Grace for Grace

Life Lately has been me relishing the contentment and joy that I feel in my everyday life.  I am aching for Ecclesiastes, and wanting Proverbs. I want practical, slow wisdom.  It has just now -- as I type these words -- occurred to me that my birthday is tomorrow. I am going to be 23, the oldest I've ever been, yet I am keenly aware of how young that is.  I am praying for wisdom and peace.  I am grateful for the grace I have felt to be hands off, to trust the Holy Spirit and try to open myself to teaching.  Teach me Holy Spirit. It is what You are here for, to comfort and teach, and I need both together. You know what I need.  My birthday has passed with a surprising outpouring of love and celebration. It was lots of tiny moments that made me feel so seen and cherished.  Holy Spirit, my prayer for 23 is this: that I would welcome you into every interaction, every decision, and every thought. I don't want to live life the same as I always have. In the s...

lol. I read this back, and I can see it and remember it a little more clearly for what it was: a kid who loved God and wanted to be closer, and had been shown that the way to be closer was "breakthrough", was big emotional revelations. Those big emotional revelations -- in my mind -- were still something to achieve, something I could do, and it meant that I was making linear progress in my walk with God, because no matter how much I said otherwise, I still craved milestones and achievements that proved I was more set free than others.  A Bit of Backstory: January of 2017 -  I was wondering why I felt like I was in the same place I had been for years, and searching for some magical quote or phrase that could fix my stagnant heart. Somehow I stumbled across a song:  Pieces by Steffany Gretzinger. The moment those first few notes started playing, I burst into tears. I felt something so intense and scary and all-at-once powerful, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that ...