I Know That You Are For Me

"God is love. He didn’t need us. But he wanted us. And that is the most amazing thing."

Rick Warren

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbSMfL5LuSo

Sometimes, without us even realizing it, God will remind us of His love and compassion.

This song is amazing, it helps me to remember that God is for me! He is never against me. Anything that He has laid in front of me is already planned. He has never given me anything that I can't handle. I know this because I have already overcome everything just by knowing Him.
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you, and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
What a gracious God. He holds us, everyday, whether we see Him or not. We usually only see it when we need Him most. How amazing is it though that we can run to Him when our hearts are hurting and when we feel like there is no where else to turn.
He makes us new everyday.
He knows our every move and still loves us just the same.
The fact that He loves us and wants us is too much to comprehend. Most people, growing up, feel unwanted in someway or another, but just to realize that a God created you because He wanted you, is so astounding.
I love that I have a God to run to when times are hard, or when I need to feel the love of a father.
He is for me and I know that He will never forsake me in my weaknesses.

Exodous 15:2

Exodus 15:2
The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him.
This week has been such an emotional roller coaster for me. I woke up Sunday morning remembering how my grandfather used to wake me up with a cold rag and slowly patted my face until I would open my eyes. Him and my grandmother would sing "good morning" and argue over what tie my grandfather would wear. I would watch Gerber on tv and look forward to going to Sunday School with my grandparents for the free doughnuts and smell of coffee. They had so many friends who I considered to be my friends too and we all went to Luby's afterwards where I got the same thing for lunch every week.

Having that to look forward to every weekend gave me the strength to go through my week at home. My grandparents were, and still are, God's reflection in my life. Seeing the way they live their life and loved on me made me see God's love and want me to love on those around me.

I have so much love and adoration for my grandfather, but growing up, I always knew that God was and is my father. Without the strength of God, I WOULD not be who I am today. He has poured out grace and mercy on my life and I sometimes feel like I am drowing in it. Like the David Crowder Band song says, "If his grace is an ocean, we are all sinking."

God has been really moving in my life this week. I have just been so overwhelmed by his presence and compassion. God and  I have a song, "Come thou Fount." He always plays this song on the radio when I need that reassurance that He is with me and when I need Him to still my soul. When I was driving to church on Sunday, I knew God was telling me I needed to play that song because we needed to have one of our moments. I didn't want to play it though, I was pouting and wanted to dwell in my self-pity.  When I got to church, I started realizing that I was missing my grandfather terribly, which was a reason why I was in such a foul mood that morning. I sat in my usual row with my friends and husband and was trying to prepare my heart for worship. The worship leader started speaking and took the words right out of my head. He said, let's prepare our hearts, we are going to sing, "Come thou Fount." I embarassed myself because the first words I said was, "shut-up." Of course my husband and friends didn't know why I spoke those words right before chuch, but I knew that God was telling me that I needed to listen to what He had to say. After that song, the worship pastor started talking about not having a father and that the fatherless really needed to be listening to what God was telling them and let the Spirit move through them. That was it, I was bawling and I could just feel God overwhelm me and I knew that God knows how much I miss my grandfather, but that He is here for me and I am never alone.

The last song that we sang was, "How He Loves," which is the song from above by David Crowder Band. I just knew that God was telling me that He is not letting me go anywhere, He is not going to let me fall while I am under such stress, and He is my father and loves me and takes joy in me pouring out my love on others.

Had a bad day?

Life is like an onion; you peel off one layer at a time and sometimes you weep. -Carl Sandburg
I tend to take the phrase, "I had a bad day," with a little panache. I believe that it can always be worse, I try to stay on the sunny side and pray that it will only go up from where I am when I feel like I am at the bottom. Today was a day that tried to be a bad day, but I wouldn't let it. It all started when my husband and I had to wake up at 6:30 in the morning to go and get his drivers license renewed. I didn't mind waking up early, we were both off today and I love doing everything together when we have the day off. That actually went well, it only took us about thirty minutes there, and then from that we went to my university, UTA, to check on my financial aid and finally change my last name for my school records. My name change went well, but their printer was broken so they couldn't print off my transcript for me to take to the community college that I am taking a summer class at...great. Then, I found out that there are no financial aid opportunities available for the summer, so my husband and I had to cancel our one year anniversay plans in order to start saving the $2022.00 it will cost for my summer classes. Believe me, it does get worse... I was so distressed that we weren't going to be able to make our plans happen for our anniversary because our honeymoon was shot when our car broke down in the desert in New Mexico and we had to stay in this little town, but that's a different story. Anyways, after we left UTA, feeling dismayed, I was still trying to look on the optimistic side, trying to search for anything to make this day better. As we were driving home in my husband's car, his air conditioner decides to stop working, and right as that happens, I get really nausious and start throwing up. It isn't even 9:00 in the morning yet. We derail our other plans and head home to rest. We watch a movie and take a nap until about 1pm. From there we wake up, eat lunch, and head to my car to go to walmart to go grocery shopping. When we get in my car, we realize that it won't start. Mind you that it hasn't been acting up at all and there was nothing leading me to believe that it was about to break down. So, still not trying to get too terribly upset, we get in my husband's car and go ot walmart. When we get there, we see our old neighbor...the crazy one who sent us stalker emails... We take an extra 30 minutes to walk around all of the different departments in hopes to not see her. Once we knew she had left, we go back to our shopping. We managed to spend pretty much what we had budgeted for and then head back home.

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
-Albert Einstein

The way I see it is that we make our own happiness. No matter what is going on around us, we have to see opportunities to love and see the good. There will always be difficulties, but what matters is how we handle the situation. The Bible says that God has all our our days written, and that He knows what every day will hold for us. We just have to believe that there is nothing that will happen that He knows we can't handle and just have faith that He will help us through it, no matter what it is.