THE BIG NEWS

I AM MOVING TO RIVERSIDE, CA!!!

love...

I made her . . . She is different, She is unique, With love I formed her in her mother’s womb. I fashioned her with great joy. I remember, with great pleasure, the day I created her. (Psalm 139:13-16)

I love her smile, I love her ways, I love to hear her laugh, And the silly things she says and does. She brings Me great pleasure. This is how I made her. (Psalm 139:17)

I made her pretty and not beautiful, Because I knew her heart, And knew she would be vain . . . I wanted her to search out her heart, And to learn that it would be Me in her That would make her beautiful . . . And it would be Me in her That would draw friends to her. (1 Peter 3:3-5)

I made her in such a way, That she would need Me. I made her a little more lonesome Than she would like to be . . . Only because I need for her to lean and depend on Me . . . I know her heart, I know if I had not Made her like this, She would go her own chosen way And forget Me . . . her Creator. (Psalm 62:5-8)

I have given her many good and happy things Because I love her. (Psalm 84:11, Romans 8:23)

Because I love her, I have seen her broken heart . . . And the tears she cried alone. I have cried with her, And had a broken heart, too. (Psalm 56:8)

Many times she has stumbled And fallen alone Only because she would not hold My Hand, So many lessons she’s learned The hard way. Because she would not listen To My voice . . . (Isaiah 53:6)

So many times I have sat back And sadly watched her go Her merry way alone. Only to watch her return to My arms, sad and broken. (Isaiah 62:2)

And now she is Mine again . . . I made her, and then I bought her . . . Because I love her. (Romans 5:8)

I have to reshape her and remold her . . . To renew her to what I had planned for her to be. It has not been easy for her, Or for Me. (Jeremiah 29:11)

I want her to be conformed to My image . . . This is the high goal I have set for her, Because I love her. (2 Corinthians 2:14)

Dreams and Adventures

My life has recently been turned around completely...

I left a school I had been at for 5 years.

I sold a truck I had had for 7.

I moved out of a house I had been in for 3.

AND broke off a relationship that I had had for 2.5 years. 

All this in a week in May.

I am now at a really unique place in life, a real live blank slate. I have no place to live, no job, and a little money in the bank to get me wherever God takes me.

I could go to Germany and see so many of my friends and speak German, or live in Norman with my friends, or Konawa with my family, or go to San Diego (my very favorite city), or to Huntington Beach...

But you know where I feel God leading... Riverside, California. 

Two words: Smog, Desert. 

I am in the process of getting counsel right now.

All of this is showing me that I am not in the center of my world... God has way bigger plans than I could ever dream of for myself. He is so faithful to keep pushing me past little rest stops I choose to take in my life, to this big, wonderful world of adventure that I get to be a part of!!!!

One of my very deepest dreams and desires is to be a missionary in Africa. 

I fell in love with Africa in 6th grade when studying a mountain gorillas and reading biographies of Diane Fossey. I love how wild and vast Africa is. It is beautiful. The PEOPLE are so beautiful.

Who knows, maybe moving to Riverside is the next step to that dream or maybe God has something totally different in mind. All I do know is that it will be a total adventure!! 

Starting over again...

Isn't it bittersweet? ... this idea of a new beginning, so much hope, yet so many regrets. They have been constant, beloved, hateful companions of all of us. The regrets and the time lost and the wishes of wanting to go back and change just a few decisions, these come with the start over. Knowing the fools we have been and the opportunities missed are almost too much to bear sometimes. The sweetness comes in being made conscious of the fact we are making a mistake. That little voice calls out and says, " There isn't something quite right about this." In light of the voice we are faced with a decision to follow the voice's leading or continue on the path. Some choose to ignore it, choosing to remain on the path chosen, for the cost is too high for them. Some want to change, but when faced with the hard choices of changing, choose the same old path, fearing the unknown. Some however choose to believe the voice's warning and follow. These few are the blessed ones, for these experience the sweetness of knowing they were... stupid and can now change that pattern. I hope to be the one who knows how stupid I truly am!!!

Larry Christy in Laguna

I saw this man's work and it is AMAZING... They are these huge masterpieces! I love his use of color!