june + july: what God is teaching me

hi friends! i hope this blog finds you doing amazing + growing in your walk with the Lord. i am going to be real. i am trying to catch up on my monthly blog posts + am writing this months later..... but this was a spiritual goal i set for 2023 so i want to honor it. through sharing some of what God has taught me, I hope you feel encouraged and uplifted to hear some struggles and thoughts that someone your age is also facing. Remember that He is good and is the best teacher! He gives us grace when we fail and teaches us lesson that grow us deeper in our faith.

the main thing God taught me this past summer was a new perspective on life and how to make an impact for His Kingdom in the world! we all were involved in something in high school. maybe that was a sports team, drama, band, student council, or choir. even if we were not specifically in a certain club, there was something we enjoyed to do or gave our time to. well, I lovedddd to cheer! so this past summer after I graduated, i tried out for UCA staff. it is a cheer company that hosts most of the cheer competitions and cheer camps in the US. since they do camps in each state, they hire college-age and older, cheerleaders to work for them during the summers for their middle-high school cheer camps! this is like the perfect job for someone who loves to cheer right?! it was soooo much fun, and of course, God knew that I would absolutely LOVE it and He would teach me some pretty awesome stuff along the way! i was so thankful to do it this summer and for GOD giving me that opportunity; here are three things I learned.

the opportunity to be the LIGHT for CHRIST by meeting people where they are!!!!!

there were so many staff members from other states and colleges working with UCA... it blew my mind lol. it was so fun to meet younger cheerleaders who love the same thing I love. God taught me that a big way i can reach people for CHRIST is not by staying close with my christian friends all the time, or by serving ONLY at the church, it's about MEETING people where they are in the real world and bringing the Gospel to them!! so many of my sweet friends from staff did not go to church or attend regularly, but we all shared a common love and interest for cheer! after becoming friends and bonding over cheer, we got to talk about our faith. of course there were many times i failed to share my testimony with them, even though I knew I should have, # conviction. but there were still other opportunities to have good conversations about Him with my friends.

most of my life, I always thought the best way to make a difference for the Lord was ONLY in a church setting-- to work there, or do something in ministry, or to be a pastors wife, etc. And these things are AMAZING things, please don't hear me wrong :) they are awesome and I still have desires of some of these things I've shared, however, God showed me that is not the ONLY way!! some of my cheer friends or the camp girls may never step foot in a church on their own, but when we, as the CHURCH, step into their world, we can bring the Gospel to them!!

it is our job to tell them about Jesus' death on the cross for the forgiveness of OUR sins + the freedom He offers to us. most likely, it won't be them walking into a church event or service, this often times looks like us reaching out to them. the great commission tells us to "go therefore and make disciples of all nations." I notice that it says "go" not let them come to you whenever and just sit and be ready when they do, but it says GO!! friends, lets actually GO and reach those who are lost, with the HOPE of christ! let's biblically see church as the place to come to learn and worship Christ with other believers, while being FUELED UP to go back to our jobs and our cities to SHARE what we know about God's SAVING GRACE!! I am so good at going on Sundays and reading my bible during the week, but neglecting the opportunities to tell someone about it. may we be BOLD witnesses for Christ! it might not always be comfortable, but its our purpose in this life.... I am challenging myself on this too friend. lets GOOOO..

GOD, moving forward in your grace, let us step into the lost world with BOLDNESS to share the amazing truth of your love and forgiveness with the dying world !! thank you for using this job to open my eyes to a new perspective and way to serve you. use me to step into the world and with my job in ultrasound, to be a LIGHT for YOU !! use my friend reading this post now, wherever you have called them, wherever you have placed them, to be a LIGHT for YOU. let us GO and tell the WORLD what YOU have DONE!!!! amen.

being out of my comfort zone + meeting new friends !!

there were so many people on staff and at the training camp! it was a wonderful opportunity to grow in meeting new people + building new friendships. tbh I get nervous about meeting people sometimes. other times i am thriving and feel like I can talk to a brick wall LOL, it really just depends on the day + my social battery HAHA!! we had a time at the camps where we do a leadership training with just the captains of each team. one of my fav parts was getting to do this with them bc it was usually a smaller group and it felt close and more personal. i got to lead 2 of them this summer. during the conversation about leadership, I told them ..... "The BEST leaders are the ones who SERVE those whom they're leading" --- Jesus is our best example of a leader. He loved and served HIS followers and He made the most impact that way. we too can lead well by following Christ's example + making the most of each opportunity to LOVE and SERVE those whom we are leading!"

maybe you're the leader of something: the manager at work, officer of a club, sunday school teacher, or involved on a team. regardless if you have a title likes these examples or not, you are always influencing and leading someone. someone is watching your lifestyle and the way you live. that could even be through social media or at school. we have the opportunity to lead like Christ.... making the MOST of every opportunity + leading in servant-like LOVE!

“Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” -Ephesians 5:15-16

growing my personality in who God created me to be!! 

While leading these camps, I learned a lot about how to get a large groups attention and to be louder. I realize that being louder, does not always mean you're being rude or mean. there is a way to lead by example, sometimes loudly if not everyone can hear and there's tons of cheer teams being loud right next to you LOL. I am not really a shy person. all throughout school, I enjoyed doing speeches in front of people and did not mind talking to a group, but this taught me an entirely new role of that! staff taught me how to speak up and not be so quiet in that area. because we were leading camps and this was our JOB, it was my responsibility, so they would look to me for what to do next. I guess because of my age this felt so weird, but in the coolest, best way absolutely possible! it was like playing cheer with REAL life people !! we would create new ways to do the material we taught, working together and incorporating their tumbling and stunting skills to put together something we all liked! we were the ones coaching so that was SUPER fun but I was out of my comfort zone at certain times. it wss cool to see how God made me more comfortable as time went on. it was helping me see how God was using this job to mold me more into an adult and who He created me to be. there were lots of responsibilities of having this job. not just because of normal work requirements like time management and effectiveness, but we had to travel. often times, I would be driving alone to the camps + staying in hotels with other staff. even sometimes I had to stay alone and check in by myself. it was because of new experiences like these where God was shaping me more into He created me to be. I still remember my very first camp watching the my first head instructor, Emily, lead a camp and I thought I could never do that..... she did such a good job. I knew I could never do it... well by the end of the summer they scheduled me to be the HI of a camp, and I would have to put into practice all of the fun things I learned from the other staffers and the things God showed me about my own personality together, to lead a camp well!!

Thank you LORD for what you taught me this summer through UCA staff!!! and thank you for you who are reading this blog post. remember today, if you have given your life to Jesus, you have the saving knowledge that those around you NEED to know!! let God grow your personality through new experiences. and lets GO today and tell others about Christ!!! keep telling and sharing the GOOD NEWS!! JLY <33

"18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” -Matthew 28:18-20

if you have never given your life to JESUS and you want to know more about what that means please text me! it would be my JOY to tell you how you can be SAVED!!

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