Everyone needs to have Friday nights like this every now and then. A great novel, a cozy apartment, and a warm bowl of popcorn can easily beat a night on the town...at least in my book:)
5/22/11
1/24/11
If we weren't sisters, we would just be best friends.
For me, today is a celebration of my dear sister's 24th birthday.
How blessed I am to get to know this beautiful woman forever. Not a day of my life has passed untouched by who she is.
I will never stop learning from JoAnna. Most days I will catch myself wondering what she would do or say in a given situation.
Ever since the days of playing Cinderella (when she would make me pretend to be Lucifer, the evil cat), I have watched this girl so closely. What a privilege to get to learn from someone like her.
One of the most significant things she has taught me in my life is the importance of making people feel like they can be themselves. Jo brings that best out of everyone she knows. I don't know if there is anyone who has ever encountered her who hasn't left feeling uplifted. Her honesty and soundness is challenging, prompting, and consistent with how she lives. I have seen the most obnoxious, senseless, and disagreeable people change after just a few minutes with her. She recognizes the flaws, quirks, and misfits that most would ridicule, but she just embraces them and somehow finds joy in them. It is something that I have always envied. I don't know how she does it, but I have experienced it and am so grateful for it.
This post would go on forever if I didn't just stop here. :)
She is absolutely amazing.
I love you my sweet sister.
Happy 24th. <3
Mad
How blessed I am to get to know this beautiful woman forever. Not a day of my life has passed untouched by who she is.
Her friendship is irreplaceable
Her encouragement unmatched
Her wisdom envied
Her joy contagious
Her interest genuine
Her prayer evident
Her kindness healing
Her beauty striking
Her love reliable
I will never stop learning from JoAnna. Most days I will catch myself wondering what she would do or say in a given situation.
Ever since the days of playing Cinderella (when she would make me pretend to be Lucifer, the evil cat), I have watched this girl so closely. What a privilege to get to learn from someone like her.
One of the most significant things she has taught me in my life is the importance of making people feel like they can be themselves. Jo brings that best out of everyone she knows. I don't know if there is anyone who has ever encountered her who hasn't left feeling uplifted. Her honesty and soundness is challenging, prompting, and consistent with how she lives. I have seen the most obnoxious, senseless, and disagreeable people change after just a few minutes with her. She recognizes the flaws, quirks, and misfits that most would ridicule, but she just embraces them and somehow finds joy in them. It is something that I have always envied. I don't know how she does it, but I have experienced it and am so grateful for it.
This post would go on forever if I didn't just stop here. :)
She is absolutely amazing.
I love you my sweet sister.
Happy 24th. <3
Mad
A Dismal Discovery
My Nutrition class is forcing me to realize things I would rather not...
Good thing I have only had about 500 of these in my life.
Good thing I have only had about 500 of these in my life.
Serving size: 1 muffin (135 g)
Calories: 430
Total fat: 2.5 g
Sodium: 540 mg
Total Carbs: 98g
Sugars: 57g
Why? :(
1/10/11
We Cannot Fathom.
Not even two weeks in, and this year has already been way too good :)
Over Christmas break, I had the wonderful opportunity to go to the Passion Conference in Atlanta, GA. After an afternoon of driving, I met up with three of my Asbury friends, and although I was very much enjoying my sedentary, holiday lifestyle in Mississippi, it was a perfect and much needed change of pace.
If I am being honest, I need to say that I have always shown hesitancy toward huge Christian conferences like this one. In the past I have assumed the teaching to be predictable, and the attendees to be impacted by little more than a temporary spiritual high. I carried this presupposition there with me, as if I had the right to limit God to my expectations, or lack there of. But it appears that God will move despite a lot of things if He wants to, including a skeptical brunette in a crowd.
It was a pretty amazing experience getting to be one of 22,000 college students worshiping and learning all together in the same place. The speakers were incredibly challenging, tackling issues such as the importance of acting out what you say you believe, how to make Christ the foundation of who you are, and a call to genuine, radical living. My heart was truly touched, and my mind undoubtedly stretched.
On top of having my faith rocked (in a good way), I got to spend time with three of my dear friends from Asbury. It was awesome to have the three of them all to myself for a few days before school. They are the best.
Leah, Jacob, James
GET THIS....
Do Something Now, is a huge social justice movement orchestrated by The Passion team and hundreds of their volunteers. This year at Passion 2011, the 22,000 students were united for the world in Jesus’ name. The goal was to fund ten local/global causes for a cost of $450,000. Pretty great goal right? Well, Our God is Greater.
Here are just a few of the astonishing numbers:
Restoration and a future for 10 girls trapped in sex slavery in Bolivia at a cost of $36,000. Given: 22 girls rescued/restored!
$50,000 to fund 50 Hydrocephalus surgeries in Uganda. Given: 141 surgeries!
200 small business loans for Afghan entrepreneurs totaling $40,000. Given: 387 loans!
Build 15 homes in Haiti at $54,000. Given: 39 homes!
Final Goal: 450,000
Total Given: $1,167,249.24
God - limited to our expectations?
Seriously, Maddi. Shut up.
Here are just a few of the astonishing numbers:
Restoration and a future for 10 girls trapped in sex slavery in Bolivia at a cost of $36,000. Given: 22 girls rescued/restored!
$50,000 to fund 50 Hydrocephalus surgeries in Uganda. Given: 141 surgeries!
200 small business loans for Afghan entrepreneurs totaling $40,000. Given: 387 loans!
Build 15 homes in Haiti at $54,000. Given: 39 homes!
Final Goal: 450,000
Total Given: $1,167,249.24
God - limited to our expectations?
Seriously, Maddi. Shut up.
1/1/11
A New Year
If I could sum up the main thing that I learned this past year into a sentence, it would be this: What you learn is useless, unless you make an effort to remember it and share it.
Being the ridiculous optimist that I am, I try to avoid using the word “regret” at all costs. But as I reflect on this past year and peek into the next, I am left with an apparent “what if.” What if I had kept better track of my many invaluable lessons from the year 2010? This question is the motivation behind my New Year’s resolution and, ergo, this new blog.
It will be impossible to record all that I learn this year, but I know some of it will be worth writing about. My hope is that these posts will be something that not only I can look back to, be reminded of, and learn from, but that others can as well. If only one person gains something from my posts, I will consider this blog a success.
There is a lot to be learned in the next 365 days. In just one year, I will graduate from college, live for several weeks in a different country (Lord willing), apply for my first full-time job, start my first full-time job (hopefully), move to new state (most likely), pay my first bill for my own house or apartment (this can wait), get a dog (absolute must!), and many more things in between!
It is a big year for me, and for millions just like me. Needless to say, many mistakes are right around the corner. I have entitled my blog “Faint Not” because this is something I know will need to be reverberated in my heart again and again in the coming months.
It has been told to me often, albeit unheard most of the time, that, “They who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall soar on wings like eagles; they shall walk and not faint. “ (Isaiah 40:31)
My prayer is that my life this year, no matter how I have to learn it, will reflect this beautiful truth!
Happy New Year!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)