'Forth now, and fear no darkness!'

Some nights even filling up the kettle and setting an empty mug out for my morning tea felt hard. But I was always thankful for it in the morning.

Other nights, one thing would lead to another, and I’d wake up in a clean house with everything ready to go.

And, on a rare few nights, the one thing that I could do to make my morning easier was going straight to bed and allowing myself to rest.

I do not need to pray God’s will into existence; I just need to pray that I would be aligned with it.

genuine self-examination requires humility, honesty, and an understanding of both God’s grace and His standard of perfection.

my job day to day is to demonstrate the character of Christ, which involves studying it in His Word and imitating it.

I will never be perfect or close to it, but I need to be very watchful and willing to change the flaws God makes me aware of.

with all the things God has forgiven me for, I have absolutely no excuse for holding grudges against anyone else.

there’s nothing I or anyone else can do to stop God’s perfect plan from happening, but I still need to seek His will in doing what’s right.

anything I’m not willing to trustingly place in God’s hands is an idol that I’m trying to maintain control over.

God is not waiting for an opportunity to punish me for the things I do wrong; He’s waiting for the chance to reconcile with me when I repent.

I don’t need to punish myself or wait a certain amount of time before I repent and reconcile with God after I make mistakes; He’s ready and waiting for me whenever I come to Him.

there’s nothing I need to do to re-earn God’s love and grace after I sin because I didn’t do anything to earn it in the first place.

the good things I do for God are not requirements for His love, but extensions and expressions of it.

everything I do for God’s glory on earth will have an eternal significance.

every good thing that I long for right now will one day be fulfilled when I’m in His eternal presence.

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An evil nation can represent things like corruption, despair, sin, sickness, hatred, self-doubt, trauma- anything that poses a threat and must be overcome by good can be represented by an army of evil. Often an evil race represents evil itself and the hero defeating them is good triumphing over evil. Call it cliche, but it's rarely racist. Would it be less problematic if the good guys killed good people rather than evil monsters? If the heroes represent pure good, then their villains being evil isn't racist. It's normal.

Not to mention that even in the scenario where the evil army in a story represents a real group, it still might not be racist. Great example: Fantasy Nazis. Is it fair to say that every person in Nazi Germany was pure evil? Absolutely not. Do we need to address that nuance in a fantasy story about their victims? No!