Sarah Schepens

Today I hung out with Sarah for one of the last times before she goes on her mission so I just wanted to take some time and write about her and how much she has impacted me. :)

Sarah is so wise and just has this peace about her. No matter what goes on, or what is happening she always seems to be filled with this incomprehensible peace. It's definitely a gift from God.
Over the past few months I've had the privilege of getting to know her. Her story is amazing. I still remember the first time we hung out outside of Life Group at Starbucks and she just told me her story. She's been through so much and has so much to offer.
She's given me advice that I've really taken to heart.
She's become a "big sister" in my life. I look up to her and I know that I can go to her with anything and she always knows just what to say.
Today was probably the last time I'll get to see her for awhile because she is moving to Jordan for a year. While this is REALLY sad and slightly depressing, she is going to do INCREDIBLE things over there so it's hard to be too sad about her leaving.
She's been preparing for this trip for a long time and I can't wait to see how God uses her!

I'll miss you, friend!!!

Song currently on repeat?

Love Came Down
Brian Johnson

If my heart is overwhelmed and I cannot hear your voice
I hold onto what is true, though I cannot see
If the storms of life they come, and the road ahead gets steep
I will lift these hands in faith, I will believe
I remind myself of all that you’ve done
And the life I have because of your son

Love came down and rescued me
Love came down and set me free
I am yours
I am forever yours
Mountain high or valley low
I sing out and remind my soul
I am yours
I am forever yours

When my heart is filled with hope, and every promise comes my way
When I feel your hands of grace, rest upon me
Staying desperate for you God, Staying humbled at your feet
I will lift these hands and praise, I will believe

Love came down and rescued me
Love came down and set me free
I am yours
I am forever yours
Mountain high or valley low
I sing out and remind my soul
I am yours
I am forever yours


Such an amazing song. From the "Love Came Down" cd. If you don't have it... GET it!
It is absolutely incredible!

My favorite line:
Staying desperate for you God, Staying humbled at your feet

Wise Words

"When you become okay with where you are with God, you'll become okay with where you are in life"
-Sarah

I went on a walk with Sarah today.
(Can I just say how blessed I am to have her in my life?
She is just so amazing. She is just so wise and I feel
like anything I talk to her about.. she's experienced
or has just..... amazing words of encouragement for me.)

We talked a lot about why I had my little freak out
sesh this week and she just had words of encouragement for me.

Like... that relationships change. And that's okay.
And that (as hard as it is) I can't compare my time line
to other peoples.
And that it's okay to be upset or sad that things are
changing... but to not dwell on it.
To grant myself the grace to be upset.
But to still trust God with where I am (or rather.....
where He has me).

Just a really good day.

Love you Sarah!

Corrections, Corrections

Alrighty... so about the post from last night.

I didn't mean that I didn't have friends.
Or people that I can count on. At all.
Because I do.

I have:
Tina
Ariel
Amanda
Megan
Chelsey
Andrea
Stephanie
Jamie
Jessica
Breanna
Sarah

And I absolutely LOVE all of those girls.
A LOT. A lot a lot.

I just meant that out of some of those girls
who even reside in the same town...
I feel a change coming.

Which is fine.
Change is good. It strengthens relationships.
But it's just really hard to deal with at first.

I had a really long talk with Ariel last night.
It was good.
We were actually able to talk about stuff that we
normally just get in big fights about.
I definitely think God had a part in that.

I also talked to Amanda today.
And her words of encouragement that things would change
when she moved in with Holly but they could be good changes
were so great to hear.

And also, I did not mean to tag Chelsey in the last
post.
I accidently did it and since I am new to all these
"Gadgets" on blogger I didn't know how to "un-tag" her.
So, Chelsey, I am sorry. I love you dearly. :)

That's all for now.

The Fast is over...

So now that the fast is over I want to share with all of you the things that impacted me and just how the overall experience was.

At first, I had a really hard time with the fast. Not knowing what was going on with all of my friends every second of the day was extremely difficult for me. I didn't know what to do with all the time I seemed to have. Well, I knew what I SHOULD have been doing... what the point of the fast was... you know, seeking God.. but I couldn't bring myself to sit down and start journaling and talking to God. I realized that the reason I kept putting it off was because I was afraid I wouldn't hear Him. That even with the "noise" removed from my life... I wouldn't hear Him. So, for the first few days I watched some TV, spent some time with my family, and did some worship paintings. Then (I think it was someone at lifegroup) I heard someone saying that even if God chooses to not speak to you some days, it's worship to simply seek after Him and just spend time focusing on His words and even reflecting back on the things He was spoken to you before. So I just started talking to Him.

My first time talking to Him during the fast was amazing. I just poured out what I had been meaning to write down for awhile. A lot of thanksgiving and praise.

That first week I feel that I got a grasp on time again. Time seemed to go by so slow when I wasn't wasting it away online. I felt that I had SO much more time to just spend with God. The rest of that week I just spent praising God.

The second week Nate spoke about anchoring yourself in the word which filled me with conviction. That's something that I'm not very good at. So that week was spent just going over scriptures and finding new ones that I fell in love with. Here are just some of them:
Zeph: 3:17
Isaiah 62:1-12
Ephesians
Philippians 1:6
The days kept going by and I spent more and more time in the word. I spent hours just journaling and listening to God and thinking about stuff. I became more and more comfortable with the silence. So much in fact that just now, I tried listening to music and do this... and I got distracted. I had to turn it off. That's how much I have fallen in love with silence. I crave it now.

I had coffee with Sarah today and, among many other things, she talked about how the silence has to become a lifestyle. That it's a discipline you have to ease yourself into. And it's so true. I had the hardest time with it at first but now I long to just go sit in my room with the bible and my journal and just go after God. It's amazing.

So overall, this past month has been incredible. I loved it. I feel like I really connected with God and reached a new level of intimacy with Him. I can't wait to see what comes next!

Mmmmm.... David Gray

As I was sitting here listening to David Gray's CD (Draw the Line) I decided I should write a blog seeing as I haven't written in awhile.
Well, Christmas has come and gone. Which is weird. Because it didn't even feel like Thanksgiving had happened and then here came Christmas! But a lot of things have been going on so lets just start updating...
Life group ended. :( It was very sad. The last night, however, was a lot of fun. We played telephone pictionary which always provides laughter for the entire night. I'm really gonna miss those girls, but I'm excited for a new group with new people and new topics.
I went to pick up Chelsey from the airport. It was really good. I had never driven that long by myself before and I was really looking forward to it just to spend some time with God and I did! I listened to worship music the whole way down there and just prayed and talked to Him and it was really good. The ride back was good too. Just being able to talk with her was really good. It's hard to keep in super good touch when we are both crazy busy and she lives 12 hours away so it was a really good time to catch up.
Spent time with Chels, Steph, Tina, and Jamie. It was really good. I love them all. We had some good times complete with laughter... laughter... and laughter.
Had all my finals... went well except for my Art one. However, I got a C in the class so I'm all good! I've gotten all my grades except for my world religions one and they've all been good!
I've been having to work a longer shift at work because the kids are out of school. It's been good because I know it's extra money, but it's hard to be with the kids that long. They get so restless and they don't want to be there so it makes it difficult for ME to want to be there. But on the plus side I got to work in the toddler room for a couple days which was fun.
Christmas was good. I got a lot more stuff than I thought I was going to. My fav gifts were my PINK headphones and my David Gray cd! Oh and SEASON 1 OF WEEDS!!! I can't wait to rewatch that and then start gathering all of the seasons!
Oh! Story!
Stirring has been doing this "Consumed" series which is all about how consumerism wars for our hearts and how we can't be consumed with God AND money. Well I felt that it was all stuff that I had heard before till Sarah started talking about loans and financial aid at LG. She was asking if loans were technically debt and how she should go about approaching that subject. Well, Emily told her that as long as the money was being used for school then it was being used for what it was meant! Well, this hit me. Pretty hard. I had used ALL the last few semesters financial aid to pay off my old car and to get other things. Like, my iPod and all that jazz. Well, I was feeling really convicted when I realized that I can't do anything about that now. However, I was going to use this next semesters money to pay for part of Cosmetology school and to pay off other things. So I started praying about it and I realized that this didn't sit well with me. I wanted to do these things on my own with the money that God has provided me with and I want to TRUST him to provide everything. So I took a HUGE leap of faith and I dropped all my classes for next semester. I prayed before I did it and felt that it was the right thing to do.
Oh! Speaking of Cosmetology school... I went and did an orientation/meeting thing and I loved it. If I was excited before I went.... I don't even know what I am now!
Just seeing all the girls (and one boy) there and doing the stuff and having it all be hands on got me SO excited! I can't wait! Yay yay yay!
Hope everyone else had a great Holiday season! See ya in the new year!