Hey friends, welcome to the Graceology with Gwen Smith podcast.

I'm Gwen Smith and I'm really glad you're here.

Each week I host two different shows, one with incredible guests and meaningful conversations,

and one called A Moment of Grace, where

it's just me, talking to just you, in a reflective, devotional style to help connect those

busy, bruised, and broken places to the beautiful hope of Jesus. So now I invite you to sit

back and take a deep breath as I share with you a moment of grace.

When my kids were little, we had a book they loved to read. It was called How Do You Hug a Porcupine?

The story is about a young boy who witnessed a bunch of his friends hugging a bunch of animals.

They hug dogs and bunnies and cats and horses and cows.

You get the picture.

All cutly and relatively safe.

All the while, the young boy was wondering how he could hug a porcupine.

The main character tried several creative ways to affectionately approach his quilled friend. He didn't want to get

hurt, so at first he'd don some baseball catchers gear. Then he tried to reach from far away

while a box protected his body. And finally, he attempted to tame the spikes with marshmallows.

By the end of the book, he concluded that he needed to move very slowly and that the best way to hug a porcupine is this, carefully.

Cute story, simple ending, hug porcupines carefully. Sure. I just wish that hugging the porcupines in my life could be such a simple and cute adventure.

We all have them, you know, porcupines. Struggles, trials,

pains, mountains, call them what you will. They exist and they are prickly. And strangely,

oh, so strangely, the Bible tells us that we're supposed to hug them. Seriously? James said it himself. In James chapter 1 verses 2 to 4, he wrote

this. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,

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