Last night at dinner, Aaron asked Von to say grace. It was short and sweet—a prayer only a 3-year-old could pray:

Dear Jesus,
Help us to have a wonderful meal
And help Jason and the kids remember
They are loved.
Amen.

Von understands that sometimes when Mommy is crying, it’s because I miss Kara. And when he sees Jason crying, he knows that Jason misses Kara, too. He loves to lavish Jason with hugs—in his little mind, a hug can make all the difference. And, well, I can’t disagree.

As Von prayed, I was reminded how Mickey says that children always defer to joy, that it is their emotion of choice. I often ponder that and wonder what it would look like if joy were my emotion of choice. It’s not as easy for me as I wish it were.

Last week I shared with you all about my life-long struggle with depression. That was a scary blog to post. Aaron and I talked a lot about it, and Jill and Heather talked me through how Kara would definitely want me to share my heart and share how Grace meets me in my darks places. They prayed over the blog and for me.

It’s one thing to talk to your friends about your depression; it’s a whole other thing to write about it for the whole world to read, criticize, and judge.

But that’s not what happened. What happened is what Aaron, Jill, Heather, and I hoped for and expected: the Mundane Faithfulness community embraced me, encouraged me, cried with me, and shared their own stories. I sat at my computer wiping tears of joy and gratitude for each of you and your love, grace, and friendship.

That is an amazing thing, friends. To be embraced and loved by friends I’ve never even met in person. We want to provide the same for all of you—a platform for getting to know each other, sharing stories, praying for one another, talking, laughing, crying, looking for grace in the hard.

I’ve mentioned this before—that we want to continue Kara’s vision for gathering people and seeking grace together.

After quite a bit of research, we at Mundane Faithfulness have decided that the best platform is simply a Facebook group; unlike the fan page, it will be a group where we can all participate and initiate conversation.

First, we just want everyone to introduce themselves and share how you came to find Kara and Mundane Faithfulness. Then we’ll go from there; we’ll post stuff on the blog for all to read, and then if you want to be a part of the discussion, click on the link that we will provide to the FB discussion and share your thoughts.

We hope this will be a safe place for us to engage one other and find fellow grace-seekers who are looking for a community of grace and hope. Join us!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/mundanefaithfulnesscommunity/