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Freedom from Shame: What Not to Wear

by | Jul 16, 2019 | Devotional, Learning Story

Freedom from Shame: What Not to Wear

for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;

he has covered me with the robe of righteousness. Isaiah 61:10

It sort of seeps over you like an ugly rash, sometimes starting with a few small red bumps then spreading wide and purple and making you crazy with the itch and desire for relief. Shame, burning and raw. Do you know the feeling?

Guess what? The good news of our freedom in Christ is that we have something better than calamine lotion for stopping the spread of shame—the gospel! Today I’m sharing an old story about a time I felt shame and insecurity and the hope of freedom I discovered.

(Also, there’s more gospel good news—I am seeing growth in this area! My husband and I recently attended another tennis team reunion, and I hardly worried at all about what to wear!)

In Christ, we never have to wear shame again! #gospelgoodnews Share on X

Being a freelancing mom who works out of my home, I have a very basic wardrobe suiting the four most common occasions in my life:

Activity or Event

1. writing, cooking, grocery store, and some retreats I lead

 

2. teaching at the jail or a weekend retreat; church

3. church, weddings, graduations

Outfit

1.jeans or shorts, t-shirt (long or short-sleeve depending on season), and boots or clogs or Chaco’s in the summer

2. chino capris or a casual skirt and a blouse

3. a few nicer dresses

The problem arises when there is an event that falls outside of these three wardrobe options. Many years ago, my husband and I were invited to attend a 90th Birthday Gala Celebration for his former tennis coach at the University of Georgia. It would be more than a birthday party; it would be a reunion of his former teammates and their wives.

I first suspected shame when I whined to my husband, “I don’t even know what to wear.”

Being a normal man who has little concern about clothing-performance issues, he failed to recognize my remark as a subtle invitation to reassure me, “Oh honey, you’ll look great in anything.” (Even if he had, I wouldn’t have believed him. Such is the nature of shame.)

He did kindly volunteer to ask one of his former teammates what his (glamorous) wife was wearing.

A Shame Pile-Up: Country Club Casual

Her response: “country club casual.”

What???!! I really do need to brush up on past programs of “What Not to Wear” (Is that still a show?).
I now felt additional shame that I didn’t even know what this apparently basic term meant. Though I write about this with mild humor, I felt intense discomfort and considerable fear of shaming myself and my husband by wearing the wrong thing.

And then I heard that loud, clear voice, the one that asks me to live in freedom and enjoy who I am and how I’m made.

The Holy Spirit slapped me square on the back with a gospel reality that struck me to attention. It sounds so silly I wouldn’t even say it if it weren’t true:

“You are clothed in Christ’s righteousness.” (Isaiah 61:10, 2 Corinthians 5:21)

“Yes, but what am I going to wear to the Gala?”

What to Wear: Righteousness Frees from Shame

“Christ’s righteousness. You don’t even have to buy it. You’re already wearing it. You look beautiful in it. Like a princess, no, like a queen. In that outfit, you will bring beauty to anyone you meet tonight. People will be saying to themselves, “That dress is nothing special, but she is lovely. What is it about her?”

I finally chose a trendy skirt and blouse outfit my mother-in-law had given me for Christmas. She knows fashion and I figured she might even know what “country club casual” means. (Though I was too embarrassed to ask her.)

I’m not gonna lie. My stomach fluttered with mild fear as we strolled from our hotel to the event. But then, I pictured my flowing robe of righteousness. And yes, I stared with awe and a little twitch of envy at stunning cocktail dresses modeled by former beauty queens. Then I remembered, “I am a queen.” As I began to meet people and hear their delightful stories, shame subsided, and I began to enjoy myself. We had a wonderful time, and from the vast assortment of outfits worn, I never did figure out what “country club casual” means!

A Prayer about Freedom from Shame:

Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for freeing us forever from shame over our sins. Creator God, we praise you for making us fearfully and wonderfully. Holy Spirit, keep whispering into our unbelieving hearts the good news of the gospel: Free, Free, Free. In Jesus’ freeing name we pray, Amen.

 A story question:

Do you have any similar shame stories, about not wearing the right thing or fear of not fitting in? What was it like? Was there any redemption in the story? How might the story change if you see yourself as God sees you, living in the beauty of who you were created and redeemed to be?

Photo by Camila Damásio on Unsplash

Part 2: How to Overcome 5 Common Fears of Sharing Your Story

by | Jun 11, 2019 | Learning Story

Part 2: How to Overcome 5 Common Fears of Sharing Your Story

Are you afraid to share your story? Today we look at three more common reasons for not sharing stories and some stories that encourage us to overcome those fears: 

  1. It’s not godly enough.

Thirty-five-year-old Lucy actually spoke these words as she began her story of a secret summer boyfriend: “This isn’t a very godly story.” Indeed, it might have seemed so at first as she described sneaking out of her house at fifteen to meet her first love at midnight in the neighborhood park in the days when parks at midnight weren’t so scary. It might still have seemed ungodly as she described how when the summer ended, and she and her secret boyfriend returned to school, he pretended not to know her because she was a band-nerd and he was a basketball jock. And yet, as her tears of brutal betrayal leaked out, how many of us recognized similar betrayals? How many of us noticed that God had actually saved us from cruel men who would use us and betray us?

Many times, all we have to do is look a little deeper, listen a little harder, to find God’s mercy at work in any story we might tell.

  1. I don’t have any interesting stories.

When she passed on her turn to tell her story, sixty-two-year-old Eunice spoke these very words. The leader nodded wisely and asked, “Eunice, did you say you grew up on a dairy farm?”

“Yes,” Eunice replied, smiling, “I remember the summer I was seven I had to start getting up early with my older sister to learn how to milk the cows. We used to spray each other with the milk sometimes.” And then she giggled a little as she remembered. Her face softened, and the mischievous grin of seven-year-old Eunice was revealed to us for a quick moment.

No interesting stories indeed. Eunice, created in the image of God, growing up on a dairy farm, spraying her older sister with the cow’s milk…Forgive my irony, but need I say more?

  1. I’m afraid of what people will think of me.

She was a sinner, and everyone in the group knew it. They knew she had been married multiple times and that the last man she lived with was not her husband. They even wondered a little that she dared to show up. But then, Shalona began her story. She told of being abused by her father and marrying the first man who said that he loved her. She told how that man had quickly turned on her, calling her lazy and worthless. She told of how she met another man who seemed much kinder and married him. On and on her story of “looking for love in all the wrong places” went until she reached the turning point, the day she met a truly different kind of man. This man knew everything about her. And he loved her. He didn’t try to use her or marry her or have sex with her. He just wanted to give her a gift of love that would never end.  “Living water,” Shalona said. “He called it ‘living water’.” And ever since that day, she had told anyone who would listen this amazing story of the man who loved her well.

You may recognize this storyteller as the woman at the well from John 4 (And yes, I invented the name “Shalona” as a play on “shalom,” the deep peace that God brings). She is the woman who once shirked in the shadows because she feared being shamed by others. She is the woman whose life was so radically changed by Jesus that she ran to tell others, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did.”

Yes, it is scary to think what people may think of us if they know our whole story, the story of our sin. But we must ask this one crucial question: “What if, in telling that story, we can lead someone to see the Jesus who came to redeem and change sinners just like us? Is it worth the risk?” I hope you find that it is.

Photo by Sarah Noltner on Unsplash

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How to Overcome 5 Common Fears of Sharing Your Story

by | Jun 4, 2019 | Gospel Coaching, Learning Story

How to Overcome 5 Common Fears of Sharing Your Story

First Fears of Story Sharing

Over twenty years ago, I held my first story feast. One day, at the end of the moms’ group I led, I passed out a one-page handout with some prompts, reflection questions, and a quick guide for writing a redemption story. I enthusiastically explained that in two weeks we would gather over rich fare to share the amazing stories of our lives.

My beloved moms responded with a collective face-fall. I was shocked—it had never occurred to me that my enthusiasm for sharing stories would not be met with equal excitement by our little band of mothers. And yet, they looked like they had been tossed back to a tenth grade English class and assigned a pop essay which they knew would soon be scarred with red pen.

Here’s the thing. For most of my life, I have processed my thoughts and feelings by writing things down. I learned as a young child that my journal was a (fairly) safe place to record the stories of my life. At fifteen, as a new Christian, I learned that scribbling out Bible verses and prayers helped me to memorize Scripture and pay attention to what I was praying. Over the years, I also learned that journaling helped me to see the contours of the story God was writing—in my life, in the world, in Scripture.

My First Story Feasts

Not only did I learn to write down my stories as a young Christian, I also discovered the benefit of sharing stories in community. At Pioneer Plunge, a Young Life camp where I first attended as a camper and later worked as kitchen coordinator, there was no TV. In fact, we were completely unplugged. We worked hard clearing trees to build new structures on the campsite, so we were hungry and tired at mealtimes. We sat for over an hour around homemade bread and homegrown tomatoes, resting and recharging, talking about the day. One feature of every mealtime was the “life story.” Over the two-week session, huddled around the handmade picnic tables, each camper would have the spotlight, the opportunity to tell about his or her life.Are you eager to learn and grow in sharing your story? Or, do your palms begin to sweat when I even bring up the topic? Learn to share your story! Share on X

I’m not sure why I wasn’t afraid to jump right in when it was my turn. I always began my story with what seemed as a teenager like the beginning of my life as I knew it, “My parents were divorced when I was seven.”

Some days, we went around the table to answer questions like, “If you could have three living people to dinner, who would you have?” or “If you could be anything for a day, what would you be?” (This was way before “Would You Rather” games and instagram emoji stories!). The stories flowed and brought humor, insight, and hope, tightening the bonds of our little camping community.

That’s my story of stories, of how and why writing and sharing stories became a crucial part of my growth in understanding God and others. Since that first story feast with my moms twenty years ago, I’ve realized that not everyone feels so excited about sharing stories in community. What about you? Are you eager to learn and grow in sharing your story? Or, do your palms begin to sweat when I even bring up the topic? Over the years, I’ve discovered five main objections to writing and sharing stories. Today I’ll share the first two, and next week, the last three. Do you find yourself in any of these?

5 Reasons You Might Not Write and/or Share Your Stories (and How to Overcome Your Fears)

  1. I can’t write.

Sofia couldn’t write either. As a Bosnian-born woman who had very little schooling, her letters were poorly formed, and her language was heavy and broken. But guess what? When she began in broken English to recount her story of summers in Yugoslavia before Bosnia became independent, no one cared how good her grammar was. People were fascinated to hear her story, to know how God had brought her out of the terrible atrocities committed in Bosnia and gave her glimpses of redemption in the beauty of summer sunrises over the Mediterranean sea.

The fact is, when you tell a story that gives people more insight to who you are, how God made you, and what matters to you, how well you write or speak does not matter at all.

  1. I’m afraid to speak in public.

When Keisha, at twenty, the youngest attendee of a long-ago Story Feast, began telling of her years-long dream of vacationing at Disneyworld, you could see beads of sweat gathering on her face. Her voice quivered as she spoke. We strained to hear what she was saying. But after the first two minutes, when she saw the eager faces of older women leaning in to hear her story, she relaxed. The women cheered with joy as she reached the climax of her story—the day her parents surprised her by pretending to drive her to school but taking her instead to Disneyworld.

Given that speaking publicly is the number one fear in the world, surpassing death itself, it’s understandable to feel a little frightened about sharing your story. All the more reason to practice sharing stories with small groups of friends and acquaintances—as you look at the faces of those you fellowship with, you will remember that you’re not giving a Ted Talk for millions of viewers.

Subscribe to receive Part Two of this post in your inbox, three more reasons people don’t share their stories. 

Photo by Reuben Juarez on Unsplash

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How (and Why) to Write Your Mother’s Story

by | May 7, 2019 | Gospel Coaching, Learning Story, Mother's Day

How (and Why) to Write Your Mother’s Story

As we continue our focus on moms, this week we consider our own moms or mother figures in our lives. 

A story about writing a mother’s story

It had never occurred to me before, and I don’t know why it occurred to me now. We had been asked in a writer’s workshop I was attending to tell a story about bones, possibly broken bones. Well, I have a great broken bone story, so I was ready to dive right in. I would tell the story I’ve told many times before, about the day I shattered my elbow into twenty-five pieces when I was eleven. Our teacher set a timer for fifteen minutes and told us to write what happened.

That’s when it occurred to me, and I have to admit, I felt a little selfish that I’m almost fifty-seven years old, and it had never occurred to me before. I wondered, “What was that day like for my mom?” That’s when I decided to write the story from her perspective. Instead of telling my version of the story, I tried to picture what that day had been like for her. I began to write what I imagined might have happened. I wrote quickly for fifteen minutes and still had more to write when the timer ended.

How it changed me:

Rather than sharing what I wrote that day, I want to share what happened inside of me as I wrote what my mom might have gone through in that season:

Tears began to leak down my cheeks. I actually felt the terror she might have felt when she answered the phone and a strange voice on the other end of the line reported, “Your daughter has been in a bike accident!”

I wondered in writing:

  • What did it feel like for her when the policeman at the accident scene remarked, “Isn’t that her bone sticking out of her arm”?
  • What stress did she endure as a single working mom when her daughter was admitted to the hospital for three weeks?
  • What was it like to worry about the financial burden of two surgeries and countless hours of physical therapy placed on her and her ex-husband?

I felt something swelling inside of me—I’m pretty sure it was empathy for my mother.

The time has come but not passed (thankfully) for me to ask these questions and others about her stories. That day, I concluded my invented story with this observation:

When I was a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. The time has come to think like a grown-up daughter, to wonder about my mother’s story. The time has come to seek and to knock, to ask forgiveness and to forgive, to… Share on X

If you’d like to try writing your mother’s story, I created a full story journal with guidelines, multiple prompts, and a few reflection questions for all of my wonderful Living Story subscribers. You can get that free resource by subscribing here.

If you prefer a briefer version of just this particular prompt, try the instructions below:

 

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How to write a story from your mother’s point of view:

  1. Choose a significant event from your life that your mother was involved in in some way.
  2. Don’t worry about grammar or sentence structure or any “English teacher” type things. Just tell the story.
  3. Try to show what happened:
    • Describe the setting.
    • Write the dialogue: For example: What did the stranger say when he or she called my mom? How did my mom reply?
    • Consider your mother’s season and circumstance and how your life event might have affected her.
  4. Write down everything you can remember about it.
  5. Now, imagine what that event was like for her. See it through her eyes.
  6. At the end, write what you see now about your mother that you did not see before.
  7. Do you see any ways that your love, empathy, and/or forgiveness toward your mom grew through this exercise?
  8. If your mom is still alive, consider asking your mom about this event. Ask her to tell you the story from her point of view.

Questions to consider as you try to write from your mom’s perspective:

  • What would have been her struggles in that situation? What stresses might she have endured? What fears or sorrows might she have had?
  • What would she have said to her husband or her friend that she would not have said to you?

For a joyous event:

  • What would she have celebrated?
  • What would she have been most excited about (Remember, it might not be what you were most excited about!)

Photo by Cristian Newman on Unsplash

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How God’s Story Guides Our Goals

by | Jan 29, 2019 | Gospel Coaching, Learning Story

How God’s Story Guides Our Goals

God’s Story and Goals

Every now and then, I like to drag down the dusty tome, my high school yearbook, and take a look at that young me, seventeen and shiny-eyed, and think about where I was then and where I am now. I shake my head a little when I re-read my senior quote:

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Phil. 3:12, NIV

And it is a lovely verse, one that in many ways sums up my life. But sadly, as a baby Christian, I had gotten the wrong impression. I thought the verse meant: “Keep working hard to make myself perfect. I’m not perfect yet, but one day I will be.” Obviously, my understanding of Paul’s thoughts on goals was a little off! So, as we close this January series on planning and goals, I hereby acknowledge that I’m a little leery of the word goals.

3 Dangers of Goals

Goals can be dangerous…

  1. When they become about self-improvement.God does have a plan for us, even an ultimate “goal,” but it’s all about his glory and our good. And the gospel provides the transforming power, not our own strong arms pulling ourselves up by the proverbial bootstrap!
  2. When goals rule our lives rather than love. A mom who has committed to run five miles while her kids are in the nursery at the Y refuses to stop to a friend who waves her down, because the five-minute conversation would prevent her from reaching her goal. (That would have been me about twenty years ago, when I could still run!)
  3. When we make unrealistic goals and beat ourselves up when we don’t reach them. “I’m going to read the entire Bible in a month” sounds like a worthy goal, but it probably isn’t realistic for a full-time medical student.

So, yes, goals are dangerous when we misunderstand and misuse them. And yet, Scripture tells us we have a planning God who has written his story plan into our very lives. Goals have a place in God’s Story Plan.

How God’s Story of Grace Guides Our Plans

As we survey the entirety of Scripture, we discover a God who created the world with a plan—a good plan. He wrote this very plan into our stories. Let’s review the story to see what we learn about plans—God’s and ours.

  1. Creation: As we read Genesis 1, we see that God had a clear plan in mind even as he created the cosmos.

He carefully designed Adam and Eve in the image of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. After he created them, he blessed them. And he gave them a story to live that teemed with purpose and plan as the sea teemed with fish. Be fruitful. Multiply. Fill the earth. Subdue it. Have dominion over…every living thing that moves on the earth (Gen. 1:29)

  1. The Fall: Some people believe that God had to sort of “regroup” after Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Nothing could be further from the truth.

As Scotty Smith writes,

Because you are the First and the Last, Jesus, we don’t have to be afraid of anything between Alpha and Omega. You are God, and we are not. You’ll never have to say “Oops” about anything in world history, or in our stories. You never “try” to do anything. You never have to scratch your head in confusion. You never have to resort to plan B.” (Heavenward Blog).

Right there, in the garden, God pursues Adam and Eve in their nakedness and draws them out of hiding (Gen. 3:9). He announces his plan for redemption even as he curses the serpent:

And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen. 3:15).

There were consequences to the man and woman of their disobedience: now there would be pain and frustration, literal and metaphorical labor as the man and woman attempted to live God’s story plan—to be fruitful, multiply, rule over the earth. Thankfully, this is not where the story ends.

  1. As we saw, God did not change his plan after the Fall. All along, he had planned to send Christ to give us a new story which would bring him glory.

As people redeemed by Christ, we are called to live with plan and purpose. Consider these three passages:

  • 1:9-11: His plan, for his own good pleasure, involves Christ – and us: “At the right time, he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on earth.”
  • 2 Cor. 5: 17: In Christ, we have become new creation. The old has passed away. We are changed and changing.
  • 2 Cor. 5:19: We are Christ’s ambassadors. God is making his appeal through us. We have a mission: to call others to God.
  1. The word “telos” is often translated “aim,” “goal,” or “end” in the Bible. Christ will one day return and finish the work he has begun.  

And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. (Rev. 21:6)

For now, we live with intention, waiting for that final day, for the end of the story, when all of God’s plans and purposes will be finally fulfilled. We make plans to live our lives for God’s glory. We learn to live freely and fully in the hope that we have been made righteous by Christ, not our own achievements, betterment, or perfection.

This is God’s story plan. Let’s make plans (and set goals!) to go into the world and love and serve God with this brand new story!

Photo by Anete Lūsiņa on Unsplash

Planning to Live Your Story 2019

by | Dec 31, 2018 | Gospel Coaching, Gospel living, Learning Story, Work

Planning to Live Your Story 2019

Planning Can Be Fun

Welcome to 2019! Who’s excited?!
I know, not everyone.
I love the new year though. I do not make resolutions, knowing that I am more of a promise-breaker than a promise-keeper!
I do, however, love thumbing through the glossy pages of my new calendar and prayer calendar/journal, envisioning the stories that will be marked there in the coming year.

Even as I conceive of the things God might do in the coming year, I recall the “wonderful works,” “the great deeds,” the “abundant goodness” (Psalm 145:5-7) he has already completed in the year past. And to think, he has more of the same planned for us in the coming year:

Planning for 2019

All this newness lying ahead of us in the days marked out on our calendars, yes, but even more, by God….how can we not be swooped up in the hope? My heart pumps fresh blood to the muscles, my mind quickens with fertile imagination—what is this amazing brand new thing I get to do—and in partnership with God, who has planned these good works in advance (Ephesians 2:10)?

Not only that, this kind of planning is failsafe—even if our labors are not fruitful, God’s plans do produce abundant fruit. Two years ago, I planted some seeds for a new prayer planner; I tilled the soil with prayer and preparation. That garden, however, was not the one God wanted to grow.

Instead, he planted my family and me in what seemed more like a desert—a waiting room, many waiting rooms, where he would nourish our hearts through suffering and sorrow, where he would grow good, sturdy, surprising fruit that would sustain us for years to come. Here’s the thing—whatever happens to the plans we make for the coming year, God’s plan and plans never fail to yield an abundant crop of goodness and glory. (Jeremiah 29:11).

So yes, let’s make plans. And let’s place them on God’s altar, as Mary did so long ago, praying a simple prayer:

“I am the Lord’s servant; be it unto me according to thy Word” (Luke 1:38).

The Story Plan Exercise

Now, let’s get practical—let’s start planning! Today, I’m going to share with you a novel tool I created to help you create goals and plans.

Note: If you are a subscriber, you will receive (for free) my subscribers’ most-prized tool of all time: the Story Plan Exercise: eight beautifully laid out pages with prompts and tools and space to write and pray and plan. Soooo…if you’ve been thinking about subscribing but haven’t yet, now would be the time (I promise not to bombard you with lots of emails)!

SUBSCRIBE HERE!

But if you’re not a subscriber and don’t really want to be—good news!  I’m going to walk you through the “no-frills” version here:

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The “Where Have I Been, Where Am I Going” Planning Exercise

Background: This enlightening exercise helps us survey what God has done in the past and draws us to look for what he will do in the future. When we are persuaded that God is presently working his kingdom plan, we are motivated to set goals and keep running the race toward them with endurance.

Suggestions: Either schedule out four thirty-minute periods over the next week or one two-three-hour planning session (put it on your calendar or it won’t happen). Or, gather for a planning session with some friends or your small group or your spouse; work together and separately on it.

Part 1

  1. Ask, “Where have I been?”
  2. Pray. Ask God to remind you of the significant events, changes, accomplishments, and losses of the past year.
  3. Write down your top three in a short sentence or phrase. (Remember, things actually change in our brain when we write).
  4. Look at major areas of your life (relationships, spiritual and emotional health, work, finances, play) and write two-three sentences about changes you saw, for better or for worse, in 2018. (In the Story Plan Exercise, I provide a fancy grid for this, but you can make your own).

Part 2

  1. Ask, “Where are you going?”
  2. Pray. “Lord, show me where to go.”
  3. Write down the top three events/stories/challenges/goals you would like to see accomplished in 2019.
  4. Look at major areas of your life (relationships, spiritual and emotional health, work, finances, play) and write two-three sentences about changes you want to see in 2019.

Part 3: Write Your Story

  1. Pray about which story to write.
  2. Now, write for ten minutes. Choose one of the top three and write an imaginative story as if the goal were accomplished. Date it: January 1, 2020.

Here is my example:
Prayer: Lord, show me which goals matter to you the most.
Ex. I want to hear from at least ten people that my devotional, The Waiting Room, helped them find peace and hope as they waited during a health crisis.
So my story, which I hope to share with you later this week, will be “fictional” but also a faithful, hopeful account of how that happened.

To help you write the story, you can answer the following questions:

  1. What concrete actions did you take?
  2. What challenges did you meet?
  3. What actions did you take to overcome the challenges?
  4. Who prayed for you, encouraged you, kept you going?
  5. What did you see God do in the process?

Part 4: Make Your Plan
(In the Story Plan Exercise, there’s also a nifty chart for this, but you can make your own:-).

  1. Review the “imaginary actions” you took to accomplish your goal.
  2. Make your plan of action. Write down three things:
  • What four-five steps do I need to take?
  • Next to each step, write the date for it to be completed.
  • Put a reminder on your calendar to make a note about the outcome—if you completed the step and what happened if you did.

So, now, you know what to do! If you try it, I’d love to know how it works for you, what you learn through doing it, how I could improve it (there’s always room for improvement!)

A Prayer about Making Goals and Plans in 2019

Lord God,

We are so glad that you are the ruler over our lives. You planned and created the world, and yet, you have taken the time to make plans for the good works we will do to advance your kingdom. Thank you for the opportunities you give us. Thank you for the grace you show us. Help us to live the story of faith, hope, and love you have written for us. Amen.