april 2023: what God is teaching me

hello friends!!!! happy april. I hope that you are doing well + that you are excited for a new month of new lessons, new growth, + quality/intentional time with Jesus. i am so ready for may + all of the fun things upcoming-- but just tonight, when sharing a prayer request, mine was to have sweet/intentional time with Jesus this week. my heart longs to spend time with the Lord + i want my entire day to be set on seeking Him; to begin with Him + be consumed by His Word + filled with joy in His presence. Dear God, i pray for this new month of may, as my sweet friend reading this walks into a new month, i pray you will draw her heart near to yours, that you would teacher her new things about you + from your Word. may she reflect on what you have taught her + grow her faith to trust that you will continue to use her for your purpose of sharing the Gospel + making your name known. let us seek you always as we walk into a new time, you take control, we surrender all to you jesus. amen.

Dissapointment --- april began on a very challenging, faith-growing note!! God taught me some very important lessons that I need to still work on. His timing is perfect + He is perfect. A God-story called happened when my best friends and I made plans to go to Nashville for a day trip, on a special Saturday when I was not going to my senior prom and our plans failed. We decided to change it to Birmingham, then to Huntsville, then to nothing --- I was throwing myself a big pity party that day. My dad invited me to go to the gym with him on Saturday morning. I enjoy going with him and its something fun to do together. In the parking lot of planet fitness, I began to cry-- hurt by the disappointments I was facing, I was allowing the enemy to steal my joy of the day, while distracting me from what God was doing. My dad encouraged me and was very sweet to point me to the Lord amidst the failing of expectation. Side note, if you know me very closely, I am the worst when it comes to setting high expectations in my head, then when plans change or fall through, I feel crushed and very sad. This is something I have always done, I simply love having fun plans, having something to look forward to, etc. Maybe you can relate with me to this: but I do need to get better at not doing that as much HAHA. This is just another testament to my sinful nature.

Now I am in the gym, on the treadmill, as I began to cry again-- yes I cried in PF.... anyways LOL. I saw my dad begin to talk to an older man at the gym for a while, he needed help connecting to the wifi for his headphones. Then, my dad began to continue speaking to him; I realized my dad was seeking to share the Gospel with this old man. UGH. I was challenged and encouraged by that. I then moved to the elliptical, I prayed God please let someone come talk to me.... no way I can make this up, a sweet older lady walks up right next to my machine and hops on the elliptical. God works so fast and He is a God of encouragement. He cares even for the smallest details in our lives, when I was sad about not going to prom, then plans for that day (to originally distract me from prom) they fell through. This sweet lady, Mrs. ---- we began to talk about life, jobs, careers, church-- and we shared our testimonies with each other. She is a believer and is on the prayer team at her church. She was so sweet and encouraged me in my faith and was an answered prayer to me. She did not even known that I was crying probably 30 min prior to our conversation-- but what a lesson that we should encourage all, even other believers, they might need some encouragement too. after we finished for 20 minutes, I did some other workouts and I told my dad about what God had done. right before we left, I saw him and heard him talking with that lady. He told her thank you for talking to me, he told her how I had been feeling and it was such a sweet moment standing in God's providence. God taught me a lot about disappointment. What to do when the things I plan do not happen the way I expected them too? when i am battling self-pity + dissapointment + sadness, where will i run? In the midst of my day focusing slefishly all on myself and my disappointments, God had a plan. What if He was protecting me and my best friends from a car accident on the way to Nashville? If I would have gotten my way to go out of town, I would have never had the chance to meet that lady at the gym. Also, the timing of when we were there; God had the timing exact to where my dad would meet that kind grandpa. WOW. THANK YOU LORD.

Easter--- tune my heart Lord, take my heart and make it like yours Father!

the past few days God has allowed me to hear some good worship songs! some of these are - risen lamb of God, one name, heart and flesh, all in all. These past 2 easters have been some of my favorite because I tried to really sit down and prayed for God to prepare my heart for this time. There also is movies like "Passion of the Christ" that really helped me see the scriptures acted out. It is amazing how cool God is that when we do pray for Him to help prepare us in our hearts, He does what only He can do, and does.

I love you all very much--- I pray this encourages you to the Lord. He loves you and so do I, see you in May!! <3 if you need anything, please reach out: 2564452711.