I think one of the hardest things about loving the Church is realizing that loving her does not mean always liking everything you experience within her. There are moments when church feels like everything we believe it should be. You walk into a room and feel the presence of God. You find people who become family. You are prayed for, encouraged, challenged, discipled, and loved. You watch people encounter Jesus and see lives genuinely changed because people have come together

Forgiveness is one of the most beautiful commands in Scripture, yet it is also one of the hardest things God asks us to walk through. It sounds powerful when we read about it in the Bible or hear someone preach about mercy, but forgiveness becomes deeply personal when the wound has a name attached to it. When betrayal becomes real. When disappointment cuts deep. When rejection leaves scars. When someone we trusted wounds us in a way we never expected. In those moments, forgiv

Somewhere along the way in our faith journey, many of us learned that emotions are a problem. That feeling deeply means we are weak, immature, or lacking faith. We were taught, sometimes subtly and sometimes directly, to ignore our emotions, push through them, pray harder, or pretend they are not there. As if faith means never feeling overwhelmed, disappointed, angry, or deeply sad. But Scripture tells a very different story. God created emotions. They were never meant to be