I can be happy just about anywhere....

I have been very happy these past few weeks. I am loving my work at church and I am learning a lot about how to organize and plan events, as well as managing volunteers and keeping volunteers. Also, I have been able to spend a lot more time with the children.  This past week at the church the kids had their A.O.K. (Acts of Kindness) Week, where the children served all week both at the church and in the community. Seeing the children serve and help others really touched my heart: they donated food, raised food for the food pantry, served food, helped clean the church and a local golf course, and they also had the opportunity to help some recent tornado victims. It was amazing to see the children serving and to see how God is working in their lives.

I jumped out of bed....

I wrote this last Tuesday but forgot to publish it so here it is......This morning I woke up full of energy and ready to go.  I looked at my clock at 6:15am and thought why can't it be 7:15 already so for the next hour I rolled around in bed until finally it was 7:14am, that was good enough for me!  I jumped up out of bed and got ready to go, I even managed to have some extra time this morning to write in this blog.

Most of you might be wondering okay you are happy, I get it.  However, I have been listening to a set of sermons that I have downloaded at work from a conference and this guy, Chris Lemke has been talking to me every morning about having a child-like faith.  Chris calls this something like having the okayness of a 3 year old.

A 3 year old does not analyze the little problems, which I often find myself doing and wasting time over.  A 3 year old does not ask very many questions about someone who they are meeting for the first time, so there is very little judgment that takes place in the mind of a 3 year old. I was walking the other day with my host mom and we passed a little boy wearing a diaper and a t-shirt standing inside his house looking out the door. My guess is that he is about 2 years old and while we walked past his house he looks at us outside and yells hi and waves. He doesn't care that he is in a diaper standing in doorway and yelling at complete strangers. He is just concerned about the people that are outside his house. I wonder what would happen in our churches if we had the okayness of a 3 year old?

Desks are not for me.....

      I love interacting with people and with children so I am having kind of a hard time sitting still at a desk.  Anyone that knows me from college knows that I can't sit in one spot for very long.  My friends and I have had many good conversations and fun times during our breaks from homework, which basically consisted of leaving the library and walking around campus for five minutes before returning to the libary.  Within a two hour period I could have had at least two walks/breaks in.

     However, I do love that my work at the church serves a specific purpose and is heading towards a specific goal in reaching out to the children and families in the Waukesha area.  Everything I do has purpose/meaning behind it so no task is just busy work, although at times I will admit it does feel like it is.  Right now, I am just adjusting to a new environment.  I wanted a new experience and I definately found one.  God has been amazing through and in this all.  Everyday I am continuing to learn new things about Him. 

   For instance, I often wonder you know where God is going to lead me and what His will is for my life, but the answer is that I already know.  Yes, I might not know the specifics but as long as I am loving Him, loving others, and servingeverything is going to be okay.  I don't have to keep wondering where God is going to lead me or what might happen next because if I lose my selfishness and find myself completely made alive in Him than I already know what His will is for my life. It is in the ordinary every day life that His Will can be seen. It doesn't matter where I am or who I am with as long as my relationship and heart is right with God. The only thing that we are given is today this moment, we are not promised tomorrow.

"Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." - James 4:13-14

I have been thinking a lot about the future and worrying about the future because nothing seems completely clear what is going to happen or where I will be.  However, I know the only thing that matters is the here and now. I am loving God, loving others, and serving with all of my heart.