My 9

Favorite Things of this Very Moment (7:34 pm CST):

• "Magic" by Leagues
• The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
• Unsweetened ice tea
• Having my window open but my room being just the perfect temperature for me to be curled up typing this without being too hot or two cold
• The sleeping cat curled up behind me
• The letter from Sarah from my family group at FUEL this year
• Sarah
• Marisa
• Emilee
• Jamie
• Malorie
• Ashley
• Haley
• Cheyenne
• Julia

My awesome family group girls

They were incredible

I miss these girls

These pictures are of my girls.  I had 9 beautiful, hilarious, wonderful, sweet girls.  I probably haven't said much about them before, but I miss them.  They gave me 9 good reasons why youth ministry really is what I want to keep pursuing.  Working with girls like this was a new experience.  Last year I trained with an incredible lady named Julie Driskoll to be a counselor, but taking on a whole group by myself was totally different.  I learned a lot.  For instance, make sure you have snacks.  Also, foam weaponry can be dangerous when in the hands of 14-16 year old girls (or 25 year old girls...for that matter).

Most importantly, I learned that God will always give you the words you need to say what He needs you to say.  I really had no idea what I needed to be doing with these girls, even the training didn't give me a definite idea.  You kinda gotta feel your own way and figure out how you want to approach these kinds of things, and God gave me my own way.  I did a lot of praying that week that God would help me to not say too much or too little to the girls, but to help them find what they needed.

God always comes through.

We talked a lot about Romans 12:9-21.  It's one of my favorite bits of the Bible, and there is so much there to talk about.  We kinda jumped around in it, and then I talked about it all week.  It was amazing how well it tied into our theme this year which was TOGETHER.  

We talked about how we needed to be acting.  And I gave them little assignments, and made sure to do them myself.  We tried to notice all the amazing blessings God gave us big and small each day...all the things we could be thanking him for.  We also tried to do acts of kindness wherever we could.  It's amazing what something little like that can do to your perspective and your attitude.

What really blows me away?  The letters and notes and Facebook posts I get from the girls.  They have made lists of things they are thankful for, they have told me fears, hopes, dreams, and asked for prayers and advice.  They have told me how much they love and miss me, and I don't think I could ever express how much I love and miss them back.  I am so blessed to have these girls in my life.

God is amazing.  My girls are amazing, and I hope I get to keep them in my life as long as I am living.  They amaze me.  

Who are you blessed with?

It's Good to be Here

Favorite Things of This Very Moment (2:26 pm EST):

• Watching the new downstairs neighbors leave because the guy just opened his wife's car door and got her in the car before walking over to his side to get in. I'm telling you, those little gestures of love and kindness have huge payoffs.


• http://candychang.com/ (I love so much about this constantly)


• Learning that the Finnish word for "awesome" is Mahtava


• Kimmie's prayers and protective stance for me


• The super cute flowered shirt I'm wearing today. I think the stuff I bought over the weekend was actually worth my time, and I'm wearing color. Hoorah!

Last night I was feeling pretty lousy about life, but then I decided I was going to regroup and then approach life with joy and fervor today. I hate feeling lousy and I hate being such a whiner. I've been both far too often lately. Today I'm still hurting, but I'm not letting that stop me from enjoy today.

Recently I was talking to some friends about how I use to be such a good liar. I could fool anyone that I was doing just fine about anything any time. I definitely can't do that any more. At least not to the extent I use to. As much as I hate letting people see how I truly feel or what I really am at times, I think this is probably really healthy. I need to be honest about who I am and what I feel. You can't grow if you never let yourself stretch and move.

This afternoon I was introduced to the work of Candy Chang (whose beautiful, amazing, inspiring website is listed above). The picture at the top of this was taken today on my balcony. I had been looking at Chang's beautiful work and one project that really caught my attention was the collection of pictures that were taken of places where she had stenciled "It's good to be here." Considering my lame attitude lately, I decided this might just be something to keep me focused on the good. As a result I decided my balcony could use some cheer and did a little scribbling myself. I hope she doesn't mind, I needed something to inspire me, and that will work just fine for me.

I started an album of pictures that starts with that one. It's simply called "It's Good to be Here," and hopefully it will serve as a reminder as I add pictures that it IS good to be here. Wherever here is. Because I'm here and I can be happy with that. Even when life isn't perfect which is good because let's face it, life will NEVER be perfect.

Remember I love you.