Janina B.

  “He answered me, “My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power finds its full expression through your weakness.” So, I will celebrate my weakness, for when I’m weak I sense more deeply the mighty power of Christ living in me.”   (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 TPT) Today I read a devotional, and it reminded me that I forgot about grace. I always say that God is good, but I forget to say that God is graceful. On most days I operate in an autopilot state, and I give out of an empty cup. It’s exhausting to say the least, especially when life seemingly finds a way to knock the joy out of you through hardships. God is not just good, He is graceful. He gives us the grace to stand when our emotions make us want to fall to our knees in submission to defeat. God is graceful, and He covers us when we cry ourselves to sleep in an attempt to keep the truth of our situations hidden from the world. God is graceful! I never understood  the ...

  I am not sure what age my parents took my bottle away, but I do know that I was old enough to understand that it was time for me to give it up. I remember wanting a pool, and my father told me that I could have the pool if I threw the bottle away. He didn’t have to tell me twice. I put the bottle in the trash and found it back on the counter a little while later. Perhaps my parents knew that I would not adjust well, or perhaps they didn’t want to find out what it would look like for me to go through that  transition in  that moment in time. To make a long story short, I continued to use that bottle after I  threw it away,  and I never got that pool that I wanted. Growing up never excited me, and I suffered for many years because of it. There were times that I thought that I was big enough to be ‘grown', but mistakes and the need of my mom pulled me right back down into reality.  As I continued to get older, many intersections that I faced placed me in a...