Living loved isn’t deciding in your mind, “I deserve to be loved.” Or manipulating your heart to feel loved. It’s settling in your soul, “I was created by a God who formed me because He loved the very thought of me. When I was nothing, He saw something and declared it good. Very good. And very loved.”

Grief is a circle. Inside the rounded edges is where we go to work on accepting what will never be. Outside the edges is where a life still full of possibility exists. New joy is found when the circle is incorporated as a part of our landscape.

God’s Word is the Truth. And His Truth says you are a holy and dearly loved child of your heavenly Father.

We have to fight the urge to expect our version of God’s good timing, God’s good provision, and God’s good protection to match what we script for our lives. God Himself is good. And that means His plans are good, His ways are good, and we can trust Him at all times.

Our God is a God of completion. He makes promises and then He fulfills them. They may take longer than we’d like and the journey may be harder than we expected, but we can rest assured that our God will always be found faithful.

Life is a journey of “both and.” The coexistence of both hard and holy. Both certainty and mystery. Both laughter and lingering sorrow. I don’t know where you’re wrestling through this “both and” process personally, sweet friend. But I’m praying for you as you learn how to dance.

Healing. We can’t schedule it or hurry it up. But when we start to see it as unfolding layers of unexpected strength & richly revealed insights, it doesn’t feel so inconvenient or unfair. It starts to feel like the sweetest secret God ever whispered into the depth of our soul.

When we're walking through circumstances that seem unfair or hurtful beyond what we can bear, we must allow God to shift our perspective with truth. In the midst of your wilderness, let God whisper His truth that He is good. He is good to you. And He is good at being God.

Even when we don’t understand, we must trust God’s timing is perfect. Remember, “not yet” doesn’t mean “not ever.” Keep holding on, friend. God isn’t done with your story.

Let’s put these words on repeat today, sweet friends: God loves me. He has a plan. And He absolutely can be trusted.