To Truly share and show Love.

My family has come a lot closer this past week. This past Sunday night my sister Carrie had a stroke. This wasn't expected, but it wasn't completely out of nowhere. She's in a rehabilitation center right now regaining movement of the left side of her body.
You don't realize how often you use the left side of your body until it stops working.
You don't realize how much time is given to you before you use it up.
Lately I have been back into a season where I feel that God is teaching me about love, sacrifice, and time again. I have often found it difficult to show love to people through my actions and words some days. I've felt bad because of teenage junk and I've thrown myself pity parties. I've been selfish. I've taken the things I have for granted and I feel that God is revealing to me what it truly means to have those things.

I was listening to a friend talk a Slab the other day. She said that a lot of times we take people for granted, and so often we're quick to judge and ignore people that God put in our pathway for a reason. Those people could be annoying; we could think "Why the heck did God put me here with these people?" and we can spend time getting so impatient with people and annoyed by them and snap on them for no reason.
 This sounds cliche, but really think about it for a minute.
Really ponder these thoughts:
Do you even know what that person could be going through?
Did you ever stop to think that God has you sitting next to them for a reason?
 Maybe it's to help them with something big or maybe it's just to smile at them. Afterall, every action you make bears a consequence. However, this thought isn't to cause pressure because Lord knows how often we screw up and say things we don't mean. But it's to inspire a change in how we live on a daily basis.

Consider the people that surround you, and consider what you do. Because the time we have here on this earth is so short and so quickly spent. I don't want to live a life constrained by things that don't matter and things that waste my time. But I want to make sure that these moments are well-spent. I want to say kind words to people. I want to compliment them, even if it annoys the crap out of other people and they call me a suck-up. That's just a negative term for kindness, in my opinion, and there isn't anything wrong with kindness.  I want people to know their beauty and their highlights and I want to be sweet to them.


So guys, here's to a week of getting stronger and a time of loving more. Here's to a week of learning to dance in the rain.

Decisions

After much prayer and fasting over the last couple of months, I have come to some conclusions.
This is a lot to say, but spending time at the Ramp reminded me that I'm not called to live a normal lifestyle of the average American girl. I've determined that I don't want to go to college and major in something that I probably won't do. DISCLAIMER: There are people that God has called to be reformers- people who work in society, having a job as a doctor or salesperson or teacher as their calling to witness to others.
There is not a problem with that!

Maybe he called you to be a doctor or to work in a business. Maybe that was totally his plan. It isn't wrong if it's his plan.

But sitting in school and listening to them pressure us to pick a college and a major and to drown ourselves in debt made me wonder if this is all America sees in life. We've taken our possibilities and minimized them small enough to fit in a box. Well, here's news to society:
God will not be placed in a box.
Graduating college and making a lot of money is seriously not all their is in life, and I know it isn't. There has to be more. We have to reach further into our calling and what we do. We can't pretend to hear the voice of God telling us to do something and lie to ourselves if it isn't what he called us to. Maybe he will tell you to do something or go somewhere that you are uncomfortable with, but would you rather choose your way and continue to tell people that you hear from God when you're being disobedient, or will you choose his way and his plan no matter how scary it looks?
This is a generation that is called to stop looking like everyone else in the word and that's called to look like Jesus. Be radical. Change the world and shake the status quo. Do what he's called you to do, whether that is a doctor, a pastor, a McDonald's employee or a stay at home mom. We each have a plan to fulfill. Whatever it is, be the hands and feet of him in this earth.


So here I say it. I know deep inside that I'm called to ministry. I don't know what school of ministry I will go
to yet, but I know it's going to happen. Each step in this walk with God is not boring as people stereo-type it to be. It's a thrill as we put our trust in him and watch what he does. He's amazing. And I know that wherever he sends me is where he will want me to be.
I want to be where he is.