for kind professors with gray sweaters and harry potter glasses who teach me about photosynthesis and say things like, "i tend to say fun-gi because i'm a FUN guy!" ..haha, that's real. seriously how enjoyable!
for learning about how seriously BRILLIANT God made the earth and environmental systems. so crazy how He just thought of everything! for rachel, and that she would read psalm 23 over me. so precious and valued. like, are ya kiddin me? i have friends like that?? for putnam trail for oranges. Lord only knows how many oranges i've eaten these days. guys, i'm even eating one right now! ha! for rachael calling me lex in passing today! i smiled a good five minutes after that. for holland's farm shirts (: for shoes. i've been whining about the cold a lot lately, but then i look down at my feet and imagine how much more cold i would be if i didn't have shoes. then i stop whining. i am thankful for shoes. for inspiration and beauty. for sincerity for art, with trent. he teaches me so much about who Jesus is. for yui singing a song about my tights the other day and how the pattern was too flowery for the weather we are having.. all this in song.. and then walking away. (: for monica. her heart, i tell ya. one of the biggest ones i've encountered. for anna and her ability to speak truth in gentleness and love! for chase and the life he lives. for emily. her ability to listen and care is one that has blessed me time and time again. she cares for people DEEPLY. for singing for coral and our friendship. i value it so stinkin much. it is precious to me. for morning for amy. loving me even though she knows the ugly parts of my heart and speaking truth over me. for my mom and how she teaches me about unconditional love. she loves me so well! for becca. i know i always say for becca, but geesh i gotta! she is one to thank God for daily! mostly, though, for God being trustworthy. today my spirit is discontent.
i am not satisfied. something missing. something deeper missing. it grips me. something words cannot articulate. i crave God. i am thirsty for Him. my life longs for more. i long to encounter Him in fresh ways. i long for something beyond the daily life. i'm standing in a wave pool when i long for the sea yet, my thirst goes unquenched. He said He would but my mouth is dry. //like the deer pants for flowing streams i am just so thirsty. i am unsettled. but i know, so deeply i know, He will come. my lover, my king, He will come because He said He would. He will fulfill// and i will rest in truth. {{this i recall to my mind, therefore I have hope.}} as surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth. hosea 6:3 filling my room with light today.
"but the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness."
james 3:17 & 18 i really love the movie bridge to terabithia. i think it's one of my very favorites. i not-so-secretly want to be miss edmunds, the music teacher, and wear dresses and sing with kids all day like her.
i tried on a bridesmaid dress today. (: the sun out the window filled my soul a ridiculous amount today so did thinking about the people in my life. i think God is teaching me a lot lately about how He loves. i maybe play that song lakehouse by of monsters and men at least twice every single day. ...maybe. i wouldn't lie to you and say that kashi crisp cinnamon crumble cereal is not my very favorite cereal in the history of cereals. i haven't been sleeping so well these days. i'm trying so hard to learn how to sing harmony, but oh yikes... just, thanks for still loving me, God, even though you had to hear that.. (: one of my homework assignments is to write a story about two characters meeting. i rarely say this, but i loved that homework. listening to norah jones makes me miss my mom. cassie let me borrow her hat one time when i was a freezin steven, and another time, coral gave me her gloves to wear. that was so special! my friends are so good at loving me. i still don't know the difference between a mitten and a glove. while i was walking to class in the cold winter air today, i became so aware of my every breath. in and out with every step it came, fogging up the air in front of me, clearing as i breathed in, and the rhythm repeated. it was all i could focus on as i walked. it reminded me that i am ALIVE. i love that winter does that. and in awe, i let that fact sink in for a while. i carry LIFE within this frame! what a gift. what a crazy wonderful thing to be a living being! i am ALIVE. but so much more than that, i am truly living on the inside, too, because Jesus is there. i know, deep in my bones, in my soul, and in my heart, what it means to be truly alive because of Him... life in freedom, life wrapped in love and goodness of the only One who can fill to the top. but i was also reminded of the stinging truth that i can't say the same about my classmate maybe, or that girl down the hall, or perhaps my professor. friends, we have been given life, and life with purpose. we are intentionally made, and we can't let life slip through our fingers without spreading true life! it is my prayer today, and every day, that we would never forget that we are alive, with purpose... that we would never forget that there are people all around us who don't know this true life because they don't know Jesus. that God would instill within us urgency and drive and perspective and deep love for the people around us. and that out of a love that's deepest desire is to see them truly ALIVE, we would act. this life is a beautiful gift, but it's short. i hope that the next time you find yourself outside and you see your breath in the cold winter air, you think of what a gift life is. let it remind you not to waste the day, the hour, the minute that has been given! because it will be gone. may we never forget! your life is like the morning fog--it's here a little while, then it's gone.
james 4:14 http://simpleandsincere.weebly.com/1/post/2014/01/you-are-the-air.html thanking God for my beautiful friend becca and her words that breathe deep love for Jesus. touched my heart today. oh, i love this girl dearly. this is the part that gets me the most:
"they may seem dead, these straight white boxes but my God has a way of loving that reaches into all depths and pulls me out of all darkness even if that darkness is the steady glow of artificial light on white walls He streams through the windows, penetrating my eyes and my skin He whispers "hope" while my education professors scream "hopeless" He brings child after child to me to show His tender physical touch He speaks in the voice of dr. stephens, reminding me it is all about loving people He gives me an attitude and a confidence i know are beyond myself even here among these suffocatingly white walls and straight chairs you are the air that breathes life into this dusty soul" mm. |