His Purpose, Not My Plans

'Tis the season, or so they say. It's only November 29th, and already the stores are bustling, the decorations are out, traffic is crazy, and the stress of the season is setting in. If you read my post a couple weeks ago, you know that it's been a challenging season for me. And I wish I could say that as soon as I made that post things dramatically turned around and life has been nothing but great since then.. but that wouldn't be true. But, even in the midst of frustration and doubt and confusion, I have been amazed at just how wonderful my time with the Lord has been every morning. I started a new study through She Reads Truth, which was based off of traditional hymns with verses and a devotion each day. Come, thou fount of every blessing. It is well with my soul. I need thee every hour. Be thou my vision. His eye is on the sparrow. Great is thy faithfulness. Hymns of peace, of trust, of realizing that the Lord is in control. And then last week, I read...

If there is anything I have learned over the past two years of writing this blog, it is that when I am the most vulnerable and the most real .. that is when I hit the most people with the love of the Father. So here we go again. In keeping with the theme of letters, this one is directed to myself. And let me just say that I really, really needed to write it, and now read it about 100 times. Dear me, Hello there self. You're sitting in Starbucks, at your favorite table near the window, in the middle of the afternoon on a Monday. You had to step away from campus to get work done.. and just to breathe. It's been a really, really hard two weeks. There's no denying it. Things, multiple things, didn't go as you wanted them to. There were incidents with automobiles. Onlines quizzes had changed due dates.. that you didn't realize. You got sick, not once but several times and basically didn't eat for a week because of it. Life is so incredibly hard for...