Happiness

Well I hope you had a beautiful Christmas. I sure did. It is absolutely amazing to be a part of two families at once. I get to enjoy each family for its uniqueness, but also the unifying love of Jesus we all share. I got to have two Christmas mornings on Christmas day, both concentrating on the fact that we were celebrating Jesus' Birthday, or more specifically, the fact that He came to earth to save our sin-sick souls. I had a wonderful time giving presents to the families that I love, eating food that my stomach hated, playing games with Dad, helping Mom in the kitchen (yes, you should be proud), watching Pop get more excited than I ever remember being at 6am, Mom Cindy's excited face when all of her kids gasped upon opening their HDTVs... it all amounted to love. I experienced more love this Christmas than I have in a long time.

I'm fairly certain that the reason that I had an awesome Christmas filled with love was not because I got awesome gifts, or even that I have a fiance, but because Jesus is re-opening my heart. Life sucks, to be blunt, and my heart has only had a shallow opening to its shell for the last 5 years, hardened by bitterness, anger, pessimism, pain, and hopelessness. Thankfully, Jesus helped Corey to find that shallow opening 2 1/2 years ago, and He has been using Mr. Man to melt the walls. Now, after leaving the environment that was encouraging my heart to be hard, the walls are melting much faster, allowing me to love more, be loved, and be filled with the joy of the Lord again.