Then a lot happened. Pretty quickly. And this poor excuse for a blog has suffered. So here is the cliffnotes of what has been going on in my life for the past 2 past months…

- I got a job. A real one. That is actually what I went to school for. I am now a paraprofessional at a charter school for kids with disabilities… But soon, my license will come in and I will be a Speech Language Pathologist assistant… and that my friends, is what I went to school for. I am pretty excited to be working in my field!

- I moved to my family’s lake house… in the middle of nowhere. But its pretty, and country, and I feel at home.

- My previous few posts made it pretty obvious that I had started talking to a new guy… Thankfully, that is still going strong. And I couldn’t be happier. He fits in awesome with my family, my friends like him and say it seems like we’ve been together forever, and I have completely fallen for him. And even better, he feels the same!

Here is a picture of my handsome guy and me!

Celebrating my birthday with friends in St. Augustine

So thats the very condensed version of my life as of lately. Hopefully I will be finding more time to update this…

Ciao for now!

I like you and I know why.
I like you because you are a good person to like.
I like you because when I tell you something special, you know it’s special
And you remember it a long, long time.
You say, “Remember when you told me something special?”
And both of us remember

That’s how it would happen every time
I don’t know why
I guess I don’t know why I really like you
Why do I like you
I guess I just like you
I guess I just like you because I like you.

I like having some one to like.

♥

She wants her nails painted black
She wants the toy in the crackerjack
She wants to ride the bull at the rodeo

She wants to wear my shirt to bed
She wants to make every stray a pet
Drive around in my truck with no place to go

But she needs to feel that fire
The one that lets her know for sure
She’s everything I want and more
Her real desire, Is to know I’d walk alone out on the wire
To make her feel that fire

She wants a cabin in the woods
She wants to stand where nobody stood
And someday she wants a couple kids of her own

She wants to make love on a train
And some days she only wants a break
Hey but she wants what she wants, but man I know I know I know

She needs to feel that fire
The one that lets her know for sure
She’s everything I want and more
Her real desire, Is to know I’d walk alone out on the wire
To make her feel that fire
Yeah, feel that fire

So as long as there’s a breath to take
A smile to share, a prayer to pray
A chance to hold her hand to fan the flame

She’s gonna feel that fire
The one that lets her know for sure
She’s everything I want and more
Her real desire, Is to know I’d walk alone out on the wire
Yeah, to make her feel that fire
Ohh feel that fire
She wants her nails painted black

She wants the toy in the crackerjack
She wants to ride the bull at the rodeo

He reminded me of a few things this Sunday:

1. Our God is great and good. He has unlimited power and unconditional love. He can and he cares.

2. Our God knows what he is doing. Jarrett told us an unbelievable story about his family’s move to Chicago and how much God provided, even when they had lost faith. So even when we don’t think hes there, he is. Even when we don’t like how His plan is turning out. His plans are far greater than ours.

3.  We should not be afraid to talk to God and pray for things that we need in our lives.

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Luke 11:9

Jarretts wife had made a very detailed list of what they needed in a house for their move. God answered it all… a week before they moved. They didn’t even see they house before they moved into it. But it was what they needed.

I struggle with a prayer life. I shoot up prayers, yes, but I am still working on that daily converstaion. But I know God appreciates when I do pray, and he yearns for more of it. So I am trying.

There has been a lot of things recently that I have been praying for. And prayer is always needed. With that, I am adding a page to this blog specifically for prayer. Please pray with me…

“What is it about you Southern girls. You can’t make the right decisions til you tried all the wrongs.”

“At least I fight for what I want.”

- Sweet Home Alabama

Sorry for the ridiculously girly movie quote. But I am a girl.

A lot of girls have no idea what they want. I hate feeling that way. That out of control, don’t know whats next, don’t know how to feel feeling. That makes no sense at all. Trying to figure out how to navigate my feelings for people, friendships and other wise is awkward right now. Recently, there have been friendships that have ended, friendships on pause because of distance and friendships that are proving their strength regardless of distance. There are relationships back home that have been rekindled and its exciting to see where they will lead. And even though I might not know exactly where things are going, I am going to keep fighting for what I want.

Forgiveness is the scent that the rose leaves on
the heel that crushes it.

- Anonymous

Matthew 18:21-22

Then Peter went up to him and said, “Lord, how often must I forgive my
brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?   Jesus answered,
“Not seven, I tell you, but seventy seven times.”

Its not only nice guys who finish last, friends. The nice girls deal with it too. And recently I have been finding that the ones who I love the most, are the ones that hurt me the most. So do I just forget about them, ignore them, pretend they don’t exist?? I wish I could. One side of me wants to. But when its people you care about, you forgive. Now, I may not continue pouring into them and trying to talk to them all the time, but I do still want them to know I am here for them if they need me. The trust might be broken. However, I am not called to trust everyone; am called to love everyone. And thats exactly what I am trying to learn right now.

I know the whole nice guys finish last thing does seem to ring true a lot of times, but every now and then, I see a guy who says he is nice when he is really, in a word, pathetic. That seems harsh, I know. It is supposed to be. 

Girls are manipulative. We know it. We use it. And while sometimes it is nice to have that guy friend who will do anything to make us happy, even we know that it is not supposed to be the reality. Set your limits. You absloutely do not need to be walking through a lingerie section while your girl   friend (notice the space between those last two words) talks about what she needs to wear to impress Bad Boy X. This is when you escape to Champs, Brookstone or whatever other store in the mall you guys like to go to. Better yet, what are you even doing at the mall with her? She has girlfriends for that. Don’t put yourself in that situation.

So don’t be a doormat, because unfortuantely, girls will walk all over you.

Those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.

-Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

At first when I read this I was thinking of being silly and dancing, in the middle of a Walmart aisle, with friends at 2 am… I don’t know why, its not like I would ever do something like that…

But after actually taking a second to think about it, I have reconsidered.

I know a lot of people, people I hold dear to my heart, that don’t understand why I am a christian. Why I have faith. Why I care so much that they don’t. So now I am seeing that although I don’t hide my faith, I dont share it like I should.

They can’t hear that music that I dance to.

Well that is going to have to change.

I think that it starts with being appreciative of what I have. Showing that gratitude in my everyday life. And then sharing with others a surplus of either, what it is I have, or the general attitude of being so completely thankful for what the Lord has given me.

And then taking it a step further to actually share with people. We talked about this last night at a bible study about trying to take that next step to share with others. I got the chance to put it into action right after we left. My friend had just been telling me how stressed he was with money, so I grabbed his bill at Steak and Shake and paid for him before he could stop me. Not an outrageous stance of generosity, but it was something. And he was blessed by it, so I was as well. I guarantee if you show that willingness to serve, you will be blessed just as much, if not more, than the person you are serving.

So dance, shine that light, be crazy; but make sure you share that joy, that music, that you are dancing to with the people around you. Its more fun to dance with others than by yourself.

*Note: This is not going to be a strictly christian blog. I will be writing about what I am thinking about, whats on my mind, what I think might be interesting. However, seeing as how I am a christian, it will probably come up.