Just a thought...

My Jesus. I love Him more than words could possibly express. He loves me...more than i can even possibly imagine. But i fail...more times than i can count. Growing up in a cookie cutter community, I thought failure was something to hide. I didn't know that everyone was. I didn't know that other people got angry at God. I didn't know that other people struggled with the little things every day. The Bible tells me that a just man falls seven times and rises yet again. Did you see that? No, no, not the "rises again" part. The "he falls SEVEN times part." The "rises again" part means nothing without the "falls seven times part." (Also notice he falls, he doesn't throw himself down, he doesn't step off a cliff. The ground is not his target...this verse does NOT mean, "its ok if i sin this time because i can just get back up.")

Here's a confession, I yell at God. I stomp my feet. I whine. I just don't understand what happens every day. I fall. And thats ok. As long as i get back up. But here's the thing. Here's the thought of this post. How do we get back up? If you would have asked me, a few years ago, I would had shrugged at you and said, "Get up? Well, um, to do that you kind of have to fall...and well, um, we don't really do that." But now the answer is we have people come up beside us and pick us up. At first, i had a very hard time with this. People came. They tried to help. I pushed them away. How dare they think i was falling...when i was, but over time i grew weak. I couldn't keep pulling myself up by my own boot straps AND keep pushing them away. When the cookies stop looking so perfect, life gets a whole lot easier. I've seen it. I've lived it. I'm watching it happen in others. So my challenge...throw away the cookie cutters. Let them know you fall. Pick them up when they do. But never stop getting up.