I wanna run...smash into you...

In this summer time where I am in a lull between to busy years I find myself outside of my comfort zone. 

Comfort Zone; Noun: A place or situation where one feels safe or at ease and without stress

I am outside of my comfort zone mainly because I am having to spend most of my time alone and being an extravert this makes me uneasy. I like to be surrounded by people and to be busy rushing from place to place. However at the moment this is not possible and so I am finding myself alone with my thoughts and wonderings. 

One of these wonderings today was actually on comfort zone's - hence the above definition. I was thinking about how there is often a lot of talk amongst Christians about getting out of your comfort zone. I always thought that it meant being pushed to do something big and dramatic; move to a new place or give up a huge part of your life. 

I realised today that it is not necessarily a dramatic change but sometimes simply a look at the way you live your life. 

For me at the moment I have realised that I do not like spending time alone - my Dad very wisely reminded me that I am never alone and that Jesus is always with me even if I can't see Him. This made me think- I have days and days of just me and Jesus but somehow this makes me uncomfortable. 

It is outside my comfort zone to just spend a day with me and Jesus with no visible human contact. 

I guess what I am saying is that moving out of a comfort zone is not necessarily about dramatic change but rather about us leading on God and letting Him show us how to be comfortable in situations we aren't usually comfortable in. It is about pushing ourselves to be more in touch with Him way and His will. 

At the moment I am learning that being alone does not have to equal depression or terror but that it can be joyful and a time to discover God and learn more about His world. It is an opportunity for me to listen to Him and go where He tells me- even just to the shops and back. It is a new way of living which I never really understood before. 

Anyway that is what I have been thinking today

love and God Bless 

♥

he is jealous for me... before I look to my day i look to the hand that first held mine...

I just finished my degree- every essay, exam, lecture and note is written. All I am doing is waiting for the results. It is the strangest feeling. 

Yesterday it truly hit me that this is the start of life. Real adult, in the world life. No student bubble, no 4 hours of lectures a week (yep it's true) and to be honest I became terrified. 

It is scary to know that this is university over, education over. 

But today, after the initial realisation terror I began to look back on the beauty that these past few years have been. 

I look back at the small, scared and very young girl who arrived in this city and I see a great transformation. God has taught me so much. 

I was a big mess when I arrived 3 years ago. I wasn't sure what I was doing or where to turn and I held on too tightly to my then boyfriend. I was so lost and so unaware of what God had planned. 

God has shown me amazing people- my church, my cluster, my cell, my friends- who have surrounded me and taught me life and what it is and how to navigate through it. 

Starting at the beginning with the church that embraced me on that first Sunday. A place full of people who made me feel like I was at home even when all I wanted was to run back south. A place which God has filled with His Spirit and people who shine so incredibly brightly. 

This church was the setting if you like, for God's transformation in me.

I arrived confused about who I was, very easily convinced and persuaded by others. But I was raised up, listened to, prayed with, understood and pushed to be my best. The people who I have encountered are people who let me be me and showed me that it was okay. 

I look at myself now and see even in the small things like what I wear and the colour of my finger nails- that God has shown me who I am. That He is moulding me into the woman He desires me to be. 

This last year at University has been the most incredible, I have met even more wonderful people and have been continuously changed by God's beautiful Spirit. Part of that year included leading an incredible group of students in my cluster (small group type thing)

I cannot believe how amazing these students are. Each and everyone of them has enriched my life and has brought such an incredible spirit and passion to my life. They are a group of people who I stand back and look at and I think they can change this world, they can be great and powerful people who bring goodness to everyone. 

They are a group of people who I have had the immense privilege of knowing and they are the most welcoming beautiful brothers and sisters that I know. 

These people have helped to transform my life and show me the beauty of passion and love of the Father. 

I am so glad that I am not leaving next year and that God has given me the resources and abilities to stay here and to work more with these students and others. I feel so privileged that God has called me here.

I am not leaving this place but so many of my friends are and those friends are going to be missed an insane amount. It feels like such a big change even though I am staying. But it is an exciting and brilliant change at the same time. It is just another big adventure. 

This is just to say thank you for all those who made me adore uni, and to also celebrate the changes that God has brought me through. 

♥

this song has such beauty and such memories from the past 3 years ♥

tick tick tick tick ticking away....

Today was such a sunny beautiful day and this means it was glorious. I met up with a friend of mine and we went and sat in the sunshiny park and chatted away. This fabulous girly is one of a kind, she is strong and brilliant and beautiful and she knows who she is. 

Ever time we meet up for a chat she challenges me by the way that she is living her life. I love that, I think it is so important to have people in your life who challenge you and make you a better person just by the way they live. 

So today she made me realise more of my dreams and more of my passions, more of who I am. 

This is what I have been thinking about all day....

Woman are strong. Every woman is strong, not necessarily in the traditional sense, but inside of us there is a strength that God has placed in us. It is at the core of who we are and when we acknowledge who we are and accept how we were made this strength shines through. There is nothing that can stop that strength! 

This strength is shown through our beauty, sexuality, maternal nature, friendships and how we live. The strength is what makes us able to be emotional, to be sensitive, to go through the monthly pain that we do and when we get there, childbirth (i have not done this yet and btw am slightly terrified!) 

So often woman are placed in a tiny box in where we are seen as sweet and timid and innocent but that isn't how we were created. We were created to be strong, powerful, dangerous humans. We were created to look after our families, to provide for our children; we were created to go and reach out to the hungry and poor and needy... and trust me those aren't easy tasks. 

Woman's bodies were created to be pushed to the limit, and we are able to do that. Woman may not be considered physically strong with muscles popping out everywhere but we are made to push ourselves, to be out of our comfort zone and to do it in strength and the knowledge that we can do it. 

God made woman because man couldn't do it by themselves, we were made to be a companion to men and to be the emotional, sensitive beings. To be the carriers and carers of our children and our families. 

Woman have strength that is set deep inside of them. Can you imagine a more wonderful world that one where all woman took that strength inside them and allowed it to shine out of them? How powerful would those woman be, how much better would the church and the world be if woman did that? 

This is what I have been thinking today.  

♥ 

I will wait for you...

Listen and hear and know that He is king.

This is so amazing, this is so true and brilliant and wonderful. 

♥ 

text message from God....

found this, liked it, shared it

taken from: weheartit

♥

wings like eagles....

this is one of my favourite picture of all time.

is it a depiction of the story of the prodigal son, of the son who was welcomed with open arms after running as far away as he could. 

it is the image of the father welcoming him back- with no strings attached just with pure love. 

It shows the love of God, it shows how accepted we are no matter what. 

it makes me smile 

♥ 

day by day, breath by breath...

minute by minute we live out lives without thought or pause to think about the purpose of our life. We go about lectures and we go about life with a aim to achieve what is right in front of us. 

what if there is more? 

what if there is something so much greater than we could ever imagine?

If our lives had a purpose that was greater than just getting to the end of the day, or just finishing this essay or project. 

what if our lives were about more than graduating and getting a job or money, or leaving school and going to uni. 

what if we had the ability to change the whole world? what if we had the ability with every breath and every day and every minute to change the lives of millions- starting with those who are closest to us- those who we are surrounded by each and every day? what if.....

what if? what if? what if?

what if we stopped asking what if and started to do. 

our lives do mean something more than getting to the end of the day, they do mean more than graduating and getting a job and money.

we do have the ability to change the world and to change the lives of millions. 

we can change the lives of those surrounding us each day.

we can because we are meant to. we can because it is our purpose. we can because we are made to love and care and bring compassion and joy and peace. we can because we are made to reach out, we have the ability, the gifts, the talent, the money. 

we can because we are who we are and because that it all we need. 

we can because if we are willing God will give us all we need. 

we can because we are adopted and we are accepted by Him as we are. 

we can because it is what He asks of us and all we need to do is say 'yes' and then follow Him. 

so let us stop asking "what if?" and start doing and knowing that we can 

&hearts: 

i will be forever yours....

Today is so sunny and beautiful and I am listening to one of my friends songs which is all about God as our Father and it is really making me thing so much about how wonderful God is.
There is so much that we have to thank Him for and so much that He provides for us. I think that in today's society and culture we have such a tendency to spend out time complaining and worrying about what goes on in out lives.
We should be looking to the good, the bright spark in each day, the idea that God's joy is in everything. I think that there is this false idea that joy is all about smiles and laughter- don't get me wrong sometimes it is- but there is a deeper joy that comes from God. This joy is deep and strong and resounds in the heart of who we are. This joy is at the centre of who we are, God wants us to have it all the time. He holds it out to us in open hands waiting for us to receive it. It is a joy that stays through the tough times, a joy that we know even when we are sitting in the corner of a dark room and crying. It is a joy that no-one and nothing can take from us. It is the joy that keeps us alive and awake in the darkness of the world.
There is nothing that take's this joy from us. It is the joy that comes from knowing that we are adopted by God and that we are His children and that we are forever and ever His.
It is the Joy that we know from knowing that God is running to meet us and welcoming us home- that God meets us exactly where we are.
Some of the lyrics of the song are "there is no love deeper, there is no love greater, there is no love vaster than your love"
God is beyond all of us, higher, greater, bigger than we can imagine and He picks us up and holds us tight and close. Whispering that He loves us for what we are and who we are. His love is eternal.

God's joy is boundless and we have endless access to it. Grad hold of it, never let it go, allow it to seep to the inner depth's of you. Allow it to hold you as you cry, allow it to break down those walls of depression, anxiety and sadness. He doesn't change and He will never let go.

link to the song

♥ 'me'

a life worth living and loving...

My life for the past 3 years, in fact probably longer than that has been full of conflicts and stress and general hard times. But the last month or so the beauty of life and the Love of God has been scattered into everything I do and everywhere I go. I have a bad day or an stressed and something reminds me of the Love of God and the beauty of this world.

The overwhelming message of the moment seems to be that there is nothing we cannot do with the Love of God. That the world was created and is engulfed in His Love. The knowledge that He Loves so unconditionally and so fully, the Knowledge that through all the pain of the universe and all the heartbreak that happens: God's Love Remains, endless, constant throughout time and space. 

I don't think I have even begun to fully grasp this concept and it is just now filling me and resting on my heart.

God Loves. 

He Loves and that is it. 

We can argue the theology of everything, we can debate and disagree but ultimately at the heart of everything that exists is the Love of God. 

And because of this, we are called to Love, to be deeply and undeniably Lovely to those around us. To Love the hurt and the broken but also to Love those who have hurt and broken us. 

We need to stand up for Love. 

As cheesy and as cliche as it sounds, Love is the answer. 

"This one thing, it remains, Your Love never fails and never gives up, It never runs out on me, Your Love never fails and never gives up, It never runs out on me."

Bethel Church:Be lifted High: One thing Remains 

'me'

Beauty of a new year..

Final year of University starts in a week and it's a brand new year, with brand new adventures and brand new dreams. 

This past year was full of drama and heartache, learning and discovering who I am and what exactly the world has for me. So now I start all over again with the knowledge that I actually know nothing, but that I have a Daddy God who has this plan. A brilliant perfect plan and all I have to do is fall... 

Fall into the glory that he has given me and the love that overpowers me and let myself sick into grace, just like the song says.. "if grace is an ocean, then we're all sinking.." 

I think I have realised that there is a beauty in the written word, a beauty far beyond what you would think. Emotions and dreams and desires flow as one types or writes and they just seen to melt together to create this world that you get lost in. I have started to read some classic books and I find myself falling into a world where you get lost in time, forgetting the day and dreaming about adventures in far of places. 

I am a true romantic and I want to be romanced. There's nothing wrong with that. This makes me happy. 

So I would say, embrace your dreams, follow your heart and fall into the Fathers arms and wait. For Him to show you the adventure of your life, the one that is far beyond anything you ever dreamed of for yourself. This adventure is the best it can be and will leave you filled with knowledge that you are loved eternally and endlessly for simply being you. 

Peace.Love.Hope.Joy 

'me'