It’s been quite a minute since I decided to “publish” my thoughts here. As I reopened the tab to this website and read the only other piece in here, I realized how much has changed since writing The Frog and the Toad, but yet how much is still the same. First of all, I’m three years older, that in itself gives a pretty good idea at how much has changed. Second, I have graduated from college and am now attending nursing school (I really didn’t think that would pan out) and I live in an apartment with one of my best friends from college who I wasn’t even friends with yet when I started this blog. Even though my age and phase of life has changed, I’m still that same girl that loves to write. There’s no way I’ll ever post all of the things I think about or write in my journal (y’all know that would be a trip around the moon and back), but I like to think that maybe the thoughts, ideas, and dreams I have, aren’t just for me. Of course they’re for my own inspiration and admiration, but why would God give me such a love for writing (and even thinking.. that could be a gift, too right?) if some of it wasn’t meant to bless other people? Sometimes I think about how the journals I’ve gone through and am currently going through will be old and dusty one day, but so comfortable in the hands of whoever picks them up because of how many times my hands have touched them throughout the years. I hope that my kids and grandkids keep them and are able to gather bits and pieces of what my life was like, and how I prayed for them even years before their existence.
What hasn’t changed at all since my last post is knowing and constantly desiring for God to be the complete center of my life. The ONE thing that I desire above all else. My heart belongs to Him before it belongs to my family or the man that I’ll marry one day. People make decisions based on the things that are most important to them. For example, parents make decisions around their kids, and college students make decisions based around their friends and grades. My thoughts and actions revolve around the thing that my heart loves. When the thing that my heart loves is Jesus, the things that flow from my heart will be centered around Him.
“Here’s the one thing I crave from God, the one thing I seek above all else: I want the privilege of living with him every moment in his house, finding the sweet loveliness of his face, filled with awe, delighting in his glory and grace. I want to live my life so close to him that he takes pleasure in my every prayer. Psalm 27:4”
When you think about it, we are who we are because of how we’re raised. Yes, we can and do make our own decisions, but those decisions are always based on if we agree with the way our parents did those same things. I personally believe that my parents carried out Proverbs 22:6 to a tee. Both me, and my brothers have been able to know the love of our Father by the way that our parents loved and taught us. Because of that, the generations that come after them will be blessed and will know the fullness of God through the love, correction, and guidance that comes from family. I have come to realize that every decision I make, will affect the generations that follow me. It’s so easy to get caught up in the moment having fun, and it’s not at all a bad thing to do that, (hence the name of this site, it’s not just for the pun haha) but thinking long term about everything you do is not only important, but I believe that it’s vital in order to ensure that our children, and their children, and their children, etc., are equipped with what they need to be a light in the dark world we live in.
“Generation after generation will declare more of your greatness and declare more of your glory. Your magnificent splendor and miracles of your majesty are my constant meditation. Psalm 145:4-5”
Abraham was told that he would have as many descendants as there were stars in the sky. We are those descendants. To think that I am part of the promise that was given to “Father Abraham” is absolutely crazy to me. Our world is FAR from perfect and it’s easy to think that there was a glitch in the system or something when thinking about all the bad things that have happened throughout history. God’s promise to Abraham is revealed through the way we serve and honor Him as Abraham did. Even when things are not going as planned (hello Covid-19), we have the ability in our own lives to love our neighbors as ourselves, respect authority, and love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. When we do those things, we walk in the good and perfect will of God and therefore are able to present the same things to the generations after us.
“So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose. For he knew all about us before we were born and he destined us from the beginning to share the likeness of his Son. Romans 8:28”
LIVin in the moment 