6 Minutes one Tuesday

Sometimes your alarm doesn't go off and all you can be thankful for is that you did wake up a whole 6 minutes before class and still made it in before the bell rang.



Sometimes its good to remember that your bad day really isn't that bad in comparison to all hurt going on on the East Coast.



Sometimes all you can do is laugh when your mom excitedly rejoices over your extra sleep.



Sometimes you can be thankful you didn't have breakfast so there is no really no choice about eating sugary smores at break.



Sometimes its good to be reminded that you don't have to look perfect and even more more importantly you yourself are not perfect.



Sometimes you just have to laugh of how God provides and works.



Yep life is good because God is good.

And One Day I got Older...

When I was little I just wanted to get older. The mystery of being older seemed to hold so many wonderful things. And than one day before I knew what had happened I was older and it was a very scary thing.



Being older met making decision all by my lonesome self.



Older met responsibility and sometimes not being able to do everything you wanted.



I got older and the little people I knew became older and grew into people of different personality and size.



Some people I knew got even older and then it was their time to go to their eternal home and I was left to weep.



Older met I cried more, but lauged ever more. I got older and learned very much about the God who is the same yesterday today and tomorrow.



Older met that life got hard, but God has seemed to become even more faithful. Just because of that I like being older

5 Minutes

Today is not 5 minute Friday, but for this college senior 5 minutes is all I have to write a blog post.



5 minutes is all the difference when are talking 6:00 in the morning.



5 minutes is a frantic race to the next class.



5 minutes is not much of a 50 minute class hour, but when you need the bell to ring 5 minutes last forever.



5 minutes is just enough time to brush your teeth. It's just enough time to walk outside and see a shooting star.



5 minutes for the sunset to go from beautiful to brilliant.



5 minutes to write your dad and tell him what you are thinking.



5 minutes to hear the giggles of the little nieces over the phone.



A lot can happen in 5 minutes and somehow I think there will be a lot of 5 minute moments this year.

The Places I went...

People wonder what was the best part of my summer. After spending the summer in 4 different places and each vastly different from the other its hard to know what was the best part.



The most amusing was the shocked looks of people when they found out I was an adult and not a little teenager. The curious little girl who wondered if I knew how to drive was simply the best. Somehow every time I fly I feel as though everybody is trying to help the "poor little girl". Its nice really. Maybe the more amusing thing though was laughing with my friends over things only we would laugh about. Nothing feels better than laughter that makes the tears come out.





Maybe the best thing of summer was when I stepped through the doors of a place I had never been before...the family homeless shelter. It was there that homeless shelter became more than just a name. It was a place that held faces..behind the faces there was hurt. There was a struggles to serve a God and understand Him to the fullest. It was there in that shelter next to the greyhound bus station where I felt humbled, stretched, and blessed to the very core.





Or maybe the best part of summer was when I went to a tiny town and slept in a tiny camper for a week and saw some very big things. I'm not sure why I liked that week in June so much. It might have been that I just enjoy quiet little towns and seeing a cornfield every day makes me happy. Maybe though it was because the storms were loud at night and I couldn't sleep. All day long there were things to do and bedtime came late, but there was always just enough strength. God was faithful during that short week as He proved Himself to be all summer.



Summer was sweet when I came to aunt's house and we ate lots of ice cream. We laughed and laughed. I heard my cousin laugh and I laughed some more. I got to make cookies and see pretty sunsets. I went to aunt's church and was blessed immensely. I read my Bible in a comfy chair in the corner room of the house. All the while spending time with my wonderful family. It really is true that NE is the good life you know.



Just maybe though I think the best part was knowing God always in control. I knew God was in control when everybody wanted to know what my summer plans were and school was a few days from ending I still didn't know. I knew God was in control when I saw the car I smashed. God was in control when the absurdly low airline ticket showed up whisking me home for a friend's wedding and allowing me very precious time with the family.





When summer is all said and done my suitcase will have been packed 6 times. I've gone to places known and some unknown. Time was spent with old friends and new people were met and made friends. Sometimes I felt sad other times I laughed and laughed. I never drank quite enough coffee, but had many a good conversation over coffee.



Summer of 2011 arrived and now is soon is departing but it will not be soon forgotten....



because God was faithful. The end.

This Little Town...

Confession. I wrote this over 2 months a go right after I finished helping with a VBS. It was a tiny town with little more than a post office. A town that those zipping by I-80 probably hardly even notice. I though have not forgotten the little town and its occupants. One week is a short piece of your life, its interesting how much you see in just one week. This is what I learned.



Take it or leave it.

A person knows of the broken homes and messy family situations most youth live in, however it is when these children are sitting in your Bible class, holding your hand, and giving you very amusing answers to your questions, when suddenly it feels like an icy sheet of ice has hit you. And suddenly you know that these children have been affect by the evil in our world. These are the children and teens who know too much about life. They do not know they know too much and it seems all sense of conscience has left them. You interact with the youth and they mistake you for someone for years younger than you really are. Somehow you try to talk to them to simply do anything to influence their lives for the Lord.

Suddenly you feel so very helpless and unsure. Once again I have learned there is nothing you can do outside the strength of the Lord. The youth leave the gathering and I wonder what will greet them when they return to their homes. Maybe I’m glad I don’t really know, but this doesn’t stop me from still hurting. Prayer I have found is the only antidote to this pain and even then its not really a cure. Instead a reminder, to not forget these children and teens.

This world is an evil awful place who am I to keep the “secret” to myself as to why this world holds so much good?

So this Girl...

This girl has the real beauty I think.

She loves the beauty of pink painted fingernails. Pretty pink hair barrettes are beauty to her.

She thrives on watching the beauty of fabulous food being made in the kitchen. She see the beauty of never having a dull moment and always ready for the next thing.

She see the beauty of an early morning and awakes early for it.

Laughing comes easily to her, because she knows its the beauty of life. She knows that even the small things can be funny.

She knows there is no beauty to aimless TV watching, so she begs to be occupied with somethings.

This girl knows that music adds beauty to life in a very wonderful way.

She knows the beauty of a tender touch and knows the beauty of taking compliments.



This is my cousin who has beauty in more ways than one. My cousin who will not talk till she sees the beauty of heaven. There she will do a lot of things that she was prevented from on this earth.







My cousins teaches me the beauty of life.



5 Minute Prompt.

Life is Good

It's a good life we live in. It's a terrible and cruel life we live in too. Two things so opposite of each other fill our lives with either hurt or joy. One thing must only be remembered. God is good.



The grass is parched and brown. There is a crunchy sound when you walk and it hurts your bare feet. The leaves fall off the tree to withered to survive to show their beautiful colors in the fall. Farmers walk through dry soil, stepping over deep cracks in the dry earth. Too many crops are just wilting away. This is life in KS where triple digit temps have ruled the summer and rain has begun to feel as a foreign notion in most minds.







We walk into prayer meeting and remind everyone to pray for rain. Of course God allready knows, but will the rain ever come?



The weather radio blars its loud signal right smack in the middle of church. No, tornados just a storm warning for somewhere not near the dry countryside we live in. Will the rain ever come?





Driving home there is a spactucular lightening show against the black sky. The air smells of rain and the trees are blowing, but is the rain coming? God knows and is faithful.



The lights dim and the wind is blowing hard with each bright white flash of lightening I see it. Rain drops. For hours it rains wetting the thirsty ground and giving life to crops teetering on the brink of death. The darkness prevents a rainbow, but there is no need I know God is faithful.



Is it not a reminder of God's goodness when it rains right after prayer meeting?



I hear the rain hitting the roof as I go to sleep and I think it has been a good last night in KS.



This is why life is good because God is faithful. Always.

So this is love...

You know you love a lot...

when you can't see out of the plane window because there are tears in your eyes. You wish that summer was forever and you could never leave these new found friends.

You love when you hug and find tears in your eyes. And than you look up and see tears in their eyes too and nothing more has be said.

Love is knowing that you are the most beautiful thing in God's sight because of the ugly shedding of Christ blood on your behalf.

Love is reading e-mails and not knowing the right words to say how much you care.

Love is seeing the hurt and pain of another and wishing violently to take it away.

Love is feeling oh so hurt, yet choosing to forgive because you have been loved and forgiven.

Love is wishing for a way to pack both big and little nieces and nephews into your suitcase for enjoyment later.

This is the person who likes to write amusing tales of her social blunders and private blunders too, because she thinks life is funny. The same person sometimes finds herself tearing over the more sacred times of life. Times of seeing the hurt of others, feeling the hurt, realizing the good byes are temporary, but mean too long of a separation. So this is me the one who laughs, but also cries when hopefully no one is looking because I love.