Steak for the Soul

Every day you allow yourself to care about someone else's opinion of you is a day you stay bound by the very chains they wish to put upon you. For if freedom is the absence of chains, then one chain is one chain too many to truly be free. Simply put, a single worry of how the world views you is the equivalent of slavery. You are bound. You are a captive. Not to the world's view of you, because it has no real power over you, but to your own thoughts, and it's in those thoughts that the most beautiful pieces of you are stripped away. Until...

Like the leaves of the season, so are friends. Blooming in our lives but for a brief, waking moment, shining bright, vibrant in all their splendor... then quickly fading into yesterday as a new season peeks over the horizon. Suddenly the leaves begin to change and we find ourselves gripping tighter and tighter, holding on to what we had while each beautiful color fades before our eyes... If only we could learn to let go, how much heartache we would save. Sometimes we find ourselves simply gripping that leaf because of how long we've held it. Holding onto friends that...

I sit here tapping away at the small glowing keys on my laptop, the rattling sound of the air conditioner rushing through the vents overhead, the room is empty… just me and my thoughts.  Sometimes it takes bumping into one of these "alone" moments to make myself stop.  Stop, breathe and just thank God for another day.  For everything He's brought me through over the years. Life changes, people change, desires change, times and circumstances change… but trials always have this funny way of staying the same.  You hurdle over one and another one is staring you in the face,...