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Showing posts from July, 2017

Serve Yourself

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All my life I have heard “serve others” or “put others before yourself.” Let’s not forget the lovely acronym, JOY: Jesus, Others, Yourself. It is drilled into us from a young age, especially if you grew up in church, but what you do not hear is to take care of yourself, or make sure to set time aside for yourself. At least not as much as you hear to serve others. To serve others well, you must take time to rest and fill yourself up, or ultimately you will crash and burn. It is definitely not the mentality I have. This has been a struggle for me on this journey of healing. I still find myself daily thinking that I have to get this done for so and so, or I feel anxious, but I go to work anyways because I do not want to put more work on someone else. Or even when I feel like bursting into tears, I still serve that guest with a smile on my face. I do that because I have always felt the need to serve others. To serve others above myself when I am crying loudly on the inside. I do not li...

Fighting to Believe

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It is a very scary place to be when you feel that you almost do not believe in God. Wait, what? Yes, I said it. I almost do not believe in God. Why do I say almost? Because deep down in the very depths of my heart, there is this teeny tiny ounce of hope that God is good, He is enough, He is not just a mean God putting me through hell, and He has a love for even me that I cannot understand fully. I am at a point in my life right now where there is a strong spiritual war happening in my heart, the strongest I have ever felt it. I can either turn completely away from God, or I can run fully toward Him with the very little faith I have left in me. The enemy is trying to pull me away and take this last ounce of faith I have in my heart. He is trying to fill my mind with lies that God does not care about me, that He is not enough, that He is putting me through all of this just to be mean and make my life a living hell. He is telling me that I am not enough, that I am not doing a good job a...

Beautifully Broken

Broken - having been fractured or damaged and no longer in one piece or in working order. This is the definition when you google broken. I relate so much to that definition. Broken spirit. Broken mind. Broken spirit. I find myself angry at God. (Gasp) I know, right? How can someone be angry with God? Honestly, it is pretty easy actually. As I am on this journey of healing, I find my relationship with God needs healing, but in order to get to that point, I have to be honest with Him. This is me being honest with Him. I was journaling a few weeks ago and pouring my anger out to God. Do you know what I wrote in my journal? "I hate You, God." Wow. I never thought I would say that. I am angry at Him for allowing the sexual abuse to occur. I am angry at Him for letting my parents get a divorce. I am angry that he took my grandmother away from me. I am angry at Him for taking one of my best friend's dad away when she was only 23. I am angry that he took my other best friend...

Strong and Courageous

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Strong and Courageous…those are two words I would never use to describe myself, yet they have been the theme of my life for the past month or so. When I think of strong, I think of someone who can physically lift a large amount of weight, but the strong I am talking about here is not a physical strength, but more of a mental and spiritual strength instead. Someone with these types of strengths can withstand (or rather overcome) hardships that life has thrown at them. I say overcome because sometimes these hardships will knock us down, but the mentally and spiritually strong can stand back up and fight their way through. Courageous is just what it means, courageous. When I think of someone who is courageous, I think of someone who is not afraid of anything that comes their way, but lately that viewpoint has changed for me. Courageous does not mean you are never afraid at all, but rather you can face that fear when danger or pain come around with a braveness only God can provide. God...