I constantly have this intense craving to write…to pour my heart on paper. It’s been a really long time since I’ve felt that way. It feels good to have that urge again. God is doing a great work in me. I have changed over the past year drastically. It’s amazing to see what happens when God takes us in our poor and desperate state and begins to mold and shape us to be a glorious testimony of his love. I have come to know and understand my Lord in a much deeper way this year. It has not been an easy road by any means. It has been one of the hardest but most fruitful years of my life. It’s often in the midst of our struggles and pain that we grow the most. It was around fall this year when God really stripped me naked, figuratively speaking. He took everything around me that I held close, found my worth in, and trusted in and left me with only Him. If I were to capture my year in one word, it would be TRUST. Not in myself or the things I have built…but in God alone. And sometimes we fool ourselves and think, “well look what I have done for myself…look what I have attained. Look how successful I have become. Look at all that I have achieved”. But this year God reminded me that we own nothing. Everything in this world belongs to Him. He can give and take as He pleases. God is Sovereign. He allows us to go through hard times because He loves us. It is not until we have NOTHING that we can truly see God as EVERYTHING. I have begun to see the beauty of living life in God’s will instead of my own. So often we chart the path ahead of us and ask God to bless it. But that’s not how God wants us to live…and true happiness will always be a step away if we live life that way. The abundance of Joy that the Lord speaks of is found when we allow HIM to chart the path ahead of us. When we learn to seek HIM in EVERYTHING…walking one step behind Him at all times. Living life in God’s will doesn’t mean that the path He leads us on will always be easy…it won’t. But it will always be the best possible path for us to take. The Lord loves to bless His children. And He will take us through hardships sometimes…but these are the things in our lives that will shape and mold us into the people He created us to be. And I want to be the woman that God created me to be. The safest place I can be is in His will. All I am, All I have, All to You, Lord.