Important OR not...

This past week I have been thinking about the different, ridiculous things we rely on. You don't always realize how much you rely on certain things or people, but if you sit and think about it, it can be just crazy. From food to talents to hobbies to friends, we can over use these things. I mean, I love food, and I need it to survive.... but I'm not going to eat all day every day. And I have things that I'm good at but they don't make me who I am. I think we get lost in our friends, talents, things and such... we need to get back to a place where we are not defined by what we have but by whose we are. I wouldn't be who I am or have what I have had it not been for God deciding to bless me. It is so easy to get caught up in reality and life and we can abuse the use of things that we have and people and we can allow ourselves to be defined by those things. Sometime we need a wake up call, to pull us out of chaos and hectic schedules so we can see what the most important thing is.

It's easy to forget that we are defined by who God created us to be, but it's just as easy to remember that things are just not as vital to our lives as we seem to make them.

Getting Ready...

I have been getting ready for EmergeKids this Sunday, and I have been thinking about how incredible it is to be a part of these kids lives. It's so much more than making friends, or keeping them occupied, or playing games and getting loud. It is all about teaching these kids the Bible and how to use it, teaching them how to love people. It is an amazing thing, to watch kids grow and mature. It's amazing to be a part of something like that.

And ya know, I learn a lot from these kids. It's easy to forget how to trust God for big things, but these kids just DO NOT doubt God one bit. They speak like it is absolutely going to happen, even though I can see IF and MAYBE, they do not. That's awesome, I wanna be like them! I pray and hope that they don't lose that faith, as adults it's easy to look at the reality of the situation and let the practical outweigh the spiritual. As I was teaching these kids about Self-Control the past two weeks, they were teaching me about Faith.

Kids are amazing, they love to serve and they accept people just as they come. Attitudes, rejection, fear, laziness... we learn how to be those things. We learn by watching other people be those things. We learn because we look at our circumstances more than our God. Maybe we should take time to learn from these kids.

Living with... pain.

The past few weeks I have been thinking about pain... as strange as that may seem, just hear me out. Pain is so complicated, it can come and go OR it can stay for a long time. It comes in different sizes and different forms. It can be physical mental emotional. It can be so many different things. 

I have noticed, in myself and in others, that we so often dismiss the pain of others because we think the pain we, or someone we know, has gone through is worse. Who are we to decide that someone's pain isn't worth repair. Just because I feel physical pain on a pretty daily basis, and just because I go through things that other people may not, doesn't mean that their kind of pain doesn't hurt them as bad. It is simply a different kind of hurt. 

Now, I'm not saying cater to the overdramatized people of the world. What I am saying is, why can't we just actually listen to what is hurting people and help them in any way we can. If that means carrying heavy bags for them, letting them cry to us at 2am, or simply spending time being their friend... we should be able to do that.  

So many times we get so caught up in the fact that our lives are hard, and things hurt us sometimes that we can forget the entire reason of our being... LOVE people. ACT out love. Don't just say it, do it. 

Here's to not being so caught in my own life that I forget that other people have lives just as crazy as or more than mine. Letting people into my life and getting involved in theirs. Loving people regardless of my pain.

Tons of Emotions

We have officially been in Tallahassee for 2 months, and that is emotionally challenging for lack of a better word!  It has been an exciting and confusing, exhausting and thrilling, challenging and inspiring all in the same moments. It has already been an amazing journey, and to know that it has just begun is an extremely incredible feeling. I have already learned a lot about myself, about leadership, about life and church; it has really been a growing experience.  We had our first, of 4, preview services this past Sunday, it went incredibly.  To know that I have and will have a hand in challenging and molding the lives of these incredible children is such an honor. This is just proof, I am proof that if we would just shut up and listen to the voice of God things would fall into place.  Life never gets easier, because being obedient is never the easy route... but oh my word... it is the most rewarding (as cliche as that sounds) and the most incredible.

I thought I had a good plan, and it probably was a good plan. It definitely wasn't going to be an easy journey, however, it was going to be exactly perfectly what I ever wanted. I was going to open a daycare with my sister, plans were getting set and things were going to roll soon. What I've learned is, God won't intervene when it's most convenient for us. It was a hard pill to swallow, deciding to move away from everything I have ever known, family, plans! It was worth it though. I help to run an amazing kids ministry, I do things now that I would have never been able to do before. If I would have chosen my comfortable plans, I would not have the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing process.

God is too good to us. We don't deserve the things that He gives us, but thank God he chooses to bless us.