New Year

Well it's been 2013 for about 3 months and 15 days now. Doesn't sound like much but SO MANY things have happened, and I can say I am TRULY blessed.

The first week in January I drove with some great friends up to Atlanta, Georgia to experience the Passion Conference for myself. It. Was. Amazing. Holy Cannoli. Just gathering with 60,000 people who are all worshipping Christ is amazing. It was a great experience to wake up every day and right of the bat sing songs, pray, read the Bible, and fellowship all for God's glory. While I was there, I learned a lot about God's love, especially when they talked about the End It Movement. Slavery still exists, it blew my mind. There I was, in the Georgia Dome with my friends having a great week, and all across the world there are people who are slaves, who have never seen the light of Christ. How often do we take the love and mercy of Christ for granted? We experience it EVERY DAY. We know what it is like to be loved and cared for with a love that will never fade. And do think that there are people out there, a lot of them children, who have only seen hate from their masters is heart breaking. I asked myself, what could I do for them? I don't want to keep this love all to myself, I want to share it! So Passion 2013 was a great week. I kept on thinking to myself how I wish I could go everyday. How I wish I could wake up and just serve God all day every day, and then I had one of those "oh duh" moments. I don't have to be in a dome with 60,000 other people, listening to Christ Tomlin or Francis Chan to serve and praise God! I can do that all day every day right here at home, or wherever I am.

So my new journey began. Instead of laying around all day every day, never reading my Bible, never going to church or anything to do with God, I have been praying for the passion and desire to serve Him! And boy has he answered my prayers! It hasn't been easy, and I still fail every day, but it has been a great learning experience. I started going to church again, one called Eleven 22. It really is the greatest thing ever. God just speaks through the pastor in a simple yet moving way. He is so real and raw and the only thing that matters is the Word. All he does is simply reads the Bible and says what it means, and how we can apply it to our life. It isn't some show they are putting on, or some fancy dinner gathering, it's church. I have been really blessed through it. I have been reading the Bible (almost) every day. There are some days I don't, and honestly some days I don't care to, and that's why I have to constantly pray for that desire to read it, and to serve God. Because without God's help, my sinful heart wouldn't even want to serve him. So it's definitely a daily struggle and task to ask him to make me want to read his Word, or go to church, or whatever, but it really helps. And even sometimes when I don't want to, I do it anyways, and I always learn something and thank God because even though I may not want to, that doesn't stop him from speaking to me, thankfully.

And I have also learned that I have absolutely the best friends I could have ever asked for. Work has been a great source of that. Some of us even meet for a CFA Bible study . . . how amazing is that? It is so uplifting, and we can encourage each other and learn from each other and I can't thank God enough for placing them in my life. Also, my family and friends outside of work that I have grown up with, they have always been encouragements and continue to blow me away. I love them all. This life would suck without them and I thank God that he was kind enough to put them in my life, because he knew I would need them and hopefully I can serve them also.

Birthdays have past, mine is coming up. We got two sister puppies who are annoying as heck but cute as I'll get out. I have decided to go to UNF for business. I am like 99% positive I am going to stick with that because God has BIG things in my future and I can't wait!

One thing I love and have really been noticing is just how STRONG prayer is. It's not just some thoughts running through your head, and your not just saying them to the clouds. When people pray to God, they are really TALKING TO GOD! I know for me sometimes that is hard to grasp. Like, the God who created us and sent his son to save us, has allowed us to so easily communicate with him. And he truly hears us. And he answers us (with a yes orrrrrrr no). It's amazing to think. I have realized that when I used to pray I wouldn't really believe that anything would happen. I would just say the words and then forget about it. I wouldn't have faith that God could actually help me. But I have been seeing how wrong I was, about powerful prayer is, and it's been great to see God answer prayers, even though sometimes it's not the answer I want, it's still an answer! And to have to God of the universe answer someone as low as me, is remarkable.