Crystal Stine
About the Author

Crystal is passionate about cultivating a community where faith, fitness, and friendship come together. Author of “Creative Basics: 30 Days to Awesome Social Media Art,” Crystal is a writer, speaker, host of the Write 31 Days challenge, and coach who shares encouragement at her blog, crystalstine.me. Connect with her on...

(in)side DaySpring: things we love
& you will too!
Find more at DaySpring.com
(in)side DaySpring:
things we love
& you will too!
Find more at
DaySpring.com
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  1. Chapter 7: Where are your safe places to feel insecure? Or perhaps more specifically, who?

    I don’t know if I have, at least in human relationships, safe places to feel insecure. I am praying for that, and praying I can be that for others.

    Chapter 8: Which of these is the easiest to embrace for you, and which is the hardest to let go: your agenda, your need for proof, your negative concept of yourself, or the need for a mess-free life?

    For both of the questions, I think it is my negative concept of myself.

    Chapter 9: In what ways have you experienced the tension of “wearing the world like a loose garment” and “inviting others into your apartment”?

    I have experienced it in my friendships.

  2. Chapter 7: I am blessed to have a best friend who is as much a hot mess as I am. We met at a Beth Moore Bible study years ago, and we’ve seen each other through singleness (me), childbearing (her), marriage in my 40’s (me), and cancer followed by widowhood (her). We don’t try to fix each other, and we freely vent as much as possible. And then we pray.

    Chapter 8: I let go of the need for a mess-free life quite a while ago (I had to… because I’d be in a straight jacket by now if I hadn’t learned to let it go…). I am embracing the mess and waving goodbye to agenda, I guess.

    What I’ve learned about messes is that everyone has them. Once you join the club, your friends start sharing their secrets….. Messy living has also made me a more compassionate person.

    Chapter 9:I loved it when Emily said that a loose garment “allows margin to move without restriction.” I think this gets easier as you get older. Passing 40 and facing personal adversity have helped me to be less “Martha Stewart” about my relationships. If you want to be part of my life, you are going to have to deal with my dust bunnies and accept that my life is not Pinterest perfect. I am a work in progress, and some days I am going to cry because life is hard. If you are willing to pass the tissue when needed, feel free to come over. I have less time these days for people who only want to see me when I have vacuumed, made a casserole, and have only happy stories to share. Going through difficult times helps you to realize who your “Tuesday people” really are, I guess.