2024: A Year of Healing through the Gospel

2024 has been a year of healing, but it wasn’t without first walking through devastating grief. The events of 2022 shattered my world, leaving me broken in ways I never imagined. It wasn’t just a single moment—it was loss after loss, stripping away everything I thought I could rely on. For so long, I had prided myself on my ability to push through on my own strength, my own grit. But in the depths of my brokenness, Jesus met me there. And He carried me.

In 2024, He began to rebuild me—piece by piece, bone by bone, heart by heart. True to His nature, He didn’t just restore me to who I was before; He made me stronger. In my pain, I began to see something extraordinary: Jesus wasn’t just allowing me to endure—it was His grace actively working in me, refining me. He took my heartbreak and transformed it for good. Every crutch I had leaned on, every false source of strength, He lovingly stripped away until all I had left was Him. And it was enough.

This is the heart of the gospel. Christ willingly carried the cross for us. He bore our brokenness, our shame, and our suffering. And through His sacrifice, we are made whole. Just as He took our pain and turned it into redemption, He walked with me through mine to strengthen and refine me. In His hands, my brokenness became a canvas for His glory.

Through these years of struggle, God gave me clarity about truths I had known in my head but hadn’t fully experienced in my heart. Now, I know them in every fiber of my being:

My worth is found in being His daughter.

Not in what I achieve, not in how I appear, and not in the fleeting approval of others. My identity isn’t defined by the world but by Jesus’ sacrifice for me. I am His, adopted into God’s family, and that alone gives me infinite worth.

Everything in this world is temporary.

The applause, the accolades, the fleeting moments of success—they all fade. But the relationships we build, the love we share, and the seeds we plant in others’ hearts have eternal significance. The gospel makes it clear: God’s love is eternal, and our calling is to share it so others can also experience eternity with Him.

These truths didn’t just stay in my heart—they began to shape every corner of my life. And from that place, these are the things I will fight for:

My Marriage: I will honor and respect my husband—not for what he does or how he performs, but because he is created in God’s image and deeply loved by Christ. Loving him means following his lead with humility and gratitude, serving him with kindness, and trusting God’s design for our relationship. In respecting and honoring him, I honor God.

My Children: I will guide my children to know their worth in Christ, to understand their need for His grace and mercy, and to see His love in action everyday. To show them their identity is not rooted in achievements or failures but in the unshakable foundation of Christ’s love and their position as His child.

My Friendships: I will love my friends exactly where they are because that’s how Christ meets me every day. I will not carry burdens alone, I will point them to the only One who can truly heal and restore.

My Freedom in Christ: I will no longer be bound by the lies of the enemy. I will walk in the freedom Christ purchased for me on the cross. Freedom from fear, freedom from striving, freedom from shame.

The enemy whispered lies to me for years:

• The lie that I wasn’t worthy of love left me isolated and self-focused.

• The lie that I had to achieve more, be more, and do more to be valuable left me empty and burnt out.

• The lie that I was responsible for other's happiness crushed me under a weight I was never meant to bear.

But the gospel silences those lies.

1. My worth isn’t earned; it’s given by Jesus.

2. My identity isn’t fragile; it’s secured in Christ.

3. The weight of saving others isn’t mine to carry; it's Jesus', their Savior.

The world and the enemy tried to break me. It tried to take my peace and tear Jonathan and I apart. But Jesus is stronger.

In Christ, I am FREE. This freedom is not fleeting; it’s eternal. It’s a freedom from the lies, from the chains, and from the weight of trying to be enough on my own. I will walk forward boldly, confidently, and joyfully in the truth of who I am in Christ. This is who I am, and this is what I will fight for til the day I am called home.