Monday, January 23, 2012

The Moment I've been waiting for

To be quite honest, I haven't felt the Lord's presence in my life so much this month. I am not sure what it is, BUT I STILL TRUST IN HIS UNFAILING LOVE.
BUT, tonight something amazing happened.
You ask me, "What happened Lindsay?"
Well, I'll tell ya...
So, I was watching the show Friends tonight at my friend's dorm (ironic right?), and we were having such a great time, BUT all of a sudden my mood changed. I just felt to stressed with my life! I knew I needed some time to pray to my Heavenly Father. So, I got in my car and headed back to my dorm.
I was tempted at first to jam out to some music, but NO. I knew it was time for me to talk with my Daddy.
I told him that I am going to stick to studying Nursing unless He tells me otherwise. This was a BIG DEAL. I am worried out the waaazzzooo about choosing a career for my life. It's just one of those things where you don't want to pick something and then you hate it and have to start ALL over again.
Anyway, I told Him exactly how I felt, and that I'm SO nervous about my GPA, grades, and keeping up with my studies.
I ended my short prayer time when I arrived back at my room.
Then I decided to check Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest like every other girl in the world when they get back to their room. HAHA!
BUT, after that I said to myself, "what are you doing?! Stop that nonsense!"
While I was talking to myself in my head, I realized that I still hadn't looked at my Africa pictures my mom gave me on a jump drive before I left for Janterm (wintermester class). I started looking through all of them on my computer and came across this one.
I literally started crying. I couldn't stop crying for a while. There were probably 400 pictures on this jump drive and randomly I chose to look at this one. The Lord really works in some mysterious and cool ways. This is a picture of me in Africa putting antiseptic on this precious little boy's cuts. We were in the slums that day and I bandaged many little kid's cuts and scrapes.
The Lord knew I needed to be reminded of this moment.
How cool is that right?!
It made me realize that whatever I do in life, it must be to...
Serve the Lord
Serve His people
and to Love His people.
To Go to the Ends of the Earth.
Spread His Love to all I meet.
This picture reminded me of My Call.
So, maybe I'm supposed to be a nurse, maybe a missionary, maybe a teacher, or something random, but I know whatever I do, It'll be for the Lord. To Him be the Glory.
I want to thank whoever took this picture of me. Thank You for the precious reminder.
Also, Thank you Lord for showing this to me tonight. YOU ARE SO GOOD. AND SO PRECIOUS TO ME. I LOVE YOU DADDY!!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Random Stranger

Picture this.
I'm sitting at a table at Starbucks all by myself just reading God's word and journaling. A woman went and sat at the table next to me. She leaned over and asked, "Are you teaching Sunday School or something next week?" (obviously she saw me reading by Bible). I replied no I am not. She replied, "woah, that is so good of you." She went on to tell me she needed to find a new church because her church doesn't do communion enough. I told her about my church Bentree Bible Fellowship. She said she didn't want to interrupt me too much. She went on sitting next to me reading something on her phone. I just went on doing my own thing.
She started to pack up her stuff, but before she left, she nudged me and left me with some encouraging words. She said, "I have been sitting here all this time watching you read your Bible and journal and work on things. I know for a fact that God has great plans for you. Whenever you feel your getting off His righteous path, the Lord will nudge you. Pay attention when He is trying to get you back on the right path. You have great plans ahead of you. You're parents must be really blessed to have you in their lives."
MAN!
The Lord just spoke right through her to me.
I needed that little encouragement.
She also said, "We probably won't meet again, but I want you to know I'll be praying for you."
A complete and total stranger will be praying for me!!
How Crazy right?!
And How awesome is Our God?!
The Lord works in such different ways. I can't stop smiling.
God is so good!
Right when I don't feel His Presence, He says, "Daughter, I'm right here looking after you and loving you. I am constant in your life. Draw hear to my precious."
Remember everyone, God works through people.
Be a light to someone today. Tell them you love them. Tell them they are special.
Go out and Make someone's day today.

Best Friends

I've learned a lot being in college.
I could tell you all about how Glycolisis works in your body to the difference between Maslow and Roger's thinking about goodness to even the writings of William Shakespeare, BUT that's not fun right?
Something I learned while in college that hit me pretty hard was, friends.
Back home, I have three very close friends. They are my Best Friends.
I am the kind of girl, who doesn't just say anyone is my best friend. I take this very seriously.
This word does not just roll off my tongue so easily like others.
A best friend to me is someone who is always their for me, I can talk to them on a deeper level about how their life truly is, they pray for me as I pray for them, when we hangout we laugh till we cry and cry until we laugh, the center of our friendship is the Lord, we enjoy each other's company, we snuggle (haha), they accept my many hugs I give them even if they aren't a touchy person, they put up with my craziness, and they love me for who I am. This is a best friend.
I pray that the Lord surrounds me with these people. These people will always be in my life to go with me through my ups and downs. When I am getting off the path, they will be the ones to knock some sense into me to get my on my right path.
So, safe to say if you are my best friend, you are stuck with me for life. YAY!!
God put these special people in our lives for a reason. How lucky are we?
So, don't just call anyone your best friend. Take it seriously. Don't throw away those words. When you say them, you better mean them.
Best friends are very special people in our lives. Be one to someone else today. Thank your best friends today for loving you.

Forgetful me

How many times have you told someone, "Hey, I'll be praying for you!" And you end up forgetting to pray for them.
Let's be honest, this happens to me frequently.
It's so AWFUL!
I feel so bad when I do this.
But, Why do we do this?
Are we too busy to remember a single prayer request? Do we not care? Do we forget to pray to our Almighty God?
This is something that I need to work on over the next few months. I need to make it a habit to keep my promises of prayer.
So, I challenge myself and YOU to whenever you say, "I'm praying for you!" that you write it down in a journal or post-it and actually follow through on praying for them.
This shouldn't be too difficult. I mean shouldn't we WANT to take some time to pray to our Father?
God Bless and remember the Lord is listening.

He Misses You

It's Christmas break for many of us and it's a time to rest and relax from our jobs, school, and have a break from our busy lives.
BUT, since we are on a break, loneliness can set in. An emptiness.
If you're like me and you are in college then you can relate.
We go from seeing our friends each and everyday to not seeing them at all.
I am from Texas, so most of my friends from college are about 11 hours away or more, so it's not like I can take a quick drive and go meet them for coffee.
How sad is it that we live off these text messages from our friends. The other day, I got so excited that one of my friends texted me saying, "I miss you so much!!"
Yes, it is good to miss your friends. I'm not saying it's bad.
BUT, in this time of break, Seek after the Lord's presence.
I bet He misses you too.
Take a day, go to Starbucks, O'Henrys (for my Alabama readers), go to a park, or somewhere quiet and read God's word. Talk to Him. Pray to Him. He will listen to you for hours.
Yes, you can miss your friends, but I bet someone much bigger and better misses you too.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Our Generation

A few nights ago, my Beloved friend, Lindsay Joy Jones, texted me this very very long text message about this idea of making a DAY OF PRAYER. She is so passionate about having our generation grow closer with God and spreading God's love around the world. Showing people that the Lord is crazy about them. Well, after the long message, she insisted on calling me. Of course, I encouraged it! Her excitement astounded me.
She told me all about how she just feels that our generation is going to do something fantastic for the Kingdom of God. That we are going to rise up and take our place. That we are going to show people the love of God; and we are going to be a light in this dark world.
What she did was set up an event on Facebook making December 19th (today) a DAY OF PRAYER where anyone and everyone spends their day praying over our generation, praying for family and friends, and whatever comes to mind. A day to chat with God, Our Loving Daddy.
How cool is that?!
Honestly, I am so blessed to have a friend like Lindsay Jones.
Now, let's just think about this a minute.
Over 300 people have joined the prayer event and more are still joining. Over 300 people will be praying ALL day. The Lord must be up in Heaven looking down on His children with great joy saying, "ohhh yeah, those are my precious kids!" He must be applauding and getting so excited for this event! I bet He has told all of His angels and they are all gearing up to watch us pray to Our Heavenly Father. They are cheering us on. They are so excited too!
Now, come on tell me that's not the coolest thing to think about?!
The Lord will be listening to us all day long. He will never take a break from hearing our voices.
So, Join Me today as we pray together for our generation to rise up and show everyone the Love of God today! You can sit, kneel, stand, be in a yoga pose for all I care..just pray.
God Bless, and let me know if anyone has any prayer requests! I got you covered!
Love to All.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Don't Forget!

I was sitting in church last Sunday and something came over me.
It's hard to describe, but I'll try my best.
I felt this wave come over me. It was like someone was yelling at me saying, "Lindsay, you are so unfocused on the Lord right now! God has just blessed you abundantly, and what do you do...leave? Come back to the Father. He misses hearing your voice. He misses your conversations. He misses His Daughter."
Man, was that a wake up call or what?
I looked back on the past 2 weeks, and it was right. I had lost focus.
So, let's just say I've been pretty busy.
Finals are this week, and I have been preparing for them. Also, I'm trying to get my Christmas Crafts done for friends and family.
These are good things, but I have been so so distracted.
Distracted in the bad way.
All semester I have literally had to rely on God for everything.
I waited on Him to provide things for me like good friends, a job, etc.
And, He has PROVIDED!
It brings me so much Joy that He answered my prayers. I had to take the time to wait, but He finally said Yes!
BUT, just because He has blessed you with great things, doesn't mean you can't still rely on Him.
WE NEED HIM. ALWAYS.
Life is going well for me right now, but that's when I need Him the most.
There are so many good things happening in my life right now, that I am not focused on my Almighty Creator.
My Amazing Savior.
My Abba Father.
My Daddy.
He is ALL we need.
Why do we lose focus?
Because He has blessed us, and we think everything is fine and dandy. BUT it's not. We need Him more than ever.
So, run after Him. Seek His Face because He deserves it, and we need Him desperately.
If you have felt this way then, "SHOUT UNTO GOD WITH A VOICE OF TRIUMPHANT. SHOUT UNTO GOD WITH A VOICE OF PRAISE!!"Go to Him and talk to Him now. I bet you anything that He misses you.