Happy Birthday Whitney-from God

So, the past few days I haven't really been in the great mode of prayer that I was in last week.  I've just been slightly detached.  I've still been praying, but I just hadn't been as moved by it as I was before.  Now, I'm not at all saying that that was bad, but I do love strongly feeling Christ evidently in my prayer life.

Today, I may or may not have been journaling during class, and God blessed me with that connection again.  My list of thank yous to God just brought me so much joy.

Having birthday is a perfect time to count your blessings.

God has given me incredible friends.  He gave me my best friend (R) who sent me a wonderful letter for my birthday.  I'm reminded of the extremely awesome influence that she has had on my life.  He gave me new great friends at Taylor who "forced" me to drive to Anderson for donuts in the wee hours of the night and paid for my dinner at Bdubs.  I'm reminded of the close relationships that have formed even just over 1 year and that will probably last a lifetime.  He gave me my education buddies (M and C) who I got to spend the evening with!  I'm reminded of relationships that God has given me outside of my wing that have blessed me immensely.

 God also has given me something even greater than these.  He's helped me to trust Him and rely on Him.  This is not something that I have completely learned by any chance, rather, it is something that God has empowered me to do better than I have in the past.  I used to literally say, "You don't understand.  I have tried everything.  I've been at my weakest point and broken before God, but no matter what I do: It won't go away!"  Now God has changed my attitude completely.  I have power through Christ.  Where I belong is in God's presence, and when my heart and mind is focused on Him--I have strength like I've never had before.

Now, these are only 2 of the huge blessings that God has given me.  I think you can imagine why I had such a great birthday--why I am feeling so great about these 19 years that I have been alive.  It's because God is present.  God has grown me.  I'm not at a stand-still.  I'm not the same as when I first found Christ.  I'm exponentially closer to God.  By all means, I'm not the closest to Him that I'll ever be, but God is working--and I can see it.

Praise God for the happiest birthday of my life.

Trust In Him

So let's just say that the morning didn't start off to well...  I slept through my first class that i needed to attend.  I was a little frustrated, but I told God that I would rejoice in the day that He has made for me.

I went through my classes, and everything seemed fine.  But just around lunch time everything seemed to hit bottom.  A lot of things were going wrong.  I was hurt, sad, confused, upset, uncomfortable, and just felt like giving up.  All of this really just heaped upon me right before class.  So I headed to my least favorite class -- all 75 minutes of it -- quite, and just down.  Sitting in class is normally terrible, but this time it was even more unbearable.  I wanted to cry, and just let all of the stress overtake me.  But as I sat there and pondered for those long 75 minutes, I slowly realized that God is in control.  I chose to trust Him!  Since when do I do that?? By the end of class, my frown had turned upside down :)  I knew that I didn't like all of those emotions ganging up on me like that, but it was okay!  God knows what He is doing.


As I walked back from class, yes, I was exhausted.  Yes, those emotions all still existed.  But God gave me joy.  Tonight at BASSYCS we talked about how God uses all things for good.  I just need to glorify Him through my actions and trust that He knows what He's doing.

Praise God.  I think that He is changing me.

Keep changing me God.  Please.