Thursday, April 21, 2011

Oh, How He Loves Us

The best feeling in the world is knowing that I have a Father in heaven that loves me unconditionally no matter what I do in life. I have been so blessed to see His unconditional love in my life. There are three different types of love eros commonly known as erotic love strong feelings towards another, philos a love based on friendship, and agape an unconditional love. Some of the best stories I have read in the Bible show God's agape love for his people. He has shown mercy and grace to many because He loved them. I believe He showed this most of all by sending Jesus to save us. His son was handed a life to live that none of us could ever compare to. Then Jesus died on the cross so he could be the sacrifice for our lives. This weekend is Easter thousands of people will go to church that normally do not attend a Sunday service. I believe that God will show people His love through countless sermons this weekend but it is our responsibilty to follow up with His love. What will we do with His love to share it with others?

I have spent a lot of time meditating on His love for me His daughter. I have been through moments within the past week of frustration and stress. Those nights I slept with the feeling of God wrapping his arms around me like I am His precious child that he will take care of.

So, I had the worries about my busar and getting my lease taken over before moving to Memphis in a short five and half weeks. It makes me laugh because I stress and fret as if God did not know how everything would be going for my life. People say His timing is perfect and that is indescribally true. I have been finalizing things with a girl that will be taking over my lease starting the beginning of May. This is a blessing for my lease to be taken over and for me to be able to apply what would be May rent to my bursar. I know that as things are slowly falling into place for me to move my bursar will be paid off before the end of May. I have a test the Praxis II test on April 30th. This test is for Tennessee, I was worried at the beginning of studying for it because it has material from all four main subject areas and I do not remember a lot of the content that is specified to study for the test. This week a peace has resided over me about this test. I know that every move thus far has been of the Lord and He will be with me as I take the test.

He shows His love everyday in the small and big things in life. We just need to take the time to appreciate the small and big. I think that we should take His love and share it with others. We should be selfless with this love it is unconditional and everyone deserves to encounter a love like His.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Bliss in the Battles

I have decided to create a blog because I am on a fast track journey with the Lord to living out my calling. I want friends and family to be able to keep up with me and the life that has been set before me to live. I also want to glorify God is every thing that happens in my life. I want to share all His victories so that people may be encouraged, grow, and be strengthened to share about what the Lord is doing in their lives.

I recently was accepted into a program in Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis Teacher Residency (MemphisTR.org) is an organization focused on equipping people to become highly effective teachers in urban areas. I will be living there and getting a Master's degree from June 2011-May 2012. After completion of the Master's program I will be placed into a school to teach. I foresee Memphis becoming my new home. Of course if the Lord calls me to serve Him somewhere I will follow Him.

I learned about the organization after a girl forwarded me an email she received about MTR. I was a little surprised because she knew that I had a heart to serve inner city children but we had not had many conversations about my future. I took time praying over the decision to apply to the program or to finish the full program at OU. I decided I would wait a year to apply because it would be more logical to go in a year. Especially since I was already placed on a mission trip to be an assistant leader to the Philippines. The reality is I was making a decision on my own. I wrestled with this decision because I was not receiving any peace about not applying to MTR. So I finally applied to the program. I was astonished when I had my phone interview I was immediately asked to go to the Spring Selection Weekend in March. I could barely remember the questions in the phone interview and knew the Lord was speaking through me that day. As I took my first trip alone I drove 7 hours to Memphis in March. I am usually a very high strung and stressed out kind of girl. That weekend I can say was  life changing weekend. I have never felt the Lord with me more than I did then. I had so much peace that I cannot describe it nor can I give credit to anything but God. I was extremely calm while I saw other girls going over their lessons again and again. I simply put my headphones in and listened to worship music because I knew I was there for Him that weekend and not me. So within a matter of three days after the weekend I was invited to attend MTR for the class of 2012. This was  a relief just so I knew what I would be doing after graduation. I also knew without a doubt this was the Lord's calling for me to serve him in Memphis.

So, since that phone call I have been in a whirl wind of action preparing for the end of my undergraduate at OU. I had to start sending things to Tennessee for background checks and for enrollment with Union University  which is the University my Masters will come from through MTR.

I hit a small bump earlier this week as I tried to get my transcript. I still owe money with the bursar at OU and they will not let me receive my transcript until it is paid off. This was the beginning of battles to be won by Jesus. So I frantically began to panic. The Lord does not stress nor does He not foresee the events that we will encounter. MTR was so amazing to allow me until the end of May to turn in my transcript based on the situation. I claim this as the Lord having favor and providing for me.

Small bump number two happened last night. I thought that I had my lease covered since it is until May of 2012. The person that was going to take over my lease is now not able to. I realized as I began to worry that this is not of the Lord. Satan will try to detour us from plans God has set before us because He does not want the Lord to have victory. I know that through experience when Jesus has big plans for us there will be many battles to try to throw us off track. I will not let these small curve balls win in my life and I want to share all of God's victories with you!!!