Locks of Love. Surgery. Speaking.

I ended up donating 13 and a half inches to locks of love. This is not the best picture but the only one I had.
Next, my surgery.

I thought pics might be fun to see!! :)

I had surgery yesterday because the doctors thought I might have endometriosis. I did not have it so thank EVERYONE for praying because if I would have had that it would be hard for me to have kids when I wanted them. If you want to know exactly what they did you can give me a call because I would rather not tell the whole entire world. :) The surgery went well and I'm moving around and I feel okay... not the best but it could be A LOT worse. Thank you again for your prayers. I love every single one of you.

Also! If you live close and would like to come hear me speak I am going to be speaking on June 16th at 7:00 at my church. It would give you an excuse to see me and you could probably stay a couple of days with me! Just let me know!

Summer Plans.

I KNOW y'all get tired of hearing from me but I have exciting news!

Many of you know that I wanted to go to Honduras this summer with ETBU and that fell through because not enough people were going and yadda yadda. Allan also said something about going to Haiti but I never heard back (I think that as well fell through). I wanted to get a job this summer but my parents just wanted me to 'relax'. Someone from Young Life (a nation wide FCA-ish organization) came to my aunts house and my aunt asked if they were low on employees at any of their camps. This man said yes in Florida and I needed to be there by June 4th. Since I am taking a scuba diving class we have our final, which is 4 dives in Lake Travis, the weekend after that. So that as well got ruled out. I want to serve God, so I wanted to go somewhere to do so. But God has been telling me that I need to serve at home in Mimosa (our church) because so many people are broken there. And this has been on my heart since Xtreme. I finally decided to stop searching for places to serve and I emailed Josh...

So here is the story...
I emailed Josh (our youth pastor) maybe a week ago telling him that I felt like God wanted me serving in the church maybe leading a Sunday school or something like that. But little did I know the day (or two days) before he had told the guy interns that they probably would not have a girl inter this summer (Laura, the usual girl intern just graduated so she isn't coming back). So put two and two together... Last night at church Josh asked me if I would like to be the intern. Honestly this thought crossed my mind but I don't know. I guess I just pushed it aside because Laura was such a WONDERFUL intern. I've been praying about it and I hope you guys have been too. This is where God wants me. Leading the youth. (uh.. let me just remind you I'm 5'1 and a half, less that 100 pounds, and only 18!!) YEAH!

I just want to say how great God is. The things I thought I wanted He shut the doors on, and I am so glad He did because I have a passion in my heart to talk about God and tell others what He is and has done in my life!

PS. I scheduled my haircut for Locks of Love on MONDAY!! :)

Hungry.

Today during my Beth Moore devotional she asked "How do you know when you are hungry? When you are thirsty?" and then "What do you usually do when you are hungry or thirsty?" My response duh... go get something. The things is when we hunger or thirst for God do we simply go get something or is it more of eh... I'll worry about it later or the best I'm too busy. Too busy for God? The one who knitted you together in your mothers womb along with the other 6,818,911,658 (actual number from U.S. Census Bureau) people on this world. The creator of love who is going to fill the empty spots in your heart and soul if I just let Him in? (I know I am VERY guilty too so it hits home for me).

Beth Moore asked another question and it is "does your soul ever manifest physical symptoms?" My answer: HELLO YESS!! Anyone who knows when I do not have my time with God I am a grouch! Then that made me think God is so real. He is making my physical body reflect on when I did not come to Him and I was hungry for Him.

Beth Moore also said "the more we've been satisfied by God's love, His Word, and His Presence, the more we will yearn for it." I had to think about this for a minute because when I have my quiet time and go on about my day, no matter how good the quiet time was, I put God away and I seldom have the feeling to run back to my room and grab my Bible and see what else He has to say. I HATE to admit that but it is so true, and something I am working hard to change (Insert PRAYER here PLEASE). She also says "on the other hand, we can spend so much time away from the LORD that we no longer feel hungry or thirsty." For so long I did not hunger for God. I only did when I wanted something and eventually, through my time or hardship, I started to see how great God was and how much He loved me and when I realized that I realized I was hungry and thirsty for Him. I do agree that when we do not spend time with the Lord we do not realize we are hungry. Just like I did not realize I was hungry when I did not spend time with Him. I realize I am in a bad mood, but I did not realize it was because I missed 'breakfast' with the one who created the world and created me.

Another thing that bothered me was the other night at Bible study we talked about Jeremiah 29:11 ("For I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and hope"). Yes, God wants to give us a great future and He has that set out for us, but so many times we just stop there. We stop when we hear God has great things planned. Verse 13 is the best part and the most important part. It says "If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me." We have to be looking and searching for God and following His path in order for us to fulfill His plans for us.

Sorry this is kind of scatter brained, I had a lot to say and not a lot of time to say it (Pearson has a baseball game), but I hope you got my point and where I have been at. I love you guys and MISS yall like CRAZY!!

This morning during my quiet time I was reading Breaking Free by Beth Moore. In her bible study she gave a check list (much like the one below) to determine if someones life would be glorifying to God. This really hit home with me and made me think that I have a lot of growing to do before I can say I live a "God-glorifying" life. I hope you can apply this to your life because it was a HUGE wake up call for me!! I know I am going to print out the questions and verses to remind me daily what it means to glorify God with my life and I encourage you to do the same! :)

When I do things do I think will God be glorified?
"Whether you eat or drink, do it for the glory of God" 1 Corinthians 10:31

Do I desire Gods glory over my own?
"I have no wish to glorify myself; God is going to Glorify me" John 8:50

When I serve others do I sincerely hope they will see God in Me?
"God has given each of us a gift from His great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve another. Did God give you the gift for speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies you. Then you will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to Him forever and ever." 1 Peter 4:10-11

Do I turn to God when I go through hardships and try to cooperate with Him so He can use the hardships for my good and for His glory?
"Do not be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange is happening to you. Instead, be very glad for these trials make you partners with Christ in His suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing His glory when it is revealed to the world." 1 Peter 4:12-13

Do I believe I can accomplish or withstand things with the power of God?
"We now have this light shining in out hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves." 2 Corinthians 2:7

Jars.

Today we gave out the jars and the blogs to everyone!! I'm so excited to get this started!! :)

Departure...

So finals are coming up and that means that everyone will be splitting up for the summer and I WANT TO KEEP IN TOUCH WITH EVERYONE!! I am going to miss everyone so much. So.. what did I do? Me and Sarah Renfro decided to create blogs for everyone to read. My goal is to post at least once a week. I want to stay in touch with everyone I have grown close to! I also want to know what God is doing in everyones life!! :)