I'm about to have a gushy moment, but there are things I'm so thankful for. Having a God that never fails me, being blessed with friends and family that love me and that my life and experiences are a continuing revelation of how great God is. I struggle so hard to keep peace between my dad and me, not because my dad is a horrible, angry guy but because I'm a difficult and rebellious kid. God said obey me by obeying your parents and the authorities in your life, and when I finally made the decision to try it out I realized how much of the conflict and tension in my house came from me. How in the most practical of moments, instead of rolling my eyes and fighting over what I thought was "fair", if I just said "okay" and did it things went a whole lot smoother. In the worst of cases when my dad is screaming at me and accusing me of stuff that maybe I didn't even do, if I just nodded my head and said I was sorry and listened to what he was saying these situations occurred less.

If I included my dad in what I was doing, not just letting him know, but included him, that we could get along and if I was just a little more open with my faith and what went on at my church that he might even try to understand it because he loves me. That maybe God has always been trying to reach my dad through me but because I wasn't letting myself get along with my dad, He couldn't reach him.

Even though I'm still stressed out about a lot of other crap that's going on, I'm having a little moment of sweetness because today I had a victory. Not because I did anything great or hero worthy but because I let my dad be a little more apart of my life and it was cool. It reminded me that God can do great things through us if we obey and my old hope was sort of restored. It's sweet, and that's my gushy moment.