hot south carolina

and my air conditioning is out! Yippie! It’s been broken since it started getting warm, but now that it’s hitting high 80s and 90s its most uncomfortable. Plus, I can’t sleep with my usual down comforter, double Nemo blanket, Linus blanket, and the gray blanket wrapped around my head. What is this world coming to?!

Also, I love sunscreen.

Amanda is getting baptized today. I love her so much & am so stoked to see how the Lord is going to continue to use her for His kingdom! Praise Jesus for changing hearts & changing lives. And for bringing this incredible girl into mine

J364 final tomorrow.

a place i never want to be.

i never want to be in a place of complacency in my relationship with Jesus. i’m so grateful He loves me enough to show me my sin. i never want His love, His grace, His mercy, His righteouness to become ho-hum, to become “the expected”. what is more unexpected than a love so great? & He loves me that way, in a way I can only see a glimpse of but can feel so great in my heart, every day without ceasing, no matter where i am in my heart that day.

i want to love Jesus with reckless abandonment and truly be able to say, “thy will be done”. i want to hide His word in my heart, i want to praise Him in every moment. i want to live for His glory – not mine, and to reflect Him in all i do.

…that could be overwhelming, and at times it is. but i know “because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy”. [hebrews 10:14]

Looking forward to studying Mark as a church family, as a lifegroup, in my own time. At times I felt all over the place this semester as I studied Philippians with my bible study, 1 Peter with my LG, Jonah/Romans with Midtown, and Psalms in my own time. I greatly look forward to focusing on one book with everyone this summer, and growing closer as a family & closer to Jesus !

heros.

Tonight, I shook hands with 45 men/women of the “Greatest Generation”.  Men & women, at the time younger than I, who had no choice but to serve in the military during World War II.  Men & women who won our freedom. Who won my freedom.

Tonight, I shook hands with 45 veterans.  As I did this, I simply said, “Thank you”.  After the first five, the weight of what I was thanking them for overwhelmed me, and my eyes brimmed with tears. The magnitude of what they went through hit me – the things they saw, the feelings they felt, who they missed the most. Here’s a few of the many things I realized I was thanking them for:

• My college education
• My ability to stand there and shake their hands
• The fact I was speaking English
• The freedom to believe in the perfect Lord & Savior Jesus Christ
• Protecting my family
• Their few years in war; their many years of dealing with the aftermath of war – physically & mentally
• My freedom. In everything.

It’s incredible to me these men & women went out, not knowing if they would come back in one piece, or come back at all.  I heard a story of a man who got airlifted December 6th, 1941 from Pearl Harbor to Chicago because he came down with the chicken pox.  I heard a story of a nurse who healed with her words as well as her actions.  I heard a story of a pilot who, after each mission, would come off that plane saying, “I’m never getting in that blasted thing again!” and continued to do so 36 more times until the war was over. I heard a wife talking about her anxieties & worries as her husband went off to war just a few months after they married – I heard the same wife talk about how different her husband was, how different their relationship was, when he returned, and the obstacles they overcame to get close once again. I saw an 86 year-old man tear up because he couldn’t tell his story. 

And at the end of the day, still all I can say is, “Thank you”.

the past few days

Been feeling pretty overwhelmed as the semester winds down for multiple reasons but I won’t get into that here. However, I’ve been trying to remember to stay in this day and, as cheesy as this sounds, “I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I know Who holds it.”  Ok…disclaimer: I said it was cliche/cheesy. But its true, so there.

I went to Cool Beans with my new friend Kathryn on Tuesday to talk about weddings/being friends….and it was awesome. I love new friends! Then we had a 4.5 hour chapter..until 1:00am, voting on initiates and new chairs for next year. Wednesday was full of studies/figuring out classes for next year, and then I went to see a philosopher speak @ 7:00 – his name is Paul Copan and it was interesting and made me think. Today I had class and after calling a few storage places, went to work @ 5…mmmm.. food.

And as for the next few days- I am so blessed to have been invited into multiple homes for the weekend. I am going to North Augusta with my good friend Alison, like last year, and am really excited to spend time with her, and her awesome family!  I can’t wait to start Easter ‘traditions’ of my own someday. 

Scripture to think about as we remember the craziest, most awesome 3 days in all of history:

…you have sorrow now,
but I will see you again,
and your hearts will rejoice
and no one will take your joy from you
                          [john 16:22].

&&

If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, 
       O Lord, who could stand?

 But with you there is forgiveness; 
       therefore you are feared.

 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, 
       and in his word I put my hope.

 My soul waits for the Lord 
       more than watchmen wait for the morning, 
       more than watchmen wait for the morning.

                                [psalm 130:3-6]

cakey

The Cutest Cake I’ve Seen to Date:

 

 

I’m obsessed.

Oh, that You would rend the heavens & come down!

This is the cry of my heart today.

Oh Lord, how long til I can come home, ’til I can rest in your arms again?

And He says, not long but don’t miss this life and I’ll be waiting, ’til then…

1 Peter 2:23-25

23. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.  

25. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

He died for the chance that I would love him – no guarantee I would. But he loved me that much that he went to extreme measures…living the life I could not live, dying the death I deserved and then overcoming death…. so that I might, just maybe, decide to live for Christ’s sake. And in doing so, would:

abstain from sinful desires

flee from temptation

and run to Him.

honest, humbled, and amazed.

Philippians 3:15-16

“All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.”     Phil 3:15-16

Truth that hit me:

1. God will not leave me in my sin. “If on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.” Just as in other areas of my life He has convicted and spoken to me, He will continue to do so – I can have faith in His communication with me.  I must be seeking Him & spending time with Him to learn more of His heart, He will instruct me in HIS ways, not mine. Praise Him for that fact alone.
2. vs. 16 Why do we try to act like we’ve got it all together, when we have yet to be completed?  Same strand of thought.. why do we act like we haven’t realized anything? WE HAVE CHRIST. And that should change the way we live.  The way I live.  Through Christ, I have been given freedom over sin, freedom to live in His truth and love and grace each and every day.  Through my relationship with Him, He has showed me what forgiveness looks like, what repentance looks like, what love looks like.  It is not His wish that I go back to my ways (1 peter 1:14), but that I would live up to what He has changed in me already, and continue STRIVING towards Him so He can continue changing my heart.
3. Which reminds me…. attain means: “to gain with EFFORT”. Hmm..is there room for spiritual laziness?       That’s all.

Half the Material @ Double the Price

Why are shorts not made for girls taller than 5′3? I’m 5′8″ and looking for some shorts that couldn’t be confused for another article of clothing … it’s tough. 

The shorts I have found that are long enough are all $40 or above…

exo facto (according to society as shown through retail industry) : tall girls are rich.

Also .. I’m just confused at how I can buy a pair of jeans – which will cover all of my legs, and also my ankles – for $20, and yet can’t find a pair of shorts that will only cover half of my legs for double the price. Absolute confusion.

Romans 7

Makes me wonder in what areas of my life am I still bound to the law & not to Christ?

v. 6 – But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.