what?

What is God teaching you?

I had a friend in high school who would ask me this question on a regular but spontaneous basis. And you know something? Sometimes I hated it. There were so many days when in the midst of a conversation about smoothies and haircuts she would look at me and say "yeah. What's God teaching you right now?" and so many of those times I was caught off guard and didn't have an answer. Sometimes it was because it takes me a minute to put it into words, sometimes because I had to put all the pieces together, and yet sometimes because I wasn't seeking the Lord in the way I needed to be. It's a question I ask myself often now. It's a question I sometimes miss being asked so blatantly.

The other night I was in my room (or my lair... that's generally what I refer to it as when I have so much work to do that I have no choice but to shut myself in...) reading and writing when someone knocked on my door. It was my sweet friend Kendall and she was just bursting with excitement to tell me about what the Lord had been speaking to her the past few days. And you know what? As we stood there and talked about Scripture and the small callings that God is placing on both of our hearts, I couldn't have been more excited. Her passion for it was contagious and I think we both walked away mutually encouraged. That's what the body of Christ is about-- encouraging one another, keeping one another in check, lifting one another up.


"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." -Colossians 3:16

I can't get over how beautiful and true that verse is.

Our conversation that night was so beautiful as we both unpacked our struggles, our dreams, and the things that Christ is beginning to speak to us that may seemingly make no sense for today but will undoubtedly lead to big things down the road. It's a beautiful thing when you find those kind of friends. We as people are meant to grow in Christ independent of one another, but to be walking right beside one another encouraging and correcting. It's the concept of discipleship. It's so critical to find people in life who will walk beside you to continually point you right back towards the cross with honesty and with love.

So my questions for you today are this: Who are you walking beside and what is God teaching you today?

I'll leave this one with the song that has been stuck in my head for at least a week now. I actually literally dreamed about worshiping to this song last night. Is that weird? Maybe. But I love the message here. I especially love the line- "More than worth these longings of my heart left unfufilled for a time". He is so more than worth everything and so deserving of all our devotion. So enjoy this video! (or at least the audio, because it seems this song must best be paired with pictures of flowers? evidently)

1000 words

I confess that lately I've become a huge fan of taking pictures on my iphone, despite the fact that they're not always top quality. So I thought I'd give an update on the past week of my life via the most recent iphone pics. 

 

I had a great time with this guy this past weekend. Oddly enough, this is the only picture we took the entire time... swedish meatballs at Ikea for my mom. She has some sort of life-long dream to get some. Anyway, we had a blast just hanging out-- going for walks, watching football, making soup... and going to ikea. He loved it. Okay, maybe not so much but that's okay :)

From there, I headed to Nashville for the kidmin conference and got to spend the week with this awesome group of people. They were such a blessing-- we had a fantastic time together as we laughed, served, and talked a lot of leadership. The conference was a success. I definitely had a lot of great takeaways and got to connect with some solid people as well as seeing some faces I hadn't seen since the summer. It's always so good to hear what the Lord has done in people's lives since they were at camp and it was beautiful to hear 600 children's ministers worship together and be refreshed and restored. Mmm.

And of course, the Duggars were there. Yep, all 21 of them. We had such a great time playing with them.

 

Speed scrabble... I know it says lose, but I definitely won... twice. I was trying to be fairly incognito with this picture. 

I love this picture of Meredith teaching her how to play with the camera.

And here's the other side of that picture. So cute.

This is the infamous Baby Josie. She's gotten so big. As we tried to take her picture she kept reaching for my phone and saying "Baby Duggar!". She definitely knows she's a celeb...

This kiddo is a mess. He worked the merch table with me and continually tried to steal my money. Despite what you may think, my face doesn't always look like this. We taught the kids how to do the scramble and they LOVED it. Look for many ruined pictures from the Duggar family soon. Of course he decided to let me scramble alone in this one... meanie.

I did it. I opened the Barbosa's box. Anybody who came to camp this year will know why this is huge... I now know what's inside. But I won't tell :)

And my journey continues from here. This is definitely a favorite photo from right outside my brother's house here in Nashville. I'm headed out tomorrow and have a few things left to do before the real world catches back up to me. My week off has been great and I know that after talking camp and ministry all week, it's going to be a real challenge to do so much school work again. Today I've been on a picnic with a puppy, ate ice cream with old friends, and enjoyed the world's most perfect weather. Please don't be over yet... I don't want to go back. 

Alas, for now I'm going to go enjoy the rest of my time in Nashville. Love this place. Til later, friends!

afternoon

Just a quick update for the afternoon...

It's finally fall here in Athens and we've been loving every minute of it. Between playing games with roommates, Saturday football games, and friends coming in and out of town, I'm trying to squeeze a little school work in along with it all. Senioritis is a real problem. I can't believe it's already October...

A few Fridays ago I got to go to The Fabulous Fox in Atlanta to see Wicked with some sweet friends. Aren't they beautiful? I hope I get to be this pretty when I'm a mom. It was such a fun evening out-- we walked two blocks the wrong direction in high heels, ended up at a Steak N Shake at 1 am, and laughed more than anything. Loved it.

Daniel is coming today. Like any minute now. I am currently the way I always am when waiting for something like this... antsy. Like super antsy. Like keep-getting-up-and-walking-across-the-room-to-look-out-the-window antsy. Call me crazy, I'm just ready to see him. :)

I'm spending all of next week at the Lifeway Kids Ministry Conference in Nashville! I'm super excited to see some wonderful people and to get to work behind the scenes all week. Annnnd the Dugger's are going to be there. That's right, all 19 of the 19 Kids and Counting. Or is it 20 now? I don't even know.

Post conference I'm going to spend a few days with my sweet brother in NashVegas. So excited to see that boy and his puppy too! I'd expect pictures to come soon.

Gonna be such a good weekend... I'm off to look out the window again.