorry that so far my writing this year has been…weird. Or at least it feels weird to me. My year started out with some hard things, as I’m sure your’s might have as well. I’ve had “trauma brain” to be honest and that means that I haven’t been able to think clearly, I’ve been sleeping extra (which is kind of a big deal because I already slept a lot as my norm), and I’ve just had this feeling of “everything, just stop for a minute” yet of course, it doesn’t.

Regardless of why I’m feeling this way, when I come to Jesus with it all, He holds it and He holds me. I am positive I will come to a place of acceptance and we will be okay. But until I feel okay, I am genuinely thrilled to know it’s okay to not be okay.

I love my growing up years, and it was a very positive childhood. I think it was great in many ways that I was raised to not focus much on my feelings. But there is another side of that, too, and now I am an adult having to be persuaded that it is actually very important to acknowledge, and sit with, and accept, what I’m feeling. While feelings have to be balanced with truth, and thank God, feelings don’t get the last word, they matter. So these past couple years of growing in not feeling guilty for negative feelings or not worrying too much about confusing feelings has been incredibly life giving.

So, it’s okay to sit with the fact there will be days when every thing makes sense and clicks and moves forward, and there will be days when we just exist. Yay for that. Hooray for existence! Here’s what we can do, regardless of whether we can get to “okay” today or not:

We can choose to encourage someone, and we can seek encouragement from others.

We can read God’s Word and trust HIM to settle it in our hearts and minds, whether we feel like we can absorb it and assimilate it or not.

We can breathe. We can move our bodies. We can experience outdoors. We can feel grass under our feet, air in our noses.

We can make clarifying lists such as “Who do I need to forgive?” and “Who may I need to reach out to for forgiveness?”

We can give thanks and praise the Lord just for who He is.

We can pray the simplest prayer, knowing God loves us in every season and every stage.

We can drink water and eat food, really good food.

We can hug someone, even if it feels like it might bring on the tears or make us feel or just be weird.

We can take steps that don’t feel like much, but these things bring our human selves (and our spiritual selves) to life…

You don’t have to be okay. But you don’t have to stay exactly where you are today, either.

Praise be to God, who leads us in triumphal procession…

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What Grief Feels Like To Me

I was driving last weekend and the Lord led me to this thought:

Grief is not a problem to be fixed, it is a process to be fostered.

I am in that process.

For me, it is a different type of grief than the death of a loved one, it is the grief of change in relationships. While there are details that make it harder than I expected, I was aware I was going to be grieving at this time of my life. My oldest is about to graduate, and I have home schooled her almost all of her life. There are specific things I am really concerned about for her, things that are for the most part out of my hands and in her’s and God’s. We are very close and she is going away to college in the fall. She won’t even be that far, but I know that I am going to lose a piece of myself not only as she goes, but as she grows. She is becoming whoever she is going to be. I am going to eventually have to get to know her again and what I have with her, and who she is, and who we are together, very well might be very different. The precious thing about this is knowing our attachment is so real…otherwise, my heart wouldn’t feel so happy and sad, excited and terrified, at the same time.

It’s important, in grief work, to understand that there is no going back to normal. I know that sounds really sad, and that sadness, that gravity of reality, is hard. But even that is important in the process. Thinking we can go back to normal should never be our goal; in fact, that would be quite insane, right? We would never actually get there, yet keep wondering why. It’s impossible and we have to eventually accept that. Time, hurt, bringing things to the surface, prayer, understanding people’s real feelings and choices (whether we like them or not), and the process of grief transform us, for the good or the bad, but we never actually get to go back. Instead, here’s the hope-filled part: As we allow grief its rightful time in our life, we catch glimpses and ideas and even dreams of what the next phase, the next “normal”, can look like. There is a life beyond this one, even here on earth. Phases and seasons…we can learn to love them.

God made us resilient. He really did. That is in each of us, by the grace of God. There are gifts I have found in grief…Here are a few:

-The gift of allowing myself to feel everything, without guilt or cheering myself up

-The gift of tears

-The gift of sleep (especially important in the early hours of traumatic events)

-The gift of unexpected silliness or laughter, which is never anything to feel guilty about

-The gift of time, how remembering events, words, and sensations becomes gradually less shocking, jarring, and stabbing (Depending on the severity of the trauma or loss, the longer this takes, but it does happen, by God’s grace.)

-The gift of truth to hold onto

-The gift of the closeness and comfort of God, and the knowledge that we don’t have to do anything but let Him be there with us

-The gift of friends, family, and community

-The gift of counseling

-The gift of acceptance

-The gift of faith

-The gift of slowing down

-The gift of just sitting and looking out the window and letting it all pass, as uncomfortable as the stillness might be

-The gift of knowing such a love in the first place

-The gift of knowing perfection was never needed, regrets can dissolve, there is grace

We don’t have to know it all. We don’t have to contain in ten steps how to grieve properly and get back on our feet again. We just don’t get control like we want. But there is good, there is God, in it all.

“Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job 1:21

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He Loves Us.

Something I have noticed about myself is I have a hard time with natural ebb and flow — ups and downs — motivation coming and going. Maybe it’s the motivation to stay on some kind of healthy routine or maybe it is my Bible study or intercessory prayer time. Maybe it’s the balance I keep seeking between time alone, family time, and reaching out to others who may be lonely.

These inconsistencies, these ups and downs–

I feel them and see them, and I judge them. I see the waves as a personal character flaw.

I didn’t know that I did, but I do.

The important part is though, the ebbs and flows are really not the problem…

my shame or judgment of them is.

When we determine to believe God is a God of grace, when we ponder that Jesus is a friend to sinners, when we recognize He made us human and not divine – with limited bodies and genuine needs and that a lot of our rules are just that: “ours” – some of us think, “Thank You, thank You, thank You…” And relief and humility and praise erupt!

But some of us think, “Yeah, to a certain extent.” Yeah, to a certain extent He has grace in our weakness. Yeah, to a certain extent He isn’t utterly exhausted of us. Yeah, to a certain extent we are allowed to be imperfect…And the condemnation and self-judgment continues to eat us alive, because our theology is flat out wrong. We are thinking the wrong things about God.

We are more focused on ourselves than on who HE REALLY IS.

To the one rotting in prison, guilty as hell — to the one pulling herself up out of bed every morning to quote her mantra, have her coffee, and slay the day – we are all the same.

We are all trying to do this – be strong, do it right, be enough, don’t waste your one life, be valuable – on our own.

And we can’t.

And I’m so glad. What a shallow life I signed up for in the beginning, when earning and merit and grades was all I knew. Now I know how to accept that I didn’t hit the mark and I never will, and those who are forgiven much LOVE MUCH and therefore I love much every single day.

I was telling my daughter this morning, that as far as I know (I’m no scholar) that Christianity is the only religion where our personal merit has absolutely no part in the equation.

Our personal merit has no part in the equation.

This makes me a radical Jesus-lover, because it’s too good to be true YET IT IS TRUE.

And it’s true for you, too.

I don’t know what you know about the Bible. I don’t know what words or sentences in Scripture have made you question the whole Book. I don’t know how people have hurt or misused or misled you or your family. But I am here to tell you today that God’s love for you is a shout He wants you to hear above every other voice- every memory, every question, every fear, every doubt, every person, every reason you have to not come to Him.

May this seed be planted anew in our hearts today, because I don’t know about you, but I need to KNOW that He Loves Us, with no buts, no howevers. His love will cover and cleanse and help and heal, and the miracle won’t somehow magically change hands and become your responsibility at some point. No. His love will do it all. No matter how messy our lives get, He loves us. He loves us. He loves us.

Oh, how He loves us.

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Messes Allowed

I got myself into a stressy place today.

I was multi-tasking and dealing with conflict, and all of a sudden I didn’t feel like a bad-donkey getting stuff done, I felt like a confused, bewildered mess.

Does anyone else feel like you just can’t do this anymore?

That you just can’t juggle a million things and feel so much pressure to be “on” or produce or know enough or do it right?

The good news is we absolutely do not have to. That is not how God intended our lives to be…

Eventually I sat down and slowed my breathing, and asked God to help me! He did…He gave me 4 checkpoints I could process through in my stress. There was a lot to unravel but these checkpoints helped me focus and alleviate the swirling pressure. I hope they can help you, too.

  1. My pace. (Slow down. Do one thing at a time.)

2. My perspective. (Are you stewarding or controlling? Are you serving someone in Jesus’ name or trying to please them?)

3. My participation. (I chose to do this; that may mean I say no to other things until this is over. Or if it is a conflict, what really is my part in this? Am I participating more in it than I need to?)

4. God’s Presence. (My awareness of Him and His way of doing things.)

Here are some truths I want to end on today:

You can re-start your day at absolutely anytime.

Nothing that you do makes you more (or less) wonderful or loved.

It’s actually okay if someone is annoyed by you or has to forgive you. A humble person will know that’s going to happen sometimes and it’s actually really great.

It’s ok to be yourself.

Messes are allowed.