Contentment

                                                        Source: Uploaded by user via Katie on Pinterest  

    I know I've blogged about this topic a couple times before, but it's so deep and broad. I keep learning more about it and feel like sharing it with you all.
    I've really struggled with being content in the season of life God has me for quite a while now. I would have good days and bad days. Don't we all? But it truly was a daily battle. I constantly found myself on my knees begging God to provide me with satisfaction in the only place joy could be found: in Himself.
    However, knowing that I should be content in my God and actually being content are kinda different. Watching my friends move on and start new stages of life was devastating and brought a new wave of restlessness and utter discontent. Why do I have to be the one who is always left behind?! When will my turn come?
    But praise God that He does not let us wallow in our self-pity. I was reminded of all that I have and to be thankful for. God chose me. He saved me. And most certainly not based on anything that I had done! This alone should wipe any atom of discontent with my life. It gets better. He also showed me a gentle reminder that this world is not my home. I'm not going to be satisfied by anything on earth because I was created to live somewhere else entirely. However, God has blessed me with many earthly things. I have a wonderful family and a close relationship with my parents. I have a good job that I love. School is going well and am saving lots of money by being able to do CollegePlus! All these things go to show I have no reason to ever complain.
    When the next stage of life comes, I'll sure be ready. But I'm going to enjoy whatever this season has for me because that's where God has me. And that truly is best.

Love,
Katie :)

Christ: Our Everything(?)

This sermon by Paul Washer on the Gospel of Jesus Christ is humbling and it's convicting.
Do we really know Christ? Do we even try to comprehend what He did on the cross?
If you're anything like me, than you most certainly don't.
Yes, I realize that it's 103 minutes long. Yes, I understand that time is important to us nowadays.
But I beg of you, even if it takes you a whole week to listen to this, listen and let God work on your heart.
Be reminded of who Christ is and what He has done for us! How different our lives look in the light of the cross. Is He truly our everything?! Do we seek Him and love Him as we ought? The answer is of course not, but do we run with endurance? Are we running after holy things and loving what Christ loves?
Praise be to our LORD who took the full punishment of our sins and gave us His righteousness. What a good God we serve.
Here's another video by Paul Washer that's only three minutes long. Run after eternal things. Live for Christ.

Love,
Katie :)

That Dreaded Word

                                                    Source: jojolete.tumblr.com via My Upside on Pinterest

There's this word you see. This word that I dread saying more than anything else. That one word that I put off saying for as long as I can. Yes, you can butter it up or try and make it as happy as possible, but you can't take away that sorrowful connotation. Some of you may have already figured it out.
Goodbye.
We've all heard that saying, "It's not goodbye, it's see ya later." But does that take away any of the hurt that goes along with that? If you're anything like me, it seems to just hide the pain that we all really feel. Just a mask for the hurt and the sorrow we amplify by giving that final hug and waving that last farewell.
I had to do that today. I had dreaded this goodbye all summer. I put it off anytime I thought of it. Busyness kept it off my mind for sometime. This past week was quite a bit calmer and left me plenty of time to think. It wasn't a bad thing necessarily, but those adios's replayed over and over in my brain. I questioned why I had to be the one left behind. Yes, I know God has a perfect plan. Thank goodness for His promises never to forsake us. But oh the thought of loneliness threatened to overtake a thousand times over.
Believe me, that goodbye seemed to almost kill me. One of my best friends for over 14 years is leaving for college. I know we'll always be close friends and sisters due to our bond in Christ. But no more spontaneous Starbucks runs, no more stupid impulse shopping trips, no more just hanging out to watch movies and paint our nails. I'll be driving over to bug her all the time. She'll be so annoyed with me.
And this isn't the only goodbye. Three other of my dearest friends are leaving. Two to begin their sophomore years at college and another to serve for 9 months in a foreign country. I love these girls. I would do anything for them and I have done everything with them. These are my dear sisters in Christ who have been there for me countless times. Girls who I trust and love with all my heart.
Thank goodness for Sundays. The text preached just yesterday included this verse that I shall hold near and dear to my heart as I struggle to make this adjustment: "And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age." Matthew 28:30b. The LORD is with me to the end of the age. What better promise could I ask for to cling to? Praise God I have an amazing family and good friends to keep me company. I am blessed with a church who seeks God in everything they do and strives to reach out to every person in attendance.
In just a week's time, I'll be with my wonderful CollegePlus! friends who are diligent seekers of our great God. It will be a time of refreshment and encouragement that will be much needed and met with gratefulness.
God is good. Change is hard, but God remains the same through it all.

A Quote

                                                    Source: socutethings.tumblr.com via Katie on Pinterest

I came across this quote as I was reading The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller...

"In the imagery describing Christ and the church, we're dealing with male and female, not merely as facts of nature, but as the live and awe-full shadows of realities utterly beyond our control and largely beyond our knowledge." ~C.S. Lewis

Love,
Katie :)

Something To Chew On

"The thing that most consumes your thoughts is your god..."

Love,
Katie :)

"Not as I will, but as YOU will..."

This is what God's been teaching me:

                                              Source: Uploaded by user via Katie on Pinterest

 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

God has a plan for our lives if we are His children. A perfect one that isn't our plan. We must trust Him and follow His leading, even if it's not what we had in mind.  

Love,
Katie :)

Journal Post 2

3/8/12

Day 4 in Ethiopia

  Sitting under my mosquito net, I can feel Him as I never have before; like I could simply reach out and touch Him. Oh LORD Jesus how I love You. God is REAL. I have felt His presence and seen Him at work. We're in southern Ethiopia now. Everything is dirtier and everyone is poorer than I imagined. It doesn't even seem real. Yet these people live in the dirt with no clothes, no toilet, no beds, flies constantly in their eyes and ears, lice, bedbugs, cockroaches, no food, no water, etc. I've seen the real deal. And yet I got to praise Jesus WITH them. I felt true joy radiating from them. I started bawling from the sheer overwhelming feeling of it all. Oh praise be to God! I am so blessed to be here. Trusting God has never been so hard or so sweet. I've had to surrender my fears and my heart every second since we arrived here. And isn't that what God wants from us as His children? Just to completely give up control and say, "I know you got this, God."

Love,

Katie :)

Journal Post 1

 The following journal entries are unedited except for names and locations are taken out for the sake of their protection.

3/6/12

Day 2 in Ethiopia

 As soon as I inhaled my first breath in Africa, I knew I was in love. I can't stop obsessing over every beautiful detail. From the red, dusty dirt to the unfinished buildings, I LOVE it. This morning when my dad was in the shower, I got to stand on the balcony of our wonderfully tiny hotel room of the Riviera. I took in everything: the melody of the honking buses and the bustle of EVERYONE walking to work. I stared across the open field and took in the breathtaking view. The mountains are gorgeous. As one of the staff members organizations drove my dad and I to Hannah's Hope where Meddie lived while she waited to be part of our forever family, I drank in every last detail. The craziness of traffic, without stop signs or stoplights and people walking everywhere, thrilled me to the core. Going to Hannah's Hope was such a surreal experience. I had seen hundreds of pictures of MY sister there, and now I finally got to experience it. It was ten billion times better than I expected. I got to meet several members of the staff whom my parents had gotten to know pretty well. And the kids...my heart aches with how much I miss them and I only spent 30 minutes with them. One girl was of the same tribe as Meddie and I did a double take the first time I saw her. She looked almost identical to my sister. I absolutely adored her. She and another little Gambella girl were glued to me. I loved those two like they were my very own. And while I wished I could just take them home with me, I knew I they had families waiting to love on them and be united just like God had planned. After a painful goodbye, our driver took us to the organization we were working for over there. Soon after, the whole  team loaded up in a bus. Ok, so I already admit that I'm weird, but I've just always had this dream of riding on a bus through rutty, dirty roads in a foreign country. I lived that to its fullest today, and I loved every second of it. The project we went to today was filled with beautiful children who are being sponsered. We played jump rope, swung on the swings, made beaded necklaces and bracelets, sang songs, and played duck duck goose and Red Rover. Some of the kids were absolute stinkers, but I loved every single chocolate child to death. The language barrier was frustrating sometimes, but we communicated with hand gestures and facial expressions. (Random: people across the street are listening to J-Lo and it's pretty loud!) Probably the saddest thing I saw while we were at the project was when we passed out anything. It was a mad dash and it didn't matter who was in the way. They wanted it and they wanted it FIRST. I was almost bowled over when I broke out the Dum Dums. I had already decided that each kid could only have one lollipop. Well, because it was so crazy, I couldn't keep track of who I had given suckers to. So kids would hide theirs and end up with 3 or 4 suckers. It just goes to show how dependent we, as humans, are on STUFF, and we shouldn't be. Even through being completely frustrated with the kids for lying and cheating me out of suckers, the bottom line was I just needed to love them like Jesus. We lie and cheat and yet God loves us anyways. And that's why we're here: to be an example of Jesus Christ and His love to anyone we come in contact with.

Love,

Katie :)

What Are You Living For?

Ethiopian pathway

I think most of us know the Sunday school answer to this question.
"Why, to live for God, of course!"
I don't want to take away from this "correct" answer, but how many of us actually live that way?
I know I don't.
My perspective on life and what I was living for was completely changed after my Ethiopia trip.
I was living for myself.
I would get upset if the smallest thing didn't go my way.
I don't think I even realized it.
I would get angry and upset (internally of course. I would never show it) if my favorite cereal was gone or if only two people "liked" or "commented" on my Google+ posts.
I would get irritated with my siblings as quick as wink if they did the slightest thing wrong.
I would get mad at my parents if they didn't give me what I wanted.
I would spend hundreds of dollars on clothes and Starbucks that I was so sure I needed.
me me me me me me me ME!
Now, this is not to hate on social networks or shopping or anything like that.
But, think about it?
WHAT is your motivation behind everything you do?
Is it to gratify yourself?
Or
Is it to glorify God?
I have seen starvation.
I have seen poverty.
I have seen extreme sickness and disease.
I have seen the homeless.
I have seen people with literally NOTHING.
And yet..........
They are happy.
I saw children's faces light up when they got anything they could call their own.
They were SO CONTENT.
They had Jesus.
They were incredibly happy with anything you gave them because you gave it in the name of Jesus.
I bawled at McDonald's last night when I saw how uncontent everyone was with even the large amounts of STUFF they were being given.
I was reminded that as Americans we are not happy with anything.
These beautiful Africans were happy with nothing.
Why?
Because they had JESUS!
Let's take a lesson from that.
Bow down to Jesus and cry out to Him to show us how we need to live our lives in order that we may honor the One who gives us every good thing.

Over the next few days I'll be blogging my journal entries I wrote over the past week.

Seek HIM.
Honor the One who saved you.

Love,
Katie :)

A God Girl..."That's Who I Be"

                                                        Source: flickr.com via Katie on Pinterest

It's Valentine's Day.
Do I have a sweetheart to spend it with?
Mmmm that depends.
I have my Savior.
And HE is my first love.
He loves me and He saved me and is looking out for me.
Why on earth would I need a man?!
Don't get me wrong...I do still want to be married someday.
But for now I'm gonna be content to be a God girl.
I want to bubble over and talk about how amazing the love of my life is.
I'm His and that's enough.
He's my love and my heart is HIS!
Happy Valentine's Day :)

Be content in the only One who satisfies.

This song pretty much sums up what I've tried to convey up there. :D



Love,
Katie :)

Eternity: Billions and Billions of Ages and Ages

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"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, 
the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."
-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity 

This world was not meant to make us comfortable.
This life is a vapor.
It's just a 70-90 year rest stop on our way to eternity.
Eternity: lasting billions and billions of ages and ages.


Love,
Katie :)