My family life has been a picture of the hand of God and I thank Him every day for this blessing. My relationship with my father has made me confident, secure and has helped me establish my identity as a child knowing I was dearly loved. I look to him as an example of the kind of man I want to marry. My mother and I are very close and I talk to her about anything. I respect her very much and she amazes me with the way she loves and tirelessly gives. I have 4 brothers whom I love dearly and are very fun to live with.
My childhood and teenage years speak of God's grace. I went to public school from kindergarten to 6th grade. Then my parents followed the Lord's leading and decided to home-school me from 7th grade through high school. This time in my life was so precious. God used it to grow me and keep me in the secret place, and show me who He is. I grew more in these 6 years than I had ever before. I was free to discover who He has made me to be as all my passions came alive and I sought His face.
At 16 I traveled to North Carolina with my youth group to attend a gathering called The Ramp. One night during this gathering is a night I will never forget. It was the night of my awakening. Jesus called my name and invited me on the adventure of the lifetime, and marked me with His purity. I remember being surrounded by people in worship and I closed my eyes. I don't remember how long I had them closed, but when I opened them, all the people that were around me had moved around and left me in sort of my own space. God said "I cleared a space for you to dance with me." After He said that, I began to dance and finally ended up on the floor overwhelmed. The session had long ended but I was glued to the floor drowning in His love. I responded to His invitation to come away and after this experience I have never been the same. I have pledged my entire life to serve Him faithfully as my Master and Husband.
After Jesus encountered me His word came alive to me and all I wanted to do was pray in my room or in small groups with people and read the Bible. I gained so much knowledge and wisdom. I joined a dance team and began singing and writing songs.
It has been 5 years and I love Jesus more than anything, He is my life, strength, and my very breath. I am entirely His as long as I live. I know I'm called to be a pilgrim. He told me I don't need college for what I'm called to do. I'm embracing a life of adventure and unknown to venture wherever His heart leads me. No blueprints, no maps, no long-term plans. It's daunting but I wouldn't have it any other way. As long as my heart stays tender and alive I will live anywhere and do anything.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Um yeah so I love when God does this!
God totally rocked my heart last night!! I've come to expect that, though. It's so fun!
Let's just say,
that MY DADDY LOVES ME SO MUCH. AND HE HAS AN AMAZING. MAN. FOR ME.
OH YEAHH!! =D
So I was talkin' to my Dad last night and He shifted the conversation onto somethin I really like to talk about. :) And told me all about my future husband. About what kind of man he is, what he's like, and how amazing he is. And even a little of what he is doing right now and what his heart looks like. Are you kidding me?! Thank you Jesus, that was so wonderful! He knew what I needed.
Let's just say,
that MY DADDY LOVES ME SO MUCH. AND HE HAS AN AMAZING. MAN. FOR ME.
OH YEAHH!! =D
So I was talkin' to my Dad last night and He shifted the conversation onto somethin I really like to talk about. :) And told me all about my future husband. About what kind of man he is, what he's like, and how amazing he is. And even a little of what he is doing right now and what his heart looks like. Are you kidding me?! Thank you Jesus, that was so wonderful! He knew what I needed.
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D
WHAT?! Craziness!
We're gonna be friends soon......oh my. ;)
WHAT?! Craziness!
We're gonna be friends soon......oh my. ;)
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
The Pilgrimage
"Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage." Psalm 84:5
"And though with feet unsure, I still keep pressing on, for I am guided by the Faithful One."
"Pioneer, pioneer,
"And though with feet unsure, I still keep pressing on, for I am guided by the Faithful One."
"Pioneer, pioneer,
Keep pressing onward
Beyond your fears.
Only Your Father
Only Your Father
Goes before you
To your own frontier.
You're a pioneer.
Uncharted wilderness stretches before you
And you thrive on going where no one has gone.
Still it gets lonely when darkness rears
So sing by the fire until the dawn.
You travel light and you travel alone
And when you arrive nobody knows
But your father in heaven is glad you can go
Cause those who come after you will need the road
What you have done others will do
Bigger and better and faster than you
But you can't look back, you gotta keep pressing through
There's a wilderness pathway and its calling you."
I have said yes to the journey.
There's no place I would rather be.
You're a pioneer.
Uncharted wilderness stretches before you
And you thrive on going where no one has gone.
Still it gets lonely when darkness rears
So sing by the fire until the dawn.
You travel light and you travel alone
And when you arrive nobody knows
But your father in heaven is glad you can go
Cause those who come after you will need the road
What you have done others will do
Bigger and better and faster than you
But you can't look back, you gotta keep pressing through
There's a wilderness pathway and its calling you."
I have said yes to the journey.
There's no place I would rather be.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Patience
{It's my joy to love, it's my joy to obey! You can have all my heart, you can have all my praise. I will give you my life, I will run hard this race, reaching for the prize, I am yours and you are mine....I WILL RUN IN THE PATH OF YOUR COMMANDS, YOU WILL SURELY ENLARGE MY HEART, I WILL MAKE YOUR LAW DAILY MY DELIGHT. LET ME NOT WANDER FROM YOUR WAYS, LET IT BE MY DELIGHT TO OBEY, THERE IS NO GREATER JOY THAN KNOWING YOUR NAME.}
I wept for an hour and a half, in the back of the prayer room facing the wall on my knees to this song last week. All I could do was offer Him my heart. All I was able to do was lavish upon Him all that I am. How I wished there was more that I could pour on Him.
And now here I am, and I thought it would be hard, and I thought it would be a daily cross, and it IS a daily cross, but.....this is so strange......it is light, easy, and full of joy. A paradox, a mystery.
If you resolve to obey Him with determination, and with all your heart, He will pour strength all over you.
It's not even hard to obey Him. It's a joy. Really, I smile when I think about obeying Him and doing what He says. Because it fills me with hope and expectancy. =D
I AM CONTENT.
"I have learned the secret of being content whatever the circumstances....."
Phil 4:12
Right now my heart is perfectly content to be molded in the Potter's gentle, calloused hands and stay in the hidden place of intimacy, realeasing my full potential to His eyes only, being unseen by the world and only seen by Him. This is all okay with me. I love Him.
I will wait, for He who promised is faithful.
I will wait and keep my spirit sweet. He is so good.
Patience.....is a whole lot easier than we think. And it's a whole lot less complicated than we make it.
Just be still, just wait.
It's not as hard as we always thought. In fact, there's something about waiting that is so sweet, light and pleasant that we won't find unless we wait. And it doesn't come AFTER the waiting is over, it is found IN the season of waiting itself! There is so much joy to be found in patiently hoping and trusting.
There is the joy and the reward of finally getting to the other side and receiving the thing we have been waiting for, but there is a whole other joy and reward that we can have WHILE we wait. I have found that joy, and it's so sweet to my soul.
I never thought I would get here.
I am happy waiting. < Woah. DID I REALLY JUST SAY THAT?!
Who would have thought?
I NEVER thought I would be able to honestly say that I am joyful in waiting. NEVER.
But my Lord has strengthened my heart like never before. I can do this.
I wept for an hour and a half, in the back of the prayer room facing the wall on my knees to this song last week. All I could do was offer Him my heart. All I was able to do was lavish upon Him all that I am. How I wished there was more that I could pour on Him.
And now here I am, and I thought it would be hard, and I thought it would be a daily cross, and it IS a daily cross, but.....this is so strange......it is light, easy, and full of joy. A paradox, a mystery.
If you resolve to obey Him with determination, and with all your heart, He will pour strength all over you.
It's not even hard to obey Him. It's a joy. Really, I smile when I think about obeying Him and doing what He says. Because it fills me with hope and expectancy. =D
I AM CONTENT.
"I have learned the secret of being content whatever the circumstances....."
Phil 4:12
Right now my heart is perfectly content to be molded in the Potter's gentle, calloused hands and stay in the hidden place of intimacy, realeasing my full potential to His eyes only, being unseen by the world and only seen by Him. This is all okay with me. I love Him.
I will wait, for He who promised is faithful.
I will wait and keep my spirit sweet. He is so good.
Patience.....is a whole lot easier than we think. And it's a whole lot less complicated than we make it.
Just be still, just wait.
It's not as hard as we always thought. In fact, there's something about waiting that is so sweet, light and pleasant that we won't find unless we wait. And it doesn't come AFTER the waiting is over, it is found IN the season of waiting itself! There is so much joy to be found in patiently hoping and trusting.
There is the joy and the reward of finally getting to the other side and receiving the thing we have been waiting for, but there is a whole other joy and reward that we can have WHILE we wait. I have found that joy, and it's so sweet to my soul.
I never thought I would get here.
I am happy waiting. < Woah. DID I REALLY JUST SAY THAT?!
Who would have thought?
I NEVER thought I would be able to honestly say that I am joyful in waiting. NEVER.
But my Lord has strengthened my heart like never before. I can do this.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Don't Rush The Winter
Don't rush the winter
For soon it will be spring.
In silence wait upon Him;
In waiting, learn to lean.
~This is a simple word the Lord gave me over the past week while I was in Missouri. The night I arrived it started to snow and continued all through the night and all day long the next day. When I think about how much of a "look-ahead" type of person I am, the Lord always reminds me that He is not. He is right here and right now, and He is in absolutely no rush. And when I slow down enough to stop and look where He is, I usually find that I have rushed far ahead and He is still waiting for me to turn around and come back to the place where I was so quick to leave.
"Stay here with me a little while, just wait and look around. I love this, and I want you to see all the beauty that I see. I don't want you to miss any of it." He whispers to me.
"Don't worry about things that might pass you by while you stay with Me where I am. If you stay with me and keep the pace I keep, I will show you the very best things to be found."
For soon it will be spring.
In silence wait upon Him;
In waiting, learn to lean.
~This is a simple word the Lord gave me over the past week while I was in Missouri. The night I arrived it started to snow and continued all through the night and all day long the next day. When I think about how much of a "look-ahead" type of person I am, the Lord always reminds me that He is not. He is right here and right now, and He is in absolutely no rush. And when I slow down enough to stop and look where He is, I usually find that I have rushed far ahead and He is still waiting for me to turn around and come back to the place where I was so quick to leave.
"Stay here with me a little while, just wait and look around. I love this, and I want you to see all the beauty that I see. I don't want you to miss any of it." He whispers to me.
"Don't worry about things that might pass you by while you stay with Me where I am. If you stay with me and keep the pace I keep, I will show you the very best things to be found."
Thursday, January 6, 2011
It's Not Fair
It's not fair that the following video is REALITY and we have never felt such things, never been scathed by things like this, never been touched by this kind of suffering.
It's not fair that at the exact same time as these things are happening, Americans are looking at "10 Best Cars of 2011", buying pointless-waste-of-time apps for our iPhone, and reading about "Camille Grammer not leaving 'Real Housewives' just yet" ......that's not fair.
It's not fair. But it's reality. I thank Him, for He has blessed us abundantly beyond what we deserve, but I also pray I will not live as an ostrich with my head in the sand, that I will not be blind to reality. That I will forever cling to Him as my only hope, and know that we are not immune to suffering; to be human is to suffer. To live on this planet is to suffer.
If I know nothing of suffering, how will I take it when suffering comes knocking at my own door?
So I share in the sufferings of these Haitians.
It's not fair that at the exact same time as these things are happening, Americans are looking at "10 Best Cars of 2011", buying pointless-waste-of-time apps for our iPhone, and reading about "Camille Grammer not leaving 'Real Housewives' just yet" ......that's not fair.
It's not fair. But it's reality. I thank Him, for He has blessed us abundantly beyond what we deserve, but I also pray I will not live as an ostrich with my head in the sand, that I will not be blind to reality. That I will forever cling to Him as my only hope, and know that we are not immune to suffering; to be human is to suffer. To live on this planet is to suffer.
If I know nothing of suffering, how will I take it when suffering comes knocking at my own door?
So I share in the sufferings of these Haitians.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Saturday, January 1, 2011
I'm Counting Down!!
1 more day until it is....Sunday! :)
2 days until ....I don't know.
3 days until I go to the dentist :(
4 days until my parent's 25TH ANNIVERSARY! Wow, how beautiful <3
5 days until my best most amazing friend and sister turns 23!! AWESOME!
6 days until I turn 21!!!!! YEAHHHHOOO :)
7 days until my last work day before I leave and......
8 days until I get on an airplane and fly (one of my favorite things IN THE WORLD to do!) up to Kansas City Missouri to see my wonderful friends and spend precious undivided hours before my Jesus in the Prayer room of International House of Prayer for a whole seven days! SO EXCITED TO FINALLY GO BACK! It's only been 4 months but it feels like FOREVERRR!
AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2011 is gonna be INSANE! :) Praise Jesus! :)
'Faaaithful You're always faaithful, truuue you're always truuue....you'll never leeeavve me, You're always with me, You're gooooood....you're gooooood......."
2 days until ....I don't know.
3 days until I go to the dentist :(
4 days until my parent's 25TH ANNIVERSARY! Wow, how beautiful <3
5 days until my best most amazing friend and sister turns 23!! AWESOME!
6 days until I turn 21!!!!! YEAHHHHOOO :)
7 days until my last work day before I leave and......
8 days until I get on an airplane and fly (one of my favorite things IN THE WORLD to do!) up to Kansas City Missouri to see my wonderful friends and spend precious undivided hours before my Jesus in the Prayer room of International House of Prayer for a whole seven days! SO EXCITED TO FINALLY GO BACK! It's only been 4 months but it feels like FOREVERRR!
AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2011 is gonna be INSANE! :) Praise Jesus! :)
'Faaaithful You're always faaithful, truuue you're always truuue....you'll never leeeavve me, You're always with me, You're gooooood....you're gooooood......."
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