Happy October!

Yay, October has arrived! I've decided that this year it's one of my favorite months. There's Thanksgiving, followed by Jared taking a week off work and it's his birthday during that time, followed by my birthday 5 days later, followed by visiting my sister and bro-in-law on the west coast, followed by Kiera's birthday! Crazy month but SO much fun!

I read The Shack last week in a 24-hour period. I know that there are different opinions about that book, but for me, God really spoke to me and touched my heart through it. I actually wrote down quotes that hit me in a notebook. I can't say I agreed with absolutely everything hook, line, and sinker (like the character that represented God), but I don't think that was the main point and there was too much amazing truth in there to write off the book just because of that. By the end, I felt so free and so loved by my Father.

"Don't ever assume that God using something means He caused it or that He needs it to accomplish His purposes. Grace doesn't depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors."

"Guilt will never help you find freedom in me. The best it can do is make you try harder to conform to some ethic on the outside. I (God) am about the inside."
"I don't do humiliation, or guilt, or condemnation. They don't produce one speck of wholeness or righteousness, and that is why they were nailed into Jesus on the cross."
-I don't think that means we shouldn't ever feel bad when we do wrong things, but we're not supposed to stay feeling that way. We're supposed to go to Jesus with it, repent, and move on. I think often I revisit that guilt and that's wrong because it's been dealt with and then I'm not experiencing Christ's freedom.

"Relationships are a whole lot messier than rules, but rules will never give you answers to the deep questions of the heart and they will never love you."

"An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others."

Those are just a few from the 5 pages of quotes I wrote down. I highly recommend reading it for yourself if you haven't already as it has impacted my life! :)