So, it's been a while since I last posted, but it doesn't mean that I've been uninspired. It just means that like everyone else life busy.

One of the things about life I'm learning to embrace rather than resist is the process of growth. While physical growth as a child is so much easier in that it just happens and is relatively pain free, growth as a human and in your inner being often seems painful and excruciatingly slow. However, as I look at my life and see what happens when I've embraced that process, life is so much more enjoyable. Sometimes it is painful or even shameful when we deal with our stuff, but when I understand God is pointing these things out to heal me and help me serve him & others better it makes it worth it.

I was encouraged at a recent retreat for our students by the speaker Sy Rogers. He said many profound things, but a couple of them stick out to me today. First, I can't expect God to "cure" my humanity, but I can expect God to help me to manage it with self-control. God's grace is so incredible! Sy also said God would rather have messy children than no children at all. It's so freeing to be reminded of this infinite and UNCONDITIONAL love our Father has for each of us. He cares more about me being in relationship with him and in the transformational process than about a mistake in one event in my life. God's love & forgiveness are bigger than any mistake I can make. So often I can live out of fear of making a mistake and screwing it all up, but I find freedom in understanding I am in process.

I want to be different. To love God with all that I am and love others with all that God gives me. I'm not even sure what different fully looks like. But I know that today I want to be different than I was yesterday. It's what God created me for. I'm created in his image (Gen 1:27) to reflect his goodness & faithfulness.

"One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple."
~ Psalm 27:4