The Grace Chapter

The smell of old cardboard hits you the moment you open the attic door.
You are looking for a winter jacket.
Instead, you find a box filled with old belongings and faded receipts.

Your fingers trace a Parker pen you haven't used in years.
And you realize you are holding the very tool that wrote your old story.

It is easy to let that heavy ink bleed into today.

We often let our past selves hold the pen for our future chapters.
We ask the person we were ten years ago to make our decisions.

But that version of you is not qualified for where you are going.

Your history is a reference, not a residence.

Think of your life as a single, continuing letter to the world.

Every day, you pick up the pen to write a new line.
If you keep tracing over old mistakes, the page becomes a dark blotch.

You cannot write a fresh sentence while staring at the previous page.
The ink from yesterday is already dry; let it stay that way.
Focus on the grip of the pen in your hand right now.

As the Apostle Paul wrote, "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal." (Philippians 3:13-14)

These words remind us that even great leaders had to drop the old script.
They had to stop rereading the chapters of their failures.

The ink of grace covers every old stain.

You are the author of the next lines.
Do not let a version of you that no longer exists dictate your worth.

If you stumbled in an earlier paragraph, start a new one today.
A single small choice is like a fresh stroke on a clean sheet.
It builds a narrative of hope instead of a record of regret.

The weight of the pen feels lighter when you look forward.

Your story is not finished; the most beautiful part is just beginning.

The page is white and ready for you.

Your past is a school you graduated from, not a prison you live in.

This is your new story.
The next chapter full of grace is waiting.

Keep writing.