October Wrap Up

-Turned 26!
-Surprised my little sisters at school by having lunch with them
-Had a spectacular time with my family the Sunday before my birthday
-Got a surprise gift. New Michael Kors bag. ( I literally ran around the house shouting Hallelujah!)

-Ran the Wicked 10k on October 30th.
-Ran the WHOLE thing, at a slow pace but still!

-Carved my first pumkin! ( I think I did it when I was like 5 but i don't really remember it)

-Indulged in smores

-Had an unforunate, how shall we say....falling out? with a guy I was dating. It's a long story, but overall I am MUCH happier. (Actually that was September but whatev.)

-October was a pretty great month!

weekend musings

Aren't dandelions whimsical? Whenever I see one it instantly draws me back to my childhood and I can't help but pick them and hope for a wish!

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. I had a great time with new friends this weekend. Friday night I went Regent University to watch The Blind Side...Outside on the lawn. It was such a gorgeous night too and there weren't a ton of bugs eating us up. After, my new friends invited me out to IHOP and I totally got to indulge in a my favorite. Belgium waffles. OH joy, oh deliciousness, oh...I was so full!

Saturday I spent with my family and later went to Bravo's to meet up with some old friends.

On Sunday, I went to church with my new friend E. I know I've said this before, but it's totally worth mentioning again.  It is so refreshing to know really great Christian guys who take their walk with Christ seriously, and are fun and excited about God in a real way. I mean, it's just so awesome. Anyway, after church E. invited me out to play Ultimate Frisbee with him and his friends. At first I said no because, well I was being stupid. But I called him like 10 mins later, as he was behind me in traffic and told him that I had changed my mind and that I wanted to go.

"Oh, it's too late. You can't come now," was his response. HA! Anyway, after picking up some awesome food at Taste Unlimited for lunch, seriously if you don't have one where you live... I'm really sorry.

But I digress. I met up with E. and friends and had a blast learning a new game. Everyone was really nice and were so patient with me while trying to learn the new game. I think I picked it up fairly well, but I did have to experience the whole, 'being the last one picked like in elementary school.' Oh well! We played for over two hours and let me tell you, I was exhausted. When everyone left, E. and I sat around and talked for a bit and then went for a walk on a trail that was in the park.

It was really beautiful and it was fun getting to know him a little better. All in all a lovely weekend.

the love of fellowship

{photo by Max Wanger}

So, last night I went to my friends small group and let me just say that I'm so happy that I canceled by date, to go. It was so refreshing to be around 20 and 30 something Christians, who have a desire to serve God in a very real way, without being boring, uppity or lame. It was such a great group of girls and guys; granted there were more females than males but that's how it normally is anyway. But truthfully, it wasn't even about that, it was just about being surrounded by my brothers and sisters in Christ.

We opened up with prayer, had a time of praise and worship, and then we went on to the lesson which was all about our spiritual gifts. We took this spiritual gift assessment test where you labeled things from 0-4. According to the quiz my highest rankings were encouragement/exhortation, serving, and teaching. That was all fine and dandy but then I looked at my lower scores. Giving, (gulp), intercession, (gulp) evangelism (Double gulp!)
I was sorely disappointed with how low I had scored in these area, I mean we're talking 6 and 7 points... out of 20.

When we opened the floor for discussion we all commented how difficult evangelism really seemed. But the more we discussed it the more we realized that Evangelism is NOT just one thing. It's a street preacher, it's a missionary, it's handing out a track, it's going door to door, it's bringing up God in your daily conversations, it's letting your friends know where you stand, it's standing out no matter how awkward or uncomfortable it seems sometimes, it's holding the door for someone, visiting the elderly, writing a blog! We can't keep putting God and the things of God into a box, because He is so much more amazingly larger than that.

I digress. We followed up our discussion with a time of prayer. I mentioned to the group that I was looking to relocate and that I wanted prayer over that. They were all so supportive and encouraging.

After prayer we sat around chit chatting, several of them asking questions about what I did and where I was from. One guy in particular caught my attention. He came in a little late and sat on one of the couches across from me. While we were going through the lesson, he was talkative and vibrant, and brought such an ease to the group. During prayer, he prayed so genuinely, with adoration, and reference. I could quietly hear him whispering, "Yes, Lord" and "Thank you Jesus." And I'm not saying that I'm interested, because it's not even about that. But to encounter a man who's love for God was so apparent and real, well that's the most attractive thing I've ever seen.

Conversations and pancakes

There is something to be said about Christian women who are roommates. It’s great…not perfect, but really great. My roommate understands what struggles I go through and how much I need prayer. She doesn’t look at me funny when I am having my devotions in the morning or when I automatically hold out my hands to pray over our meals. What's really great is that she made pancakes for breakfast this morning...Thanks Renee!

I think being a Christian is awesome. I really do. I’m not saying that it’s easy but there is an amazing comfort in knowing that everything that I go through is not my battle but is the Lord’s.

Renee and I were talking about this and I had to confess that sometimes, I didn’t like that God really did control everything because I am a bit of a control…freak. (But only a little bit)

I know that God has everything under control, I really do but, sometimes I feel like I should be given the reigns every once in a while. The main area where I struggle with this is when it comes to men….Oh men how wonderful they are!

“Sometimes, I get so caught up in the statistics about men these days, especially black men, and I got to be honest; things look pretty bleak,” I said to my roommate.

“Yeah, but it’s not about what you see, it’s about what God sees.” She said it so simply that it caught me off guard.

And she was right.