Dear Jamie in October 1 2013,

I want to let  you know that just a mere 30 days later I'm super proud of you.  When you thought about the challenge of blogging for a whole month and decided to create letters to yourself, you knew in the back of your mind that some of them would be hard to write.  In fact, you knew there would be that “one” post that would be so hard to write, and yet you did it.  You wrote the hard one, that laid your heart out on the line.  You wrote the post, sat on it for a week, and then hit publish.  You have been blown away by the response to the post and to your letters.

What you keep hearing is “thanks for being real and raw” and that is awesome because that's always your goal and intent on this blog.  To be real and honest.  To let people know the dark parts of your story, so that the light would shine that much brighter through you.

Here's an email you recently got:

“Hey Jamie,  First, I know you've already heard this a ton, but I'm loving your series of letters to yourself.  I can't wait to read them each day.  I wanted to share with you one in particular that really spoke to my heart.  Your post about being pregnant in college pierced me.  I'm so sorry that you went through that.  I'm sorry that you felt alone. I'm really sorry that you lost your baby.  See, I got pregnant in college too.  I followed up the mistake of premarital sex and pregnancy with an abortion.  I was a preachers daughter and I thought that if I kept the baby it would ruin my parents and their ministry.  I saw no way out.  Of course now I know that was lie from Satan.  Then my first pregnancy after I was married ended in miscarriage and I was 100% sure God was punishing me.  Through the Stone  I now know God has redeemed me from that sin.  I know I'm forgiven.  I know he's sovereign in all things.  However, I never share my story.  I never tell anyone about that baby.  I just always think that there's no one in our church who can relate.  I didn't even tell my husband until 5 years into our marriage.  It was awful, but God used it to help us find the Stone.  Anyway, I'm rambling.  I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your story.  I know it had to be incredibly hard.  But by sharing you helped me know that I'm not alone.  I'm thankful to be in a church where everyone doesn't pretend to be perfect.  Thanks again for sharing.  Thank you for being vulnerable enough to let God use your story to help others, especially me.”

I literally got tears in my eyes when I read the line that says “I'm thankful to be in a church where everyone doesn't pretend to be perfect”.  That's so true.  We are not perfect.  We can't pretend in that at all.  We should be so quick to acknowledge our messy lives and our gracious God all in one sentence.

So, Jamie super proud of you in October, even though you actually failed at the task.  You didn't blog eery day for 31 days.  In fact after the post about your pregnancy you had a hard time blogging.  Words weren't coming well and your heart was heavy.  BUT you didn't fail, because you wrote the hard stuff.

Proud of you,

Jamie a mere 31 days later