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Good morning friends. It's certainly wonderful
to see each of you this morning,

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and it's always an honor each opportunity
that I have to stand behind this sacred

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desk that so many prominent pastors and
preachers who have once stood here as well.

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And also, Happy Mother's Day to
all the biological mothers, adopted mothers,

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foster mothers, spiritual mothers, mother
figures, godmothers, housemothers, all

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mothers. I hope that you have
a joy filled day with loved ones.

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As I look around, I can
imagine that some of us came here to

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hear our magnificent choir and musicians,
or to maybe marvel at the Gothic architecture

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that we find here in the nave, out in our hallways and on the

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facade of the building. Some may
have come to meet up with a friend

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or a loved one, to pass
the peace to Christ to one another.

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And there are some who may have
come with broken hearts, heavy burdens.

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Some came today grieving a loss,
loss of a loved one, loss of

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income or ability position. Maybe some
of us came because we may not know

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where else to go or where to
turn. But said, if I could

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just make it to church today,
if I could muster up enough strength to

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make it into the House of the
Lord, to be in fellowship with God's

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people, to be in community,
to hear a word sung or proclaimed that

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God is going to give me the
strength, the hope, and the courage

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I need to keep moving forward.
For some of us, our faith could

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be a bit fragile right now.
I hear you. It's been an unprecedented

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few years of navigating a global pandemic, and not only that, but sweeping

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systemic injustice and inequity, war and
extreme poverty, polarized and radicalized views manifesting

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into harmful and dangerous policies and practices
that push people further and further to the

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margins. With all of what we're
facing today and with what we see around

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us, I believe that there's a
message of hope, even in what some

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may describe as a challenging text today, A message that reminds us of the

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power of faith. Faith not as
blind optimism or an unmeasured hope in God's

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love for us, but faith that
is a part of the very core of

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our being, where we embrace and
belief the limitless, unbridled and inclusive love

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that God has for you and me. Won't you pray with me? Dear

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God, we are so humbled to
be here in your presence this morning.

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We ask God that your Holy Spirit
saturate this place. God, we ask

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that your spirit move up and down
these aisles, through the pews in our

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hallways. God, that you will
tune our ears and our hearts to what

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it is that you want us to
hear today. God, I ask that

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you empty me out, take me
out of the equation, that I may

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be a vessel to be used by
you. God. We give you the

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glory, the honor, and the
praise in the name of your son,

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Jesus the Christ amend. Growing up
as a young child in the South,

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Sunday mornings for special I remember waking
to music from our local radio station playing

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in the background and hearing songs from
artists like James Cleveland, Keith Pringle,

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Dotty Peebles, Tremaine Hawkins, the
Wine Ends, Aretha Franklin, Vanessa Bell

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Armstrong, and others. The sound
fill the house with a sweet aroma of

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praise and worship. I can even
remember hearing the sound of hoots and pans

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clinging from the kitchen as dinner was
being prepped as the unforgettable smell of spray

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starch used to iron a white button
down shirt for church wafted in the air.

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By the way, the wrinkles in
that shirt never stood a chance.

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Growing up church for me and for
so many black families, wasn't optional.

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We didn't have the choice, and
there was certainly no I'm too tired,

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maybe i'll sleep in today. Going
to church was an extension of our expression

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of faith in the context of a
shared history, and it was that well

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nurtured, deep rooted faith that contributed
to our capacity for resilience in a world

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that then and even today treats black
cloaks poorly sees us as problematic, a

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world that is fearful of dismantling systems
of white supremacy because equality and equity to

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many means a loss of power and
privilege. Though my earlier memories of going

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to church certainly influenced my spiritual practices, now as an adult, I find

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that the private moments with family and
incommunity had a significant impact in shaping my

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faith. One of the earliest memories
that I have of witnessing one's expression of

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faith was watching my great aunt Bertha, aunt b as I called her.

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She modeled for me what it was
like to express faith in her fervent prayer

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and embracing scriptures as a tool to
help navigate challenges that came her way.

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I remember walking into my mother's bedroom
and seeing her kneeling on the ground that

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her beds side, expressing her faith
by offering prayers to God before she went

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to sleep. Some of us have
been taught over the years to think that

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if we do this and we do
that, then we just have faith.

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But friends, it took some spiritual
maturity for me to realize that faith in

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action is more than humbling oneself in
prayer, more than just studying the scriptures,

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but that expressions of faith are deeply
connected with the understanding of how much

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God loves us. And so for
a few moments, I'd like to explore

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with you this faith in action,
and not focusing on faith being an act

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of deeds or blind optimism, but
instead focusing on the heart of faith,

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which I believe the Scripture tell us
is our internal sense of knowing and believing

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how much God really does love each
one of us. And I'd like to

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take this maybe a bit further and
challenge us today that as we walk through

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this text, think of faith not
as a practice that we engage in just

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because we're Christians or just because that's
what we've been taught and told to do.

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Instead, when we hear the word
faith, think of our inward belief,

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in our outward expression of how much
God loves us, how much God

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loves you and me. Let's go
to the text for a moment, and

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I want to focus our attention a
bit on Chapter five, verses one through

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five. Now we know that in
order to better understand our sacred one must

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engage with the theological nuances that exist
by having some context. Romans was Paul's

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longest letter, and some scholars say
his most reflective and thoughtful. Paul was

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no stranger to using language connecting his
teachings to the law, justification, and

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righteousness, a lot of language that
for modern Christians may cause some of us

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to sit on edge, yet carved
out here in Romans, we see a

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shift in Paul's writing, wherein like
the chapters before and after, Paul's focus

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is peace and reconciliation. I'm going
to read verses one through two, and

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there are few words that I'll highlight
that I discovered in my studying that have

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alternate meanings five Verse one. Therefore, or consequently, since we are justified

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by faith our belief of God's love
for us, we have peace with God

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through our Lord Jesus Christ, through
whom we have obtained access or connection with

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to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope or

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the expectation of sharing the glory of
God. Let's read that again. Consequently,

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since we are justified by our belief
of God's love for us, we

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have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained

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connection with this grace in which we
stand, and we boast in our expectation

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of sharing the glory of God.
Now, these next few verses I'm about

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to read may make us a little
uncomfortable, But us the writer now dips

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his toe into the waters of describing
moments that are difficult as something that's useful

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or helpful. Verse three says,
and not only that, but we also

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boast in our afflictions and trials and
stress, knowing that affliction produces endurance,

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which is steadfastness constancy. An endurance
produces character and character produces hope. Yikes?

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Is the text really telling us in
some way that to embrace affliction is

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a condition of a christ centered life? Okay, Paul, I was with

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you up until this point. I'm
not sure I'm with you right now.

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However, if we're to utilize the
scriptures as a tool to better understand and

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to better ourselves, then perhaps there's
a way to reframe this narrative a bit

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to help us understand more clearly.
I once worked with someone in my psychotherapy

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practice who described themselves as going through
seasons. There were seasons of abundance,

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happiness, joy, and also recurring
moments of hardship, struggle, and pain.

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After hearing their experience and validating their
feelings connected to that experience, we

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begin to explore an unpack this analogy
of seasons in a way that could become

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a source of hope, resilience,
and strength. And perhaps we can start

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with acknowledging what we know about seasons
that seasons are cyclical. However, seasons

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don't last forever. Riverside, seasons
may be cyclical, but they don't last

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forever. Seasons come and they go, they change with the passing of time.

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However, seasons are just though.
However, some seasons are just tough

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to get through. However, if
we look closely, perhaps in our season,

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our current state or position in life, despite its difficulty, there is

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something something we can grasp a hold
too that will help us navigate that season

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better or differently than next go around. A person moving to Maine from a

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tropical climate in the middle of winter
will certainly have a reality shock if they

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weren't prepared for the weather in their
new climate. However, after having an

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experience of being in that harsh,
cold winter, that person understands what it

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means to layer on clothing or perhaps
even put chains on their tires when they're

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driving in the snow. They pick
up tools and skills, and with that

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a better understanding and confidence to get
through the next winter with greater success,

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less stress, and hopefully much more
warmth than the year before. Here in

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Paul's letter to the Romans, he's
connecting life's challenges to faith. Faith in

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knowing how deeply God cares for each
of us. That it's not God's intents

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for challenge us to tear us down, but perhaps for us to use that

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experience to explore what we could possibly
gain from it that will then produce endurance.

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Friends, The truth is we're often
powerless to influence or change the seasons

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themselves. As much as I'm not
much of a summer person, there's not

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much I can do about it.
However, over the years, I've learned

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ways to cope with the summer.
I've I've learned more about sunscreen and protecting

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my skin from UV rays. I've
learned the best times to be outdoors when

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the air quality is poor. I
can't change the season, but I can

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change the way that I respond in
the season. Paul is telling us to

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embrace the challenge because as a believer, you have faith, faith in knowing

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that God loves you and knowing the
love of God for your life, and

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that faith is what can give us
the insight, the tools, and the

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hope we need. The scripture go
on and share that hope does not put

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us to shame because God's love has
been poured out, has been distributed into

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our hearts through the Holy Spirit that
has been given to us. Now,

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Reverend Wingate, doesn't that sound nice? I mean, maybe I could just

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end the sermon there. However,
I can't. I can't help but wonder

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who here struggles was with believing that
God loves you, and maybe maybe maybe

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it's because you find it hard to
love yourself riverside. This may not be

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a popular thing to say, but
it's real. And if we can't be

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honest about the true struggles and challenges
we face within ourselves, how do we

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expect to fully embrace this message of
peace and reconciliation when our heart is torn

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and self love feels like a luxury. Before I take my seat, I

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just want to offer a few points
that I pray touches my sibling who is

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here today in the knave or perhaps
online, who was struggling with loving themselves.

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They're saying, you know, Minister
Derek, this is a great message,

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but you know, I really wish
I believe that God loved me.

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But you know, honestly, it's
hard for me to even love myself.

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Whoever I'm speaking to today, the
first thing I'd like to say to you

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is be true to how you feel. We're often in places and spaces where

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we aren't able to really be really
let folks into what's going on in our

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hearts and in our lives. We
smile, and we nod and portray a

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sense of having it all together,
yet on the inside the storm is raging.

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There's helplessness and hopelessness. Don't let
societal expectations cause you to negate how

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you feel and stop you from being
in touch with your true feelings. It's

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okay to not be okay all the
time. The second thing I'd like to

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say, give yourself some grace.
Be kind to yourself, don't beat yourself

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up. We're all human. We
have all sorts of sets of challenges and

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faults that we grapple with each day. In addition to being true to how

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you feel and giving yourself some grace, take inventory of the people you're spending

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time with. If they aren't building
you up and contributing positively in your life,

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it may be time to reconsider some
of those relationships. So be true

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to how you feel. Give yourself
some grace, take an inventory of the

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people you're spending time with. And
number four it's okay to ask for help.

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And number five develop a practice of
self affirmation. Get a journal or

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use your phone, and throughout the
day write positive things about yourself, things

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like I'm good enough, I'm allowed
to be happy, I deserve respect,

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I'm worth it. My life has
value. I have value whoever this is

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for. I encourage you to read
these affirmations each night before you go to

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bed, and every morning you wake
up, keep adding to the list.

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I'm a sticky notes type of person, So if that's your thing, write

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them some things down on sticky notes, or set reminders on your phone so

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that you read those affirmations and remind
yourself of the person that God has beautifully

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and wonderfully made. And if you
find yourself in a place where you just

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don't have access to those affirmations,
you don't have access to the list of

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things that you've curated, take a
moment, and if you can, look

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in the mirror, put your hands
on your heart and say to yourself,

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God loves me. God loves me. God loves me. Amen. M