His presence > anything else

Friends!!!!
Hello! Happy Tuesday.
Let me just say, I went through reading all of your posts last night, and I was SO encouraged. I am thankful to have such a wonderful blog community to look forward too interacting with every day. Jesus is too good to me!

I made a Facebook fan page for my blog a couple of days ago, and there is officially a new “like” button along the right side of my blog (underneath my blog button image). I would love it if ya'll went over to the right on my page and “liked” that button for me! It would mean a lot. I am so cheesy but it is true. I love you guys and I am so thankful for the each of you!

How was each of your weekends? I hope they were wonderful! I can’t believe I have already made it to week 7 of my last term as a college undergraduate. Gimme that college degree, baby! I cannot wait until graduation day, I feel like I have been waiting for this day for SO long. I remember as a child I would think to myself about graduating college one day; I would second guess myself and wonder if I would ever actually make it that far in life. Did I ACTUALLY have that kind of potential? Well, the truth is that on my own I never would have made it this far in my life. I owe every bit of gratitude to my loving savior, who has been with me every step of the way.  Jesus has been so provisional in helping me finish college and graduate in four years. It is safe to say that I am pinching myself consistently these days to make sure that this is real and I am actually about to receive my undergraduate diploma!

I wanted to ask ya’ll something. What do you think of this red dress for my college graduation? I personally really like it, but I just wanted to get your opinions on it to see what you guys think! I honestly do not wear dresses that often, but I realized that graduating from college is obviously a super big deal, so I should probably find a dress to go along with the occasion.

Anyways, lately, my family and I have been pretty stressed out, I will not lie to you friends. Life has been pretty dang crazy over here. My parents have been trying to find a house to purchase and live in here in town, and they have not been having any luck whatsoever. My dad said to my mom and I this weekend: “this is so overwhelming at times because nothing is in our hands right now. We aren’t 100% sure if we are going to find a house to rent or buy, let alone if the appraisal on our home will even be approved.” So friends, life right now is full of uncertainties. Not the little uncertainties, the BIG ones. God is revealing to us more and more of His sovereignty over our lives, and that nothing is ever in our hands.

It makes me so sad to see my parents so stressed out and frustrated. I have been praying about this so much, and often it seems like God has been silent in responding to my prayers. I know He is listening though, and I trust Him no matter what happens. My family and I could use your prayers right now in finding a house. If you could please pray that God would be lead my family and I exactly to where He wants us to go/live, that would be Uhhhh-mazing.

Lately I have been thinking about how important it is to me to always be in the presence of the Lord, especially when life gets stressful. When things get crazy around me, my need for God becomes even more apparent. The thought of leaving His presence terrifies me. I am so guilty of instantly freaking out and thinking God has randomly decided to ditch me when something goes wrong in my life. Like, once I mess up and do bad on a test I’m like: “God must be mad at me forever.” That sounds SO bad, but it is true. I have to instantly shove away this negative thinking pattern when it occurs and replace it with God’s truth. This is clearly just another example of a lie the enemy is trying to make me believe. Thankfully God promises me one very wonderfully-amazing promise, which is:

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Hebrews 13:5

So friends, as crazy as life may be over here in this gal’s life right now, I know that I have some very powerful weapons to fight back against the enemy with and his lies. These weapons are both God’s truth and prayer. When life gets crazy, I cling to the Lord and cry out in prayer. I have been praying like a madwoman lately. At first, I felt like maybe I should cut back on the million and a half prayers every day, like God is probably getting slightly overwhelmed with my millions of requests. Then I remembered one of my favorite verses in the Bible:

“Never stop praying.”
1 Thessalonians 5:17

Keep praying friends, God is listening. He bends down from the heavens to listen to each and every one of our prayers…which is mind blowing to me.

"Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!"
Psalm 116:2

Love ya’ll! Have a beautiful day. Focus on the good, not the bad. Trust Jesus, He is right there with you. Talk to Him, He is listening and never will ignore you. EVER.

xoxo