Here lately I have enjoyed stepping back and taking a deep breath to inhale God’s goodness. He amazes me everyday. One way He amazes me is how He reveals topics for me to blog about. They are oftentimes simple, everyday events that reveal His grace, mercy, love, and kindness. 

This time I was preparing protein snacks. I don’t spend much time in the kitchen, but I was excited about these. There was a particular thrill that accompanied buying my ingredients, creating a plan, and watching my snacks transform into edible treats. 

The ingredients were pretty simple: oats, ground coffee grains, almond butter, ground flaxseed, honey, and vanilla. Although these items were simple, they were each important and had to be incorporated in very specific ways. All of the dry ingredients go in the bowl first, then the liquid mixtures. After everything was mixed, I had to use my hands to roll the combination into balls. It was messy and took some patience, but it was worth it. Once they were finished, they served as the perfect breakfast treat to start out my morning with some protein-induced energy. 

You’re probably thinking something along the lines of, I didn’t come here to read a recipe you found during your 2015 diet phase. I have a point, I promise. ☺️

While I was mixing, I was thinking about the season of life God has placed me in right now, and how He chose the ingredients, developed a plan, then tenderly crafted me in preparation for where I am now. 

  
The picture above shows my experience with outreach at YMI, Young Ministers Institute, in Crowley. YMI is a week-long discipleship program during which students take classes, worship, do outreach, and fellowship. It’s the most refreshing time of year. After leaving YMI, I felt a renewed desperation for God’s presence and sustenance. When I returned home, I was discouraged to find such a lack of spiritual hunger around me. I broke down in front of my congregation explaining how difficult it is to be surrounded by loved ones who don’t walk with Christ. My heart was broken, but through that brokenness I learned of God’s healing power firsthand.

Later in the summer, I had the blessing of going to New York on a week-long mission trip with my church group. 

 Saying that New York changed my life is an understatement: I was surrounded by a group of people who genuinely wanted God’s will and wanted to do His work – so naturally His presence was tangible all week. (Heaven on Earth.) With Street-Life Ministries we played with kids in a park, set up prayer stations on the streets and in a subway terminal, and helped pass out food, juice, and clothes to the homeless. When the trip was over and we left, I felt so strongly like my heart was staying behind in New York. (I still have some things to pray about. 😉)

  
Later in the summer I also had the pleasure of accompanying a few friends to Chicago to do some ministry and visit a church plant. The people there were so easy to love, and the worship at U-Turn Chicago was amazing. God broke down walls during that trip, and my heart was definitely opened up. 

After temporarily appeasing my wanderlust, I returned home. I had moved in with my older brother at the beginning of the summer to save money and to be close to my parents and brothers. Although it was super generous and kind of my brother to let me live with him, we had a few disagreements and I realized that I needed to get my own place again. So after practically living out of my suitcase from traveling all summer, I finally moved back into my own place the day before school started. 

Needless to say, I was exhausted, stressed, and overwhelmed. 

It amazed me that after a summer during which I was immersed in God’s presence and filled with His goodness, I could end the summer feeling this way. Where was my peace? Where was my rest? Where was my joy?

*Cue the first week of school*

In June I was hired to teach middle school English and math at the school I graduated from four years ago. This was my first official career.  I didn’t know how to feel, but I poured myself into preparing for my students. The desks were arranged, my handouts were prepared, and my white board was clean. Finally, the students arrived. 

I left school that first day feeling the same way I have felt everyday since August 24: joyful, renewed, purposeful, and peaceful. 

Today as I reflect on the past few months, God whispers to me how all of my ingredients have been gathered, prepared, and mixed together so that I could be where I am today. YMI laid the foundation of a desperation for God’s presence. New York developed in me a hunger to do God’s will and make everyday a mission opportunity. Chicago taught me to love everyone around me, especially those unlike me. Living with my brother showed me that there is still a LOT of room in my heart for growth. Teaching at my home school revealed the truths that you should never tell God “never” (that’s an inside joke), and that you will never feel satisfied until you are doing what God has called you to do. 

It makes me so happy to think that God took the time to gather and prepare all of those ingredients, create a plan for implementing them, then gently add them into my life as He saw fit so that my heart would be transformed by His Holy Spirit and I would become the woman He made me to be. 

I still have a long way to go, and I’m sure there is a whole pantry full of more ingredients God will sprinkle into the mix in the future, but my heart is so content in the thought that God keeps growing me. 

“…Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6)