Just Some Thoughts

Jesus loves unconditionally. Nothing I say or do or don't do can change that.

Baptisms are the most beautiful and amazing expressions of faith.

Working with Advance and its amazing staff and volunteers has allowed me to see the body of Christ at work and the power community can have on the lives of believers.

Everything is a choice. I can choose to be patient. I can choose to be understanding. I can choose to be angry and resentful. My choice can always be to turn to Jesus. That's a choice He's given us through the cross.

There are some things about Christianity and faith that I don't understand and feel discouraged that I never will. I'm learning to trust in how God works and moves and in the clarity of conversations with Godly friends.

My favorite thing in the whole entire world is reading. I am so content with a book. My perfect afternoon would include a Starbucks classic black tea with 8 pumps, a good book, and maybe a game of catch afterwards.

Watching a little boy's face light up at the sight of the big black train at Freedom Park is worth all the exhaustion and fatigue in the world.

Romans 8 is good for the soul.

I'm a thinker. Today my mom and I watched a special on the Freedom Riders of the Civil Rights Movement and I started thinking about what the alternatives could have been. Can you imagine if there was no Civil Rights Movement!? Or if they didn't preach nonviolence!?

I love it when tinys do their crazy eyes.

Reading through the Psalms and no matter how many times I've heard it or seen it (via the Little House on the Prairie movie), Psalm 23 still paints the most beautiful picture of God as our Shepherd and our Host.

'Prairie' is a word that I will never spell right the first time.

God calls us to love the poor and assist the people who have less than us. That includes the man standing on the corner or the woman in the homeless shelter. Francis Chan says, 'We're never more like Christ than when we're rescuing people."

'Asset' is my new favorite word. Its meaning and the significance it has had in my life rocks my world. It reminds me a lot of Romans 8:28 and how God works all things for good. Everything can be useful and valuable to us when we can learn to see it that way: when we've sacrificed, when we've hurt, when we make others a priority, when friends and family no longer hear the same call as us and we must learn to discern the voice of God for ourselves. It is all valuable to us. When you've reached the other side of your trial and it's all said and done and a price has been paid, you'll realize it was all an asset to you.

My friends: community: corner are the most important things to me. I only hope I have listened, served, shared, loved as much as you have.

Learning to become a person of grace.

Understanding the importance of Titus 3:3-7 in a whole new way.