Airports and Africa

I made it! I have been traveling for three days to Zimbabwe…three plane rides and four different countries and here I am…home! Along my journey there were many mixed emotions partly to do with what I wrote about previously in The End Of Junior Year… the other part was filled with great excitement and then the other part was wonder and mystery…just as I was on a journey, there were thousands of other people all on journeys at the same time as me. I was filled with wonder as to where they could be going, are they travelling alone or together, are they happy or are they sad, are they tired or is this just the beginning part of their journey….so many thoughts. Anyway I wanted to know…I wanted to know their journey, their story and then I wondered why this was important to me and I realized that I wanted to know their story, their journey is a part of their story in one way or another, but I was deeply desiring to know their stories. See the importance of story has become so evident in my life over this past year…there is power in your story…there is pain, beauty, redemption, grace, healing, abounding joy, grief, whatever it may be…your story has meaning. I never believed that my story had meaning, because all I felt with my story was a whole lot of shame and guilt and those emotions are lies and tools from the enemy, I knew that, I just didn’t believe it. However, over this past year I have had to share my story time and time again, as a leader within my campus community. The first time I ever shared my life story in full was on an 11day-hiking trip in the wilderness with a group of fellow leaders whom I hardly knew. The next morning after sharing my story I had the most amazing quiet time with the Lord where He reminded me that my story was not about me and my decisions, both good and bad, but that it was about HIM that it was about His Redeeming Love, His mercies, His grace, and that it was all for His glory and that when I share my story it is only one of the many examples of how good of a God He is and that HE changes lives.

So what is your story? What are the parts of your story that you are ashamed of? What are the parts of your story that you are proud of? I believe that your story has meaning and that God can use it to show His glory wherever and with whomever you choose to share your story with. So I challenge and encourage you to start sharing your story. It has meaning!

Today was a beautiful day...

Today was a beautiful day…

    I got to go and try on wedding dresses with three of my beautiful friends/sisters/bridesmaids, Augusta (Beans), Megan and Nicole. It started off with wonderful treats from Starbucks and then a twenty minute drive to Montclair, a near by city. On the way there there was lots of chatter in the car…however inside my stomach was turning I was so excited and yet so very nervous all at the same time. I wondered what I would look like dressed up as a bride…would I be as beautiful as I had always dreamed…well I certainly wasn’t expecting what was to come.

    On arrival I was greeted and handed some paper work to fill out and then I met Tanya, sweet Tanya who was going to be my wedding consultant for the day, she was gentle and sweet, which was just the perfect fit for me and for this day. We discussed different things I like and then Tanya was off to find dresses while I had to change into more fitting attire to try on wedding dresses ;) Then in came Tanya with the first dress, it was pretty but definitely not all that I had imagined or hoped for…I stepped out of the fitting room on to the platform and the girls all commented and so did Tanya and so did I…on what I liked and didn’t like…then it was on to the next dress…which Nicole, had already told me she didn’t like. It was a dress that was slightly shorted at the front and then getting longer in the back…it was interesting and different…just not the one. So the girls and I decided to take some fun pics, while Tanya went on the search for another dress for me to try.

    When she found one we headed on back to the fitting room while doing this Tanya said how she wasn’t sure if this is what I would like but that it seemed to have a lot of my ideas combined in one and so it was worth a try…and so…it was BEAUTIFUL! As I walked out all the girls gasped at the beauty they saw. I walked over to the platform…looked long and hard in the mirror and started to gently cry…crying at how beautiful I felt…I don’t think I have ever felt so beautiful in all my life…and it wasn’t just the beautiful wedding dress I was in…it was the overwhelming beauty of love…the love that I get to experience with the most amazing man…the beauty of being his bride and the beauty of being his wife…it was a moment that my heart will never forget…a moment filled with depth of beauty, overwhelming joy, and an excitement that felt so peaceful.

Today was a beautiful day!