What I Got From Listening to Glennon Doyle Melton

Last night, my book club friends and I went to listen to Glennon Doyle Melton speak at Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church in Severna Park. We purchased our tickets a couple of months ago, and I was eager to hear what she had to say. Glennon is the founder of Momastery, author, speaker, and a regular person with struggles just like the rest of us.

Beyond her very funny delivery of material and the way she related to God and Jesus on a personal, colloquial, and humorous level, she made it easy for all of us gals in the room to relate to her. A recovering alcoholic and bulimic who suffers from anxiety talked straight with us about getting over hurdles in life, dealing with the day-to-day struggles of marriage, the pressures of mommyhood, the realities and hardships of friendships, and what it means to “just be there” for someone in his or her life.

I found myself dabbing my eyes at times, as her storytelling unfolded in the most truthful and pure of ways. But what I got most from her talk was the use of the word “brutiful,” a combination of the words “brutal” and “beautiful.” Over the years, I’ve experienced some very low moments–moments I wish could have been different and moments I wish to never participate in again. We all have, whether they have been big things or little things. What you remember is to not beat yourself up–to move on, to learn from things, and to accept that life is brutiful…it has its good moments and its bad, there is no doubt.

There are a few personal things I’m working on right now in my life–the way I feel about myself, communicating my feelings in a more helpful way, the way I handle conflict with others, forgiving things others have done to me and forgiving myself for what I have done to others. I believe this is her message, and it spoke volumes to me. It makes you realize that our journey is one of improvement, and it is a constant work in progress.