You will find your tribe, they will love you like crazy, and you will realize why you paid attention.

Whether you brought us into this world, or we met you later on in life, one thing remains the same - we loved you. We loved you from the moment we met you. Your charm drew us in, and your unfathomable commonalities with us seemed to connect all the dots and kept us wanting more…

I stepped out onto the ledge and peered over 500 feet down into the canyon. We had completed our brief training that, in no way, could have prepared my heart for what I was about to do…

I’m sorry I called you crazy - he called me crazy too

…if we can take the time to accept what we cannot change and sit with the “hard” for a little while - trusting that there is a bigger plan in the works, God will show us why we had to face the bad before He could reveal the good.

He has broken my chains before. He set me free. He made a way when I thought there wasn’t one, and he will do it again and again! 

It’s a hard path to walk when you feel like the world needs your story, but it’s a hard one to tell. It’s hard to express emotions to others that haven’t walked the same road. There’s so much of the before and after I have yet to tell…

“Don’t be so heavenly-minded that you’re no earthly good.”

Hand it off so your part can be done and you have more time to catch your breath.

He whispers through the wind and even speaks to me through the positivity I follow online. His voice says “Today may bring you sorrow or anger or angst, but I am here to carry you. And don’t forget to look for the joy in every day, my child, because I have placed it there just for you.”

When you know who you are in Christ, I guess you grow duck feathers!

Maybe it will always be that we say things sometimes to offend other people or we occasionally have to “eat our words”, but we can let that not be the end. We can let it be the beginning of healing. When you can absorb what someone is saying and have those hard conversations, it can build an even stronger bond than ever before.

My advice? Put up those boundaries. Break generational curses. Tear down the lies that others (and you) have told for so long. Find your peace and protect it like one of your children. Talk to Jesus like he’s your BFF (because he can be that for you).

Sometimes, on the nights when my kiddos weren’t home and I couldn’t afford cable or go out with my friends or drown my sorrows in a bottle, the pain was almost unbearable. I would lay in bed, curled up in the fetal position, in such physical pain from my sadness. The silence on the outside combined with the whirring thoughts in my head was almost maddening.

Here’s to all the formal traditions and practices - they bring us together as one, educate us, and bring us hope. But the real OG is sitting on his throne and He sees your heart - whether it be in a big fancy building or within the small four walls of your home. Don’t let the formalities EVER stop you from doing your thing directly with Jesus!

He will not let you fall! It might feel like it at times. Hell, it might even feel like you’ve fallen all the way to the bottom and broke every bone in your body, but He promises that joy comes in the morning and sorrow is just a season. And one day, you’ll look back on that season and realize that the only way you could have gotten through it was with Him.

He gave me exactly what I needed in that very moment to feel safe. He reeled me back in, put me on higher ground, and said “We are not going there today, Sister. We have bigger plans.”