What The Lord Is Teaching Me About Honesty In Relationship With Him

Sometimes as I write the Holy Spirit whispers to my heart. I can be completely void of words and all I hear in my head is the white noise of my to-do list and this overwhelming anxiety of only having four weeks left in the semester. It is almost like writing makes me calm down enough to actually think and when that happens the Holy Spirit knows he can get my attention. Because I am a little frazzled and anxious I decided to be intentional about my time with the Lord this morning (which I should be doing every morning). I got a bible, my journal and a blanket and headed out to the porch and I waited on God. I made  time this morning even when I felt like there was no time. The problem with this is that I was making time for God and that should never, ever be the case. I should never be having to "make time" for him. He should always come FIRST, no matter what and then I should make time for everything else. I realize how stupid that sounds. I made time for the God who made time (literally). See? That isn't even logical!

Anyway, this morning while I was reading and trying to listen to God I realized that God was talking to me about listening to him and being honest with him...like brutally honest with him (which seems to be a theme for me lately). Honest about my fears, my hurts, my emotions (the good, the bad and the ugly), my sins, my frustrations, my anxieties, my dreams. Honest about it all. It seems like being honest about it all wouldn't be that big a deal because God already knows everything, he knows our thoughts before we think them, but it is still important. It is important for us, not for him. He wants us to be honest with him for ourselves. He wants us to know that we can bring all of this brutal honesty to him and know HE LOVES US ANYWAY!

Hebrews 4:12-13 addresses this head on and just happened to be what God had me reading this morning. "For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are. Nothing in all creation can hide from him. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes. This is the God to whom we must explain all that we have done." Psalm 139 also makes it clear that He knows us...all of us, personally, intricately, and precisely. He knit us together in our mother's womb and we cannot hide from him. He wants us to know that he is a safe place. In him we find rest and peace and we can come to him with our innermost thoughts, those thoughts that are absolute secrets and share them with him. He seeks out those who desire that kind of relationship with him. Those that will get alone with the him and soak up the word and pour out their hearts with a deep honesty and let the word soak into them and dig through their hearts and minds and cut deeply into their thoughts and desires. Those that draw near to him.

Jeremiah 31:3 says, "I have loved my people with an everlasting love, with unfailing love I have drawn you to myself." He draws us to himself and wants us to seek that kind of honest relationship with him. He is a loving daddy. He longs for us to be in constant relationship with him where we are fully aware of his beauty and majesty while also being fully aware of his fierce love for us and building this kind of relationship takes honesty on our part. As we give him this honesty and let him sort through it all he reveals himself to us in ways that we would never imagine.

Jesus help me be brutally honest with you.
Help me know that it pleases you when I am and that you love me through it all.
Help me be quiet and listen for your responses.
Help me seek you diligently and honestly and have faith that you are always listening to me and desiring to communicate with me.
Thank you that you love me that much, Lord!

Amen.

Our World Needs Us...Where Are We?

I haven't written in a while. You have probably noticed I tend to only write when God really places something on my heart. Lately, the Syrian refugee crisis has been weighing heavily on me. As I sit here, I am writing this from a comfy chair, where I feel completely, entirely, 100 percent safe. I sit here with my husband right across from me. I sit here with a huge television right in front of me and a computer sitting right on my lap and my smartphone laying right beside of me and a cup of coffee within my reach. I sit here beside of a window looking out at God's beautiful creation here in Southwest Virginia. I sit here, with the realization that right now I am only afraid of not being able to pick a good enough topic for my huge paper due at the end of the semester in my agricultural law class. I sit here with the realization that no matter what my problems morph into, they will never actually be "problems." This is because I sit here realizing that our brothers and sisters in the Middle East or trying to flee the Middle East can't sit in their homes enjoying a Friday evening. They can't enjoy safety and peace in their homes. They can't know what it feels like to only worry about a paper being due or a house remodel being finished because they are bearing the burden of having no home at all or having their homes and families destroyed by hatred and evil and senseless violence.

I realize that I am safe and they are not. I realize that they would probably give absolutely anything to just feel that way...safe. I realize there have been children born into this mess that hear that word in their native language and still have no clue what it means because they have never experienced it...safe...at peace...comfortable.

I realize that there is all this buzz around a picture of a father peeling his little baby boy off the sand on the shore of the sea because he is dead now after trying to escape the horror of his home. Merely trying to find safety and peace. How are we okay with this? How are we okay with the fact that he is dead and that we didn't help and aren't helping and maybe could've helped him? How is this okay?!

How is it okay that we are more concerned about politics and what we consider "corruption" in our government than we are with children, women, men, people just like us made is God's image dying and suffering and living through a type of hell on our planet that we will never comprehend because we are cozy in our homes and in our churches that we worship in freely? That sweet little boy will never know what it is like to walk into a church and raise his hands to heaven and feel peace. And all I can think is "could we have helped him have that opportunity?" Just so you know, his name was Aylan.

The statistics are scary. The last figure I read said we are up to a count of over 40 million refugees around the world and 8 million from the Middle East and something else I read called this the "worst humanitarian crisis since WWII." Our only solution is Jesus! The only way we can help is to die to ourselves. To sacrificially love and selflessly serve. To realize that people, whether they know Jesus or not, whether they believe like we do or not, whether we agree with them or not, are deeply, fiercely loved by our God. He loves them just as much as He loves us. He wants them just as much as He wants us. He has called us to protect the broken and abused, the poor and the needy, the hurt. He calls us to extend to them His AMAZING GRACE! I read something the other day that said something like, how can we sing about this amazing grace and never extend it to people who may be unlike us but are still created in the image and likeness of God. Wow...if that doesn't knock your breath out of you for a second, something is wrong. We have our priorities way, way out of line.

Matthew 25:40 says, "And the King will say, 'I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you did it for me.'" We do it for Jesus. When we love these people and pray for these people and extend our help to these people, we are extending ourselves to Jesus. That is the bottom line. When we drop the political agendas and the desire to be right all of the time and we choose love instead, we do that for Jesus. When we open our homes and extend our hands and maybe even reach for our wallets...We do that for Jesus.

So today, as I sit here in my comfy chair and you probably do too while you are reading this, I pray that God breaks our hearts. That he shows us how we have it wrong and how we can fix it. I pray that God shows us how to re-prioritize and how to sacrificially love and help and serve. I pray that God continues to give us an abundance of grace that we don't deserve and teaches us to share it with ALL people. I pray that this shakes us, stirs us, and makes us die to ourselves. I pray that God shows us exactly what to do to help.

If you want to help there are countless ways too. Just a few sites that you can donate through are Unicef, World Relief, World Vision, Doctors Without Borders, Samaritan's Purse, there are many, many more. Just google it.

The biggest thing you and I can do is pray. God will tell us what to do from there, I firmly believe that. I didn't grow up in a place where there was a lot of emphasis on missionary work or helping people outside of our own region but God is stirring my heart in an unforgettable kind of way, so I am learning along with you.

Let's make a difference together and get our priorities straight.

-Emily

Let Me Tell You About What My God Did! He Put A House Right In Our Laps...Really...He Did!!!

So I know I probably left much to the imagination with that title. It is hard to comprehend, I know. But really, GOD GAVE US A HOUSE for the next five years!!! Here is the story behind all of that and the details about how awesome God is!

Brent and I were trying to be responsible and adult-like and plan ahead because our lease on our current apartment is up in January. We thought if we started praying about it now and searching for a house now, God would give us one by January. Little did we know, God was going to literally GIVE us one.  We looked at a couple of properties, both of which were for sale and just could not get peace about them. We talked about it and prayed about it and Brent said he just didn't have peace about either so we would just wait. See, God really blessed us with our current apartment. Remembering that time that God graciously supplied our needs, Brent said, "I'm not doing anything until I know for sure that God put it in our laps, just like he did our apartment we are in now." That statement was probably amusing to God given He knew exactly what He was planning to do just a few short weeks later. Brent's job is in Russell county and I hope that a year from now, after graduation, I will be working in Russell county, as well, because of that, we were primarily looking in Russell county.

Anyway, so we kept driving by a house that was extremely run down by the previous tenants and decided to call about the house. The landlord said that she would be renting it but that it needed serious renovation and she was not sure when the property would be ready. Regardless, we met her to look at the property. The house was an adorable little farmhouse, currently seated on a farm, with hay fields all around and only 30 seconds from the highway. For any  of you that know me, you know that  all of that is right down my alley! We walked through the house with her and realized that yes, it needed lots of work. She told us her budget for remodeling and when she estimated it might be ready. Brent's dad asked if she would be interested in trading some rent if we would do the work that needed to be done on the house...we were expecting maybe six months to a year if she was interested in this at all. She asked us if we would sign a 5 year lease, a little puzzled we looked at each other and I responded, "well maybe." She then said, well if you will then I can give you the money and you can design it so that you will love it and live here for free for five years in exchange for your labor. What?!?!?!?! It took me a second to comprehend all of that and once I did, I almost had a shouting spell all over the porch right in front of her! God is literally giving us a house to live in for five years, on a beautiful farm, with a wonderful landlord, and is giving us the money to make it our dream little farmhouse for the next five years! God is SOOOOO Good! But then it gets better...the water bill is included in that...for five years!

My whiz of a husband did the math and at what we pay now for our current apartment (which is much cheaper than it would have been had we moved anywhere else in Russell county) we will be saving about $20,000 at the end of five years!

I can't tell you how this happened but I can tell you who made it happen and that is none other than God! My favorite scripture is Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you but to give you hope and a future." That so applies here! HE LOVES US! HE WANTS TO DO BIG, BIG, BIG THINGS FOR US! HE WANTS TO BLESS US! I believe that nothing pleases God more than when we are obedient to him (especially in the waiting) and HE gets to bless us for it! He has already planned all of it out. He knew that on a particular day in June 2015 he was going to bless mine and Brent's socks off and I think he was excitedly waiting on the time to come so that He could. He is just awesome and He loves us so much! He loves us so much that He does huge things like "put it (a house) in our laps!"

Pictures of all the renovations are to come! :)

xoxo,
Em

Like Stars in the Sky

Philippians 2:14-15 "Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, "children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation." Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky."

Read that closely one more time...Okay, did it hit you as hard as it did me? There are so many awesome tidbits of wisdom in that passage of scripture. It is hard to even know where to begin. My husband and I talk a lot about trying not to argue in front of people because our marriage is a ministry that is supposed to show God's love to others. He and I both feel that a marriage should be the one thing on the planet that radiates the love of God and portrays it closer than anything else. However, we are not always successful. Actually, we are far from successful! This passage of scripture is a very clear reminder of this. "Do everything without grumbling or arguing." What? Everything? Even clean up the mess he made in the kitchen? Even pick his towel up off the floor that he laid directly beside of the hamper rather than in it? Even scratching his head while all he is doing is watching TV and I am trying to read for school? Even that...Seriously? Even school, without grumbling? REALLY?

Well....yes.

That is hard to swallow and it is just the first half of the first scripture in this passage. Even when we feel we are not being appreciated or we are asked to do something that we really don't have time or just don't want to do, we should do it anyway and do it without grumbling or arguing so that we can become pure and blameless and without fault in a warped and crooked generation and also so that we will shine among our warped generation like stars in the sky. Yes, I am preaching to myself! I can't tell you how often I do something that I really didn't want to have to do and instead of being appreciative that God gave me arms that work to be able to scratch Brent's head and pick up his towel, I grumble and complain the whole time I'm doing it because, "I shouldn't have to do it." Well, today that stops! Or at least I am going to try to make it stop. For a couple of reasons it stops.

Reason (1) I need to be thankful I have the ability to do it
             (2) I need to be thankful for the people I am doing it for (whatever it is and whoever they are)
             (3) "I shouldn't have to" is quite frankly the most selfish thing that has probably ever crossed my mind or came out of my mouth. Jesus didn't have to die a miserable, brutal death (and He really didn't have to) BUT HE DID! For some people who wouldn't even be born, like this warped generation, for 2,000+ years to come! Who am I to say "I shouldn't have to" do anything? and last but certainly not least;
            (4) The end of that passage of scripture says, "Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky." WOW! Imagine what witnesses we could be if we could quit grumbling and arguing. We would then shine among a crooked, twisted, wicked, warped generation like stars in the sky. Isn't that what we are called to do anyway? That is our whole purpose in this world. To show God's love to a warped and crooked generation and to shine that love like stars in the sky and unfortunately we are too concerned about ourselves and our selfish motives that we argue and grumble more than we speak love, joy, peace, grace, mercy, forgiveness, gospel, good news,  JESUS!

I plan on memorizing this passage of scripture and next time I am tempted to grumble and complain I am going to remind myself that Jesus went through a lot worse than I might be temporarily dealing with at the moment. I'll also remind myself that there is no way I can show all of God's amazing qualities through me when I am exhibiting characteristics that contradict Him, like grumbling and arguing.

My prayer today:
Jesus, thank you for your grace and mercy and forgiveness.
Thank you for loving me through all of those rough qualities and for giving me so much when I don't deserve anything.
Thank you that grace is not fair because if it was, I would be in trouble!
Help me let go of the selfish attitude and help me be more like you with a servant's heart and mind.
Help me remember that it is not all about me and there is such a greater purpose.
Help me shine for you like the stars in the sky and reach a generation that is crooked and warped.
I love you, Lord! Today is all yours, I give it to you.
In your name I pray.

Amen.

xoxo,
Em

My Nine (Somewhat Secret) Dreams

Several weeks ago a friend of mine posted her ten (somewhat secret) dreams on her blog. As I read through her dreams, I became increasingly encouraged to talk to God about mine. I think we all honestly have dreams that we don't really talk about, sometimes not even to God, but we should! God loves our dreams, he loves to hear them, he loves to encourage them, he places them in our hearts and loves to see us take steps in him to grow them. I commented on my friend's post and God knew I would need a little encouraging of my own, so he used her to encourage me to post my dreams. She messaged me later and everything that she said was what I needed to hear from God. That next day I was intentional about getting alone with God and really reflecting on what is in my heart, what he has placed there, and writing those dreams down. I prayed over them and handed them over to God and then laid them down...which I should not have done! I realize that now. Yes, I got busy and school started back, but that can't be an excuse, so, here goes! Here are my nine (because two of them were really similar so I made them one), (somewhat secret) dreams that I plan to be working towards with God in 2015 and the years to come. These are close to my heart and I have kept them there for a very long time. Hopefully sharing them with you will help me get more intentional about working towards them, giving them to God and knowing that God has placed them in my heart and He will gladly help me achieve them. So here they are, my nine (somewhat secret) dreams.

1. I want my worship ministry to be used in a mighty way
     I have been leading people in worship for quite some time now and it is truly my heart. I want to share my songs and music, share my passion for praise and lead people into God's presence through worship. I want to serve God and serve people with my worship ministry.

2.  I want to be so full of the word that it gushes out over every part of my life
      Every time I think about that the best word that comes to mind is "gushes." I want God to fill me so full of his love and his word that every person around me feels him and wants to know him...I want his spirit to "gush" out all over the place and let people know there is something truly different about me and that is that I know the Son of God personally! And they can too!

3. I want to be a wife after God's own heart, to become a wife that honors God and then my husband above everything else
     I want the phrase "made in his image and likeness" to mean something deeper. I want that to mean that in every facet of my marriage and my life I am a portrait of Jesus. Since before I met my husband God has been working on me with this. I began really studying about being a woman of this nature in undergrad and it has never left my mind. I read and pray and strive to do this in my actions but I'm not always successful. I want to be a woman so full of faith that it overflows to everyone around me and it covers my husband daily. I want God's love to gush out of me and I want my husband to draw strength from that. I want to be a woman that my husband is proud to call his wife and I want to honor God with my marriage and my role as a wife.

4. I want to be a powerful, strong, "ezer" help for my husband 
     No, I didn't just misspell the word ever. Ha! Ezer is a Hebrew word that is a combination of two Hebrew words meaning "to rescue, to save" and "strength." This is the word that the bible uses in Genesis 2 to describe Eve as Adam's helper. There are a few interesting things about this word. The first is that it is only used in the Old Testament twenty one times. Two of those times refer to women, three of those times were used in a military context, and sixteen of those times the word was used in reference to God as a helper. How cool is that!? We are meant to be helpers like God! Powerful, strong helpers. I want to be this kind of helper to my husband. I want him to draw strength from me and know that I am always his help, his strong, powerful help! I want to be a valuable strength, a suitable helper, a powerful rescue for my husband.

5. I want to obtain and maintain a gentle, quiet spirit
     This one is hard for me...like really hard! Some of you may not believe this but Brent and I are both very passionate people. We get something in our heads and that is the way it is, unless God tells us otherwise we are not changing our minds. You also may not believe this but sometimes this causes problems. Along the way God is slowly breaking both of this and we have both grown tremendously, but this has caused me to be completely aware of my need for the Holy Spirit to take over my thoughts, actions, language, emotions, really every part of me. Instead of getting upset and raising my voice, I want to be a person who speaks the truth with grace and gentleness. I want to be a person whose spirit is powerful in a gentle and kind way. I want my words to affect people because of the grace and gentleness hidden down beneath them. I want to handle my interactions with everyone, especially my husband that way, with a gentle, quiet spirit. 1 Peter 3:4

6. I want my husband and I to really find our niche in ministry together and begin moving toward it.
     Obviously we are all called into ministry in some form or fashion. God has called us each of us to use our talents in some way, to glorify him and his kingdom. I want my marriage to take on a ministry of it's own. I want God to use Brent and I in some way to really impact the world around us, radically! Marriage is a huge ministry in and of itself, especially these days when marriages are attacked by the devil the way that they are. I want us to be a testament of God's grace, patience, mercy, endurance and LOVE! I want God to take us and our marriage to new heights and use us together powerfully!

7. I want God to use law school for whatever he sees fit, maybe not even at all (in terms of practicing).
     If you know me well, you have probably heard me say that I am not sure why I am in law school. Yea, I know that sounds crazy, but it is true. If I am being honest I like the law, but not enough to do it every single day. I am so frustrated with school and so tired of it that I am ways beyond done with it...and I have a year and a half to go! Apparently, every law student feels this way right about now, but it is scary. So, I want God to use it, or not use it, however he sees fit. I want to be entirely in his will with my career. Right now, everything in me wants a baby! I want to be a mom and a wife more than anything in the world, but my responsible husband says that we can't have a baby until school is over, which is really hard for me because of what I want. But, what I want and my timing is not always God's and right now I don't know what God wants for all of this. I want God to direct my career path and put me exactly where he wants me, whether that is practicing law or being a stay at home mom...wherever God puts me is where I want to be.

8. I want God to use this blog.
     That sounds so simple and it really is. Whether it be one person or 100,000 people, I want God to reach somebody through my thoughts and my heart that I pour out on this page. I want people to read this blond know that Jesus loves them and that it is okay to not be perfect because none of us are and Jesus loves imperfection. No matter what he loves us. That is what I want people to get from this blog more than anything.

9. Write a new CD's worth of songs this year
      I have been a singer/songwriter/musician for as long as I can remember. I am so thankful God gave me that gift and I have wanted to share that with the world for just as long. I've written books worth of songs and song ideas but only followed up with one of them and carried it through the full recording process. I want to write songs that serve and honor God and that serve other people in worship. God has already started placing giving me these new songs and flooding me with ideas and lyrics but I don't want them to end up like all of the other one, in a book, on a shelf, unfinished. I want this CD to be prayerful and worshipful and I want it to serve God and others in such a way that is moves people to their core and moves them directly to God.

Now that you have read my nine (somewhat secret) dreams I encourage you to get alone with God and write down yours! God will honor that and you will not be sorry that you did. :)

My prayer for today:

Jesus, help me to remember these and keep them close to my heart. Help me be patient and also intentional about working toward them. Thank you for placing them in my heart and thank you for equipping me with all I need to accomplish them. Thank you for your help and your love for me.

I love you, Lord.

Amen.

xoxo,

Em

Why I personally will not be watching Fifty Shades of Grey.

Maybe this is the lawyer in me but let me give a little disclaimer before I say all of this:

            I am not writing this to condemn anybody who genuinely sees this as just another movie and will be watching it. I am not judging anyone for going to watch it, or for reading the book, as a matter of fact, I have friends and family of my own who have read the book and plan on watching the movie. I AM NOT BEING JUDGEMENTAL! Please do not think that, however if you do think that, that will have to be alright because the Holy Spirit laid this on my heart and if I do not write it, I will regret it. If I’ve learned anything in my short twenty-three years on the Earth, it is that I cannot ignore God and what he asks of me. So, here goes nothing…

            Now, if I am being honest, I attempted to read the book when it first came out. I wanted to see what all the hype was about, but I was about fifty pages in and it didn’t seem to be going anywhere. Also, again, if I am truly being honest with you, I was a little convicted by it, so I stopped reading. I will also admit that I watched Magic Mike and was convicted by that too. Now that I have been honest with you about my convictions and lapses in judgment, let me give you the reasoning behind these convictions.

Reason #1: It is pornography. PERIOD. But, it isn’t just sex, it is bondage, domination, and abuse. Yes, you can still have those things in a consensual relationship. From my understanding there are even times when Anastasia, the main female character, talks of feeling threatened. That is scary stuff!  And if I watch it, I feel like I will be supporting it. I don’t want to support that. God doesn’t want me to support that. Pornography is a big enough problem in our culture, much less the kind of pornography portrayed in this book and movie.

Reason #2: I have a serious problem with the fact that this movie is being released where teenagers will be able to go out and watch it on their date night! I know it is rated R but in my town teenagers get into rated R movies all the time.  What do you think will happen after they leave the movies? I personally feel like the movie will encourage them to attempt to experience the feelings they saw portrayed in the movie on their way home from their date, maybe even in the backseat of a car? I was a teenager once. I remember how it worked (again, I am being blatantly honest). This movie may encourage them to lose the most sacred part of themselves. The part of themselves that God has given them to carry into their marriage. A huge part of themselves, which I personally believe, the significance of which has been so lost in our culture that it has caused divorce rates to skyrocket, families to break apart and marriages to be treated like a temporary deal that means no more than a big party (the wedding), with an awesome vacation afterwards (the honeymoon). I don’t want to support that.

I have several other reasons but for sake of time and how long this blog post will be, I am only going to offer one more.

Reason #3: Christians are already viewed as hypocrites. Statistics show that one of the biggest reasons non-believers want nothing to do with the church is because of how hypocritical believers, Christ followers, or people who call themselves Christ followers are. I do not want someone who I am supposed to be leading to Christ, to view me as hypocritical because I am at church on Sunday, lifting my hands and my eyes to the Lord and singing my heart out to Him but on Saturday, with those same eyes, I am at the movies watching something that promotes everything that is the exact opposite of Christ and his love and what his model for love and sex in marriage is.

This is his model: “Wives, submit to you own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself it’s Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” The mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” Ephesians 5:22-33

           

            How would I not be sending mixed messages to non-believers by supporting this? How is Ephesians 5:22-33 and Fifty Shades of Grey not contradictory to Christ’s message of love? Does Ephesians 5:22-33 sound like Christian Grey and Anastasia?

            How is it okay to judge people for what they say and wear and how they act towards the church when we as the church are going out and supporting a movie and book that are the antithesis of who Christ is? Sin is sin.

            I could go on and on for hours but I won’t. As I said earlier, this is between you and God and the bible says to “work out your own souls salvation, with fear and trembling.” Philippians 2:12 If this does not honestly convict you then that is fine. It is between you and Jesus. I am just being honest about my convictions and writing this because the Holy Spirit laid it on my heart. I would rather please the Lord and make some people upset with me than please people and hurt the Lord.

            I love all of you guys!

            xoxo,

            Em

How many times are we more thankful for the product of relationships, rather than relationships themselves?

I've been thinking a lot lately about being thankful. I know, it is a topic that is discussed pretty often by many different people but I am talking about being thankful in a different way than our typical thankful. So what do I mean by this? A few weeks back I was buried deep into my books studying for exams and my mother-in-law came to clean my house for me. She knew that I was busy and frustrated because I couldn't stop studying in order to get my house together so she came over and did it for me while I studied. I was so grateful for that. That meant the world to me! I started thinking about that and I realized, more often than not, it seems like we are more thankful for what people do for us than the people themselves...maybe that is just me but in all honesty, it is true! After coming to this realization, I started thinking back to all the people I am so thankful for. All the people God strategically places in our lives to show us his goodness and give us relationship. For example my husband, who supports me 100% of the time and who tries to love me the way Christ loved the church, my mom, who I know prays for me continuously and without that I am certain I could not get through law school, or my God-mother, who also prays for me continuously and sends me cards with sweet, encouraging words that I somehow manage to get every time I am in need of them, or my roommates from college who have become some of my best friends and are such women of faith and who I know would drop everything and run to me if I was in need. The list goes on and on and on. How many times are we more thankful for the product of relationships rather than the relationship itself?

I have come to realize that it is SO important to be thankful for the people that God places in our lives. Every person God strategically places in our lives is a blessing, whether they be parents or pastors or siblings or friends, they are blessings. So instead of thinking of all the things you are thankful for (which is good too, I am not knocking being thankful for things) try being thankful for people and relationships.

Jesus,
Today I pray that you will help me become more aware of how blessed I am to have the people in my life that you have placed there. Thank you so much for those people, for their hearts and for their talents. Thank you Lord for placing them in my life and for allowing me the privilege to know them. Father, I ask you to bless them and show them how much you care for them. Please keep them  in your arms. Thank you Jesus for relationship, for relationship with these wonderful people you have placed in my life but most importantly, for relationship with you. Father, help me remember how important these people are and that they are special. Jesus, help us to love one another as we love ourselves and help us glorify you in that. I love you, Lord.

In Jesus' name I pray,
Amen.

xoxo,
Em