I know it has been WAY too long since I last posted and I am sorry for that! I realized I can say till I am blue in the face things like “I just have been so busy” or “I have so many other things to do”, but I am reminded that we make things that are important to us a priority. With this realization I am really going to put in a conscious effort going forward to blog and hopefully connect with people who can relate to what I write about. And for real, if you have topic suggestions, please email me or reach out, I would love to get your feedback.

I also want to take this time to sincerely apologize. As I look back at past blogs, I have realized without me even noticing at the time that I can come across like I know everything, and my answers are always correct. Mostly, I am sorry if I have hurt anyone through anything I shared on my blog (or any conversation) that I came at too aggressively. Some of those posts were written from a very broken place while I was processing. I never meant to put my wanting to write about the hard lessons I learned before honoring the actual relationships I was writing about. I’m sorry if I tried sounding like an expert at anything because it was never my goal. I still have so much to learn! If anything I want my blog to be a conversation starter, not the final word.

Okay, so now on to the actual post! I have really been praying and thinking about something to write about as I’m coming back from this blogging break, and I wanted to come up with something really stellar and something I wanted everyone to be able to read and love. And this is the simple message I think I’m supposed to share right now – I just feel like The Lord really wants you to know how much He loves you and how you do not have to do a single thing but just receive this unconditional love from Him.

The title “working from love and not for love” means we don’t have to earn God’s love. God sent His only Son to die for you and me so we could take on His spotless life because He took our sin on the cross and overcame it. He didn’t have to do it but He chose to do it. We should live out of the motivation of knowing He loves us so much He gave it all for us. So please know that The Lord is constantly chasing after us and wants us to be able to receive this unconditional love, not try to hide from it or run away to other things. Working from love and not for love also means that we don’t have to do “good deeds” in order to get God’s love, and that there is NOTHING “so bad” that God cannot forgive and love us through it if we confess it to Him. It’s not just about a bunch of rules. Life following Jesus is so full and free!!

If we start to live life knowing we are fully known and fully loved, just think of the changes we would see! We would be able to love those around us better knowing we are so loved despite our own past mistakes. There would be no keeping score or holding grudges. We’d be able to love well even in disagreements, in those times when we get hurt (which is going to happen, because nobody is perfect), and just in every day to day life. If we work from the love God has for us there will be no need to perform for others, “save face” or beg for attention because we’ll stop making choices based on fear of rejection, and instead we’ll make choices from a place of knowing our true worth. And God is so good because even when we mess up, He decided to choose us and love us through those choices of not choosing Him. He won’t ever give up on us!!

So I challenge you that even if you don’t pray, when you can get alone just close your eyes and ask The Lord to reveal how much He loves you. We don’t need to pray fancy prayers. God just wants to have a conversation with us because He loves us so freaking much!! And don’t just take my word for it, you can check out John 3:16 and Deuteronomy 31:8 as a starting point! xoxo