A much needed break in the busy

Today I have a day off, and not only is it a day off but it's a day when the entire apartment complex I live in has off and it is silent. I think I forgot what silence is like- and how much I really enjoy it. Don't get me wrong I love to be around people, but lately this has been my life: get up, rush around to get to school, teach all day, come home help make dinner and eat it, prepare for the next day or work on projects and go to bed- then repeat. It has been draining. I'm the kind of person who needs some alone time and have not been getting it as often as I like. I can honestly say yesterday afternoon was my first time of "alone" time in over a week- crazy.

Since I've been rushing around and trying to get as much done in a day as I can my time with God has been lacking. For awhile there I was only opening my bible for group bible study times or to look something up to send to someone or to talk with my roommates. I need my time with God, we all do, without it everything falls out of sync: our hearts, our minds, our attitudes. Lately I've been trying my hardest to get up without pushing the snooze button to make time to be with God- and those days have been magnificent. So today, in midst of all of my projects and assignments, and thinking about wedding plans I am going to focusing on taking the time to be still, to just be with God. This needs to happen much more often and I'm hoping that it will.

In other news: next week is the half-way point of student teaching and this week marks seven months until the wedding. This will be my third and last week teaching full-time in the math room after this week I'll move onto other subjects and even other grades- I'm pretty excited to see what all is in store! I know that I can only do all that needs to be done through His strength and I can only glorify Him if I'm making it about Him. My soul is hungry for His word, in the busyness and planning it isn't satisfied and it won't ever be.

"If we truly want to find Him, we must stay empty and hungry for God alone...we have many tasks, even responsibilities, which have come from Heaven. However, the greatest need of our soul is to be with Jesus." - Francis Frangipane

Lesson Learned.

My lesson of the day: I need my time with God much more than I need an extra 10 or 15 minutes of sleep.

Warm Weather & Reminders

Today was beautiful. After a weekend of cold and rain today was beyond amazing. When I got home from Pre-K I decided to head to a park in town to read and journal (one of my favorite things to do on a beautiful day)! While there I got a call from one of my teammates from this past summer that I've been trying to get in contact with for a few weeks. It really made me miss the team, and reminded me of so much that happened this summer. It reminded me also that for as close as our team is, and for how rarely we talk now- we experienced something so unique this summer. We are a family, spread apart by many miles, each of us living very different lives but- we are unified in Christ. Whenever a phone call is made conversation picks up where it left off. I miss them very much tonight. We laughed on the phone reminiscing of the funny things that happened, and talked about some of the things that went unknown to us until we were back in the states. Then she said something a little more serious like "You know...I wish while we were there we wouldn't have complained as much as we did, I wish that we would have just looked at what was going on around us and took it in without hoping for anything more."

How true is that for everyday? We spend so much time hoping for the next thing. In Africa it was things like a shower, dreaming about what we would eat first when we got home, being excited to see our family and friends when we got home. I am not saying at all that in the moment I wasn't grateful for the experiences, because I really was, but I could have been more present in the moment. I think we all could be a little more present in the seasons we are currently in, in the moments that pass us by each day.

In church yesterday the pastor talked a little bit about how each day we spend a significant amount of time looking down on ourselves, or thinking that we're not getting what we deserve (there is a difference between humility and thinking poorly of ourselves). He talked about how these things can become idols, I had never really thought about it that way. When we complain about things and act as if we are entitled to something it kind of is like telling God that what He has for us isn't enough, like saying that we know better.

So this week I'm hoping to live with this new perspective. To be thankful and focused on who Christ is and all He's done. To not dwell on the things that aren't or on my desires but on what is.

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." Colossians 3:1-3