i Accept

*deep sigh*

I wasn't born yesterday, but for some reason, it took me a while to learn this particular lesson.

God has been teaching me about acceptance. It hasn't been about accepting other people, until a few days ago. In fact, it mostly has to do with accepting myself. For my whole life, I wasn't able to accept my failings, my imperfections, or anything of that sort. I had high expectations for myself. Therefore, I have high expectations for everyone else.

After God slapped me in the face with reality, I understood that he accepts me just the way I am, so I need to accept myself in that same way. When I'm willing to accept myself, I'm able to accept other people WAYYYYYYYYYYYY more easily. 

Part of loving yourself is being able to accept every part of who you are. And if you see something that you don't like, then change it.

Only you and God can do that. 

No one else can. 

It is an ABSOLUTE

      I like absolutes. I like knowing that something can be trusted for what it is worth. I don't like confusing situations. I don't like questioning myself, or others. I just like absolutes. But, there is so much in life that is not an absolute. There is so much more to life than the absolute. So much of life, with Jesus, is simply about the journey. It's about the stories.  

It's about the experiences that we have 

that draw us closer to Jesus. 

       The absolute may be nice, but it's the questioning that helps us know that God is with us. And we have nothing to fear.
       Most the time, I just want an absolute statement. I want to know exactly the right thing to do, at exactly the right time, and the exact way how to do it. Unfortunately, that's not how life works. There are so many ups and downs, so many mountains and valleys. I will never know fully why we live life on earth (until heaven), but I know that God has a reason. 

I know that God, in His infinite wisdom, decided that we were going to live on earth, so that in these moments of questioning, we could turn to Him. 

The question is...

do you trust Him?

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him

and he will make your paths straight. 

Proverbs 3:5-6

Journey With Me

I've been alive for 23 years now. I don't remember what it was like to be a tiny human until the age of 5ish. One of my very first memories is laying in bed and across the room, my sister was laying on her bed. We whispered back and forth, but were soon told to go to sleep by my mother. I remember wondering what life would be like when I was older, as I drifted off to slumber-land.


In September, I start the program for my Lay Counseling Certificate. I have been preparing for it by reading the book assigned and reflecting on the content. The book is called, To Be Told, and it is written by Dan Allender. So much of this book is about {my story}. It's about coming to grips with the God-breathed story I have been living. But it also delves deep into my hurts, pains, anguish, and tragedy. I'm not one for the dramatics. I am very in-touch with my emotions. This allows me to feel deeply, in pretty much any situation, whether it is about me or someone else.

As I have been reading this book, those same deep emotions have been tapped into, exposed and left in the open. Which is incredibly painful. Along with all of these emotions, it seems that Satan is trying to come at me with every possible distraction. It has taken everything in me not to just scream my head off! I know that God is good. I know that this path is unknown, but it will be so worth it in the end.

{I want to invite you on this journey with me.} 

God is moving in my heart, my mind,

and all throughout my life. 

It is overwhelming.

It is unfamiliar. 

It is exhilarating. 

It is God-breathed!

One Short Thought

What gets me is the way people are moved by tragedy. It's the details, the story, and the emotions of it all. There is no simple way to deal with tragedy. If you deal with it right away, then you begin moving forward. If you stuff it away, it could stunt your emotional growth. I'm moved by tragedy. It makez me think, ponder, and hope that it is not the end. But more than all of that, it draws me closer to my Savior. He is the only hope. He is the only one with the strength to help pull us through. Lean on Him, for everything.

The Burn in My Soul

Have you ever felt that you needed to do something so deep in your soul that you know nothing can ever stop you?

For some reason, that is happening to me again. This is not the first time.

I'll let you in on a little secret, I was the little kid who played sports so passionately that the other kids would get angry with me. When I was in 6th grade, I played on an all-girls basketball team. The girls would all complain that I would play too aggressively. I was just passionate the game. I wanted to win. I HAD to win. You might think I'm too competitive, but I'm not. I had a passion for the sport.

People still tell me that I'm passionate about things. To this day, when I go on a rant and start talking about Jesus, I get so worked up that I laugh and move around like a crazy person.

God has been showing me so much about myself. The way I'm wired. The things that make me tick, the things that I cry about and the things that will move me to take action.

These past few months, God has been reigniting the passion that I have had since I was a young lady in high school. It was something that I never thought would be a defining role in my life. And yet, here it is.

I must work with young women. 

I need to show them they are valuable. 

I need them to know they are loved,

they are cared for,

they are understood. 

I don't claim to know everything about life. I really don't know much about it, but I do know that each young woman is unique, loved and valued beyond words. My mission is to show that to every young woman I come in contact with. That is what I shall do. 

But it does not stop there. It continues with writing books, speaking and telling the world that they can't keep us down! The insecurity, pain, brokenness and trauma that every young woman has experienced does not need to be kept in the dark. It needs to be dealt with! It needs to be talked about! God wants those things to be out in the open so that he can walk with us through those things. 

PHEW! I had to get that out. There is more and more that God is doing. He has been working in this since I got back from Thailand. I know that going to school will only increase my passion in this, because I will be discovering my story and working through it. I want the same for every young lady I meet.

Listen To The Story

What is it about a person's story that can capture our attention so wholly? 

Why do we listen intently to great storyteller's? 

What is it that draws us to hear powerful stories from people just like ourselves? 

If you read, The Story That Has Captured My Heart, then you've heard me talk about how our story is not our own when we live for Christ.

God has truly been showing me how to listen, truly listen, to someone's story. He's showing me what it looks like to see past all of the exterior walls that people build, and see someone's heart, even when they don't want you to. It is intriguing for me to watch an audience engage with a speaker as they tell a story. Just the other day, I was sitting in a meeting and as one of my pastor's told a story it gave me goosebumps. When we are watching movies, which are stories, we are wrapped up in them. Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we are moved to tears, sometimes we are angry, and sometimes we cringe. But we are entranced by the story.

What God has me pondering is why we only listen to some stories. Every story is unique and every experience has a story. My encouragement for you, and for myself, is to listen to people's stories. You can learn so much about a person by allowing yourself to listen, truly listen. That story may show you something you didn't realize about that person. If you let it, it could move you to tears.

God gave us the ability to relate to others for a reason. Do it. You may see God in a different way through someone else and their story.

Justice For All?

I think is easier for me to just think when there's a lot on my mind. I'm not exactly sure why. But for one reason or another, I just can't seem to write when there's a lot on my mind. And that's how this these past couple months have been. At every turn, it seems like there's something new. Some problem arises, or some issue presents itself. Whether it be physical, emotional, mental or spiritual. At almost every turn, there is something new. 

I'm not sure why. I don't know the reasons. But I do know that God is with me. 

In women's Bible study, we have been learning about justice. In case you don't know this, I graduated with my degree in Criminal Justice and Criminology this past December. I have been learning about justice for some time now, and it still fascinates me. This study has proven over and over again, how much I enjoy learning about justice. Justice is my passion. Learning about it this semester has been so different then the classes that I took in college.

I know why it's different, it is because we are learning about it from a Biblical perspective. We have been pouring over scripture these past few weeks to understand what God intends justice to be. Actually, we've even come up with some definitions!

Justice is God's design for restoring us into right relationship with Him and others. 

When God administers justice it is founded in love and is fair, impartial, perfect, restorative, generous, and on time. 

If I am obedient to God's command to do justice, it should include humility, impartiality, generous care of those in need and righting the things that are wrong as we reflect the heart and character of God.

My favorite passage has been Micah 6:1-8.

6 Listen to what the Lord says:

“Stand up, plead my case before the mountains;
    let the hills hear what you have to say.

² “Hear, you mountains, the Lord’s accusation;
    listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth.
For the Lord has a case against his people;
    he is lodging a charge against Israel.

³ “My people, what have I done to you?
    How have I burdened you? Answer me.
⁴ I brought you up out of Egypt
    and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you,
    also Aaron and Miriam.
⁵ My people, remember
    what Balak king of Moab plotted
    and what Balaam son of Beor answered.
Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal,
    that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”

⁶ With what shall I come before the Lord
    and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
    with calves a year old?
⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
    with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
⁸ He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly^[a] with your God.


This passage has been such an encouragement to my heart. It is a reminder of the things that God has done for us. He is proving his love, justness, and ways he moved throughout this chapter. Then after he is done saying these things, we are face with the question, "And what does the Lord require of you?" I don't know about you, but I have been faced with that question over and over in my lifetime. I want to be sure that I am doing exactly what the Lord wants me to do. But it is spelled out so succinctly in verse 8. This passage has transformed this question for me. I love the reminders that God has moved so tremendously and that he tells us exactly what is required of us! Have faith, friends! Know that God is with you and he will bring justice, but it is his own time.