I bought a couch!!!
Finally!!!
And it was free shipping!!!
And it’ll be here next Friday!!!
No more sore tailbone!!!
And the cushions are navy blue like I was looking for this WHOLE time!!!
Actually they’re indigo, but I don’t really care!!!
And it was only $127!!!
Guys I did a big girl thing!!!
And now I can have company!!!!
Couch!!!
Got my graduation dress today!
One week from tomorrow I’ll have a degree.
It’ll only be an AA degree, but still… It’s an accomplishment.
I graduate with an AA in Family, Youth and Community Science on May third, and I cannot wait. I’m so ready.
He’s really sweet. But I still have to pray about it. I should be desiring God more than anyone or anything, and I need to keep my eyes on Him and nobody else. No matter how sweet they are.
There might be a boy. But I don’t know. I just have to keep reminding myself of all of the reasons taking it slow is a good thing. We are just friends right now. I like it that way. I want it to stay that way for a while. I just have to keep praying about it.
Last night Westside Baptist Church in Gainesville, Florida (where I have been going for about a month or so) had a college and youth led service. Towards the end of the service, the college pastor asked for the youth and college students who have felt called into the ministry to come down to the front so other people could lay hands on them. I walked down along with several others. A bunch of people came down and laid their hands on us and prayed, some silently, some out loud.
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I think a small part of me has always known that God had called me into the ministry. I know that it’s my responsibility as a Christian to witness to others and spread the Gospel. I just haven’t felt it in the way I have until maybe a year or two ago. I don’t think I really knew what type of ministry God wanted me involved in. But everyday the call gets louder, and I can see God’s hand working in my life and showing me different things and situations in which I can minister to people. I’ve also really been trying to keep my heart open to missions. Some people are so gung ho about going overseas for missions, and that’s great that they’re willing, but it’s like they can’t see that God has so much for them to do in their own country. You have to go where God needs you to go. I just want to be so sure that I do that. I don’t want to get so excited about going to Africa that I can’t see the it’s my next door neighbor who really needs me. But I have been feeling more and more led to go overseas. I’ve been more and more willing to go each day. I just don’t know where.
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Moving to Gainesville has been so bittersweet for me. When I go to Westside, I feel so confident about my decision to move here. When I go to CRU, I feel confident. So many doors are open for me by going to those places. But I’ve had to close a lot of them. That’s been hard. It’s been very discouraging. I’ve been wanting to get involved with the anti-slavery movement for a very long time, but I didn’t know how to do it. I felt very discouraged back home because I felt like people just didn’t care, and I didn’t understand why and I was so offended and put off by it, but when I moved to Gainesville there were a lot of opportunities to get involved with that ministry. When I found out that UF had an IJM chapter, I was so overwhelmed with joy, I could hardly stand it. But their meetings are always on nights that I work. I’ve been so eager to get involved with this ministry and just get my feet wet in it, that I’ve really not been paying attention to my own chains, and I haven’t been praying for God to break them either. I’ve been very impatient, and it’s been a tough struggle. It’s so hard to want to just get out there and I just keep getting all these nos thrown in my face. It drives a girl crazy, you know. But then Westside had the college service. And walked to the front and let everyone know that I’ve been hearing God call me into ministry louder and louder every day. And I’m very new there so I don’t know many people outside of the college ministry, and there are only a handful that I talk to often. But a lady laid her hands on me and started praying out loud for me and said, “God, I ask that you would give her patience because these things don’t always happen right away.” I don’t know her name or even what she looks like since my head was bowed. I don’t know anything about her, but now she knows a little about me and it’s because God told her.
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I want to go. I want to get up and go so badly. But it’s not the right time. I need to ask God to break my chains, and I need to get to know Him better before I go out and tell people about Him. I can’t break someone else’s chains, if my hands are also bound. Everything is going to be fine, but I need to be patient. God’s timing is perfect timing, and I just need to sit down, shut up and realize that. I’ve not been very diligent about that, but being at Westside Baptist is helping. They are bringing Christ to me in a way I didn’t know possible. God is working in my life, and He is doing that through Westside.
