"There are only so many times you can hear something about yourself before you begin forgetting if it's even true or not. Before it starts leaving some scars. Even by the end of eighth grade. I feel like I could trace those scars all over my body. Like I had been cut to pieces and put back together again all wrong.

Scars from the pain of feeling unloved.

Scars from the pleasure that I sought and found empty.

Scars from the possibility that life would be this way forever."

-Wasabi Gospel

I read this today and it hit me hard. The scars from my past come up to my brain everyday. There isn't a day in my life where I don't think about my past. Those stereotypes that people place on me, the things people told me that I couldn't help but believe, the pleasure that I sought that only left me empty at the end of the day.

There are scars all over my body from these things I've done, and these ways I've lived, but the redemptive mercy of Jesus covers those.

This was the best, hardest summer of my life. I've never been pulled in so many directions, had to make so many decisions (HARD decisions), seen Satan work so much, and I've never had to have conversations that were harder then the ones I had this summer.

HOWEVER, I've never heard so many encouraging stories, I've never seen so much growth in people, and I've never seen how incredibly God works through prayer.

This summer I felt very alone. I felt empty a lot, and I felt like I couldn't continue a lot of days. That was a DIRECT result of not finding accountability. Brothers, and sisters, I'll be honest with you. There is no way you can live a committed, pure relationship with Jesus Christ without finding that person to hold you accountable to the temptations that you are faced with every day. I'm not even saying there is a chance, because there isn't.

Yesterday I had a conversation that I will never forget. An open, vulnerable, conversation that created a bond. Now, it was one of the hardest conversations I've had because no one wants to admit their struggles to each other, but because of this, I feel accountable to this man, and stopped myself from screwing up today. That's what it's like living with the Body of Christ. That is what the church is all about--keeping each other pure so that the message of Jesus can be effectively shared with the world.

God is so freaking good.