Perspective

So there's this guy. Joseph.

Loved by his father. Hated by his brothers. Sold into slavery. Close with the pharaoh. Thrown in jail falsely. Stayed there for years. Forgotten while in jail. Once remembered came to reign.

Joseph should be so pissed, right? I would be! Sure take the good with the bad but he was just done wrong. Yet he didn't keep a grudge.

When revealing who he was to his brothers finally he says, "Don't be upset, and don't be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. IT WAS GOD WHO SENT ME HERE ahead of you to preserve your lives. IT WAS GOD WHO SENT ME HERE, not you!"

Sometimes I wish that I could respond in that manner. Joseph remained faithful to God for years and didn't blame his brothers for the hell we went through. He gives glory to God for placing him where he was. When people do me wrong, I feel like I blame them constantly. "Look what you did to me. I"m like this because of you, and I don't like you because of that."

Why do I find it so difficult to let grudges go? Why do I blame God when something minor doesn't go the way that I would like it to? Joseph was also human. Same flesh and blood that I have. Nothing special, but he followed Christ. He trusted in Christ. He basically is saying (from my understanding of this story) that God sent him through those trials & God is the one who gets the praise He deserves at the end of it.

That one verse just rocked my world today. I need to realize that God does have a plan for me. I'm not in jail. I wasn't thrown in a pit by my brothers and sold because I was hated by them. Yet I fall apart daily. I'm not putting Joseph on a pedestal, because I'm sure that while he was going through the valleys he questioned God the same way I do unfortunately.

I'd love to have that attitude though, of God sent me through this because of .... fill in the blank. My story is still being written, but at the end of it I pray I have that attitude. Not an attitude of, "Why did you do this, God? but God sent me here & praise His name for it!

Growing Pains

I don't write much. This we all know (we as in maybe the 2 people that will read this)

This year has been absolutely amazing and extremely awful. It's definitely been a growing experience for me. This time last year I was not the woman I am today. You probably would have never been able to tell because I was very good at masking things, except to my close friends. (or so I thought I was good at it) I've done a 180 from who I was last year & I could not be more grateful for the prayers and love I received from everyone.

With that said, if I was the person I was a year ago I don't know how I would have handled this year. This year can be summed up as the year of loss for me. I  gained everything I ever wanted and lost it all in the same year. Don't get me wrong, My life is definitely not in shambles. I am very thankful for what God has brought me through.

I ended up posting mostly all the blogs that I wrote but saved as drafts, because I wasn't ready for people to read them. That is just a glimpse into my life last year. I hit bottom. I questioned everything I ever knew about God. I didn't receive His love, & I didn't want it. I thought so little of myself, and it showed. I didn't accept anything good, because I knew I didn't deserve it...

Until God blessed me with someone who changed my perspective on myself and God's love for me. This person showed me so much about God's love whether they knew it or not that I finally was able to accept it little by little. It was the acceptance of one person that made me realize God wants me even if I push Him out. It was that moment sitting on my couch that God told me this is just a miniscule amount of my love for you.

Months have gone since that moment. Many things have changed in my life. One of my best friends in Lynchburg who I saw every day and is my rock, got engaged and moved 2 hours away from me. My boyfriend who I thought I was spending the rest of my life with broke up with me. My unit at work is going through a ton of changes that are hard and taking a toll on me. We lost our unit manager. All my closest co-workers are actually leaving and getting new jobs. My roommate and close friend for 5 years may be moving back home.

Like I said everything that I was blessed with has been stripped from me. I'm amazed though because through this year of loss, God has grown me.

I went to Africa again where we all know my heart is. I've grown to love church again, and I walk away every Sunday overwhelmed with love for the friends I have grown to know since going to Uganda. I found an awesome small group that encourages me every week. I've never had a love for scripture like I do now. Working on CICU has brought me a friend that I am beyond grateful for and wouldn't give up for anything. I finally feel confident as a nurse. My bestest friend in the world moved back to Greensboro from Nashville.  I've given up my plan for my life and handed it to God.

They say bad things happen in threes. I wish! It's one thing after the other for me, but I FINALLY can say I have the confidence to stand tall and smile knowing that God is in control.

Bring on 2013

Enough (written on 8/4/12)

Ever feel like your not enough? I do every single day of my life.

I could be a better nurse.
I could be a better friend.
I'm not spiritual enough.
I'm not good enough.
I'm not pretty enough.
I'm not thin enough.

Sometimes I feel like a constant disappointment to friends, coworkers, especially God. I never take what God says as truth. A friend told me this past week that I needed to believe I am righteous in the eyes of God. I told her I had a hard time believing that. She responded back by telling me that the funny thing about that is, we can choose not to believe it, but that doesn't mean that it's not truth regardless. She told me that I needed to start believing God's Word as truth. God doesn't need me. I need Him. The glorious thing about that is He takes me as I am. I'm not enough, but God is.

Psalm 103
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

Real Talk. (written on 5/22/12)

I feel like the only time I write in here is when I am going through something huge. If anyone even reads this I'm sure they think I'm crazy. I don't care. For me, writing helps me compose my thoughts, so here I am yet again.

The past several months have been weird. Weird in a manner that I've felt things I've never felt before . . feelings towards God.

Anger. Abandonment. Bitterness. Apathy. Unbelief.

I voiced this to some of my closest friends. Typically I like to keep these things to myself. I'm the type of person that doesn't ask for help and hates when people try to help me. I'm the "I can do it on my own" type. Like good friends do, they were obviously concerned. They reached out and prayed for me. This made me even more aggravated. I genuinely didn't want their prayers. My thoughts were "Pray for something that matters. Pray for people that need it. I'm perfectly fine." I honestly did not want God's help or my friend's help. This led me to the belief that God was absent in my life. I continually pushed Him out and wanted nothing to do with Him.

The fact that I had to work every single weekend made it easy to avoid church. For the first time in my life I did not want to be at church. When I had the chance to go, I was uncomfortable. I didn't listen to anything the pastor said. I didn't sing the songs (which is weird for me because I love to sing) I put on my church face, and was glad to get out of there when it was over. I have never felt like God was so far away before, and I didn't even care.

Fortunately my friends continually asked me questions and encouraged me.

Friend would say, "I hope you don't mind me continually speaking truth to you."

I would say, "As long as you don't mind losing, b/c you won't win this battle."

Long story short. The battle still is not won. I think other people have been redeemed. I believe they have been forgiven. I strongly believe that God loves people immensely, but for some reason I don't believe any of that for myself in the least bit. Sometimes I just think it's easier to believe God has left me. Why else am I such a mess? If He is "so active" in my life then why hasn't He fixed me? It's tough to think He's here and is not doing anything in my life. I'm not saying I somewhat still don't feel like this. I don't like people getting close to me. I won't let them. Maybe this is the feeling that has led me to push God out. Who knows.

I don't even know what I'm saying anymore. I do know this . . . I'm glad I have friends that fight for me when I've completely given up on myself.

All I know is that I'm a disaster, but from what I hear God takes me as I am.

This Is It

If you know me at all, you know that when I freak out, I freak out to the max.

I may not voice it all the time, but on the inside I feel like I might explode.

Tonight I am going to my very first shift as a nurse. I'm off orientation, so it's just me...planning care for a patient, having their lives in my hands, the one responsible for their care. Does this warrant a panic attack? Yes it does.

Tonight while I was catching up on last week's episode of Grey's Anatomy and putting on makeup I just began to cry. You would think that I cried b/c I'm stressed out. Sure, that may have played a part, but I more began to cry b/c I was looking at myself in the mirror and I just felt God say, "This is it. I've brought you right here to this point. You are ready."

As I sat there & just looked at myself I began to realize, the grueling 6 weeks of Sophomore year in the summer, the sleepless nights of Junior year, the stress of Senior year, and my 12 weeks of orientation all boil down to right now. Literally the past 3 years of my life I did not think I would make it, yet here I am. It's comforting to know that God's plans work out when you think they never will. I've been learning and training since summer of 2009 to be right here, and I'm so thankful God has brought me here. I feel like for once in my life God is smiling on me. I feel like for the first time in my life I have finally made Him proud. This is it.

Here goes nothing.

Clean

Tonight was unexpected to say the least.

I had dinner with a couple people that I went to France with this past May.

Background:

I LOVED that trip. I really did, but coming back home I realized I had a ton of walls up during the trip. Our leader in France likes to discuss what he calls "matters of the heart" & honestly I don't ever want to talk about that. I don't see the point in talking about deep things to people that I barely know. Why let them into my thoughts and feelings when they don't deserve to know these things? So I went out of my way to avoid any and all topics that would lead conversation to that direction & when I got caught up in it once I averted it.

Back to tonight:

France guy comes into town. Wants to have dinner with some of us from the trip. In all honesty, I flipped flopped back and forth about if I wanted to go or not. I didn't by any means want to talk about my heart. Well the first 5 minutes changed me.

He turns to me and says "So tell me what's new since France. What have you been up to?"

I said the casual, "Oh well..a lot. I got a new job and just started 3 weeks ago and it has pretty much been taking up my time."

He says, "Do you have a boyfriend?"

I say, "No"

"Why not?"

"Because I don't need one."

"hmm. Why?"

"I'm just not ready."

"Why are you running from it?"

BOOM. I laughed & just said "Wow."

He says, "Why do you think you don't need a boyfriend?"

I said "Why do I need one? I haven't had one in 4 years. I'm doing just fine."

"How did it end?"

"Not well."

........ pause.

He looked me straight in the eyes & said, "Don't ever think you aren't good enough."

BOOM AGAIN.

I almost started crying right then and there.

I can pretty much fool anyone! How did he do that?

He then went on about how we lie to ourselves. How God came and made us clean. He said he talked to a girl once & he had asked her what she pictured herself wearing before God. Was it a clean white robe. The girl said absolutely not. That's how I feel. I feel I'm wearing the nastiest clothing with stains all over them.

We get told so much about how unworthy we are of God's love (which is true). How we don't deserve heaven, but God gives it to us anyways, all we need to do it accept it. How nasty our sin is....the thing we forget is that God has taken that sin away. We are without blemish.

We picture ourself clean and pure and white at the time of salvation. When God has taken us as His Child, but we never picture ourselves like that again. That is so true for me. I was ragged, then was saved and was cleansed, and all I've done since then is dirty myself up again when that isn't the truth at all. Yes, we don't deserve Christ's love, but He gave it WILLINGLY. God tells us that we don't have to think about the past, b/c it's already been forgiven. FORGIVEN. How is it years later I'm still trying to understand this concept.

There is so much more that happened within our conversation but basically that was the run down. We sat and talked about stuff for 3.5 hours. It was awesome. He laid down the truth. Hopefully I'll take what he says to heart.

He left me with this conversation . . .

"Tell yourself You are good enough."

"I'm trying."

"Try harder."

Letting Go

I love when God stretches me.

Sometimes he just wants me to give things over to Him. I kick and scream and put up a fight, but once I finally surrender it's such a good feeling.

I have put up a front for quite some time now. I wouldn't allow myself to feel hurt. I felt much stronger shoving my feelings aside and not dealing with things that would make me vulnerable. I didn't want to feel anything. Which, yeah, that can work, and honestly I felt awesome that I had that kind of control to turn my heart on and off. I didn't talk to anyone about it. I didn't need to, b/c I wasn't hurt, right?

False, God broke me Sunday. It's funny how much He knows me better then I know myself. I fooled myself to thinking that I actually didn't care. But the one thing that I do care about was being blockaded by something I wouldn't let go of. Barricaded by something that brought me nothing good, & only caused me to hurt. So Sunday, I let it go. Sometimes I need to face the fact that I can't be my own savior. I know where God wants me. He wants me in Africa, & I want to be there. Right now actually. I realized nothing is greater then that. Nothing is greater then God's plan for me. If I'm not in Africa I know I will not be ultimately happy.

In the grand scheme of things, God's plans for me in Africa are so much greater then the tiny miniscule things that I hold onto daily. You know, when you hold onto something you are basically telling God that He can't handle it. He can't fix it, only you can.

Sometimes you've got to give up in order to grow up.

I'm glad I'm on my way to growing up.