Learning is Hard

I'm learning a lot about myself here in Virginia Beach. One of those things I have learned is that I'm bad at blogging. I apologize. I have no excuse for not updating this more often. I am very busy, but I also know that you all have supported me and are praying for me and I owe it to you to let you know what is going on.

Most of my time is taken up by work. This is a new challenge for me. Although I LOVE my job, my co-workers and my work environment, I have never necessarily liked working. It is a challenge for me to give up so much of my time to work, and I am learning how to keep a positive attitude even when it's hard. I would ask for prayers in this aspect as God is teaching me discipline and work ethic. 

My main struggle at the moment is missing Delaware Grace and Operation Everything. I am struggling knowing that most of the people I love are spending the week at a camp that I have not missed for the past 7 years. I know that I am here for a reason & that God is doing amazing work there through all of the amazing counselors and staff - I am just struggling with thoughts of what I would be doing if I was not here in this moment. This has not been a struggle for me until this week. I just pray that God will direct my heart to the things I am doing here & at the same time will be working tremendously through Operation Everything. I love you all.

The overall plan for the summer is focusing on the gospel, our walk with God, purity, & dreams, faith and the future. Right now we are in the section dealing with our personal walk with God. I would like to share with you some of the things I have been learning. The way I am going to do this is to type out some of my notes from sermons I have heard here. I am not going to elaborate, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask. These are some of the main points that have stuck out to me recently:

"The unique trait that Christianity has that no other religion has is grace"

"The one who never not existed DIED for us. He became sin. All sin past, present, future was laid on him. He bore the weight of all that sin."

"Religious people find God useful, Christians find Him beautiful. How do I find Him?"

"Our gospel is too small if it is anything less than death, but the promise of the gospel is life."

"We are dead and the life of Jesus is being revealed in us through our mortal bodies."

"God doesn't call us to witness... He calls us His witnesses."

"It's not about doing everything - it's about doing the right things and doing them well."

"There are no rules on developing intimacy with God. It is different for everyone. Devotions, prayer and worship are not a formula for how to get close to God."

"God wants us to bask in his glory and not try to 'measure up'. We put that pressure on ourselves, we are not called to 'measure up'."

These are scatterbrained and random, but I just wanted to give you some snippets of what I'm learning and what has been sticking out to me. Again, I know that I didn't explain these things, but I would be happy to discus any of them with anyone! 

I hope this blog entry finds you well & know that I have been in prayer for all of you as well! :)

Becca, Katlyn, myself & Shannon at Kroger

Some of the LT group hanging out in one of the boys condos. 

Megan, Becca & I hanging out - love these girls.

Zephaniah 3:17 - The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.