I grew up in Westerville, Ohio with 4 sisters and a brother. I was always good at math, but I didn't really like it much until I took high school algebra 1. (The irony that this is when most people start hating math is not lost on me.) I grew up in the church and always knew Bible stories and about Jesus, but I didn't really know what it meant to have a relationship with Him. I always felt as if I needed to act right and be good enough for God and I felt an immense pressure to perform in all aspects of my life. This pressure ate away at me for many years until I was about 13 and considering becoming a member of my church. Every time I saw someone else join, I would think to myself, "goodness, I just need to work on trusting God more." Even in trusting God and having a relationship, I was trying to work my way to "good enough." I would have told you that people are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, but that is not how I was actually living. I was living in an attempt to trust God “well enough” on my own and “fix myself” before I came to Him. I was constantly being crushed by the fact that I kept failing and falling back into repeated sin struggles. This cycle continued for many years. One night when I was 16, a guy I was talking to said the cheesy phrase, "From what I have seen, you are beautiful inside and out." He was just trying to be a flirty awkward teen, but in that moment the first thing that came to my mind was, "You haven’t seen what is in my heart and how dark it is." Then the most amazing thing happened. It hit me and tears began to stream down my face. I am broken; I am sinful; I can never be good enough; I can never fix myself. And I don’t have to. Jesus healed me, Jesus paid for my sin, Jesus was good enough *for me*, Jesus fixed me. It’s already done. I don’t have to be perfect before I come to Him. In that moment, I finally understood the weight of Jesus' death and resurrection and what it meant for me personally. I have never felt more relieved than in that moment. It felt as though this years-long burden and struggle had been lifted from my shoulders; that I was finally free to be me, without the need to fix myself constantly. Since then, I have had many ups and downs, many joys and sorrows, but my relationship with God has held me through it all. I will never claim to be perfect. I am broken and still can't fix myself. And I don't have to. That is the greatest news I ever heard.