turning twenty, ya'll

I turned twenty over Memorial Day weekend and realized a few things--

1. I am grateful for another year. I spent a few weeks bummed that I was hitting two decades because THAT FEELS OLD. Correction: that feels like growing up. But there are a lot of great things about growing up. And with each year, God introduces me to more professors, more classes, more life lessons, more exciting adventures, more places, and more best friends. Those are the best gifts I could ever ask for.

2. I forgot to mention...I spent the weekend on a cruise to the Bahamas. Yeah I am one lucky girl. While there I spent three days without a phone. Made me miss everyone back in America, but gave me time with three very special people. Time I won't always have. So I realized to be present is to be happy. Let it be.

3. The view from the ocean is AHHMAZIN'. God sure got the world right. Seriously most beautiful and breathtaking thing I have seen in a while. Glory to Him for showing a little bit of himself right there in the midst of a small boat carrying me from the cruise ship to the island. He is everywhere. Firmly believe it.

4. Summer classes online = real hard life. So I apologize in advance if posts get few and far between. I will come back strong, promise.

5. God bless America. I am thankful everyday that someone (both the military and Jesus Christ) afforded me a freedom I do not deserve.

Higher Than the Mountains That I Face

"Your love never fails it never gives up it never runs out on me"

-Jesus Culture, "One Thing Remains"

Thank you God for the beautiful and compassionate people in my life. I take advantage of their presence far too often. And thank you for Your unending grace...it's certainly going to be enough to get me through this summer. Let's climb these mountains together :)

Swiped this one from the Passion: White Flag CD one of my best friends made me! She leaves for Africa Saturday so please keep her in your prayers :)

Sing Worry, Why Should I Care?

Ah the struggle of my heart: worry. Probably the single biggest stumble in my life and Christian walk is that I worry too much. About almost everything. But really even about things that do not matter--where I will be in a year, how will I pay for graduate school, will I ever get married, what will my first job be--because I have no control over them. It is a constant reminder that I am not in control. But lately, that has been somewhat comforting. Isn't it a nice feeling when you can put all your strife in someone else's hands? I have been wholeheartedly trying to lay them at my Father's feet. I know He already knows the inside of my heartbeat, so he KNOWS that this girl carries the weight of the world on her shoulders. But he definitely does not want me to. I know this for sure. So here is to summer, the perfect time for me to let go, and let God. Amazing things happen when you do, don't they?

Okay John Mayer has done it again. Thanks to my favorite bad boy for "Age of Worry" off his new album, Born and Raised. 

John Mayer – The Age of Worry

Fly Over States

I'm less than two months away from the biggest trip of my life thus far. INDIA. The place I've been talking about since before I even started college, since Mercer offered me an all-expenses paid mission trip the summer between my sophomore and junior year. I have come to see it as an adventure far off on the horizon--one that I'd eventually get to have, but not yet. But here it is. The summer I take that leap of faith, which means my first plane ride, my longest long distance relationship to the people who matter most in my life, my first time that far from home, my first mission trip ever. A lot of firsts, and a lot of growing. I am trying not to have many lofty, unattainable expectations for the trip, but it's hard not to...and that's perfectly normal, right?

What do you expect from a trip like that? I try to summarize my expectations by two quotes very dear to my heart. The first, from Gandhi "the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others". What a genius idea. It's like someone else is holding the mirror to your face, the mirror you have needed and wanted for so long. Sometimes the mirror you've been avoiding. But regardless there it is, and someone else is holding it up for you. I am super excited to see that side of myself and to meet the person holding that mirror. Here's to losing and finding myself all in one trip 8,000 miles away.

And the second quote, straight out of God's word, a verse that has been on my heart for almost a year now--"therefore go and make disciples of all nations..." (Matthew 28:19). Whew that is a big one. I have wrestled and tangled and dissected this one for a while now, and every time I come back to it, it sheds a new light. Right now it speaks to me: go out into the big world (or into your own community for that matter...) and spread a little God. To me that doesn't look like me getting on a wooden box and yelling; doesn't look like me on a mountain, arms outstretched. To me it looks a lot like living a Christian life and being a God-fearing, God-filled woman. It looks a lot like love. Because that is what we are called to do, as Christians, to love on everybody we meet. Foremost, to give God all our love, then whatever we have left give it away to our neighbors. I cannot wait to love on the people over there, and see what kind of lessons they have waiting for me. I know it's great stuff. 

Also super excited to see God's creation above the clouds! Jeez we got a first time flyer over here :)

You know it's a country song if it's in my title...thanks Jason Aldean for my new favorite jam.