SO I have just about reached my one month mark of being accepted and this journey just keeps getting better and better. Our squad is nearly full and I am so anxious-excited to do life with my awesome team mates for 9 months. Earlier today in a group chat we talked about breaking up into teams once training camp was set in motion but I couldn’t help think to myself how awesome they all were and I don’t want to split up! I want to do life with them all! What a truly beautiful gift from God they will be to me.
It’s almost new years and I just want to reflect a little bit on my last year for you all. I’ve walked some pretty narrow paths and some paths that I am not so proud off. I finished my first semester of senior year, which I must say, was a lot harder than I had anticipated. I had some pretty big bumps in the road but that is where the grace of God has come in. Recently, a thought was put into my head that once you take up your cross to follow Jesus that you are to stop sinning and become like Him. This I agree with but it really got my mind going on the topic of Grace. Although we are try to walk like Jesus and stray from sin, we simply are mankind and not God himself. This is no reason to sin but we will always fall short from the Glory of God. This is where is Grace steps in…Over the past year I wasn’t always walking where I should’ve been..relationships with friends, boys, new family…everything was a little bit too messy. Spiritual warfare was in full swing and I felt worthless, lost, and hopeless in my sin. I was in desperate need of the grace of God. Because of His grace I know that I am forgiven and that I may walk in worth, hopefulness, and love beside Him. My views of myself are refreshed and I know that it’s whose in my heart and where my heart is at that matters and not where I have been. Reflecting on how His grace has covered me lets my eyes see Him in an entirely new, fatherly way. God is good all the time and all the time God is good.
I challenge you all to see where you have walked this past year and how God continues to cover you with grace even when you are least deserving. Happy New Year 
Blessings,
Maria
“No man is an island, he can be found.”
