Something Beautiful

I have been asking God lately to enlarge my faith. I want to live expecting greater things from God. I don't want to limit what God can accomplish in and through my life by my little faith, so I've been asking for more faith.  Tonight as I was reading and meditating on Ruth, I thought about the book as a whole instead of just thinking about the chapter I was reading. As I did this I saw a pattern jump out at me that is fairly consistent of every story of faith that I have read in the Bible.  The first step is a decision. In Ruth Chapter 1 she makes a decision to act in faith, to accompany her mother-in-law back to Bethlehem, to leave behind all that she had ever known. She makes a decision based upon faith, declaring her trust in the One True Living God.  The second step is waiting. The second chapter of Ruth tells about her waiting period. During this time she does the work that God places before her. She actively trusts in God to provide daily for her and Naomi's ...

I went for a run yesterday, and as I've had a lot on my mind lately, it helped me to clear the thoughts and sort through the muddle. As I was running, I was thinking about Mexico and the beauty that I experienced there, not just the physical beauty of the land, but the beauty of the people, the culture, and the lifestyle.  the kitchen, a gathering place   One of the things that I liked best about Mexico was the hospitality that I experienced there. See I like hospitality. I like to open my home to people. I like to cook dinner and enjoy their company and fellowship. But I have never experienced hospitality like what I experienced there.    one of the lovely missionary ladies   We spent six days in the mountains. During that time we were fed and housed by people who didn't know us. They knew the missionaries who we went with, but they had never met me before. All they knew was that I needed a bed to sleep in and a meal to eat. And they met...

One week ago, I got to experience my second favorite thing about traveling: coming home. I love to travel to see new places and experience new cultures and meet new people, but I love coming home again. I love hearing those words when the customs agent hands me my passport in the airport. There is just something so sweet about coming home. I will give you a longer blog post later about my entire trip to Mexico, but in the mean time, just know that it was incredible. In many ways I feel like I am still trying to process all that we did and saw. Honestly, I think the culture shock was worse coming back into the States than it was going to Mexico, but more on that later. Until I post about my trip, I will just leave you with this lovely picture. I took this near a town called Zongolica where we turned off the main road to go down the mountain road to get to the village we spent the week working in. It was so beautiful!!

Tomorrow. There is just something about the promise of tomorrow that brings hope and joy to my heart. Tomorrow is a fresh start, a new beginning, a reset button. Every day is fresh with no mistakes in it yet. It is a second chance, a chance to begin anew, a chance to do something new, different, even scary. Tomorrow morning I will wake up, take a shower, put the last of my things in a bag and get in my car. I will drive several hours and get on a plane that will take me to a connecting flight that will take me far away. When I get off that plane, I will be immersed in a different culture, a different lifestyle, a different place. People will speak a language that I don't speak fluently. My soul delights that this is my tomorrow. My soul delights that my suitcase is full, not of extra sets of clothing, but of tablecloths and napkins, of pens and pencils, of baby clothes, useful items to give to others. My soul delights in the work that is to come, the way I know I will be physically...

I feel like there aren't too many things in life that inspire us any more. I mean real inspiration. Inspiration that brings life and change. Inspiration that grows hope in our hearts. Things that inspire us to greatness and demand that we bring others along with us. Now before some of you get concerned for me because these are words that have been thrown around a lot in recent history connected with political figures (and this is an election year) please read this all the way through. I believe that God has gifted some people with the ability to inspire people. These people usually come along when times are bad or we desperately need to be lifted above our circumstances. Sometimes life is hard. Sometimes we need someone to say the right thing to us to push us beyond ourselves, to exceed our own expectations and those of the people around us. I know I am inspired by underdog stories, how someone who shouldn't have won something did, how the team with the odds stacked against th...

Happy Leap Day! Once every four years this day comes along, and this year has been an exceptional 29th day of February. Things I've been celebrating today: I have 125 clinical hours. . .I need 100 to graduate. Out of those 125 hours, 71 are hands on hours. And I already have appointments booked into the month of May. God is good!! Every once in a while when you are climbing this mountain, you reach a clearing and can look back to see where you have come from. I feel like today I have had such a great perspective on where I have been coming from. I am so incredibly blessed to be where I am in life. I am blessed to be going into a career where in the words of a friend I get to be barefoot every day and my job is to be relaxed. And as if I needed one more reason to be happy about today, Psych comes back on tonight. . .yipee!! I hope your leap day has been great!! Peace out yo!

I have been incredibly humbled lately as I have been focusing more and more on God's faithfulness. Sometimes God asks us to give up something that we greatly desire, something that is close to our hearts. We don't understand why or what His purpose is in doing this especially when it is a desire that He has placed there, but we aren't required to understand, just to trust Him. God did this to me last year. He asked me to give up traveling to Him. He asked me not to travel. For anyone who knows me, you know that this is a huge deal for me. I love to travel. It is in my blood, and I love going new places and meeting new people and experiencing different cultures. God always speaks to me through traveling to new places, and He widens my heart to embrace more of His creation and His people. I really didn't understand why God asked this of me. I was already planning a trip overseas for this last spring when God turned my plans upside down with this simple request. So what do...

I must confess that no matter how many times I watch Little Women I always cry when Beth dies. I cry because Jo not only loses her sister but she loses her friend. I feel as though I am embracing the sorrow that Jo feels, the loneliness, the desire for all her family to be together once more and to be well and happy. Who wouldn't want that? I think of all my family (both those I am related to and those who are my embraced family), and I can't help but long to be all in the same place, to gather around the same table and fellowship with one another, to embrace all my loved ones. And I would be lying to you if I said that the absence didn't bring tears to my eyes. I think everyone can understand sorrow because we have all experienced it at some point in our lives, some more deeply and closely than others. Sorrow will change you. It will either destroy you or it will transform you. That's what I find so inspiring about Jo's story from Little Women. She faces the sorrow...

There are so many things that I'm learning right now, so many thoughts swirling around in my head, so many new and different thoughts that challenge me and cause me to grow. But before I get into all that may I just say that Frank Sinatra makes my life infinitely better. Okay back to what God has been doing in my life. . . I have been praying lately about embracing all of the elements of my femininity. I took a sexual wholeness class this last fall (one of my favorite Bible studies I have ever been in), and we talked about the five elements attached with femininity. They are mistress of the domain, helper/completer, lady of wisdom, lifegiver, and glory of man. The lady who taught the class asked us what our favorite part of our femininity is. My favorite without a doubt is lifegiver. I love that I give life to those who are around me. I love that I have the ability to give life, that there is a stream of living water which flows from me. Anyway, I have really been wanting to fully ...

I have so many beautiful thoughts floating around in my head. Such joy, love and peace, with appropriate amounts of tears and sadness mixed in. Just when I think my heart cannot handle all of it, it expands just a little bit more, and I grow as a person. I grow more refined, more loving, more kind, more gentle. I grow more into the woman God has created me to be. Every time I say goodbye to a sweet friend, is one goodbye closer to the day when we shall never say goodbye again. For the time being it is difficult, but I choose to see in light of eternity, and in eternity we shall never be parted. My heart is full, and I cannot even begin to express all the thoughts that are filling me up, especially since it is late, and I need to get some sleep. But rest assured, I will be telling you more of my thoughts soon. In the meantime, tell someone you care for that you love them. They need to hear it.