Waiting to Hatch

Free Hugs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4

This video made me smile a lot. Have a nice day :D

posted by Shari @ 9:17 AM 1 comments

More Lessons Learned (and a fun picture)

I wanted to share on my blog some thoughts thave (that+have=thave...sometimes I like to leave in my typos) been going through my head the past couple of days. Saturday, I went to visit some friends at North Greenville, which was wonderful because I have some amazing/fun friends friends there. One of them, Anna, asked me at one point how I had been doing spiritually since Seesalt. Now, you'd think that coming off a summer where you taught God's word and sang praises and saw kids come to Christ all the time would leave you on a spiritual cloud/mountaintop/high for weeks and weeks afterwards. What catches you offguard, and I'm sure most staffers could back me up on this, is the withdrawal. It's hard to go from Seesalt to home. And the usual Seesalt withdrawal challenges were definitely there, but God has been God (who else would he be?) and graciously still taught me lessons since Seesalt. I told Anna about how I was learning more and more to live in God and his will, and about how I'm realizing that a relationship with God can be so incredibly beautiful. And so I kind of want to share a little of that now. I'm learning more and more that things are not going to happen according to my plan. And just because something's doesn't go how I planned, doesn't mean it's bad and I have to fight it with all my might. I think sometimes we get in our head that if something doesn't go the way we planned, it must be because of some huge sin in our lives that's so deep down only God can see it. And then we waste our time trying to plunge something out of us that isn't necessarily there just so that things can turn out how we like. (Sorry if that was a really strange use of words, it is 1:53am) When instead we just need to realize that if obey God and put his desires over ours, his plans will be fulfilled. And His plans are the best. Not ours. Really. John 15 says that if we remain in God, our joy will be complete. I don't know why those verses are so hard for us to believe and grasp sometimes, but it really seems to be. Ok, I kind of went in a direction I hadn't intended to and have now lost my train of thought. So I'm gonna scan really quickly to get back to where I meant to be.

Oh right! The beautiful relationship. On my way home from NGU I started to think about who I imagined I would be at the age of 18 when I was in elementary school. Just to give you a little view into 9-year old Shari's mind, I thought I was going to be be in the top 20 of my graduating class, have long straight hair (I actually had stick straight hair until like 8th or 9th grade - who knew hair could change it's natural texture for no good reason!), have a wonderful boyfriend that adored me, have tons of friends at both school and church, be a track star, and play trumpet. Pretty much none of those are true. But I was actually really pleasantly surprised. When I was 9, I could have never predicted that my relationship with God could be so precious and dear to me. There's no way I can accuragely describe and when I try, I just get a huge smile on my face. And I still have a great life, even without the trumpet and boyfriend. It just deepened my realization that it's ok for things to not turn out the way I plan, and in many cases it's God's will. And praise God for it! I mean, really. Would my life be nearly as much fun or wonderful if I were a track-running genius with beautiful straight hair, but someone with a minimal relationship with God? I don't think so. I think it might be possible that I write these things more so for my benefit than of those who read this. It's good to get this stuff written down I think. But if you did make it throught this long thing, I applaud you because I don't think I even have the focus to even proof-read it. Hope you enjoyed!


I put this in here because cowbells are brass like trumpets. It's a picture to satisfy my inner 9-year old :)

posted by Shari @ 10:28 PM 1 comments

What I've been learning...

I spent my summer (as I'm sure all of you know) working at Seesalt, which is in my un-biased (hah) opinion the best camp ever. I get to work with great people and some amazing kids. There are several great stories I could tell about this summer, but instead I wanna talk about what I learned. Just in case anyone wants to know and also so I won't forget. So, here goes...

Lesson #1: God is faithful.
Probably the biggest lesson God taught me is that He is faithful. I knew this before the summer, but I don't think I really understood. The first week my group was completely silent. I could not get the to participate, answer questions, laugh, anything. I didn't feel like I could connect with them at all. At some point during the week, I came across Galatians 6:9 which says, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." So I decided to not be too disheartened and just keep persevering...and expected that harvest to arrive around Thursday. It didn't arrive on Thursday. Thursday was just as bad as the first day. But then, Friday. My kids started talking and answering questions and actually seemed to be getting something out of what I was saying. I kept trying to do good and God was faithful. And through that, I also realized that His timing is perfect, mine is not. There were so many other little moments when I God just revealed to me his faithfulness. He provided unexplainable comfort exactly when I needed it to get through my day - not when i thought I needed it, but when God knew I needed it. Because of this summer, I know that I'm going to be able to survive college. I'll be honest, I'm somewhat terrified to go to college. But God is faithful, and as long as I keep persevering to do good and follow Him, He's going to achieve what he needs to.

Lesson #2: Only God will satisfy.
I love my friends and family a ton, and I'm fortunate enough to have very dependable family and friends. I try my best to fully depend on God, but unfortunately I fall short a lot. I went on a mission trip during one of our off weeks and it was quite a challenge. I was exhausted, sick, and in charge of a group of high school students that didn't necessarily want a leader. I was sure that I was doing a horrible job despite a lot of effort. One night in chapel I was just asking God over and over to let me know what was wrong with me. I started to pick apart my life, my mind, and my heart. By the end of chapel I had come to the conclusion that I desperately needed God. Not just to eternally save me, but to make me complete, to make me feel whole, to give me peace and comfort. At that point there was no one else on earth that could provide real comfort. I am so incredibly grateful that God brought me to that humbling point that reminded exactly who my Almighty Saviour is. He is everything I need and exactly what I need. Isn't it great that God brings us to where we need to be? Yay for his love! Haha, sorry, I get excited :)

Lesson #3: Love through grace.
The Bible says to love everyone. For so long I've been trying to do that by trying to figure out qualities I like in people and trying to force love that way. (I know I sound like an unloving snob, but I'm just talking about rare cases, not everyone. I really do like and love people usually with ease.) We are supposed to love through grace. God has grace on them just He has grace on me, so how can I not love them? Does that mean I have to perfectly get along with everyone. I don't think so. God gave everyone a unique personality, and it's not realistic to think that they work together perfectly. But it does mean that I need to love. I don't need to cut people down. I don't need to not forgive anyone. It also helps me to love my friends that I'm already close to more. When you love people because of who God is and what He's done and because of who He's created everyone to be, it just make things....kalos...haha, good and beautiful. That's the lesson I'm trying to really put into practice. Because well, faith without action is dead. (James 2:26)


Ok, so there are many other things I learned, but these are probably the 3 main points. Because, well everything works in 3. Haha, that and if anyone has actually made it through all of this, I applaud you and reward you by not writing anymore. Anyway, God's awesome. That's pretty much it.

posted by Shari @ 7:46 AM 2 comments