I've tried to trace my trouble back to the day where it all started. Like footsteps in my mind I've followed it back. Hoping somewhere along the way I'd eventually stumble across that very first print. Like a crater in the dirt, old and barely recognizable. A hollow hole that once held the sole of my feet, and some other forgotten memory. My first moment of compromise. The one decision that sent this life of mine spiraling into the whirlwind of chaos it became. I haven't found it yet... that footprint. Sometimes it feels like I've been looking longer than...
Learn to be conscious not just in how you act, but in how you REACT. Every action has a reaction, and it's usually the REACTION that lives in our memories. React wisely. Very few people will ever stop to consider how they treated you, even fewer will admit they did you wrong. So expect nothing, take note of everything, and eventually what you learn about someone's character is the very thing to save you from the heartache they would cause you. A person with bad intentions towards you is counting on your reaction to shift the blame to you. Don't...
Today, as you throw food on the grill and light fireworks, I challenge you to take a moment, pause... and think about what "Freedom" really means. All the comforts and conveniences it lays at your feet. Then try, if you can, to imagine your life completely stripped of it... The truth is, we've been so free for so long it's hard to picture life outside its walls. It only takes a tiny tear in the fabric of freedom to unravel everything you hold dear. Once it's gone, it will require nothing less than the bloodshed of generations far beyond...
"I've done some really messed up things in my life... things I can't undo. No matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to put the pieces back together. I'm just too so far gone. How could someone like me be forgiven? How could someone like me be washed of my sins when I feel so unworthy of God's love?" I think the first hurdle anyone has to jump is the "Faith" hurdle. Is God real? Is the Bible really God's Word? Is that Word really a map to knowing God's promises in our life? Does it become an ever constant...