You've Got A Friend.

I love that old James Taylor song “You’ve Got A Friend”. In its truest form, it’s a demonstration of true friendship. Who wouldn’t want someone to tell you all those nice things? I’ll be there whenever you call or when the sky falls. It’s such a sweet reminder of how precious our friendships are. During my freshman year of college I entered some of the sweetest friendships I’ve ever had. Picking and choosing friends can be tough for some people and having moved so many times as a child I suppose I’m better at it than most. However, I am by no means a professional at “friend-making”. As it would happen, I became closest with the girls who lived on my hall and we did any and everything together. From having photo-shoots with Christmas props in Target, cramming into one of our rooms to watch a movie together, playing our hearts out on the flag football field, dressing up as every holiday we could think of for Halloween, hiding a pet gecko, camping in the freezing cold and having your tent collapse in the middle of the night, climbing on the roof of our dorm building, getting milkshakes from the sassiest of waiters at 3AM, hammocking on our “front lawn” at 1AM, dancing in the basement laundry room during finals week, to borrowing grandma’s cookies from the vending machine. We shared more laughs than I ever knew I had in me. You know you have true friends when they would do anything for you and would go out of their way just to see you smile. These same friends are there for you when you go through your first heartbreak and they sit on the floor and cry with you and drag a mattress into your room to make sure you don’t feel alone. They will watch cheesy movies with you and eat cookie dough with you when you don’t feel so good. They will listen to you share your heart and all the dreams you wish would someday become a reality. They give you fashion advice and let you raid their closet as long as you let them raid yours. They make faces at you when you pass them on campus and sing crazy made-up songs to you as loud as they can just to show how much they love you. Even if you haven’t seen each other in 30 minutes they’ll hug you like they haven’t seen you in a year. They’ll break out into random dancing whenever a good song comes on and you don’t care who is watching because everyone wishes they could have friends as cool as us. These friends are treasures that God specifically planted in our lives to show how much He loves and cares for us. I’m so thankful for every friend I made this year and I can’t wait for this next year and more crazy adventures with those I love most!

Becoming His Masterpiece.

Being single has it’s ups and downs, but it’s a beautiful journey that can be a wonderful time of growth. During this time we can prepare ourselves through Christ to have a Christ-centered marriage. I recently read Andy Stanley’s book “The New Rules of Love, Sex, and Dating”. I HIGHLY recommend this book. Andy is so conversational in his writings and his explanation of the love chapter (1 Corinthians 14:4-7) is really eye opening. I love his point of “becoming the person you are looking for is looking for.” So if you are looking for someone who is unselfish, then maybe you should first look at yourself and see if you are unselfish. If you find that you are, maybe that’s something you could work on. While reading that book, I noticed some things about myself that needed changing and hopefully because of that my future marriage will be blessed.

{Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.}

1Corinthians 13:4-7 MSG

Another thing that is prevalent during this season of singleness is to enjoy our lives in the present. It is fun to dream, but we need to pay attention to the things God has generously placed right in front of us. Something that is right in front of us and always has been is Jesus. He is the only one who will satisfy our deepest desires. During our season of singleness we have the opportunity to worship and live for him more fully! Let’s not waste this great gift God has placed before us. Instead let us fall more in love with the One who gave it all for us so that we could know him more fully and live with him forever.

God writes amazing stories. And even better…amazing love stories. The best love story is between a glorious King and a broken soul. Through our brokenness, He has the ability to shine through us and let His glory be magnified.

“…like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure…” {2Corinthians 4:7b}

Let’s hand over the pens of our love stories to the only one who can finish them more beautifully than we ever could have imagined.

Thank you, Jesus, for hearing my cry of needing Your Love and Your Grace.

Paper Plate & Classroom Fun.

Some days as I peruse Pinterest, I get so excited about teaching my future students! The cute bulletin board ideas with the burlap bows and cardboard ladybugs, neat desk ideas for student’s names, adorable reading nooks with teddy bear reading buddies, and of course (my favorite) crafts and activities for every lesson and holiday! I have seen some of the cutest ideas for crafts and they look so fun! Growing up I was always called “creative” and I’m so glad I was. Doing crafts has always been a hobby of mine and I’m so excited to get to make them with my students. However, I know that as a teacher my salary will probably not support all my crafting habits. This is where my “creativeness” will come into play. Recently, I have seen cute crafts using paper plates (which are cheap!). I’m also thrilled to decorate bulletin boards! Here are some of my favorite ideas and all of the pictures are via Pinterest.   

Here are the links to my Pinterest boards for both class crafts and bulletin boards and class decorations. 

I hope you can find some good ideas for your classrooms or anything else! 

Notecards & Dreams.

There’s just something about getting a hand-written note in the mail from someone that is precious and heartfelt. I love words. I love the thoughts behind them. I like thinking about the person who wrote the words to me and them thinking about me while writing them. Writing thank you notes is one of my favorite things to do. It may seem tedious to some and sometimes is, but it makes me more appreciative of what I’ve been given. These thoughts and feelings of gratitude make me think of my beautiful Savior. He is so wonderfully gracious and merciful to us with all he has given and blessed us with. It should be a pleasure to live our lives as a “thank you card” to Christ. We should reflect all of the goodness he has given us in our everyday lives in the way we walk and talk. I guess that’s just another perspective on the topic of being grateful.

More often than not I find myself thinking about the future. What will happen in the next few years as I finish college? Where I will live after college? When will I meet my future husband? When will I get married? When will the life I’ve always dreamed about happen? These are all questions I have and wonder about. For a while I had an idea of where my life was going, but then things changed. During that time of transition and change from my state of comfortableness, I was broken. It was in that time that God made something beautiful grow. My friendships were strengthened and my understanding of being with Christ was deepened. Living a life with Christ is beautiful and I’m so thankful that I have Christ. He’ll always be in my corner even when the world feels like it is crashing down. I can’t say that I am looking forward to more times of trial, but I am looking forward to more times of growth that deepen my desire to become more intimate in my relationship with Christ and to know him more fully. So thinking about my dreams for the future and my relationship with Christ, I know that growing with and closer to Christ will allow me to see how truly important Christ is. 

My hope and constant is knowing that God has been faithful and always will be. I pray that his praise will ever be on my lips and that I will always be reminded of his kindness, strength, power to restore, transformation from ashes to beauty, and why he is my reason to sing!

{The LORD says, ‘I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name. When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble.  I will rescue and honor them. I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation.’ –Psalm 91:14-16}