Growth comes from God, to those with surrendered, yielded hearts.

As I look back over my mountains of growth and compare them to the molehills where I stagnated, community often made the difference.

Worry is a weighty monster with poisoned tentacles. It clutches at us, grabs at our minds, steals our breath, our will. It lurks. It pounces. It colors how we perceive the world.

I understand true life doesn't happen when I constantly gaze backwards, mulling over all the injustices others have done or I have done to others.

Because the culture we breathe and work in rushes against rest. It equates our worth with production and wealth and fame. The more we work toward those goals, the more society assigns us worth.

God's heart…is not that we escape our lot, but that we learn to thrive in the midst of it.

Pain can either thrust me into the arms of Jesus or make me turn my back on Him. Either way, it's a choice.