21

God blessed me with another birthday on August 20th. I am now 21 years old. Wow. I am getting old. Ha!

Have you ever heard of "the golden year"? Well, supposedly, it is the date of your birthday that is the same as your age. Like, my golden year was this past year because I was 20 and my birthday is August 20th.

This past year has really proven true to its name..golden year. It was truly a blessing that keeps on growing. God did some pretty amazing things....for example: delivering me from nursing school, ending a not-so-good relationship, taking me to China to teach me about Him, changing my major, allowing more time for friends, bringing this AMAZING man of God into my life and proposing to me, and allowing me to have a wonderful summer full of God's teachings.

So yeah, I would say I had a GREAT 20th year!

Update on my life!

I haven't blogged in some time. so for those of you who actually read my ramblings...here is an update on what my summer has been like.

I just finished up my summer working as an intern at my church, Eastwood Baptist, and I have to say that this has been one of the best summers of my life. I was able to learn so much about the inner workings of a church and how things should be done. I was able to learn how the cooperative program works and meet with Alabama State Board of Missions several times. I now know how to plan mission trips and everything that comes along with it. I know how to research and find my way to get in touch with people to get things accomplished. I know how visitation should work throughout the week. I know how to prepare meals for 200 people on Wednesday nights. And I now know what it all going to take to be a pastor's wife. And that means long hours at the church, in people's homes, at the hospital, and lots of time spent away from home. Better to find out now rather than later, right?

Speaking being a pastor's wife, I got engaged on July 1st to the best guy in the whole wide world! We are both so excited about what is to come in the next 4 months and we know that God is in full control of it all. We receive affirmation after affirmation that this is what He has planned for our lives and we can't wait for December 17th! :)

We took engagement pictures a few weeks ago with one of my best friends, Hannah Meherg. Hannah just moved to Taiwan yesterday for the next year. So, it was awesome being able to do that with her! Speaking of her, please be praying for her as gets adjusted to the culture, time difference, and language in Taiwan. This is going to be one amazing journey for her and I am so excited that this is one of the many ways God is using my dear and sweet friend! :)

We had our first wedding shower on Saturday with some of Tim's family and it was an absolute blessing! We received many of the things we will need for our new home! The shower just made me more excited for our life together and made it more real to me that I get to marry this amazing man! We have many more showers to come and I am thrilled!

School starts back in a week and I move back to Livingston for one more semester this week. this means one more semester of babysitting the Hoopers. I am kind of sad about that because this family God has blessed me with means more to me than I ever thought possible. They are most definitely one the biggest blessings God has ever gave me. I have learned so much from them and will continue learning from them. But I know that December will not be the last time I see them and our friendships will still grow after then. I just won't be able to see them as much as I am used to and that will be okay.

Other than my ties to the Hoopers, I am excited about moving to Auburn in December. Auburn is one of the prettiest towns in Alabama. It has the best of both worlds. It has somewhat of the city life and also the woodsy scene. I will transfer to AUM and finish my degree there..that is the plan as of right now unless a better option becomes available to me. :)

So, I have had one of the best summers ever! I have learned how to work in a church, disciple, visit, make intentional friendships, and serve in different capacities. I have also learned that God is faithful and never changing and I should long for a deeper and more intimate relationship with Him.

This is all for now. Have a great day!

My life should be a movie

So, my life is crazy!! True story. Let me fill you in on what last week consisted of!

Last Sunday, May 29th, I went to Pensacola, FL to catch my plane to Arlington, TX, where I would be for the summer doing missions with NAMB. Everything is running smoothly for the day. I got to airport on time, checked my bags, told my mom, Ethan, and Tim goodbye, went through security, and boarded my plane. Then, the problems started occurring. I never left the runway because of engine problems. So, we sat on the plane for about 45 minutes for the maintenance crew to fix it. We then deboarded the plane and waited for 2 1/2 hours for them to fix it. The rest of the flights were booked for the day, so I re-booked my flight for the following day and the same time.

On Monday, May 30th, my mom, dad, Tim, and I did the same thing all over again. This time though I don't arrive as early I should have and then got stuck in security. I make it to my gate and the plane is still here, but they decided to take my baggage off and not let me get on the plane. They put me on standby for the next flight that is 4 hours later. So, we wait around for that time. I am #3 on the list for standby for a booked flight. The employees thought there was a lady missing from the plane. They offered the seat to the people ahead of me on the list, but they were a couple and did not want to be split up, so the seat was offered to me. They give me my new boarding pass and put my luggage on the plane. I started walking from my gate onto the plane and as I am about to put my foot on the plane the flight attendant stops me. They wouldn't let me get on the plane because the lady they thought was missing was on the plane the whole time!

God made it clear that I was not supposed to get on that plane or any other plane that would take me to Texas! The following day God opened two opportunities for me for the summer. The first option was to move in the Hooper family and be their nanny for the summer and make money. The second option was to stay at home and intern at my church as missions strategy coordinator and make no money. I really thought I needed money and wanted to babysit for the summer, but after much prayer and reading God's Word I found that I needed to be obedient to Him and intern at my church. I would benefit the most from doing that and it was just what I felt like God wanted me to do. I was happy in my decision and worked at the church on Thursday and Friday. Then, this weekend the Hoopers get in touch with me and told me that they had been praying about my situation and knew I was being obedient to God and they felt they needed to be obedient and still give me the money we had talked about since I was not going to make any at the church. How awesome is that?!?! God is amazing and ever-present in my life and is CONSTANTLY proving His sovereignty and faithfulness!!! I serve a crazy awesome God! :)

So, yeah..my life has it's ups and downs, but God is always in control of it and my faith in Him has definitely been strengthened this past week! :) Hope this is encouraging to you as well.

Dreams really do come true

I thought I would let the world know that God decided to let me in on His best kept secret. His best kept secret is a guy named Timothy John Mathis. :)

You know every girl(and some guys) has this list of what she wants in a significant other. She has this dream/picture of what he like and how things will be in her future. Well, guess what!! My reality with Tim is far, far better than I have EVER dreamed possible! It seriously is! I am head over heels for this man of God! He is truly one of the biggest blessings I have ever had!

In past relationships, I was trying to make the guys fit into what I wanted, but with Tim..he just fits perfectly. God's plans are so much better than mine and that is proven time and time again in my life. I thought I had this "perfect guy" in my mind, but God placed Tim in my life and blew me away. I underestimated and was cheating myself out thinking the guy in my mind was as good as it was going to get. God showed me otherwise. Praise the Lord! :)

Would you like to hear about mine and Tim's little fairytale? :) I love telling it, so I will share it with you! We met in March 2010 at FBC Abbeville's Disciple Now. One of my best friends, Morgan, went to Honduras with the youth pastor of FBC Abbeville and Tim. The youth pastor, Ryan, asked Morgan to be a leader for the D-Now weekend and then asked her to find another girl to help as well. Morgan asked me to help and I was all for it! It was that weekend that I met Tim and I thought he was awesome! He had already added me on Facebook before that weekend and I think we had maybe talked on chat, too. We were able to talk some and shared our testimonies on the way to a Rush of Fools concert in Dothan. I was able to learn more about him and the amazing person he is. But at that time, I was dating someone else and he was liking another girl. So, nothing happened between us at this time, but we kept in touch with each other. In October is when we both ended our relationships with other people, not knowing what God had in store for us. In November, we started talking more and getting to know each other better. It was then on November 16th when I randomly asked Tim to join me in a 30 day blogging challenge. He agreed and we blogged almost everyday the month before I left for China. During that time, we were talking everyday and learning more and more about each other. I left for China on December 17th and came back in January. When I came back home we started talking just about everyday again. We had exchanged phone numbers and started communicating through texts. I went home one weekend with Morgan at the end of January and he came over to her house and hung out with us. At this point, I still had no idea that he liked me and he did not know that I had feelings for him as well. That next week on February 6th, Tim told me his intentions about our friendship and where he was planning on it going. He told me that he felt like I possessed the qualities he wanted in a wife and he wanted to date me and hopefully eventually marry me. I flipped my lid!! No joke! I had been praying about it all and never thought he would actually be interested in me, too. I was blown away by his boldness and being a man about it all and initiating things between us because hardly any guys do that nowadays. Ever since then God has blown my mind through this amazing man of God! Things between us couldn't be better! It may seem like a short period of time to have fallen so hard for a guy, but when you meet the right one and know you have a future and lifetime with him..you just can't help yourself. :)

So, this is just the beginning of my real life fairytale with Tim Mathis. I could not be happier with the one God has blessed me with!

Lessons on Love

I had the opportunity to speak at my local Baptist association's WMU annual conference. They asked me a few months to be the guest speaker. I considered it an honor for them to ask me because these are all older women and for them to ask me, a 20 year old nothing college student, was a big deal to me. I was able to share about how God worked in my life over Christmas in my time in China and how He is working now. The enemy tried to attack me this morning when I woke up. I woke up with no voice. Ironic since I would be needing my voice to tell about my amazing God, right? Well, I went straight to my Bible and started praying. I asked some good friends to pray. God prevailed like always. :) (Thanks to those who prayed for me! I love you!)

I displayed a power point presentation before I spoke and I did not realize just HOW much I missed that country. The tears started coming and I was even more heartbroken for the Chinese people. This was also the first time I was not nervous whatsoever about speaking in front a crowd. I shared about one of the many experiences of time in China. It was the time we spent at the street kids home that really struck me this morning. God's love..it is unfailing, never-ending, filled with hope, wonderful, amazing, awesome, patient(VERY!), kind, and full of trust.

One of the children from the home ran away while we were there. We split up and started looking for him. There was a prison near by the home and I knew that, but did not realize where I was walking..I was just looking for the kid. Our missionary started shouting my name like crazy! I turned around and he is telling me to come to him now! I walk towards him and then realize I was walking straight to the prison gate. He tells me to look up and the prison guard had his gun aimed on me. In other words, if I would have kept walking towards the gate I would have been shot. After it all happened, I remembered that there a man shouting Chinese at me, but since I did not know the language that well I did not realize he was talking to me or any of what he was saying. Ha! Through that little experience, I was reminded that God has kept on earth this long for a purpose and that is to tell others about Him and my time is not up yet. I am also reminded of that every time my heart messes up on me and I pass out. Anyways, back to the story..we did not find the child. Later in the afternoon, the police show up while we were outside playing with the kids..they had brought back the child we were looking for. Praise the Lord! I am busy with some other children and the next thing I know the child comes up to me and just starting hugging me like I had never been hugged before! I did not know what to do. He was in tears and just hugging. I was told he was deaf and I did not know that much Chinese to begin with and so I was like, "God, show me what to do." And He responded, "Show him the love I have shown you." So, I just started hugging him back and just embraced him. The kid looks at me and hands me a tissue to wipe his tears away. I lost it on the inside. My heart broke instantly. I wiped his tears away and he smiles so big at me.

I realized what God's love is that day. I thought I knew, but I had no idea. How many times do we feel lost? We find our way back to God. We had been searching for Him all along and never really realized it. We come to Him with tear-filled eyes..longing for Him..needing Him like no other. We find His love in His Word and our brothers and sisters and their encouraging words and godly counsel. God wipes our tears away and tells us He loves us everyday!

We all know what it feels like to be let down by our friends and family. They break promises, they lose our trust, they break our hearts, they turn against us, and sometimes they just have no idea what the meaning of the word "friend" is. I have good news for you though!! God is my best friend and has been for quite some time now and He knows everything about you and loves you anyway. He will never leave you or forsake you. He will be there when no one else is.

Know that God loves you and we are called to show His love to others on daily basis. If you love someone, then you will tell them about your Lord and Savior. :)

Peace and Blessings!

Back to the Basics..

In the past year or so I have been constantly reading a book of some sort, and in the past month I have noticed that I have not even picked a book up except for Bible. And I have not even opened my Bible as much as I should have. I have noticed that my focus has shifted some and that is in the middle of changing right now! God deserves my undivided attention and nothing less. I have been so busy with school, work, people, and doing stuff that I could go without doing and forgot about my purpose. Wrong thing to do by the way.

I have been feeling completely overwhelmed by all of my responsibilities and obligations. The things I have been busy with are not "bad things", but they become bad things when they take focus off the Lord. On Tuesday nights we have a college worship service at my church, Livingston First Baptist, and it felt like my college pastor was preaching directly to me tonight. I know God used Scooter to speak to me. And not only did He use Scooter, but he used the worship music too!

One of the songs we sang was "Forever Reign" by Hillsong. The first line of it says: "You are good, You are good when there's nothing good in me". This line hit me like a ton of bricks for some reason. My mind went back to the sermon I heard on Sunday based out of Romans and also the verse Isaiah 64: 6, which says "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all of our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." Wow. Just wow. It does not matter how many "good things" I do or how involved I am in church or how much of the Bible I read because my most righteous acts are considered filthy rags! I have been so caught up in doing things and not in my relationship with God. The next line that stuck out to me was "You are joy, You are joy. You're the reason that I sing." God should be the reason behind every single thing I do and everything that I do should be to bring Him glory and honor! No other reason! And the last line that rung a bell with me in this song was "You are God, You are God. Of all else I'm letting go!" Nothing else matters except God. End. of. story.

Scooter's message was on point fo sho! Definitely the exact words I needed to hear. One of the verses that he used was Galatians 6:9 "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." I cannot put into words exactly what all I feel right now or how the sermon spoke to me, but I know that my sin was pointed out to me clearly and I have been encouraged. Back to the basics for me.

Crazy Awesome Week!

Last Thursday morning I was asked to be a leader at a D-Now in Calera, AL that started the next day. I said yes right away because I had no plans for the weekend and what better way is there to spend my weekend learning about God and allowing God to use me to help teach some youth? I automatically got pumped! I didn't know anything about the weekend except where it was going to be and what the theme was. Spontaneity is pretty cool.

Last Friday on my way to Calera I had my 3rd appointment with my new cardiologist and praise the Lord I have finally been diagnosed!! It has only taken 15 years to figure this out. I have vasodepressor syncope. It is not life-threatening. I have to take blood pressure medicine twice a day along with aspirin, drinks lots of water and gatorade, eat 5 meals a day, and make sure I get rest that I need. This is an answered prayer for sure! Thanks to all who prayed for me, I really appreciate it. :)

So I leave from Tuscaloosa to Calera. The whole weekend was awesome. We discussed how important it is to be a leader. You have to be a follower of Christ before you can lead others to Him. We talked about discipleship and how Jesus did things. We were able to help with the town's local ministry called Acts of Kindness. We also got to learn about being a leader and a follower by going geo caching in Oak Mountain State Park. That was a first time experience for me and it was awesome! Although, it would have been a lot better if it was not raining the whole day. But we were all wet together! Awesome weekend, awesome worship, awesome people!

I also got to spend Sunday afternoon with my cousin Haley, who attends UAB, and her roommate Deidra. We got to eat lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and hang out. We went to Church at Brook Hills. I got to hear David Platt preach the Word of God. He is in a series going through the book of Acts that I did not know about and since I have been studying that book for a while now, it was pretty cool.

This Tuesday I got to go worship with Hillsong!! That was something I have been looking forward to since the beginning of December. It was well worth the wait! Definitely one the most powerful worship experiences that I have ever been a part of!! The gospel was preached and people came to know God. Awesome time!

This Wednesday was Ash Wednesday. I take part of the college ministry of Calvary Baptist Church called The Well on Wednesdays in Tuscaloosa. We had a special service that was really amazing. God never fails. He is faithful like no other. We deserve nothing He gives. "Hear and draw near."

There are a lot of other things that have taken place this week. Lots of answered prayers. Lots of praises. And prayers and asking for guidance are constantly going up. :)