weakness

change is inevitable
my attitude significantly effects a lot of things
it should be the same as that of Christ
we just got new bigs
its crazy how it changes the dynamics of our group
relationships are hard
i never feel like i can be intentional enough

God wants our brokenness and our helpnessness.
He wants our weaknesses.
He wants our strengths.
He wants our pride.
He wants everything.
Its hard to give everything until we've been in the desert like Moses and lose everything.

2 Corinthians 12:9
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.


just some thoughts from today...

absolute surrender

lately God's been showing me that i'm trying to hang onto certain things in my life rather than surrendering them to Him.  when i think about it, its a slap in the face to Him because me hanging onto things is saying that i don't trust Him, that i think i might be able to handle something better than Him. that i can take care of it on my own strength. it's pride at its root. it's crazy to think that i want to be in control rather than giving God control.  why is it so hard to surrender everything?  why is it so hard to surrender daily?  i mean, God is sooo big and so much in control and has proven Himself faithful over and over again, but i still struggle to surrender every aspect of myself to Him.  

on another note, here at LeadTime...

we've had a pretty emotional weekend with some girls leaving the program. other than that it has been going pretty well, still very hard but good.  it is now the end of the fall semester and we will be starting up the spring semester after christmas break.  this will include new classes for us bigs and some new bigs.  as far as i know we are getting 4 new girl bigs which means there will be a total of 12 here.  it will be interesting to see how the dynamics of our group changes, but i'm excited to see what happens and i think it will be good to get some fresh blood in there.  pray that the littles will be able to accept the changes and give the new bigs a chance.  

narrow road

today i just got back from at retreat called the narrow road. we took five girl littles, and five guy littles, a few bigs, and some other staff to a camp called God's mountain.  the littles had showed interest in going, so they wanted to be there which was cool.  it was an awesome chance for us all to be outside of Shelterwood and outside of the norm.  it was a beautiful few days!  

God knew I needed to be there.  i had some really good conversations with some of the littles and staff.  i also was able to just be still with God and to lean and rest on Him.  i got some much needed emotional rest and time with God.

patience

this past weekend was pretty crazy because it was family weekend for the littles! most of their families arrived on Thursday night and stayed around until sunday. they stayed off property, but would come around during the days. it was a pretty draining weekend, but pretty cool to meet their families. i definitely learned a lot! thanks for praying for the weekend!

also, i just found out that i will be one of the three bigs going on the Narrow Road retreat this next tuesday until thursday! it is a spiritual retreat for littles that want to go! there are five girl littles going and five boy littles going. i'm really excited that i get to go, i know God has some amazing things planned there! if you want, you can be praying for that. i guess that their hearts would be open and willing to listen to God. also that it would be a refreshing time for me too.

God has been teaching me a lot about patience lately and someone asked me what God's patience toward me looked like....
a good question to ponder, any thoughts on that comment!

mere

family weekend

next weekend is family weekend.  the majority of the "littles" parents and siblings come to Shelterwood for the weekend.  this is an awesome opportunity for the parents and the kids and for us to meet their families, but also can be extremely challenging and stressful for them.  i just wanted to ask for prayers for this week that our girls would not get anxious about their families coming and that the weekend would be a great opportunity for them to bond and grow closer with their families, that it would spur their growth, rather than set it back.  

also if you could pray for the bigs, that we would give our anxieties about the weekend to the Lord, and rely on His words and His strength as we have the opportunity to minister to their families.

we talked about ecclesiastes 3:1-8 during our devos today. i just thought i would share it because it was a good reminder for me about time and seasons and that God is in control no matter what season it is.
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
I guess I was just reminded about how God is in all of these times and apart of all of these seasons.

g-rap

for those who do not know, i was able to go home this weekend to suprise my mom for her 50th birthday (she was definitely suprised)! it was a lot of fun and such a blessing to be able to see my family and friends and just be reminded about how much they love me and i them. i was also able to bring my friend Jenn home with me!! let's just say it was a pretty amazing weekend off!

i had other things to write about, but they seem to be slipping my mind now. i guess it'll have to wait until another day!

shalom