Random Thankful Thoughts...

Have you ever stopped to think about where God has you in your life? Where He's taken you? Have you ever thought about the purposeful orchestration of the people you've met along the way, the fact that they are, without a doubt, people who God allowed you the blessing of knowing? Well, I have, as you who know me, get on these random thought kicks, and I have had this thought recurring and I wanted to write about it.
I have had the privilege of being a serious Christ follower since I was about 13ish, and the journey that God has taken me on and led me through has been ANYTHING but the boring path I would have laid out for myself! The best part about my journey is that throughout it, God has allowed me the ultimate privilege of getting to meet and walk with some of His most amazing creations, my friends.
There are snapshots of my life that stand out to me and in those flashes in time, God provided for me friends (which seems like such a weak word for how I regard these people) to experience life with. God orchestrated in my life, very early on when my family was shaky, a small group of girl friends that are some of my best friends today. God brought us together to experience the breathless and the breathtaking together because we surely experienced that between us all! I am so incredibly thankful for these girls that I call my sisters (which still to me doesn't seem strong enough) because they saw me, see me, and will see me through the rest of my time on this Earth and I know that God ordained them to be my life partners. God did that!
Then I jump to the time that God pressed on my heart to serve Him at a youth camp for the summer with my best best friend. We both had just graduated high school, were so amped and ready to serve God, so scared for the future after the summer, but fully confident that God had it covered. And that He did! That was the summer that God ordained 3 more special people in my life (other than my best friend) who would change me forever! That summer defined God's skillful way of that"just right" kind of timing. I am fortunate enough to still have a pretty close relationship with most of those friends, but even so, God used those people to make an impression on me, to help me grow as a woman of Christ and to learn to love. Crazy enough, that summer was the year I met Marcus and wow, did God change my life with him! :) (Of course in all the best ways, right?! :) ) I didn't know that one of the reasons God had pressed me to volunteer for this camp was because He had done the same pressing on the heart of the man that I had prayed for for a very long time. A year after camp, 3 years after that and 3 years of marriage have made me so so thankful that I obeyed God's call. God did that!
Then I rewind and slightly fast forward to the year after that first summer camp, where I felt called to serve on a different youth ministry camp. That summer was incredibly fun, crazy, and sweet! God brought me there alone, vulnerable and waiting on Him to move me, and God moved me through the group of friend, who became my family, I shared that summer with. Although time and distance hinders communication sometimes, this family God allowed me to make has left such impressions on my heart, I love them more now, even though we don;t get to talk as much, than I did that summer! God did that!
Then I fast forward a few years to the present. God moved Marcus and I to a church where He had a small group waiting for us. At the time of us moving to that church, our hearts, spirit, everything was hurting and we needed mending. God provided for us a small group who truly IS our family to live life together. Marcus and I have grown so much in our walk with Christ with this group that we ever have before and I can't imagine not knowing these people. We have laughed, cried, vented, questioned, discussed, lived the past year's life together. God allowed us the privilege of being apart of an intimate fellowship of believers and for that I am so amazed! God did that!
I know that God has had His hands on me and my life path for way longer than I realized and to know that God cares enough to provide for me these friendships that have left my heart and soul so much sweeter is such an amazing, humbling reminder. So, when you are thinking, doubting, praying, being reminded that God's got it covered, trust me, (and I am preaching to the choir here! ), God's HAD it covered! God did it and does it!

Dirty laundry...

So I was doing my quiet time this afternoon and I am in the book of John. (I recently finished Ephesians which was telling me how to love, and now I feel as though God lead me into John to teach me how to fall in love with Him through his life story; very cool and fun for me! :) Anyways, so I am reading in John 4: 39-42 and in my Bible, its just a blip of a couple of verses, but as I read, read over it again, and read over it again, I kept praying that God would reveal to me or uncover whatever it was that I was supposed to understand from those little bits of verses. Its all about the woman at the well, post-visit from Jesus and she is telling anybody who will talk with her, hear her out about her experience with Jesus. I especially got stuck on verse 39 where she testified, " He told me all the things that I HAVE done.". And I kept pondering on this and thinking, and God started putting the pieces together for me as to why I was hung up on that verse (It was like when you used to do those Math Superstar worksheets in Elementary school, which I HATED, and you asked some one to help you and they kept dancing around the answer until your brain caught up, that's how reading this verse felt.) What finally struck me was the fact that this woman was the 'woman at the well' the infamous woman who Jesus called out and exposed her for who she was being at the time; a floozy if you will. Well after she encountered, spoke with and experienced Christ, she was all about airing her 'dirty laundry'; she didn't hesitate to share the fact that, yes, she wasn't perfect, she had had her faults, flaws and blunders and would probably pay for that the rest of her life in her reputation, but she made it known that Christ told her all that she had done and given her something that she hadn't found in the beds, words or situations she had been in before; she experienced Christ as her literal Savior from the life she had led. And in the verse, she says ' all the things she had done" meaning, that was put behind her. So I am thinking, wow this woman is throwing all caution to the wind and just letting it all hang out, all her issues and all, but all for the sake of pointing her redemption back to her Savior, Christ. So I started putting the pieces together, and I realized after she had time with Christ, she wasn't pious, or off-putting, snobby-like like, "I was just with the Savior of the world and YOU weren't". Instead she testified. How often do we "Christians" find ourselves with an air of snobbishness about us because we are Christians, we are saved, God has redeemed us and there are just those other heathens in the world who just need to come to Christ? I know that sometimes, I'll admit, I feel a little high-on-the-horse about my relationship with Christ. Now I am not saying that you shouldn't feel empowered or proud that you have been redeemed and have a real-deal relationship with God; there's a difference between being honored and arrogant and I am speaking to the arrogance that we sometimes display. God just helped me recognize that maybe, just maybe, when other people, everyday Joe-smoes are able to see me as me, Christian, and are able to hear where God has taken me from, then I may seem less intimidating and maybe God can use me when I am humble, not arrogant. God was able to use the woman at the well's testimony as well as the Holy Spirit to help others see their error in their own lives and need for Christ. So maybe, we as Christians need to be reminded that God did deliver us from the same, disgraceful sin as the woman at the well and that God wants us to share that story of His sweet and tender love to the rest of the world so the pious off-putting "Christians" that non-believers think we are will realize we aren't that different; we Christians have just allowed God to wash our dirty laundry and take control and that has made all the difference.

Convictions...

Have you ever been in that kind of mood where you just have no desire to do anything but be at home, in your pajamas, with a blanket and the couch? And on top of that, feeling like that around the same time you are headed to church? Yeah, well yesterday Marcus and I decided to go to the 6:15 service at The Journey just to have a chance to spend the day together and relax and still enjoy our time at church. So as we were piddling around and wasting time before church over in Yulee, I started getting really tired and just in that mood where I just wanted to be home, period, which resulted in me being kind of punchy with Marcus and just not in the right place mentally or emotionally to worship God. Fast-forward about 30 minutes and we are in church, the crowd is lighter than usual for us and Marcus, of course, sits us in a very uncomfortable area.Worship begins and we start singing, and I suddenly realize there is someone in the previous vacant chair beside and the only way that I can tell that is because I feel a texture somewhat like old-lady's permed hair on my arm. So, at this point, I'm thinking, "Great, now what? I'm already a little annoyed that we waited to come to the latest service, I am going to miss the Oscars and the Amazing Race, and not this old lady is encroaching in my personal space, and I KNOW that Marcus won't take the hint and scoot over; he'll interpret my moving closer as a sign that I am being affectionate, not what I'm going for!" So I am ranting in my head, still singing to God mind you, about how I am going to be the light that this world needs (because I am really showing it in my thoughts!), I mean really singing like I mean it. Then the transition to the next worship song occurs and its a song I LOVE and really know and I am excited, all the while still a little annoyed about this raiding of space I am feeling. Literally, at that moment, as I am reaching my vocal limits as well as space limits, it was like God reminded me of everything I needed to be reminded of; why I was there, what was going on, my own inability to really focus on Him. At that moment, it was like God opened my ears and I heard this little old lady singing the words to the David Crowder song that was being played and God reminded me, this isn't about you, your harmony, your comfort; Let me remind of what I am hearing, how MY name is being blessed. I guess because my best friend and my husband are passionate about worship and I have experienced God's hand work in them with their passion and have learned how to appreciate intimate worship, God often reminds me to stop everything; thinking, singing, watching, everything and take a moment to absorb a glimpse of Him. When I heard that woman, an elderly woman who didn't care about the volume, the sound, lights, nothing but singing praises to her Lord, I realized how wrong I was. Wrong for coming into God's sanctuary already with a chip on my shoulder over such stupid stuff, wrong for not embracing this woman into God's house, rather getting annoyed with every brush of her arm against my sleeve. I was so convicted, I started to get teary-eyed because God was showing me the reverence and sweetness of what WAS important in that moment. As I took that time to look around I noticed a mentally handicap young man raising his hands in worship to the God who he adored, and it was truly evident that God was in that room. Even though I've written a book already, I cannot describe to you the humility I felt for being so selfish and unworthy, but at the same time so blessed that God was taking this time to gently remind me of Him. To see the Holy Spirit evident and sweetly touching God's people in that time was more than enough to convict me and make me quickly change my tune. I stopped and just prayed that God would forgive me of my own selfishness and for Him to please open me up to Him the remainder of the time I had not wasted on myself. You can take what you will from this post and let God use it in His way for what's going on in your life, but I mainly wanted to say that God is so real, so holy, and so precious and don't let petty, silly things hinder your worship in song, text, tithe,prayer, or meditation to Him because at the end of the day, He's all that matters, above all other things, people, events, circumstances. God is God and thank God that He loves us so much that He gives us that pause to reconnect with what is really important!

I got a funny...

So I know that I have not blogged in a while, but since school started back, my world has been turned COMPLETELY upside down. BUT I have a funny story that I HAD to share. If you are ever feeling fat, down, sad, or just need a laugh, commit the visual that I am about to paint for you to memory.

Okay, so I have come to grips that I have gained weight. Don't like it, trying (kind of) to change it, but I have to go to work with clothes on so I have had to go a size up when purchasing school clothes. So I went to shopping for school clothes a couple of weeks ago and after dragging my poor husband around the Avenues mall, I hit gold at Sears and found some cute black capris and fun white jeans (I know, big girl in white jeans, but listen, just because I am big doesn't mean I can't stay trendy :)) Anyways, so fast forward a little to this past Friday. I decided I wanted to look fashionable and wear my black capris. No biggie. So I go through the day, walking around my class with my kids, teaching at the front of the class, walking around campus with my colleagues, you know, the day to day stuff. So all is well, Friday ends and so begins the long weekend. Now fastforward to Sunday night. So Marcus and I decided to go to River Road Church on Sunday night because a friend that he grew up with, who is now a youth speaker, was meeting with the youth and we wanted to hear him. So I decide I wanted to rock my cool black capris, this t shirt and some cute flats that I had gotten. You know that feeling when you just know the outfit you are about to wear is just going to look right, I mean just cute cute cute; that is how I felt. So I take a quick shower, get my hair and makeup done and go to get dressed. So as I am putting my cute, pretty, new black capris on, I notice some light passing through the pants in an unexpected area. I'm thinking, my eyes are deceiving me, so I hold the pants up to eye level. There, MUCH to my surprise, was a hole, and I exaggerate not, the size of my index finger, right in the BUTT-HOLE area of the capris. All of a sudden it dawns on me, OH CRAP, the last time I wore these capris was FRIDAY AT SCHOOL. When this hole happened, where it happened, how it happened and who saw it I am still unaware of. All I know is that I wore bright pink underwear that day and if the hole occurred sometime during the day, somebody got an eye full! I don;t remember any snickering in class and no one pulled me aside, so either I am the talk of my fellow colleagues as the girl who blew the butt out of her pants or everyone is just so mortified that they just decided to try and release the reality of my pink panties out for the world to see from their mind. I am just hoping people thought it was gum!

MUST DOs in Wilmington

Spawning from my most recent visit to my lovely hometown, (Wilmington, N.C.), I felt compelled to compile a list of MUST DOs when in Wilmington, whether you are visiting the area for a short period of time or if you have lived there your entire life. These are things from a true-local's perspective that you have to do before you leave Wilmington to have a great experience.

1. Taking in the downtown view from the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge:

If you are driving into (or even out of) Wilmington, this is a must to do. (If you are flying, either taking a taxi or renting a car or bumming a ride will be worth this! ) There is no better feeling in the world than when you cross that bridge. After being on 74/76 for FOREVER, when you cross the bridge and look to the left, you can take in such a charming and picturesque view of Wilmington that no postcard or picture can do justice. For me, when I cross that bridge, I literally feel like I can breath. In fact, I breath a sigh of relief because being able to look at that view of the place I call home is like it's saying "Welcome home".

2. Driving into Wilmington via Market St.:

To locals, Market St. is a NIGHTMARE; narrow two-lane, speed limits that are never followed, and trees that are a little to close to the road. But to me, driving down Market St. (now that I am away from it) is like entering a southern glen. Among the antebellum homes and beautiful old churches are these huge, old Oak tress that cast a very delightful shadow while driving down the street. Its just reminiscent of what I would think an old southern town looks like and I like that!

3. Driving down to Wrightsville Beach and driving down both ends of the beach:

Wrightsville Beach will always remind me of fun, unforgettable Summers with my closest friends,, but there is something about turning off your radio, rolling the windows down in your car and taking in the salt air. The best time to go is when the sun is going down, but that is just my opinion. Again, it gives you the moment to breath.

4. Going to Carolina Beach and getting a Britt's doughnut:

There isn't much I can say about this other than you have NEVER EVER EVER had ANYTHING like a Britt's doughnut and until you try one, you won't understand what I mean. Get a dozen to go, sit at the bar, eat two (if you can) with a diet coke (or whatever suites your fancy) and see what I am talking about. I mean, I seriously cannot describe to you how much those doughnuts will change your perspective on what a good doughnut is. Seriously.

So these again, are just a few things that I think are a MUST to do when in Wilmington, either as a vacationer or a resident. (Other MUST DOs to come! )

*DISCLAIMER: These MUST DOs are simply my opinion. My best friends could tell you four other things they would consider necessary to do when in Wilmington, so if you have any suggestions that I may have not remembered, please share them, and I will CONSIDER adding them to my list :). )

I'm so excited, I'm so excited...

Okay, so as I was clicking through aol.com this afternoon, I noticed a headline that made my heart skip a tiger-beat and made me want to get my caffine pills out (jk). The headline read "'Saved by the Bell' Reunion in the works. WHAT?!!! Are my eyes deceiving me? So I clicked on the headline to find out the real deal. The link was a clip from Jimmy Fallon's late night show where MPG (abbreviated because I can't spell his last name :)) did a parody as one of the hottest tickets in the early 90's (other than AC Slater) Zach Morris. All I needed was to find out if that headline was true. As I continued to watch the clip and after a couple of "time-outs", Jimmy Fallon asked "Zach" if he would be in for doing a reunion with the 'Saved by the Bell' cast. As I sat on the edge of my seat, the sweet words I wanted to hear came rolling off his tongue: "I'd love to see the old gang!" . AHHHHHHHHH! SHUT UP! THAT'S IT! So, I am totally holding out hope that the crew that made my best friend's and my adolescent years worth all the tears, MASH games, and fits on who will end up with Zach, AC and Screech, will deliver and reunite. I am telling you, that just absolutely made me want to spend the rest of the afternoon reliving "Zach Attack" and "The Hot Fudge Sundays".

In the Beginning...

Okay, I was so totally not going to do this at all (blogging that is). But I have come to quickly find that I cannot reply or comment on any of my friends and family's blogs because I am not a member of this network society. So... I will join. This is probably not a very good thing for me as I have an addictive personality and I have a LOT of time on my hands right now that summer break has begun, so bear with me, I may say alot, I may say a little. Nonetheless, I can now comment! :)