Maryland

Everything

College started two weeks ago and I'm still getting used to everything. I've been meaning to take my camera to school to take pictures around the campus, but I keep forgetting to bring it to school!

Since I don't know much about what's on campus or how to study in college, I've just been asking God to lead me. All I can do is rely on him because with God, the impossibles become possible! Honestly, I really want to do well on my first semester at Maryland. However it's easy to start relying on myself for knowledge and the mentality that hard work is the answer to hard classes. But I realized this past week that God has been with me throughout it all and that is how I am here. Not because of my own knowledge of wisdom, but because of God's wisdom and knowledge. Sometimes it's easy to add to Jesus' power. "Jesus helped me, but..." There's no but. It was all God. And so I pray that I can continue to rely on Jesus for knowledge, wisdom, and strength because he created all things and knows everything! Sometimes it seems too much to give up a little bit of sleep to spend time with God.

As an excerpt from the devotional book Jesus Calling says:

"Spending time alone with Me can be a difficult discipline because it goes against the activity addiction of this age. You may appear to be doing nothing, but actually you are participating in battles going on within spiritual realms. You are waging war- not with the weapons of the world, but with heavenly weapons, which have divine power to demolish strongholds. Living close to Me is a sure defense against evil."

Jesus' disciples often found Jesus praying at the Mount of Olives really early in the morning. With eternity in focus, giving up a little bit of my time in the morning isn't really a sacrifice. It equips me to battle throughout the day.

This is a really good message that my friend H recommended me to watch. It's 54 minutes long, but I assure you it will be worth your time!

We sang this at praise night last Saturday and the chorus has been repeating in my head.

Everything

All I am and all I have to bring

I will give to You my everything

Everything. Can I really give Him my everything?

I just finished reading "Anything the prayer that unlocked my God and my Soul" by Jennie Allen. Jennie Allen writes about the process her family went through as they prayed God to do "anything" with their lives. They obeyed God as He asked them to do certain things or to give up certain things. Eventually they adopted a boy from Rwanda! Can I really ask God to do anything with my life? It's not going to be an easy life but it's going to be so soo beautiful! 

Here is a little excerpts that caught my attention.

"He [God] gave me a vision that our generation would start giving him away rather than just learning about him. He wanted me to call and then equip women who already know and love God to gather friends, coworkers, neighors, and others into conversations- experiences centered on God. God was calling all of us who were spoiled with so much truth to live that truth and to give it away to those who may not have ever attended church or a more traditional Bible study."

This life is so temporary. Living in the mindset of eternity changes everything. It changes my attitude and the decisions that I make.

It changes everything.

I want to see God to amazing things but He calls me to risk all that I am holding onto. When we take risks, God shows up.

Pets

Yesterday was my first day of classes at the University of Maryland!

My first class was oral communications and we had to go around and introduce ourselves describing our past, present, and future. I was pleasantly surprised when almost every single person in our class had a dog or a cat (but most had dogs). I never thought our family would get a pet, but once we adopted Luna from the Greenbelt Animal Shelter, I suppose my outlook on having pets have changed. But as soon as we adopted Luna, I wondered, why do people have pets? The very first week we had Luna, she caught a cold. She kept sneezing, her eyes were infected, and she just looked so miserable. We took her to the vet and I realized that it takes a lot of effort and money to have pets. It's like having a baby, except it's a cat. We have to feed, bathe, and clean after Luna (not that I personally do these things...). So why do people like having pets? People don't need pets. I realized that people really love their pets and they have dogs/cats/etc because they want to. There's a limit to the love pets can return to their owners. Then it made me realize that God doesn't need us either. He doesn't love us because he needs us to love him back. Instead, He just delights in us! It's not that we can offer him something that he lacks. It's so good to just bask in His love. (:

I really like the lyrics to "Help Me Find It" by Sidewalk Prophets

"I don’t know where to go from here
It all used to seem so clear
I’m finding I can’t do this on my own...

I will trust in You

You've never failed before

If there’s a road I should walk

Help me find it"

It describes how I feel in this season of life. It's freshman year and although I know my final destination, I don't know where to go from here. I don't really know what I'm doing, but I suppose it's a learning process. All I can do is trust God. I have been just asking God to lead me because only He knows the best for me.