Growth and Grace

They say our brains are not fully developed until we are 25 years of age. I'm confident they don't mean we cease growing at 25 because I am turning 26 today and I don't for a second believe I am done growing. I've stretched and ached and experienced more growing pains in this 26th year of my life than I can even begin to describe.

Well, I can try: I dealt with the some major heartbreak, a summer with high school youth in Chicago and Mexico, a move to Montana to begin internship, all the ins and outs of internship and being far from family, and a billion other small things. While that may seem to be a lot of heart stuff, I've spent a good amount of energy rewiring my brain around issues of shame, depression, and compassion. I've worked with my counselor and spiritual director to break through many "cognitive distortions" and embrace the wonderful gift of grace for myself.

I hope we never stop developing, growing, changing, and finding new ways to experience this ever changing world around us and our place in it. Thanks be to God for these past 26 years I've had and the people I've been able to grow and change with! Here's to another year packed with growing pains from God.