Grace kept finding me this year, over and over again.
When
1. God moved my kids out of our apartment and gave them a just-right space with plenty of room to play. Grace for the days.
2. He walked real close as I murmured to him the secret places of my soul while attempting to make sense of the tension there. Grace for the nights.
3. He guided me to the most wonderful friendships, where he shone a light on that soul-tension. (And when light hits those deeply buried places, freedom inevitably follows.) Grace for the past.
4. He let some relational stuff be hard. Because I needed to decide for myself if people were worth the work, and I needed to see my own junk and lay it down. (People are worth it. Jesus covers my mess). Grace for the walk.
5. He saw us through to the end of a long, hard season of graduate school. Grace for the future.
6. Jesus made a way into the hard joy of parenting away from that easy, angry, impatient place where I constantly was before. Grace in answered prayers.
7. He challenged my insecurities but didn’t push me out on a ledge. He whispers truth in the middle of all the self-doubt and I think maybe he’s in the process of deflating the lies I’ve held on to. Grace for the future.
Dear Self,
God was so faithful in 2016. Bind that around your neck. Write that on the tablet of your heart. Remember.
