And Summer Comes to an End

Well, tonight is officially my last night of summer! I spent the morning worshiping my King, the afternoon catching up on some TV, and this evening getting everything ready for tomorrow. As I reflect back on my summer it has been an adventure!

·      In May:

o   My best friend Sarah headed to China for around 8 weeks!

o   The fuel pump on my car went out leaving me stranded in the middle of Shackelford. Now that was SCARY!!!!

·      In June:

o   I had a nice day trip to Six Flags with Sam, Angie, the Jessica’s, and Alaina.

o   I went to camp as a counselor, which was SUPER FUN!!!!!

·      In July:

o   Sarah came home from China and Sam left for China, almost all in the same week.

o   My friends and I also had this awesome “Glow Party” which consisted of putting a bunch of glow sticks into a pool!

o   And then Sarah and her family came to visit! That made me really happy because I really missed her while she was in China.

o   In the midst of all of this, I studied for my Insurance Test.

·      In August:

o   Pastor Nathan challenged all of the Youth to carry our Bible everywhere we went, and of course as a sponsor I couldn’t let them have all the fun, lol!

o   Our Youth went to Louisville, Kentucky for National Fine Arts and I was privileged to teach Wednesday night youth for those who weren’t in Fine Arts. Now that was a hoot! (See previous post)

o   I attended a two-day class for my Insurance Test.

o   I took my insurance test and passed on the first try! Who would have thought I would be 19 and have my insurance license… Not this chick!

o   Then my car didn’t pass inspection, even after fixing all of the safety stuff. The fix? Just drive it… Finally it passed and its all good now ;)

See what I mean?  An adventure! Now it’s time to head back to college, and you know what, I am actually excited! Looking back at what I was feeling back when I started last year, so much has changed! That first semester was HORRIBLE!!!! I was just miserable. But, God brought me through it; He has brought me further than I ever thought possible, and He is still doing great things in my life. I know God is going to do great things this school year, I can feel it, and I can’t wait to see what it is! I am also excited to get in on taking my Bible to school! Since I have missed out on a good two or so weeks of taking my Bible to school, I think I’ll continue on through September!

 It's going to be a great year, and nothing is going to change that!!!!!!!!

Teaching Youth...

So, about a week and a half ago I had the opportunity to teach our Wednesday night Youth group. Pastor Nathan, Ms. Dawn, and about half of the group were in Louisville, Kentucky for National Fine Arts Festival, so I figured it would be a piece of cake. Boy was I wrong… Now, it wasn’t horrible at all, it just wasn’t what I was used to. You see all of the youth that were left were mostly the sixth graders who just moved up, a few new youth, and two of our normal group. I went into it with the thought, oh it’s really just the middle school youth, I should be fine… Not so much. I overlooked the fact that my key people who know my tolerance levels weren’t there. So, I found myself getting a bit aggravated before they figured out that I meant business. I loved it, despite my small amount of aggravation, and would totally do it again!

I chose to speak on something that has really been on my heart lately, since camp really, and something I have been trying to work on, but am failing at a bit…

Below, is a summary (with possibly a little bit added by me) of what I talked about:

God is a jealous God. He’s not jealous in the sense that he is envious of us or wants what we have; He is jealous of US! He wants our time. He wants us to spend time with Him, worshiping Him, reading His word, talking to Him, and just being with Him. All of this really stemmed from Tuesday night at camp this past summer. (To read about how camp went, see my previous post) While I was in prayer both during Pre-Service Prayer and during altar time I found myself just sitting on the floor surrounded by God’s presence. It was kind of like I was in my own little bubble with God, the music and distractions faded, and there was perfect silence in my head. I was just spending time with my Daddy. It was in that time that He told me I was being a Martha. You remember her story from the Bible right? Jesus was over at her house and she was running around trying to make everything perfect and not spending time with Him. Jesus didn’t care if everything was perfect; He just wanted to spend time with her. Well, that’s been me lately… He wants me; He wants us to be Mary’s. You remember Martha’s sister Mary right? She sat at Jesus’ feet and just listened to him while Martha did all this stuff. Well, Jesus wants us to just sit at His feet and spend time with Him.

Sometimes it may seem that it is hard to make time for God. We may even think that it is hard to make time for God, but that is the devil talking! Don’t listen to him! It is essential that we make time for God! All you have to do is find a place, any place really and make it your “prayer closet”. It can be your room, your actual closet (if you have room for that, because I sure don’t, hehe!), or literally anywhere that you can have complete privacy with God. Me personally, I have several prayer closets. My room is a popular one, but sometimes I can get distracted with everything that’s in there. My next most popular prayer closet is my car. Since I have a thirty-minute plus drive to and from school, it is the perfect time to talk to God. To tell you the truth, God and I have had some pretty deep conversations going to or coming home from school. There have been days that I have had to get myself together before heading to class or work.

Spending time with God can be as simple as reading your Bible and saying a prayer. If you don’t know what to pray for, start going though a list of people you know, pray for the church, the youth group, or pray in tounges. You can turn on a worship CD and just worship him. If you are having a rough day, tell Him. The Bible says to cast all your cares upon the Lord. Tell Him what is on your heart. Whatever you do, make sure you spend some quiet time with Him after you have prayed or worshiped because that is the time that God will speak to you. It’s in the quiet that He speaks and you must listen very carefully to hear Him.

One of my favorite songs, The More I Seek You, by Kari Jobe gives a perfect example of how we should be with God.