I am not a writer.  Not even close.  Words have never been my thing.  I have a bazillion thoughts a day, and all of them stay in my head.  My husband, Jonathan, on the other hand, has always been a walking talking dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia……you get the idea.  Have you ever heard the joke that says that women rattle on using 50,000 words a day, and men only use 10,000?  In our house, I used to say that Jonathan is the one that uses 50,000 and then uses up my 10,000 besides.   My words have never been less important.  I just didn’t share unless specifically asked.  You see, I am a VERY private person.  While I love and enjoy good close friends, I am the model introvert.  Why then, would I ever start sharing some of my biggest struggles, victories, fears, triumphs, and ideas with potentially the entire world?!  Simple.  Over the past year, God has been gently and sometimes urgently encouraging me to share my stories.  Each and everyone of us has a story.  If you are still on this earth, then it is still being written……daily.  Some of us only ever share our stories with those closest to us.  Some share through writing them down in a blog or book, and others tell their tale on a very visible worldwide stage.  No matter how our stories are told, each one is valuable because each human being is valuable.  I do not yet know the ending of my story, but there is such a richness of God’s grace woven throughout the beginning to the present.  If allowing myself to be real and raw, uplifting and encouraging, or thoughtful and pensive could help someone else in their path, then it’s worth it to try.  I’m willing to start this journey and see where it takes me.  I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but I do know this……..with God’s grace, it WILL be beautiful!