Living Like Water: Lessons in Self-Love and Surrender

God, Grace, and Growing Up

Happy Sunday,

This week, I was at work, and my coworker said, “Come on,” and I replied, “Girl, where are we going?” I was prepared to take a picture to document and share publicly the work that I had been doing, but her plan was bigger—we were standing on the set we’d been working on. These past few months, I’ve been living in answered prayers and back in my element. It made me think: what if our version of rock bottom is the best thing that ever happened to us? Each year has been transformational, and I’ve fallen deeper in love with myself each time. I have learned that the most important work we do is choosing ourselves. Every day, we can find something to take pleasure in.

I’ve fallen a few times, and it’s been beautiful to have the freedom to get back up, because there’s always been comfort, a safety net, and angels cheering me on. Fortunately, I am a creator, a writer, and a filmmaker to my core, so I love words, pictures, chapters, and stories. I believe that there are seasons that are just between you and God. Your ability to begin again and again may be intimidating to others, but what people think will never be your problem. When we pray for God to show us how good it can be, we must also release our fear and surrender to the possibility that it can truly be that good. Sometimes, seeing how good life can get requires us to be seen in moments when we don’t think we’re ready.

I’m constantly reminded how blessed I am and how grateful I am to have a wonderful community around me—people who believe in love. I turned 32 this year. I thrived in new environments, held another retreat, and overcame difficult times, and life was still fun. I felt so full being able to attend homecoming, my 10th anniversary as a Howard alum, weddings, holidays, my brother’s graduation, and special celebrations with loved ones. These moments were reminders that we are the new adults, but also that we are surrounded by a community that supports love. I’ve made more mistakes rushing and reacting than I ever did by sitting back and letting God be God. Life is not about our capacity to struggle, hold on to things that no longer serve us, handle stress, or seek validation. God loves us, and so we lack nothing.

We’ve become obsessed with big moments and have forgotten the beauty in simple ones—the time we spend building our sanctuary before giving back to others. Lately, I’ve been reminding myself to watch my words. Words become thoughts, and these thoughts are now filled with hope, satisfaction, appreciation, and admiration. I am grateful for the moments, the seasons, the years where you fall deeper in love with yourself. One of the reasons for being is to fall in love with ourselves year after year, and I’m grateful that God wants us to delight in His love and in the life He created for us. He created seasons not so that we could rush through life, but so that we could enjoy it and make the most of the time we do have.

So here’s to slowing down, to floating like a wave, to living like water—limitless. God fights for us. We only need to be still. Sunday Lovers, God has seen your labor of love throughout this year. He looks at your heart when He makes decisions about you, so it’s time to lighten your load by ignoring the distractions and old environments you’ve outgrown. He closed doors so that you could make room for valuable time with Him. Keep being lighter. Softer. Keep going. We need you to show up every day, fully yourself—gorgeous, flaws and all.