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Fresh Focus

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New Year, New you. Clean page in a new chapter. First day of the rest of your life.  There are so many cliches that surround the new year. The concept being that we get to step away from our past and start new, change things. What I have never understood is how a change of calendar year suddenly seems to make a big difference in how we do things. The truth is any day you decide things change from here on out, it can. I have spent the last 9 months working on changing my perspectives on life and trusting in God. I felt a leading to do it so I did. No need for a major event or day to wait and make it happen. On the flip side, the new year does allow us a vital opportunity to look back and evaluate our life, choices, priorities, and find room for growth and change. So while we take this opportunity now, remember you can do it again in 4 months too. More or less since I was old enough to make resolutions I have hated the idea. Grand life changes that we declare we will make but we rar...
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Uniquely equipped

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I am young. Relatively so, but for the calling I feel God has on my life, I am young. Since I am young I struggle to be confident in my leadership abilities. There are always folks who have more experience, more insight, more whatever than I do. That being said I still have one thing on my side. I have confidence that God is calling me to do this, right here, right now. I got to thinking today about David. We all know that David was young and just a shepherd when he went and fought Goliath. I got to thinking about it a little differently today though. In 1 samuel 17 it talks about how saul was down in the heat of battle and Goliath had come out. It mentions very specifically that David's 3 oldest brothers were there and David went back and forth. This lasted 40 days. So for more than a month David is going to and from a battle field seeing his brothers, taking food, doing whatever he needs to but has yet to see Goliath come out and make his defiant call. Not that it isn't hap...
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Thankful and blessed

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November has come and gone.  It's often a month of thanksgiving. Many of my family and friends have gone to doing a daily thing they are thankful for. I admire this, it's good to count our blessings. It helps remind us just how blessed we truly are, even in the tough stuff. A few years ago I tried it, but I felt like it wasn't honest. The truth is it is easy to recognize the big blessings but I have a lot harder time seeing all the little blessings in my life. Earlier in the month our pastor challenged us to count our blessings, make a list of what we are thankful for, or in some other way take some time to reflect on all the things we have to be thankful for. For several weeks now I have been trying to put my thoughts together and I am honestly still struggling. The truth is I have a really hard time "naming" my blessings. There are so many things in my life that I am thankful for it can be hard to make a list. so despite my struggle I am going to try, here we ...
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Fearless

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Fear.  It's everywhere around us, present in so many ways. Am I afraid of the dark? Do I fear someone's reaction? Do I fear spiritual warfare?  In so many ways I think fear has become like love in our culture. The true depth of it is lost because of the various ways we see it all the time.  I have been thinking on fear a lot lately. I have come to a time in my life where fear does not rule my daily life. That's really crazy for me to say but it's true. I have such a confidence in God and his work I am not afraid of near as many things on a daily basis. Now don't get me wrong I still have fears. Recently I have had a family member dealing with some pretty scary things that leave a lot of unknowns, yes there is a level of fear and worry that will naturally come with that. But I can honestly say fear is not in the drivers seat of my life right now. While I am confident in God and hope that I have conquered this particular stronghold in my life, I also know better th...
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12 Years

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12 years. 12 years ago yesterday I was having a rough day. I was fighting to be patient, to trust God. I was looking for his will and was ready for some clear answers. 12 years ago my infamous friend was singing "time is on my side" and "hooked on a feeling" to me every chance he got. 12 years ago I was that typical college girl. I had a good group of close friends, we were on the downhill slide of college and starting to dream about the future. 12 years ago I promised God not to run ahead of His timing. 12 Years ago I went to the BSU to watch a movie with friends knowing one particular person would be there. 12 years ago I had no idea that movie would be a pivotal event in my story. 12 years ago I sat talking, praying for one of the 2 guys left to leave so I could talk to the other. 12 years ago I stood waiting for my friend to come out of the bathroom so I could talk to him one last time before I went out the door and home. 12 years ago we had the most elementary ...
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All the world is waiting for you...

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Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. As I am coming to know myself deeper and grow in my faith and in who God has made me to be I am realizing just how deeply I love this passage. While in some ways it has become cliche it's with good reason. Of all the things God is and His word calls us to, by far the biggest is love. Jesus even said "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ' This is the first and greatest commandment.   And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Everything hinges on love. I honestly think it's really easy to lose sight of this, and getting easier it would seem.  For a while now I have been coming back to one compl...
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Love is...

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For several weeks now I have been thinking a lot about my actions, words and thoughts. I have been asking myself one very big question "Do I show God's love in my interactions with others?". That's kind of a loaded question. What does it mean to show love? what is love? I mean we Americans love our spouse, pets, even tacos. Yet I hope I show my husband a different level of love than I do tacos. I really started to think about it in the context of those I don't agree with. Those that have said or done something that I see as not right. What is my reaction then? Am I quick to ignore it, tell someone else, take it to them in a harsh way? Honestly I tend towards all of those depending on the situation but not a one of those is truly loving.  This got me to thinking on 1 Corinthians 13. This is by far one of the most used wedding scriptures, but what about how it applies to those in our lives we don't really have any desire to love? What does it reveal to me abou...
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