TLC

It's already 2015, and I am yet again reminded of how quickly time goes. I'll be 21 this year. 21? When did that happen? How quickly two decades have already gone by, and what do I have to show for them? Everything. Nothing. Good. Bad. The years have held it all, although I find it easy to think they haven't held enough for me. I fall into the lie that I should be farther in my journey. And perhaps I could be, but that isn't the case, and that's ok.

Am I where I want to be today? In all honesty, no, but I am a whole lot closer today than I was a year ago or even just a few weeks ago. I'm a work in progress. While I often find my self groaning toward that destination, I'm forever grateful that I am in fact progressing.

I've grown remarkably from the little girl I once was. Some changes have been significant, some subtle, and some I'm sure I won't even be aware of until years from now. Certain areas of my life have seen more growth than others, a fact I've known but am only recently acknowledging. As this new year begins, and as I reflect over all that this past year has held, I prepare to step forward into change and growth. Seeking out those areas that need an extra boost.

My focus for this new year (my resolution as it were) is me, myself, and I. Sure it sounds a little selfish and self-centered, but I don't care. I want to find my best self, or at least get closer to her. So, yes, this year is about me. Don't worry, I'll still love you and seek to look out for you, but I'm going to look after myself too. My belated Christmas gift to myself is some TLC. As you begin this new year, could you use the same?

A Waiting Season

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens." -Ecclesiastes 3:1

Well, phewy you might say. It's run through my head several hundred times. Why can't the time be right now?

Right now, the last thing I want to do is to wait for the right time, but that's all I can do. Patience is all I have to bring to the situations and decisions in my life presently, and I must say I'm not a fan. I like to do things and be able to take care of things myself. But with these decisions I'm facing, concerning the future, I can't really do anything. For some of them I know what I want, but I don't know how it would work out. For others, I have no idea what the best path is. So then what?

There is a time for everything, including waiting.

Maybe things will work out how I want them to, or perhaps they'll be completely different and yet completely perfect. But the biggest truth and reality I've been learning is that there's a time for all of that too. It just hasn't come around yet.

Perhaps you're waiting for something too. Perhaps you're growing impatient. Maybe you want to give up on waiting. But do you get out of waiting in line just as you're a person behind the front? I am right there with you in hating to wait, but the rather frustrating fact of the matter is that you will have seasons of waiting in your life. Will you see them through? Will you cut out before you reach the front? Cause hun, you'll just end up going to the back of some other line.

"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet." -Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Be Strong and Courageous

I don't know about you or where you might be in life, but I know I've been pretty freaked out lately thinking of the future. The "real" world is coming up so quickly, and that's scary. I still feel like a little girl in many ways, and it's hard to think I'll have to be out there figuring out my life soon.

For several years now, I've felt God calling me into medicine, and I believe that's where my heart is, but isn't it funny how quickly and easily our hearts fail us in the face of fear and uncertainty? I know that's what I should do, and I think it's what I want to do as well. However, there are a lot of pieces to that puzzle that I can't see, and I like to see the picture on the box cover when I put a puzzle together.

It's a long journey, and it will be emotionally draining and heart breaking, and that scares me. Will I be able to do it? Will I be able to do it well? Yes and no. I won't be able to do it, but God will. If He has called you to it, He will bring you through it. Don't be scared and don't worry that you won't be able to endure. Wherever or whatever God is calling you to, He will equip you perfectly and completely for it, even if it takes some time.

Ultimately, while we may not know what or when or where we should go, the one known is that we should go. So what do we do when we know we're called but are scared to take that first step on what seems to be a hidden path? "Be strong and courageous." While we may not know the big picture, God does.  It isn't very important if we know all the right things to do or say, or even if we make a few wrong turns along the way, but it is important to at least start moving. He'll walk each and every step with you.

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."
       -Joshua 1:9

Do you

Ever have a friend give you the one raised eye brow look? Also known as the "what in the world are you doing? You're a goof" look. I've received it many a time, but I've also given it. We might not always understand one another, and we usually all experience moments of embarrassment when others don't follow our train of thought. Thing is, we're all completely different people, so there will be times when we don't see everything eye to eye. That is ok. Cause hun, just do you.

It's so tiring trying to worry about what others think of you, or trying to keep yourself in a "socially acceptable" box. Who gives a hoot? If we're being honest, it's not like society's standards are all that great nowadays. Plus, while it is a problem that everyone is so concerned about how the world perceives them, maybe that fact can help you begin to loosen up. If everyone is concerned about how they come off, they probably aren't focusing on you. Not that you aren't important or worth being focused on (because you are!), but relax, because most people are in the same boat as you.

Let me tell you, it is so freeing and so much fun to just be who you are. God didn't mess up, so don't worry about other people thinking you're messed up. Now, I suppose I ought to provide a check to all this advice. While you should be who you are, don't take this to mean you shouldn't seek to improve and grow. We all have things we can work on, so be you, but also look to be the best you that you can be! At the end of the day though, just do you :)

The Friend Zone

We've all seen the movie where a great guy likes his friend, but she responds in turn by placing him in the dreaded "friend zone." We all boo and think how could she do that. But even within the past few hours, I've been thinking that maybe the "friend zone" is the best place to be.

True, no one wants to be rejected or have feelings for someone who doesn't return them. However, I do know we all want to be with someone who makes us laugh. Someone who will go on absurd adventures with us just because. Someone who'll hug us after a bad day. And someone who totally gets us. We all want to be able to be in a relationship with our best friend.

I tend to er on the side of thinking I'll one day meet the man of my dreams and we'll live happily ever after from that moment on... oh wait, I've known him all of two hours. Yes, there are those incredibly romantic stories of people meeting and knowing on the spot they'll get married. But more often than not, love stories bloom out of the years of a beautiful friendship. I think the better you know someone the deeper you can love them. You may not want to be just friends right now, but enjoy it anyway. If it's meant to be, that friendship will end up being the base on which your romantic relationship is built.

I don't know about you, but when I think ahead to my wedding day, I picture myself being ecstatic about being able to officially start spending the rest of my life married to my best friend, not to a stranger. So, this "friend zone?" Maybe it's not all that bad after all.

The Golden Rule Pt. 2

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you..." -Matthew 7:12

Well, my friends, I set out several days ago to specifically think of putting others before myself. I thought of what I would like others to do for me, and I hoped to turn around and do those things instead for others. Here is what I had thought of for myself:

Someone to help me clean my room! (it's a tad messy...)

To not worry about having others judge me

To have a peace of mind over finances

To be loved/ to keep being loved

A beautiful night out filled with fun (preferably a date, but a girls' night out would be good too ;)

Over the past few days, I've thought of how I might look to other's needs, and I must admit that I failed rather miserably. When my mom asked me to clean up my stuff around the house, I thought that'd be a great way to show her love... a day later most of it was still lying around. When I would want others to love me, I didn't want to show love to some family friends who were over (I had no patience in socializing). I did succeed in having a great girls' night out with some friends, but was it more about them than it was about me? I don't know.

Overall, these past few days weren't so golden in this respect. It's such a reminder of how easily it is to grow into tunnel vision! You can spend all the time you want with loved ones, but are you spending all that time loving them? You can see people, but do you care about people? 

This is definitely an area in which I have a huge amount of growth yet to do, and maybe you tried the Golden Challenge and found it difficult too. But let's keep giving it a go, okay? Even if it takes a lifetime, I think it will be worth it if each and every day I become even just a little bit better at loving others. 

The Golden Rule Pt. 1

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you..." -Matthew 7:12

I'm sure we've all heard this or a paraphrase of it. I'm also sure many of us haven't done this, at least not very often. A supposed "golden rule," it would hope to have society be the best it could be- can you imagine if we all looked to others and thought of them more than we do ourselves? Maybe following this rule would only amount to making someone's day, but maybe it could be so much more. Maybe more people would be heard, understood, seen. Maybe there wouldn't be so much hunger or so many broken people. I don't really know, but maybe.

One of my favorite websites (SheReadsTruth), gave the advice of asking yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. So here it goes, I'm going to think honestly of things I would like, and then over these next couple of days, I'm going to look to give/do them for others around me. We'll deem it the Golden Challenge :).

So, I would like...

Someone to help me clean my room! (it's a tad messy...)

To not worry about having others judge me

To have a peace of mind over finances

To be loved/ to keep being loved

A beautiful night out filled with fun (preferably a date, but a girls' night out would be good too ;)


Well, I'll get back to ya on how it goes!
And you can certainly join me in the Golden Challenge if you like! Who knows, but maybe something beautiful will come from it. Just maybe :)