White Ground Hogs Day

I love snow days, there is just a joyfulness in the air. Everyone is so relieved with the consequences of procrastination of homework being delayed. All are smiling and relaxed. And then there are those slim number of us who still get anxious and stress that we shouldn't be relaxing and should be doing all the things on our To Do List. You guessed it, I am one of those people. I have been wishing for a break for a month now and when it finally comes I can't even relax. When I have time to sit and think I don't like what comes to mind.

I have also been struggling lately with staying home this summer. I know I need to work and take classes so I can get money to study abroad and take classes to graduate on time. But my roommates have great plans for the summer, and I feel like so many other people do to. I know God is teaching me and preparing me and that season in my life is preparation for great plans He has for me.

I hate to vent so much but I must say one last thing, why is it that we feel so joyful and so close to our Father God one minute and then the next moment so alone. I know that God never leaves us alone, and that so many times we allow our flesh to consume us and make us feel so alone in this world. But I am homesick & heartsick. I feel very weak right now, I miss having someone tangible, that's all. If we all think about why we are alone and not trusting in God, I think we would come to that conclusion. It is comfortable to have someone tangible there by your side. But do you think being nailed to a cross was comfortable?

I feel so selfish at times when I get angry or frustrated when my plans don't go my way, but God never gets angry or frustrated. He smiles and lets us get it all out, then he comforts us with his truth. But when we have to hear about other peoples issues we pretend to listen and get annoyed.God never turns his back on us and he never forsakes us. This reminds me of the story in Hosea where God compares the Israelites unfaithfulness to Him and consuming themselves with the world, as a wife cheating on her husband. This is so beautiful to me because first, he sees us as his precious wife and the Creator of all things cares so much about us loving him and is hurt when we leave him.

My heart breaks everytime I think of this passage "she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot,” declares the LORD." Hosea 2:13. We commit adultry on Jesus daily, that is so powerful! Think about how serious this is. We judge daily those who murder, those who cheat or abuse their wife or husband, those who steal, but yet we turn around and turn against our loving Jesus for our "lovers". I understand God's anger towards the Israelites in the book of Hosea. But what God does in verses 14-23 gives me butterflies.

“Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her.
There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will respond as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

“In that day,” declares the LORD,
“you will call me ‘my husband’;
you will no longer call me ‘my master.’
I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
no longer will their names be invoked.
In that day I will make a covenant for them
with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky
and the creatures that move along the ground.
Bow and sword and battle
I will abolish from the land,
so that all may lie down in safety.
I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
in love and compassion.
I will betroth you in faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge the LORD.

“In that day I will respond,”
declares the LORD—
“I will respond to the skies,
and they will respond to the earth;
and the earth will respond to the grain,
the new wine and the olive oil,
and they will respond to Jezreel.
I will plant her for myself in the land;
I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’
I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’;
and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”

Wow, are you smiling right now? Why do we search for this so called companionship everyone is dieing for? Why do we find pleasure in the filth media feeds to us? We search for things in this world to fullfill us when God is right in front of us longing to give us all we need, longing to show us a life of adventure and wholeness. Thats the love I want, not the love that feels good, not the love with empty promises. But the love that is patient, kind, unfailing, Forever.

Blessed,
Heather

Blessed.

Hi World!

Well, this is my first blog ever and I am pretty excited about it! I am now offically a blogger =) hehe. I hope that I can write about my many travels and adventures in life but for now I will talk about how wonderfully blessed I am.

God has given me an amazing family, amazing sisters whom love and accept me for who I am, a support group that I would not survive without, a warm house, clean water, abudance of food (I don't remember the last time I was starving, ever.) and soo much more. I just cannot express how thankful I am.

My wonderful friend Camy is here to visit me. Tonight we went bowling with my dad and than got some yogurt. I sat while we discussed her Ethiopia trip at Braums (a wonderful Oklahoman restaraunt you all should try) and realized how blessed I really am. The simpilist things we take for granted, such as, clean water, warm showers, ice cream, sharing our faith freely. I find myself in pity parties often because my life is not going the way I planned. Such lack of faith I have at times, how many moments I make it all about Heather. But how many times has God forsaken me or proven that He is unstrustworthy? Zero. Yet we constantly think our plan is much bigger than the Creator of Heaven and Earth.

Camy shared with me a story of a young girl who dropped her whole life, and I mean EVERYTHING (Her boyfriend, college, living a comfortable life etc.) to live in Ethiopia and adopt 14 children. Katie, this girl I speak of, was 18 years old when God called her to Africa. She fearfully, but faithfully obeyed his calling. Her story is such an inspiration of how to live. This reminds me of the scripture in 1 Peter, "You love Him though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The joy for trusting him will be your salvation." Every picture on Katie's blog you see is of her smiling with so much geniune joy. She is finding fullfillment in serving the Lord even though she is fearful and had to leave everything behind. She is not finding joy in this World but in his works.

I challenge each of us to live a walk of faith, taking up our cross and dropping everything else. This is our souls we are risking ya know.

peace and love,
Heather