Most people will give up everything to have comfort.

As Christians we are called to give up our comfort to have the Ultimate Everything.

You’re not alone. You’re just the first to walk forward—

and that makes you a leader.

It is only by first having that vertical connection to your Creator, the One with perfect love, that you can love well and maintain a healthy horizontal connection with anyone/anything. Only by drawing near to God can people draw near to each other: climbing the triangle upwards so the distance between them shrinks.

How much of a hypocrite would I be if all I ever did was long for the “tangible,” “touchable” but humanly flawed and imperfect representation of His love for me through another man, without ever leaning into His actual love for me? I’m already living a perfect love story, one far surpassing all others. How ungrateful am I to think it’s not enough? If God isn’t enough for me no one else ever will be.

I don’t need a boyfriend. I already have a bridegroom. He calls me Beloved.

Discipline me, Lord. I am clay in your artistic hands: mold me into the woman you have created me to be. Help me to seek you diligently. Help me to cast off weight of the temptations of the world and run, full throttle, the race you have set before me. Give me wisdom Lord, to know the steps to take. Fill me with your love for others. Agape. May I love unconditionally, as you do. I am fogiven, so then, who am I to withhold forgiveness.

Boundaries are guidelines to keep you both in check, the subtle walls built around a structure to let others know it is there, asking them to respect the treasure and not trample over it.

Do I have my eyes fixed on the One who gave me sight? Am I walking the path He has laid before me? Is my life becoming harder but my peace greater, or is my peace becoming less and my laziness more?

Just the simple act of bending down to pick up trash, but doing so with a willing and humble heart, is enough to make God smile.