hard learning.

God is kind and will never push you harder than you can handle.. I'm learning to rest in this. The Lord is speaking to my specifically about some things he wants me to trust him with. Some things, lets just say, are between He and I. My first instinct is to blurt it out to my close friends or a leader.. would someone just give me some insight here! But nope.. I need to lean not on my understanding.. I need to do less talking and more trusting, resting, waiting. Not in what others have to say, not in what I have to say. In what God says. This is very hard. I don't like it. But He's here and He's good.

This past week was THE GATHERING. Cool name huh? Kind of intimidating.. A gathering of what you might ask? 200 YWAM DTSers. It was awesome. I had the previledge of Taking care of our two speakers Dave Buehring and Winkie Pratney - Such a cool job. They are seasoned men who love God and I learned a lot from them. I also got to see my cousin Tessa! O my.. our meeting was wonderful and I'm so sad it's all over! I took so much from the week.

Some cool notes from this weeks lecture (The topic was The Character and Nature of God):

Remember who lives in you.

The Lord has more intense feelings than you can even imagine. God feels so deeply. He felt the hurt you go through. Only Christ can carry the hurts of the world. He has given you a precious gift – to take what exists and rearrange it for his glory. It will be unique to you because you are unique. The gift god gave you is CHOICE. He made you a tiny, finite version of him. The stuff of God is not us it is the image of God in our lives. When we see what he made we get a little clue of what can be done. Its real! God will show you his secrets if you LOVE him.

-Winkie Pratney (From New Zealand!)

When there are mornings that you are in the word and it feels dry - it is still in you. We are too driven by what “buzzes” us. It goes beyond that. What are you doing with your quiet time? I don’t have to have a buzz to praise the Lord. Lie – “I have to have the feeling or I’m a hypocrite.” Truth – “You must go deeper because the Lord IS there.” GO DEEPER!!

In the bible hate is not the opposite of love. Selfishness is the opposite of love.

God thinks bigger, deeper and wider than us. But not alien to us.

-Dave Buehring

Today I bought watermelon flavored lip smackers lip gloss. For the first time in my 20 years of life I wished I could be a little girl again. So I did it - I walked out of the store with sparkly lips and did a little dance.