Stop Whining and Rejoice!

**So I've been working on a post most of the week now. Earlier this week, I almost finished it after school, refreshed my page (it saves automatically) and it didn't save:( So now I have to go back and re-write what I had written. I'm hoping it comes out better than it was now…looking on the bright side. But the other night at 923, the lesson kind of hit hard…so I wanted to briefly share…briefly being the key word.

***The post I've been working on will be up shortly =)


          My church is currently going through The Story! The blog I'm working on doing introduces The Story again and a little more in depth. Anyways we were on a chapter 6 which is titled The Wandering. At 923, the young adults meeting Kevin was teaching on this, and how it relates to our age group.
   
         I will say I missed some of the beginning of the lesson because I had to take a breath and try and change my attitude. I've had an extremely stressful few weeks and I had like reached my breaking point, and I had to lead that night. So I took a few minutes for myself, and after, I listened to the lesson from the back (because I didn't want to walk to the front in the middle of it)…and it hit me like a ton of bricks, when I finally got in for the lesson. My friend I was texting was telling me to get in there…and then I was just frozen with how much applied to me. I asked him, if he knew what Kevin was going to be talking about…like specifics, and he said he didn't…so that was all pretty awesome.

       Kevin was talking about how we all go through times of wandering. Those times are often filled with questions of the unknown. We may know where we're going but not how to get there, we may be searching for direction etc. I remember when I was about to graduate college and wondering where I'd get a job, would I get a job? If I got the job in Arizona, would I actually take it and move back there? And then when I got here and less than a week before we were going to open, found out the school couldn't open. There was another whole basket of questions and unknowns. When my brother was sick in the hospital all those CHRISTmas's ago. We didn't know if he would make it. It was a very scary time for us…and I remember feeling numb to it at times, hoping it was just a dream. Through all the trials I just mentioned…and many more…the LORD has provided. Kevin gave us this Scripture:

   "The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles."
                                                                                                  - Psalm 34:17 (NIV)

      When I think about it, that verse is so true in my life. God has always provided…even when it's not immediate or exactly the way I'd hoped it to be. But like Kevin said, we get insecure because we don't know the future. Then today ironically my roommate Claire (Kevin's fiancé) and I were girl talking and talking about faith. One thing that completely applies to this is the human's need for security. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they lost everything, and gained a lot of negative feelings and such that we were never intended to have. They were filled with insecurity and hid, and then want to security. This applied to this lesson well, because when we're in a time of wandering…we want security. The great thing is, even when life is uncertain, we can be secure in Christ!
     
      Going back to the verse, God promises to deliver us. "God's gonna throw us the ladder, we need to chose to grab it."- Kevin. We always complain about what we don't have, and are not thankful with what we do have. Even though what we have is a blessing…it's like…God, I really want this though… We need to CHOOSE JOY and be grateful for what He has done and is doing in our lives. We can also learn a lot in these times of wandering.

       Let's bring it to The Story now. So the Israelites have a Point A and a Point B. Their Point A was Egypt, and there Point B is the Promise Land…in between was a time of wandering, and in that time God had a plan and the Israelites had to trust. Many chose to complain and whine, while very few trusted the Lord- two specifically…Joshua and Caleb. Now to relate it to us from a faith perspective. Our Point A is being in slavery and bondage to sin. Our Point B is being delivered from sin and having eternal life in Christ. That is the big picture. In my case, I've already accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, but there are still Point A's and B's in life…and times of wandering or waiting.

       In fact, I've been in a wandering/waiting period. I'm not going to go into details on it, but it was really stressing me out. I guess I can be impatient and easily flooded with fear and doubt…when things are not set in stone. In fact, the other week I was worrying so much that I literally worried myself sick. It's something I really need to work on just trusting God in times of uncertainty and wandering. My mom was telling me just earlier that day to choose my attitude and I can still have a good attitude from this. I was trying to here and there and then Kevin said the exact same thing at 923 and the lesson just completely hit me hard. I was like, "Ok God, I know what I need to do." Let go, Let God and as Kevin said, "Choose your tude!"

      Then he tied it in greatly with some activities. The first was writing a letter to your future self, for when you're in a time of wandering. Since that is my current life, I did mine a little different. I wrote a letter to myself about my current state and things I'm thankful for. I was taking forever…the time for this activity and the next (which I'll tell about in a bit) ended and I was still writing my letter to myself. My friend Emily joined me and we had a fantastic talk. That girl is so fun and easy to talk to. Before we knew it, all the tables and chairs we're going up around us. I decided that night I would choose a better attitude, even if I'm frustrated. It was a very wonderful exercise and my friend and I want to do it more often, just letter's of encouragement to yourself and or other friends.  She wrote a list of ideas for different times you could write letter's for. I took a picture of it because I wanted to remember it and post it here.

        The second activity from that night, I never got to do at church, but I still wanted to do it. Let me tell you about it and I encourage you to do it as well! There are many organizations where you can send letter's and stuff to those in need. We looked at two. One is called Send Kids the World www.sendkidstheworld.com .  It is an organization with a list of children who have life-threatening illnesses.  It has a list of children, bio's for many, basic info, and addresses where you can send a letter. The other organization is called Operation Gratitude www.operationgratitude.com .  Here you can write letters to those serving and laying down their lives for our freedom and our country. This website has a lot more than just sending letters, they have care packages you can help with and stuff as well.  At our church we have a phrase: THERE'S MORE TO LIFE THAN ME. That is so true. Yes, we may be wandering or we may not be at this point, but there are others who are, and God has called us to a life of love. 

      "Jesus replied, ' Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"  

          - Matthew 22:  37-38

       I didn't get to write my letter Thursday night, so this morning (Saturday) I wrote it. The letter I decided today was to a sick child. It was hard trying to pick who to write to and knowing me, I'll probably end up writing to more than one eventually. I prayed before, as I started thinking…what do you say, in a situation like this…especially if there isn't a lot of info on the child's interests.  I wanted to focus on the fact that this person is loved and how brave they are. Christian artist Moriah Peter's keeps popping up, and she has a song called "BRAVE." I listened to it, and wanted to share it with the girl I'm writing to. So I mentioned it as well as her popular song "You Carry Me." I really like the song "Brave" so I'm going to share it here, as well as a picture I did at the top of my letter with the message of BRAVE & LOVE.

       That night after group, I stopped at Walmart to get a few things and I came across a flip calendar with verses and Christian sayings. I wanted to share a picture of the one from Friday morning. The funny thing is, Thursday night, I let go in a way. I wasn't 100% happy at the situation but, I was choosing a good attitude and working on trust.  The next day (Friday) it seems like as soon as I let go and was going to chose my attitude the wait was over. God is good. So no matter what season we are in let's stop our whining and REJOICE in what the Lord has given us. 

p.s. I'm going to attach both songs!!!

                                      

     

                                      

Confession: I had the worst time getting to a post office with my work location and hours, and then I was moving, so and everything is packed or something, so I'm going to rewrite the letter. I've felt guilty of not sending it yet, so I put it off but i'm on a vacation now, but will get to it- I just have to find the CD…b/c I don't think I can buy it at Target…but my goal is sent by CHRISTmas =) (2015)