It's A Process.

Another Person's Shoes.

Mon, 20 May 2013 22:14:20 -0400

Put yourself in someone else’s shoes. That’s what we are always told. But in reality, we often can’t do this until we are actually put in their shoes. And now, I have been on the other side. I have seen.

Let me rewind: At the beginning of this year, my boyfriend and I were discussing what was ahead for the semester. I was taking 18 hours, getting ready to graduate, taking all the graduation exams, doing an internship, and other ministry things. He works in the sports information department meaning in addition to his class load, his ministry work, and his family time, he would be consumed (almost every day) with baseball and softball games. We discussed having to be intentional with one another in both talking and making time. We jokingly said, “If we can just make it through this semester, we will be able to make it through anything!”

(Seriously, one day I am going to learn to quit saying things like that!) Little did we know what was ahead for our summers! He is doing a 10 week internship as a youth minister in Macon, GA. And I will be in Sarajevo, Bosnia for six of those weeks. Needless to say, the past semester prepared us for being intentional this summer.

So what about those shoes?

When I left to head to Bosnia two years ago, I remember saying goodbye to my family and friends. Not a tear was shed. My heart was not even sad. And that was because I was so incredibly excited and ready to go where the Lord had called me. I knew without a doubt it was where I was supposed to be. And I was at complete peace.

This weekend, I got to be on the other side of that goodbye. I had to say goodbye to the one who has been called, who only showed excitement and readiness, and who did not shed a tear. And wow, is it a different side of the spectrum. Mainly, it’s hard. I now see and understand where my loved ones were that day, and I feel like it has prepared me more for my goodbyes this time around.

I am so proud of him and his obedience to the Lord’s call! I know these ten weeks will be life changing and full of learning. And I could not be more ready to leave for Bosnia! This summer is full of opportunities for and obedience to the Lord. And in the end every moment of it is for His glory and our good. I can speak for both of us- there is nothing we want more in our relationship than to be serving the Lord - even if it is difficult for us!

Goodbyes are hard. But they only last for a little while. Besides, what is ten weeks when you look at the whole picture? :)

Please keep both of us and our families in your prayers throughout the summer!

"You know, the Bible doesn’t teach us to be defensive in relationships. It doesn’t tell us to protect..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:07:10 -0400

“You know, the Bible doesn’t teach us to be defensive in relationships. It doesn’t tell us to protect your heart and be extra cautious ‘cause you don’t know who’s going to betray you, who’s going to leave you, no it doesn’t say anything like that, it just says love. And it says love always trusts. And it always tells us to forgive; forgive means they’re going to wrong you first and then you’re gonna forgive. And then go back up and trust again. That’s what the Bible says about our relationships. It never says, ‘No, close your heart ‘cause you’re going to get hurt. Be protective. Protect your own heart.’ No, it never says that. It says, ’Get hurt, I will heal you, I’ll restore things, reconciliation is for you, and then get back up and love again. Trust again. Go belong to that group again.’ That’s how the word of God teaches us.”

- Myunghwa Choi, ”Loneliness Unmasked” sermon

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Thu, 16 May 2013 18:02:08 -0400

Male & Female He Created Them.

Fri, 10 May 2013 17:13:08 -0400

“When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God.He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created.”
Genesis 5:1-2

And that is when it all started. The differences. He created us differently. And this has been an ongoing learning process for the last three years for me. I have learned that as females:

-We respond to situations differently than males.
-We react differently than males.
-We process through things differently than males.
-We are more emotional than males.
-We understand things differently than males.
-Plus many, many more…

We are different!

But why does this matter? The topic has come up in conversation several times over the last week about it. But it has come up in a way that has made me begin to realize what has happened and how our views as women have changed.

Let me explain: If one is to cry, you are vulnerable. Show too much emotion, and you are simply being ridiculous. Let something affect you deeply, you’re taking it too seriously.

We have seen ourselves as women fall into believing the lie that emotions and tenderness show weakness. And that we cannot be seen as weak. We often even beat ourselves up for “being such a girl.” But we forget the beautiful picture created in Genesis 5! He created them- male and female! He created us differently. Both genders were created to reflect God’s image!

And when you look at the various aspects of each gender that reflect God, we see many of those differences. Females- you were created to be a tender, emotional, nurturing being. And there is nothing wrong with that! Do not believe that this is wrong. Do not let the world tell us that we need to be as solid as the men. We were not created just like them and that is how God wanted it! Or he would not have created them- male and female.

It’s a beautiful picture, and we must not lose sight of our purpose of glorifying Christ through every ounce of our being - yes, even our emotional being.

Now, this does not give us an excuse to let our emotions rule our lives and interactions. “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” If our emotions are not in line with Christ, then we are not letting the Spirit lead and control them.

Embrace being a female. You were created that way. You are in the image of God!

“Being tender and open in beautiful. As a woman, I feel continually shh’ed. Too sensitive. Too mushy. Too wishy washy. Blah blah. Don’t let someone steal your tenderness. Don’t allow the coldness and fear of others to tarnish your perfectly vulnerable beating heart. Nothing is more powerful than allowing yourself to be truly affected by things. Whether it’s a song, a stranger, a mountain, a rain drop, a tea kettle, an article, a sentence, a foot step, feel it all- look around you. All of this is for you. Take it and have gratitude. Give it and feel love.”
Zooey Deschanel

"they told you to conform they gave you a box and told you, “this is where you fit, this is where you..."

Sat, 04 May 2013 23:20:34 -0400

“they told you to conform
they gave you a box and told you,
“this is where you fit,
this is where you belong,
this is who you are”
but no matter how hard you tried to step into that box,
to mold yourself like clay
to hold yourself the way they wanted you to,
this box was never meant to contain this wandering soul of yours,
destined for so much more.
with love seeping out of your eyes,
and grace flowing from your fingertips
and onto the skin of everyone you touch,
you are an adventurer of not only the world,
but of the human soul.
you find the other wanderers, the lovers, the adventurers, the ones who simply don’t fit in their own boxes,
and you help them burn the remnants of what the world says they should be
and the flames go up
and the dreams take flight
and you, adventurer of the human soul,
you change lives,
you are remembered long after the ashes blow away.
your feet, so beautiful and covered in soot from the places you have been,
barefoot, and bloody,
but oh how beautiful they are.
and I know sometimes the bruises hurt,
and the way the winds carry the things you love away
and the way the people who have touched your soul with the tip of theirs, sometimes find themselves wandering away,
but you risk it anyway,
you are an adventurer of the human soul,
so full of grace
so full of love
you are spilling over
and
over
and
over
please,
keep spilling”

- you are an adventurer of the human soul

"People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don’t find..."

Wed, 01 May 2013 21:24:12 -0400

“People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don’t find myself saying, “Soften the orange a bit on the right hand corner.” I don’t try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds.”

- Carl R. Roger

"You will never know the fullness of Christ until you know the emptiness of everything but Christ."

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:47:58 -0400

“You will never know the fullness of Christ until you know the emptiness of everything but Christ.”

- Charles Spurgeon (via breanna-lynn)

spiritualinspiration: Seven Secrets of a Confident Woman by...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 22:48:13 -0400

spiritualinspiration:

Seven Secrets of a Confident Woman
by Joyce Meyer

Secret #1 A confident woman knows that she is loved

The first and most important secret to being a confident woman is to know that you are loved by God unconditionally. Romans 5:8 says, …God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us. Even if your natural father did not really love you properly, you can still get the love and acceptance you missed in your childhood from God.

Secret #2—A Confident Woman Refuses To Live In Fear

I think you will agree that refusing to be led by our feelings can be a challenge, especially when it comes to fear. But we must remember that fear is not from God. It is the devil’s tool to keep us from enjoying our lives and moving forward with what God has for us. When we attempt to walk in faith, Satan immediately tries to hinder us through many things, including fear. Fear of failure, judgment or criticism will cause us to bury our talents. It will make us draw back and live in misery and torment. Unless we make a firm decision to “fear not,” we will never be free from its power.

Secret #3—A Confident Woman Is Positive

Being negative and being confident do not go together. Like oil and water, they just don’t mix. Being negative opens the door to a lot of problems and disappointments, which fuels the fire for more negativity. Fear is the “dark room” where all your negatives are developed. So why not look at the brighter side of life and believe something good is going to happen to you?

Secret #4—A Confident Woman Recovers From Setbacks

In this life you and I are inevitably going to experience setbacks. The important thing is that we not see them as failures. We are not a failure just because we try something that doesn’t work. It’s only when we stop trying that we fail. The truth is, many people get confused when they’re trying to figure out what they’re supposed to do with their lives. This was definitely true in my life. I discovered my destiny by trial and error.

Secret #5—A Confident Woman Avoids Comparison

It is impossible to walk in confidence and compare ourselves with others at the same time. No matter how good we look or how talented, smart and successful we are, there is always someone who is better than us. I believe that confidence is found in doing the best we can with what we have. God wants us to find joy in being the best we can be, not in competing or comparing ourselves with others.

Secret #6—A Confident Woman Does Not Live In “If Only” And “What If”

One of the worst things you and I can do is to focus on what we don’t have or have lost and fail to take an inventory of what we do have. I call it living in a state of “if only.” Does this sound familiar: “If only I had more education…more money…more opportunity. If only I were taller, shorter, older, younger…” and the list goes on.

Secret #7—A Confident Woman Takes Action

I have heard it said that there are two types of people in the world: those who wait for something to happen and those who make something happen. It’s true that we need to be careful not to get ahead of God, but we also must be mindful not to be lagging behind. I believe we need to step out into things and find out what God has for us. As I said earlier, if we make a mistake it is not the end of the world.

As a believer, Christ lives inside you, and you’ve got what it takes! I believe that as you seek the Lord and apply these seven secrets to your life, you too will begin experiencing the boldness and confidence God desires you to walk in.

The Words.

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:47:20 -0400

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Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:20:48 -0400

Beautiful Words.

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 23:26:50 -0400

I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;
he heard my cry for mercy.
Because he turned his ear to me,
I will call on him as long as I live.

The cords of death entangled me,
    the anguish of the grave came over me;
    I was overcome by distress and sorrow.
Then I called on the name of the Lord:
    “Lord, save me!”

The Lord is gracious and righteous;
our God is full of compassion.
The Lord preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.

Return to your rest, my soul,
for the Lord has been good to you.

For you, Lord, have delivered me from death,
    my eyes from tears,
    my feet from stumbling,
 that I may walk before the Lord
    in the land of the living.
 
Psalm 116:1-9

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Fri, 05 Apr 2013 00:46:41 -0400

Who's Been Lying To You?

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 17:31:38 -0400

I finally did it. I finished my read-through of the Bible. Not gonna lie, it was rough- especially Exodus and Leviticus, whew!

Now I do not say this as any accomplishment of my own. It is truly not that big of a deal to most people. I mean, most people have read the Bible all the way through.

So why is it that I am excited about it / writing about it? Because of two reasons:

Someone challenged me about my beliefs and retorted with, “You believe in the words of a book that you haven’t even read all the way through so how do you even know what is in it?” Ouch. That was determination enough that I needed to know. I needed to see everything the Lord has to say.
If we don’t know the Word, we don’t know who is lying to us. If we just take what our preachers, teachers, bible study leaders, etc say at face value without checking it against the Word, you can get into some trouble. It is always a good idea to go behind and double check. [To my D-Group girls- Go and check behind me!] And to be honest there were a couple of times that I was reading it that I became incredibly angry at what I had been taught and it was either completely wrong or completely out of context. So I cannot stress enough… Read it for yourself!

So basically it is my challenge to you. Do you know the Word for yourself? Are you seeking the Lord through His Word? Are you actively seeking truth in the Word, or just believing what others tell you?? Do you know what the Bible actually says to defend it?

Fall Afresh - Bethel Currently the song I cannot stop listening...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:30:41 -0400

Fall Afresh - Bethel

Currently the song I cannot stop listening to.

“Spirit of the living God, come fall afresh on me. Come wake me from my sleep. Blow through the caverns of my soul. Pour in me to overflow.”

Even if He doesn't...

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 23:04:00 -0400

I can’t get this quote out of my head… Rex, a classmate of a good friend, was recently diagnosed with cancer. He is my age. Loves the Lord. A very talented musician. And all of a sudden, his life was changed. He was told cancer was in his body. He made a video of his testimony with the situation [I strongly encourage you to watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4JD43pS28k ]

But what gets me the most is one of the things he said in the video.

Because we know that if we pray for healing and He answers that and he does a miracle and heals my body and the cancer is just gone, we can point to Him and say, “He is Healer.” And if He doesn’t heal me, we can still point to Him and say, “He is Healer.” Because our God is constant and He doesn’t change … He gave up His life for me, the least I can do is suffer a little on this earth to bring glory to His name.

Man… What a challenge.

We pray on a daily basis for our lives to simply bring Him glory- but often we do not realize the ways in which the Lord plans to bring that about.

But just as Rex is, we must look at everything through the lens of bringing Him glory.

The Everlasting GodI will remain confident in this: I will see...

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 09:11:45 -0500

The Everlasting God

I will remain confident in this: I will see the goodness of the Lord. // We set our hope on you. We set our hope on Your love. We set our hope on the One who is the everlasting God.

We Need Girls In Church, Too.

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:41:00 -0500

Over the past few years I have attended many churches, many events, and many different ministry organizations. And of course every time I leave somewhere, I analyze it - Was it biblical? Did I enjoy it? How were the people?

And it has come to my attention that there has in fact been one thing that has come to my attention in almost every situation: The lack of intentionality of the females - mostly from the youth age to young adults age.

What do I mean by this? I mean often the girls are not very friendly. We are not quick to go up and introduce ourselves to other girls. We stay in groups with our friends. We expect visitors to speak to us instead. As a female (who yes, is guilty of this as well), we are so quick to judge and have this sense of entitlement that this is “our territory.” We are often rude to other girls. And we most certainly do not mingle well with other females.

But if this how we as females are acting, how in the world are we going to bring people to Christ? And even if we are around all believers, how will we build radical, genuine community, like is taught and showed in the Bible??

Simple answer: we can’t.

So then what does that mean for us females? We need an action plan - or put the action plan that is already there into place. [For more information on this action plan please read The Bible.]

Actions Do’s: Be kind. Be genuine. Put a smile on, a real one. Go up and introduce yourself. Embrace small talk and genuine conversation. Simply get to know someone else. Have a positive attitude. Be Christlike.

Action Dont’s: Don’t go into it thinking you are better than someone else. Don’t go into it territorially. Don’t be fake - They will know. Don’t judge. Don’t have a negative attitude. Be open - You may meet one of your best friends.

We have to see change in this area if we want to see genuine community, growth, and God glorified. If we grow up like this, there will be too many women in the church hindering the gospel instead of furthering it. We cannot hide behind the stereotype that girls are mean, crazy, etc so thus avoid them. No. We need to show grace and embrace the love that Christ loved us with.

[And yes, I do fully understand that sometimes a girl is shy. As someone who is, you just have to be friendly and embrace the awkward. Believe me, I can be super weird with chit-chat conversations, but push through it in consideration of the other person. I promise it will be well worth it!]

This Is What You Do - Bethel Greatness in music form!!!

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 17:43:40 -0500

This Is What You Do - Bethel

Greatness in music form!!!

Today's Thoughts.

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:44:25 -0500

When good things are happening, we talk about them and say, “It is completely from the Lord!” or “The Lord’s hand was all in this!” But when things are not going well and most certainly not going according to our plans, why do we not recognize that as being from the Lord as well?
”There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
It is the most awesome thing to be able to discuss biblical topics openly with my boss on the way to and from the radio stations!
I love music. It always makes me feel better.
Relationships - of all kinds - are hard.
I am beginning to realize just how much I do not understand the Lord. I mean really. Confused is an understatement.

Glorious - Bryan & Katie Torwalt

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:59:20 -0500

Glorious - Bryan & Katie Torwalt