ALL of Me

Last night I finished reading Hadassah: One Night With the King, a fictional book that adds to the Biblical story of Esther. I got to a point in the book where I didn't want to put it down because the story was so interesting. I've always been a fan of the story of Esther, but the book gave a new light to her courage and internal beauty. Although it is fiction and probably not completely accurate, it gave me a lot to think about. I've always wondered what must have been going through her head during everything that she went through and reading the author's opinion made me feel more normal. There are many times that I forget to go to God first with my problems, and the story painted Esther with struggling with that same thing.

So far over the summer I've realized that God is the only one who can give me strength when there are tough customers that i have to deal with. It's taken me a long time to realize that I was still holding on to parts of my life and hadn't given everything completely to God. We had a guest speaker in Bible study a few weeks ago, and he spoke about how if we hold on to just 1% of our lives, that little part means that we really have given nothing to Him. 99% isn't enough to give to God, I need to give Him all of me, because that's all He wants from me. I've had a lot of time to think about what areas of my life I haven't given up completely, and I've slowly been fixing those areas. I'm still far from where I need to be, but I've never felt closer to Him than I have this summer and I absolutely love it!!