What God has been Teaching Me

Hey y'all,

I'm just so excited about what God is teaching me at John Brown, that I had to share it with you. This morning, when I was spending time with God, I realized that God often uproots us from the familiar in order to teach us something. The familiar for me would be LCS, my family, and the city of Howell, Michigan. The unfamiliar is JBU and Siloam Springs, Arkansas (even though I've been here for about a month and half, the place is still not "familiar" even though I know it much better than I did at first). Before I came here, I was apathetic about my spiritual life; I wasn't really spending time with God. Now, however, God is the only One whom I have (certainly I'm making friends, but it's not the same).

The first few weeks or so that I was here, I didn't spend any time with God. However, through September 16-17, I went on a retreat, and I "got in touch" with God again. I've been spending time with Him regularly each morning, and He is certainly teaching me a lot. One thing that He seems to keep on reiterating is the idea of being wholly surrendered to Him and what He would want for me. For spring break, I am thinking about going on a mission trip to Guatemala. As for the summer, I am thinking about working at one of the camps down here. However, I am not quite sure what I am doing for Christmas break yet. Certainly, it would be totally awesome to come home (and that's what I really desire). However, I'm not quite sure if that's what God wants me to do yet; He hasn't told me what direction to take. It may seem simple enough that I should just come home for Christmas, but it's not. As of now, I strongly believe that God is calling me to be a doctor, targeting mentally and physically disabled people in foreign countries. Certainly, I won't be able to come home and visit my family for Christmas when I'm in that occupation! So, I feel like it would be great preparation for the future for me to stay down here or go "home" with some other family, instead of going to Howell (if that is God's will).

I must admit that for the longest time, I was having doubts about whether I made the right decision to come here. Homesickness greatly contributed to these doubts. However, now I have absolutely no doubt that this is where I'm supposed to be. I am seeing some of the fruit of why God brought me here: to awaken me spiritually and to have a closer relationship with Him and to learn to trust Him more. If those were the only reasons that God brought me here, it would be well worth it! Don't you think? I am thoroughly convinced though that God has much more in store for me here!

Some specific things to pray for:
1. That my desire would be to desire God, and God only.
2. That I would be obedient to whatever God calls me to do.
3. That God would reveal to me what He wants me to do for Christmas break (whether come home or stay here)- and that I would be able to discern what He is telling me to do.

Thanks for all of your love, prayers, and support!

A Challenge to Thank God...

I have a challenge for all of you: think of one situation, whether it be eating breakfast, or talking with a friend, etc., and thank God for all that went into it. Today, I want to thank God for everything that goes into mowing the lawn. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the way that you created me. Thank you for giving me two arms and two legs. Thank you for giving me the strength to get up. Thank you for the strength to mow the lawn. Thank you for the lawn mower itself. How blessed we are to have one! Thank you, Father, for good-working ears that can hear the music my Ipod plays. Thank you, Lord, for the Ipod itself. Thank you for the opportunity to serve my family by mowing the lawn. I am so incredibly blessed, Lord! Thank you for your love, O God! Amen.

Chapel 5/31/11

Today, the last chapel song of the year was "Here I am to Worship." It was during this song at Camp Michawana that the Spirit broke my spirit, and I became really emotional. I ended up praying with a counselor and accepting Christ into my life. Thus, this song is very special to me. Today, when I was singing it, I was just praying in my spirit that whoever wasn't a Christian there would accept Christ, especially a certain someone. I know that God is working in that person's life and drawing the person to Himself. I hope one day the person will be able to proudly call himself/herself a child of God. Then I believe that the person's life will be a whole lot better than what it is right now.

Why I Need to Keep my Room Clean

Well, I need some motivation for keeping my room clean, so I thought that I would come up with a list of reasons for why I should keep it clean and organized. Here they are:

1. It will save me a lot of hassle in the future. I will be able to find my belongings faster.
2. It will be good practice for keeping my room neat in college.
3. I don't want to be embarrassed if people drop by unexpectedly.
4. It will honor my parents.
5. It will help me to be more disciplined, and maybe that discipline will flow over into the other areas of my life.

Makarios

This evening, I had the privilege of helping a lately depressed boy with his math lesson. God had given me a love for this boy. He usually goes to after-school care, and one of the lady who runs it asked me if I could help God's special created being with his math homework. I readily agreed. There was some stuff that was hard for me to explain to him, but we pushed through. He had been assigned 2-48 even, and we got the problems done before 5:00 (when school gets out at 3:20, and I probably didn't start helping him until 3:35 or so)! I had such an awesome feeling afterwards. I felt so privileged to be able to help this young man, even with something as simple as helping him with his homework. I don't know for sure, but I don't know if he knows Christ. Hopefully I planted a seed tonight. And hopefully things will keep looking up, as they are right now (at least, I think they are). Hopefully I showed this boy Christ's love. I felt blessed afterward. I wonder if this is what "makarios" is. If so, then I am makarios. What a wonderful way to spend my time. I don't regret it at all!

There is no randomness; God is sovereign

Tonight, I ran into a woman, whom I just went on a mission trip with, and her son at Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin Robbins. It amazes me to think of all that went into that happening. It certainly did not happen by accident. First of all, Hannah had basketball practice. Hannah decided to check her email at school before we left. Then as we were getting ready to arrive home, I stated, "I need to get gas after I drop you off. Or maybe you can come with me." So Hannah decided to come with me. Perhaps if I had pulled into our driveway to drop her off, I wouldn't have run into my friends. Then, Hannah decided to run in the money. I had been thinking about it, and I gave her an additional $6 for ice cream from Baskin Robbins for the two of us. She would pay for the gas, then get her and me ice cream, and I would just stay outside the whole time. Now I always go to the same gas station because it stops the thing for you. This time it didn't. I went over by $0.42, so I had to go in and pay it. I was done getting gas, so I moved my car up to a parking spot. I didn't have a small bill in my wallet, so I needed to get money from Hannah. As I walked in, I saw this little black boy and his white mom with their backs turned. I thought to myself, "That sort of looks like Josiah. I wonder if that's Mrs. Mavin." I came up behind Hannah and pointed them out to her. Then they turned around, and I knew for sure that it was them. Again, I am amazed by the sovereign role that God took in this situation. There is nothing random that happens.

The Power of Words

Words are powerful. The words that we use either encourage and uplift people, or they bring them down. I myself have experienced both situations, and dished out both kind and not-so-kind words. I've called people "fat" to their face. On the contrast, I've also said encouraging words to people, like, "Good job," or "I like your outfit." On the flip side, others have said both kind and mean words to me. I often get called a "nun" by my brother; I take it as a compliment even though he says it in a derogatory manner. Just yesterday, someone said some encouraging words to me. This person rarely gives out compliments (at least, not that I know of), and I think he used to hate me at one point (I don't know, maybe he still does). But yesterday, he pointed out that something I had done, was the second thing that day he was proud of me for. Those kind, encouraging words from him have made me want to stay in his good graces. (Before, I had been thinking about hiding his markers again, but now I don't think I will.) Oh, the power of words. Again, I will say it- words are powerful. Will you use your words today to uplift or to bring down?

What would you take?

Imagine this...

Your house catches on fire during the middle of the night. You are allowed to grab one thing. What would you take?

This is something I was thinking about this morning when I read the parable of the rich fool. Luke 12:15 says, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

My first thought was that I would take my laptop, since it was expensive, and I wouldn't want to lose something so valuable (money-wise). Then I started thinking of some other items I might take as well: my afghan, a photo of my grandma and grandpa, etc. Then, I realized how selfish I was being. The first thing I would do would be to make sure my laptop got saved. And yet, there are other people who live in my house. Shouldn't I make sure they get out before I even think about saving my laptop? How much more valuable is a human life than a laptop! (Matthew 6:26)

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:21)