A Prayer

Oh Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, unity;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is error, truth;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is sadness, joy;
Where there is darkness, light.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;

For it is in the giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

St Francis of Assisi

The Lord is my Shepherd...

"All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.”
-2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Though you may not be directly tied to something as painful as the tragedy at Virginia Tech this past Monday, always look for opportunities to help someone who is going through something so difficult. Seek to be obedient as the Lord puts you in situations where He can use you.

Lord, I pray that you never waste one of my hurts. I want to be used by You to help others that hurting. Give me compassion, so that I can give it away. Give me love, so that I can give it away. May I never keep it for myself.

sweet mary.

Who's going to a Ben Folds concert on Tuesday?
I am.
Heavens to Bessie, I'm excited.

being aware.

"When you have the opportunity, take a look at a clock with a second hand. Stop what you are doing and just watch two minutes pass. In the grand scheme of things, two minutes might seem very short; but, consider the quality time you could have had with someone you know, someone you might meet, or someone you have lost. Every two minutes we have in this life can be spent doing something or spent doing nothing. I prefer to do something...whether I am spending quality time with the people I care about, pursuing new experiences, or doing anything else meaningful in my life. I work hard and I know will be a successful person when my life is over because, in many ways, I am successful already. I cannot always be doing the right thing, no one can. However, I try to spend every two minutes growing as a person and helping others rather than wasting time on that which is insignificant. "
-written by a friend-

Be still and know...

I'm learning. Slowly.

I moved home to Virginia exactly 3 months ago today. The transition has been a little difficult, but I really feel like God's been teaching me a lot. I'm a pretty stubborn learner. It normally takes me losing something, whether that be a piece of myself, something I treasure, or a person that's close to me. I'm not sure why I don't seem to listen the first time. Maybe I think I can figure it all out for myself. Well, I can't. That's for sure.

I think the lesson that He's been trying to get across to me recently is that I can trust Him. I've always been told I can, but sometimes things you're told aren't always easy to believe or understand. I put a lot of faith in things I can touch, or see, in friends or family that I respect, and in my own ability to figure things out or handle things. I may be reiterating what I said in the first paragraph, but I believe that He had to let me be broken in order for me to realize my huge need for Him. Believe it or not, I actually preached a sermon on this very subject in college. I guess I needed to heed my own words. Knowing something in your head doesn't necessarily mean that you know it in your heart.

So how does He teach me? Do you remember Algebra? Do you remember how to solve Algebra problems? I have to admit that I would have a problem remembering if it hadn't been for my recent experience with substitute teaching middle school. Talk about putting me on the spot.

"Miss Harrison, I'm not sure how to do this math problem."
"Well that's funny. I don't really know how to do that either. I guess I can ummm...
...try and figure it out? Leeeeet's see...ummm...Allllgebra 1, huh?"

Someone please tell me how you come off as a credible substitute teacher after the kids figure out you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

Ok...I'm getting sidetracked.

Algebra. If the problem looked something like this...
256 + X = 473
...you would subtract the 256 from both sides to get X by itself so that X would then equal 217.

So what's the point? The point is, in order to get an answer, you have to get rid of all the other stuff so that you can figure out what X equals. See the analogy? Maybe? Haha. I could be reaching on this one...but...I really think that in order for God to get me to listen, in order for Him to help me find my purpose, my direction, my "equal sign", He has to break me down. He has to take away all the other stuff that surrounds me, the stuff that makes life look difficult. Once He gets me by myself, then He can start to talk to me. Because that's when I start to listen.

I'm a pretty social person. I like to be around people. The problem is, a lot of times people are a distraction for me. It's in those quiet moments when I'm sitting at home alone that the Lord starts to speak, because He knows that's when I'll be listening.

"Be still and know that I am God."

Lord, give me ears to hear.

I didn't want to come home...

After an incredible week at camp with some seriously incredible girls, I didn't want to come home. For once, I felt like I was where I was supposed to be. I felt like the Lord was using me and I wasn't shrinking back from His calling. I could be myself; I could laugh at everything and not fight against the tendency to hide away in my room and not talk to people. It was the most fulfilling experience of my life. Why have I been so scared of it all this time? Now I'm dealing with life as it is and what I'm supposed to do on a day to day basis.

(more pictures here: http://olivet.facebook.com/photos.php?id=69600685&l=aa740 in the Ludlow Falls Camp album)

a picture's worth a thousand words

So I live a ways away from my family and several of my friends, not all of which are cool enough to have facebook, obviously, or they would. I've just found that facebook is the easiest way to post up pictures of life as I know it in neatly stored albums with unlimited capacity. I like blogger cause I can write and post pictures, but for straight up albums I'm going to dump my pictures on facebook. The cool thing about facebook is that people that don't have facebook can still see the pictures. I just found this out so I'm...needless to say...excited.

So Mom, this one's for you.

http://olivet.facebook.com/photos.php?id=69600685&l=aa740

Here's to finding a place to write. Not always thinking about what's coming next. It's almost a reflex, my mind on the screen.