Dear Me.

Dear teenage me,

Oh what a time of life you are in, suddenly discovoring that life has adventure to it, but with adventure often comes pain. Right now you probably long for the next thing. Hoping that it will be bigger and betteer. Can you be convinced that life is wonderful right where you are because that is where God has placed you?

Grandma has just moved into the basement of your own house and I know you aren't sure if you like this change. You want to go to grandma's house not have her house be at your house all the time. Would you believe it if I told you that having grandma live with you is going to be one of the most life changing shaping experiences of your life? Would you be able to fathom the fact that even is as grandma grows weaker and weaker she will teach you more about God by her actions then her words? The days are going to be long, but one morning you will wake to find that grandma has gone to be with Jesus and you will rejoice for her gain, but mourn for your loss.You will always be thankful for the special way you grew to know your grandmother.

One thing I know upsets you is your family. You want little brothers and sisters and you think it would be nice to have older siblings that aren't often mistaken for your parents. You think your family isn't normal and you long for other things that seem so much better. I wonder have you ever thought about the fact that according to the world's standards you shouldn't have ever been born? Realize that because your siblings are so much older you have been given a whole treasure chest of information. I know you want to turn up your nose at your big brothers and sisters, but in a few years you will regret doing so and realize how much they have cared for and loved their little sister. Perhaps now they may seem to be just older siblings, but it would be easier for you now if you were grateful for the treasures God gave you.

Your probably wondering too why you are more like the grandchild of your parents then a actual child. Well my dear self its because that's how God in His perfect sovereignty meant it to be and really there is no other way to explain it. Maybe it is somewhat strange and odd for your parents to get the senior discount, but realize now that life with older parents is really quite grand.

Life right now maybe seems like a set circemstances that doesn't make the least bit of sense. Sometimes you may wonder why you even excist. You are struggling with the fact that God does really love you even if you have gone against his commands. God's grace is hard for you to grasp and it doesn't seem like it should be so free to you. There are the days when more things seem to have gone wrong then right. You are wishing and longing for something better and you are sure when that something better comes life will be better.

Let me tell you this. Life is going to get better and even more wonderful then you ever could have thought. I must apolgize now because I'm going to contradict myself. Life is also going to get more horrible then you ever could have imaigained. Horrible and wonderful can go in the same sentance, because the God your struggling to trust in now will always be in conthrol. Every single day you are going to be able thank him for his blessings, even when it seems like there are few to count.

Understand this, its your view of God that is going to affect everything. Your mother tells you this, but I know you don't believe her. Really it is true when you cannot see God as a gracious God and a very good God who is always in control, life will seem terrible.

Maybe you think that you cannot wait till you are in your twenties because by then surely you will have life nicely put together. Unfortunately no you will still be learning very much from God. Here is a little secret though. Age gives you the ability to look back at life and to see how God is working. Trust me it will make better since of why just exactly everything happened the way it did. Those struggles and tears you will know were the tools used by God to shape your life.

Right now the struggles may seem toilsome and it may seem that no one understands your problems. Trust me I haven't forgotten how sometimes you cried yourself to sleep. Know the pain is what will grow you. Know that it is for your benefit to grow in God's Word now. When you get older your not going to regret it. Know that the more you understand God and His ways the better your life will be.

Yours Truely,

Your 22 year old self

I wrote this post for the dear me: letter to your teenage self link up. I wrote the words, because I myself needed to hear them and because other girls in are the chaos of teenage craziness might read my humble advice.

One Monday Morning...

I'm not an especially big fan of Mondays. Mostly it is probably physiological, but for some reason it always feels a bit harder to start the routine of the day on Monday.

Mondays always seem to be quite ordinary and routine and really nothing extraordinary usually happens on Monday.

Eleven years ago it was an ordinary Monday morning. People rushed out the door with coffee cups in hand to work. Mothers herded their children in nearly mad chaos onto school buses. Appointments were kept and groceries were bought. Business people left for trips to make deals and to also deal with clients. Wives and husbands argued about who would take out the trash. Children got mad at their parents and left their rooms messy. The tired wife wondered when she and here husband would ever have time together. Alarms didn't go off and people over slept. Some laughed at life while others only found sadness and discouragement.

Just a seemingly ordinary Monday for 2,996 Americans. Monday night they all went to bed perhaps glad to have the day behind them. A few short hours later another day started and for awhile life went on just as it had the previous day.

By noon that ordinary Tuesday nothing was ordinary anymore. 2,996 Americans were dead and their families were left to pick up the pieces. Every morning after that fateful day became a fight to survive in a cloud of grief for so many Americans.

When the dawn of the new morning arrived on Wednesday how many people craved for normalcy. Did the wives cry frustrated tears wishing for piles of dirty laundry to appear?  Children suddenly realized what they did have in a parent and wondered if the arguments had been worth it.Did they wish for rules they had loathed so much before.

Life stopped being ordinary for so many and took on a new kind of ordinary. Life was spontaneously crying at any given moment. Suddenly so many were forced to be a single parent. Parents discovered what life was like to bury a child. Siblings realized that the person who shared all their inside jokes was gone.

Sometimes I detest the ordinary because it can be so ordinary and tiresome. Ordinary life is not to be loathed but cherished knowing that because the simplest things are happening life is going fine.When ordinary life does turn awful there is an extraordinary God to give us the strength to find the new ordinary.

Thank God for the ordinary, for some day we may wish it back with a passion.

The Wedding: What it was.

Written 8.2.2012

Last night I went to a wedding. You know where the gorgeous looking princess marries her handsome prince charming and afterwards everyone stuffs themselves with cake and punch before sending off the couple in a sea of floating rice to the world of happily ever after.

Perhaps that is what comes to the mind of most when they think of the word wedding. The wedding of yesterday eve was all that and then so much more.

Candles flickered on the stage of church as it was filled with church goers, unsaved co workers, the culture saturated middle school girls, family, and friends from here there and everywhere. Beautifully combined were people from all walks of life, all because two people were brought together by God to spend the rest of their lives together.

It could have been just a wedding where vows were said and then sealed with a kiss, but no this was not a wedding to glorify the couple, but to glorify God. 

Solomon words were spoken not just of love, but of solemnity of making a pledge before God. A man stepping forward to guide and protect his wife just as Christ does the church. A woman stepping forward to say she will trust and follow her husband as the church follows Christ.

Perhaps it does sound like a odd idea, but really this blushing bride and handsome groom will find themselves happy for years to come by following the simple formula God has laid out. 

The love that was so evidently seen that evening was a selfless love. A love of longing to serve the other person to be their happiness and a laying aside of their own happiness to fulfill their spouse's needs.

Together as a whole we as the guests were witnesses to the event. Guests who had never heard the gospel heard and saw it breathed that night. Guests who had heard the gospel many times over were reminded of what it really was to live it in the every day things like being married.

Flickering candles, a cream colored lace dress, delicious eats, soft music, all those things made the wedding beautiful, but the real beauty of the wedding was the love of Christ that shown in the couple .

And so it was a beautiful wedding, not just because of how it looked, but also because of who was glorified that night.

The Choice

Today I got up and fed people cold cereal and other various assortment of unhealthy breakfast foods. Later I fried bacon like a short order cook from the local diner and once again filled hungry tummies for the second time of the day.

Really I was doing what I loved. Cooking and interacting with people, but in one awful moment I found myself hating it. I was tired. Physically tired and emotionally tired of just trying to be beyond perfect.

Nights of sleep had been robbed of me by my own admonition, because I had to lay awake going over the game plan in my mind of how I was going to accomplish my over the top expectations.

Stolen from me was God's perfect peace, because without realizing it I began working for man instead of God.

Each day I have a choice. Please others or God. Ultimately in fulfilling responsibilities given to me, washing dishes, babying sitting children, feeding hungry people, hanging out with some awesome girls; I can either serve God or those around me.

When I work for those around me I do my job and try to be something I'm not. Sometimes I cut corners and hope no one will notice.

I work for God and in His strength I do all I'm asked to do with excitement, because its the responsibilities God has placed before me at this time. Even if no one notices I do it all, because I know God is noticing.

Either I leave my day discouraged, because I failed miserably at my own expectations or I leave my day in awe of God's faithfulness to use a character like myself for His glory.

No matter the task given to us there is a choice given to us of whom we are going to serve and glorify in our day. Is it not so much simpler to work for one God rather then the hoards of people we think we should please perfectly?

Choose either to use yourself all by yourself and or let God use you all by Himself. Is there really a choice?

"If you and I are to be used in our sphere as D. L. Moody was used in his, we must put all that we have and all that we are in the hands of God, for Him to use as He will. " 

R.A. Torrey

Disclaimer: Thoughts inspired by a sermon delivered by my brother several years ago. It stuck in my brain and never left, thanks big bro :)

The Mark of Canada

I went on a journey that took me over miles of the northern part of our great country. Then after a few fierce questions from a stern faced border guard I was across the bolder in another land. Perhaps it didn't look any different at first then my homeland, but the culture would leave a bigger imprint on my life then I ever could have imagined. Not a day goes by where Canada doesn't drift across my brain. Sweeping my mind back to a time that was quite all bliss, but very extraordinary just the same. I think it was the team too that left a mark upon my life never to be removed. Let me tell you why.

Every other sentence has to have the word "eh" in it and when I'm not saying "eh" I'm thinking it. I must confess that I desperately try to talk in a Northern accent, but it just won't come out. Instead I find myself talking as if I wondered over from England and lost my way back home. Ahem.

I chop up salad and remember chopping up salad so many times for our meals while in Canada. We were a bit over ambitious in the vegetable shopping and so the veggies were plentiful at each meal. Interestingly enough the chocolate chip cookies ran out before the veggies did.

Whenever I crave a spot of tea I remember late night tea parties and how we managed to solve the worlds problems while sipping tea out of disgraceful paper cups. Well maybe we just solved a few of the world's problems or maybe more our own personal pet peeves about certain situations. Cough. Cough.

Carrots. You simply would not believe how amusing carrots can be. How they ever made you dissolve into gales of laughter? Have you only stopped laughing because your sides hurt? Really I'm being honest carrots are simply the most hilarious things ever. Yes, I did come back in my right mind from Canada.

Libraries are great place for parties you know and the more rumbustious and annoying you are the better.  Whoever said libraries were only for quietness, so you could whisper sweet nothings was quite wrong.

There are so many more moments of amusement we enjoyed on our trip, but I'm afraid if I shared them all on here, I really would appear to have lost my mind in its entirety. I think I would bore you to tears if I went on a long exposition about re fried beans and Black Widows.  Let's just say we had a good time, a very good time.