You hear this a lot in ministry, from Christian authors, out of sermons: "let me be the first to say I am most guilty of (fill in the blank)." So I hate to be a simple echo, but I do want you to know that from the beating of my heart my writings are mostly an out pour to myself, about myself, talking to my guilt, shame, insecurity. I use this format to be visible to you that I AM FLAWED. I want you to know I STRUGGLE. I come here to lay down my pride and form a sense of accountability.
There is such a voice of Pinterest Perfect in our lives that I do not want that to overshadow the raw, human effort of striving after our Father's promised holiness. (And obviously by striving I mean surrendering, because we. cannot. do. it. ourselves.)
And I want my struggle to make you FREE. To help you realize it is A-Okay to drive to that Sonic parking spot and cry your little eyes out. But to also remind you that happiness is cool too, and not everything has to be about the doom and gloom or the hardship. There are different seasons of life for different reasons, and honestly some seasons are just plain easy. So just because you aren't hurting right now, doesn't mean you aren't living. You're not doing anything wrong. Happy times are there to look back on; signposts we can point at and say, "My God does what He promises." So be happy. Or be hurting. Or be somewhere in between. Our God is big enough for it all. He is there in it all. Embrace it all.