Sometimes it takes the affecting of one person's life before you can know that everything you worked towards was 100% worth it.

I was catching up on my RSS feeds and one blog I particularly read is Stuff Christians Like by Jon Acuff. Sometimes, depending on how little spare time I have, I just mark everything as read and move on without so much as a scan. Today I'm glad I took the time to read one of his recent posts Having No Clue How God Will Use Your Story. When I got to this section I almost started crying:

You know what you did for me? It was something that no one had ever told me before. You gave me permission to laugh. You gave me permission to be silly. You gave me permission to be Not Perfect. For the 1st time in a very very long time, I have started to feel like I can be a good Christian and I can also be my goofy, silly self. For the 1st time ever, I realized that the 2 are not mutually exclusive. God made me a goofball. He made me a silly, R-rated-movie-watching, crawl under the table, laugh at myself, laugh with others goofball and there is nothing wrong with that.

I was in counseling with my Pastor/Counseler at the time I found your site. He told me it was like someone flipped a switch. 1 week, I was constantly crying and the next, I was almost chatty! My husband has said several times that it is nice to have me so happy. I do housework and play with the kids and get along with my sister. He told the counselor that he feels like he’s always seen this person in me and now I get to see it too.

People at work ask me frequently what happened to me. I love telling them your quote “God made laughter and when we don’t use it, it makes him want to take it away, like the unicorns.” I love referring to your blog and book when I try to explain why we do the weird things we do. The Chaplain who prayed over Nancy (and eventually married my husband & I) has me keep a Praise journal and not a Prayer journal. She says that it keeps me focused on the positives and not the negatives. She reminds me that we need to Rejoice in all things. I honestly write your Blog post about Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings in that Praise Journal down once a week. It lets me defend my absolute LOVE of Harry Potter without any guilt.

I encourage you to read the entire article. It's an amazing story that spans several years that tackles many topics with a very simple subject. You will get something out of this. I guarantee it.