Last week two of my sisters from the Dandelion House (what we call the house we live in) and I went for a magnificent day trip to Bodega Bay, it was a beautiful time to say the least!
Standing on the beach last week I was reminded of the many times I had been standing on a sandy shore when God had spoken to my heart. Eyes closed and face tilted back into the wind, little tears gathered as I was reminded of the different places I have been at throughout my life as a Christian and how His grace has carried me throughout each season. Here are a few pictures from our trip:
:) Nothing beats the simplicity of unhurried quality time spent with dear friends. We had such a wonderful time reflecting upon and sharing our love for eachother and remembering the faithfulness of God to each us throughout our friendships with one another. Lolo (the beauty playing my Ukulele) is about to travel to Mozambique to care for orphans and teach people about the love of Jesus! Kiersten and I are going to miss her dearly!
In my last blog post I had intimated that the Lord had been speaking to me about alot of things lately. (Which within the last 2-3 months He really has!) In this post I wanted to share some of those lessons learned.
"Your identity is not what you do"
Sounds simple enough right? Or maybe to your natural mind you may think, "Well of course it is!" That is how I felt when I first heard that preached in a sermon a few years ago. The thought was offensive to me. You see because I had tried to derive importance from my extra-curricular activities and accomplishments all of my life and was participating in most of them because I wanted to feel that I had significance and worth. Wanting to feel "important" has always been a struggle for me. I am daily being reminded now that all my value and importance lies alone in God's love for me. I had began to realize this truth about identity a couple years ago once I had started to become more aware that what will matter in Eternity, when we see Jesus face to face, isn't the same with what much of society tells us is of worth and value now. I.e. building and acquiring for yourself, making your own name known. God so lovingly and gently reminded me again in a big way to not place my value in any of my goals or accomplishments but solely in who I am in Him; a daughter of God and a bride of Christ. Taking the pressure off of me to "do something important" with my life and releasing me to simply follow Him however He may lead and let Him take care of the rest. Loving and obeying God is far more important (and truly productive when you think about it) than constructing and following any seemingly good plan I could map out for myself. Inevitably I trust that my life will have have lasting value and importance if I am truly being led by and abiding in Him :)
"Not making decisions based out of fear"
This is a huge one! I realized that as I made any decisions based off of fear, for example- being afraid of my future, what others might think of me, etc. that would lead me to make more decisions based off of fear and then lead me off the path that the Lord would be intending. Basically He showed me to always check my heart and make sure I am making decisions and choices with a heart of love, trust and gratitude to Him and not making decisions based off of selfishness, anxiety or any kind of fearful resignation. It is really simple and as a Christian it may seem like a no-brainer (as God calls us to not be afraid or worried about anything!) but having words to put to it I have been able to check my heart more often and keep it clean and pure before Him. I have been more at peace than ever.
Well that is all I will share for now, that the Lord is good and His mercy really does go on forever! I want to make much of Jesus and bring Him the most glory possible in every area of my life. I pray that by His grace He would enable me to do that :)
Acts 17:28 "For in Him we live and move and have our being...For we are also His offspring."
I pray that you are all having an amazing week! Blessings :)
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