Before I start this blog you should know three things:
Thing One: God will put you where he wants you when he wants you there.
Thing Two: I love my house and where I'm living now.
Thing Three: Our timing has this insane ability of being convenient and exciting, but not always right.
Now let's back track a little. Hello, blogging world. I've been a little AWOL for a month now. I told myself I wouldn't let that happen, but it did. So now here I am, writing this blog. But not only am I writing this blog, I am waiting for the worlds best blueberry muffins to get done baking and getting ready for church. I'm not bragging, but if there was an award for mufti-tasking you'd think I'd be trying to get it, I'm just saying.
If I could, I'll start with thing two. I love my house. My family has graciously furnished it with unwanted items that my sister and I adore. The heat works in this cold weather. The electricity bill is never too high and the water bill is at a comfortable low. Rent is great. I think, though, that when I move into a different house (or the dream being one day build my own out here) I will invest in an oven/stove combo that a) is electric and has a timer built in two it and b) has a light inside the stove. In theory, this dream is not to big to be attained my friends.
And while I'm on the subject of the stove, let us discuss Thanksgiving. My parents came in town to spend the week with us. They brought their dog, Smokey, and took over my room. It's okay, though. I got to move in with my Nana and Virginia friend Ambah for the week. Now, there are many stories I could tell about Thanksgiving, but I'll start with this one: my house smelled like burn all week long. I would come back to get more clothes or shampoo or whatever I needed and open the door to this awful burning smell. But that didn't stop my mom, bless her. She cooked and cooked and cooked all week long. And the house smelled and smelled and smelled all week. So finally, my old man is investigating the stove because surely it can't smell that bad forever, right? Right. On the bottom of the oven, caked into a blackened mess beneath the burner, was what appeared to be a clump of old paper towels. So, my brave pap-pap cleaned it out for us. Needless to say, I can bake now and the house smells lovely instead of just awful.
In other news, I leave to go back to Texas in a week. One week! And what's crazy is this: while I love my family, my other family and all of my friends I'll get to spend time with; I already can't wait to come back here because of all the amazing things God is doing in this area.
I am blessed to have been put in a place where I can serve, where I can be used to reach people and where I can get to know people who push me to be closer with Him every day. Whether it's my new boss giving me words of encouragement or one of the kids from church giving me a huge hug just because I'm there, the level of encouragement I feel here makes it seem like all of this is right. Like this move wasn't just another risk in my plan, but it feels like it's where I need to be. Where He wants me to be.
In these past few months I have been given the chance to serve with The Bridge Ministry under the Jefferson Street Bridge in Nashville, and now I get the chance to go back again this week. He has also granted me the opportunity to serve with the children's ministry in my church and get to know 30+ kids. All of this aside, He has blessed me with a group of young adults in my church (14 of us, mind you) that I can grow with and learn from and talk to. I haven't gone hungry, I haven't been broke. If that doesn't say God is good, I don't know what does.
Now thing three.
I signed up on a free dating website a long long time ago. Now, once you're done going "whhhhhhhhy??" Let me explain myself: I have no idea why. I don't feel like I'm in a place right now where dating is the best idea, anyway. I still have, what, two years of school ahead of me before I can get a big people job and figure things out from there. While dating isn't an awful idea, I am just trying not to rush into anything silly at this point. And then I do this:
I say, "God. In time you're going to reveal my husband to me, or you're going to keep me single forever. Either way, I'll be happy with this life and I'll serve you no matter what. I'm giving this to you so I won't worry about it anymore. All in your time, Amen."
But then, I turn around and get my hopes up about every single guy that messages me. And I get really excited about some of them. "Good Christian guys who are excited about Jesus?! Sign me up!" And then I start talking to them and I find out some things about their beliefs, one example being that they love God but just "want to have fun" right now, and I'm not talking about playing Putt Putt, okay? So then I shake my head (after 45 minutes of bashing it on the keyboard, mind you) and go:
"Okay, God. You got me. I really am giving it up to you now."
And I'm so ready to do that. My Aunt Bren was leading the kids Bible Study the other day and she said "And then do you know what God had planned? Romance! I bet you never believe God planned for Romance!"
And she was right. I always felt like God had so many plans but romance was in my court, even if I said I believed other wise. So now, I'm taking a step back and focusing on me. Centering myself back around Him. His timing, not mine.
I'm so excited about this journey I've been living for the past few months, and more than pumped about what's to come. :D
Thing One: God will put you where he wants you when he wants you there.
Thing Two: I love my house and where I'm living now.
Thing Three: Our timing has this insane ability of being convenient and exciting, but not always right.
Now let's back track a little. Hello, blogging world. I've been a little AWOL for a month now. I told myself I wouldn't let that happen, but it did. So now here I am, writing this blog. But not only am I writing this blog, I am waiting for the worlds best blueberry muffins to get done baking and getting ready for church. I'm not bragging, but if there was an award for mufti-tasking you'd think I'd be trying to get it, I'm just saying.
If I could, I'll start with thing two. I love my house. My family has graciously furnished it with unwanted items that my sister and I adore. The heat works in this cold weather. The electricity bill is never too high and the water bill is at a comfortable low. Rent is great. I think, though, that when I move into a different house (or the dream being one day build my own out here) I will invest in an oven/stove combo that a) is electric and has a timer built in two it and b) has a light inside the stove. In theory, this dream is not to big to be attained my friends.
And while I'm on the subject of the stove, let us discuss Thanksgiving. My parents came in town to spend the week with us. They brought their dog, Smokey, and took over my room. It's okay, though. I got to move in with my Nana and Virginia friend Ambah for the week. Now, there are many stories I could tell about Thanksgiving, but I'll start with this one: my house smelled like burn all week long. I would come back to get more clothes or shampoo or whatever I needed and open the door to this awful burning smell. But that didn't stop my mom, bless her. She cooked and cooked and cooked all week long. And the house smelled and smelled and smelled all week. So finally, my old man is investigating the stove because surely it can't smell that bad forever, right? Right. On the bottom of the oven, caked into a blackened mess beneath the burner, was what appeared to be a clump of old paper towels. So, my brave pap-pap cleaned it out for us. Needless to say, I can bake now and the house smells lovely instead of just awful.
In other news, I leave to go back to Texas in a week. One week! And what's crazy is this: while I love my family, my other family and all of my friends I'll get to spend time with; I already can't wait to come back here because of all the amazing things God is doing in this area.
I am blessed to have been put in a place where I can serve, where I can be used to reach people and where I can get to know people who push me to be closer with Him every day. Whether it's my new boss giving me words of encouragement or one of the kids from church giving me a huge hug just because I'm there, the level of encouragement I feel here makes it seem like all of this is right. Like this move wasn't just another risk in my plan, but it feels like it's where I need to be. Where He wants me to be.
In these past few months I have been given the chance to serve with The Bridge Ministry under the Jefferson Street Bridge in Nashville, and now I get the chance to go back again this week. He has also granted me the opportunity to serve with the children's ministry in my church and get to know 30+ kids. All of this aside, He has blessed me with a group of young adults in my church (14 of us, mind you) that I can grow with and learn from and talk to. I haven't gone hungry, I haven't been broke. If that doesn't say God is good, I don't know what does.
Now thing three.
I signed up on a free dating website a long long time ago. Now, once you're done going "whhhhhhhhy??" Let me explain myself: I have no idea why. I don't feel like I'm in a place right now where dating is the best idea, anyway. I still have, what, two years of school ahead of me before I can get a big people job and figure things out from there. While dating isn't an awful idea, I am just trying not to rush into anything silly at this point. And then I do this:
I say, "God. In time you're going to reveal my husband to me, or you're going to keep me single forever. Either way, I'll be happy with this life and I'll serve you no matter what. I'm giving this to you so I won't worry about it anymore. All in your time, Amen."
But then, I turn around and get my hopes up about every single guy that messages me. And I get really excited about some of them. "Good Christian guys who are excited about Jesus?! Sign me up!" And then I start talking to them and I find out some things about their beliefs, one example being that they love God but just "want to have fun" right now, and I'm not talking about playing Putt Putt, okay? So then I shake my head (after 45 minutes of bashing it on the keyboard, mind you) and go:
"Okay, God. You got me. I really am giving it up to you now."
And I'm so ready to do that. My Aunt Bren was leading the kids Bible Study the other day and she said "And then do you know what God had planned? Romance! I bet you never believe God planned for Romance!"
And she was right. I always felt like God had so many plans but romance was in my court, even if I said I believed other wise. So now, I'm taking a step back and focusing on me. Centering myself back around Him. His timing, not mine.
I'm so excited about this journey I've been living for the past few months, and more than pumped about what's to come. :D
