Life hasn't been going my way lately and I've noticed something about myself when life doesn't go my way: I throw a fit. I am 20 years old and I will throw a fit to God when He doesn't do things my  way. Just the other day something didn't go my way and I felt God say, "I can't work in the 'woe is me.'" I've been wrestling with that thought for a few days. What does that even mean? The 'woe is me' Situations come up in our lives in which we sit for hours, days, even weeks in prayer over what is to come. We sit in hope, sometimes imagining how our lives will change when the outcome goes our way. We say that prayer, "God your will, not mine," but in our minds we are praying, "God may your will match up with my will." Then, God's will happens, and it wasn't our will, and now we are sulking. "Why God?" "Why didn't you let it go my way?" "But God I thought you had spoken to m...

I've written about the importance of forgiveness quite a few times before but I've realized something; forgiveness is a verb. What I mean by it being a 'verb' is that it is a constant 'doing' that you have to carry out day by day. Let me explain: Around this time last year my heart was filled with bitterness, hate, and all things ugly. Around this time last year my life started on what seemed like the biggest downward spiral into self-hate, depression, and a season in which I felt the worst feeling, the feeling of being numb. It was around this time last year that I allowed for un-forgiveness to take root in my heart. Not only did it take root, but I began to harvest its ugly, rotten fruit. It wasn't until a few weeks before my twentieth birthday did I finally take un-forgiveness out at the twisted root. I handed out forgiveness like Oprah hands out any type of gift. "You get forgiveness!" "You get forgiveness!" "You get forgiv...