Waiting for apple picking season: When waiting for God's timing seems like eternity

The best apples aren't necessarily the easiest to get to. Have you ever gone apple picking? Have you ever noticed how the brightest and juiciest looking apples usually require some thought to access? The apples on the ground are the easiest to pick up, but take a closer look... some are rotten and have worms in them. Some are mushy. A lot of them are picked up and thrown back down because you realize they're rotten...they're not right! They're the easy ones but not necessarily the best ones.

I recently went apple picking with a friend and I was walking down the aisles and aisles of apple trees, trying to pick the very best ones, I had a sweet moment with God. I've definitely faced my share of discouragement when it comes to dating; to say it's been a difficult road would be an understatement. Sure I've been on dates with guys, but none of these men were men that I could see myself with long term. None of them were men of God that I knew would honor Him and honor me in a way that I have dreamed of my entire life. 

As I was searching for the best apples in the bunch, I realized that like these apples, God has placed me on the top of the tree and it's going to take someone who is going to take the effort to climb to pick. Trust me sister, I understand it can feel mighty lonely up at the top of the tree when you see so many of your friends going off and getting married and starting families, but don't give in to the easy attention.

The easy attention is just that, easy. It's easy to entertain a guy who says all the romantic stuff. It's easy to go out on dates with the hot guy who's just looking for a fling. But you weren't called for the easy path, your path is so much more than that. 

God has his best saved for up top. He has placed you in a place that takes effort to get to. It takes effort, persistence and perseverance to reach the top of the tree...but these apples are untouched by the ground and the bugs that occupy it. These apples are ready to be picked, longing to be picked but are patiently waiting because they know that it'll be worth it one day. So don't sacrifice yourself and your self worth for the small bread crumbs a man might feed you to fall off the tree. Wait for the man who is going to put his heart into pursuing you honorably, selflessly and in a Godly manner. 

Twenty-Four Seven

“And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God” (NLT) Ecclesiastes 3:13

Every one of us gets 24 hours in a day, no more, no less. It doesn’t matter if you’re working or in school or in between jobs. It doesn’t matter if you’re struggling to make a living or if you’re living the dream- we each get the exact same amount of time: 24 hours, 1440 minutes, 86400 seconds. We never feel like we have enough time in the day to get XY and Z done, to make a difference, to give back, to donate, to volunteer, to get in shape, to call our parents back, to… the list could continue until I could no longer type. Why is it that some people are more successful than others to get things accomplished in a day, a week, a month, a year? Is it because they sleep more? Maybe they drink green tea. Or maybe it’s because they read more books in 5^th grade. Maybe they don’t sleep more than 2-hours a day. 

I don't have the answers but I do know that God grants us each the same amount of time every day, and it is our sole job to do what we do in that day to glorify Him. Whether that's sweeping up cheerios, cleaning toilets, gardening, studying or sitting at a computer all day; we can do what we do with a grateful heart, a sweet spirit and in a way that glorifies God. Recognize the gifts God has given to you and spend your day, your God-given day, to glorify God with those gifts.

Ordinary to Extraordinary

It has been a while since I've actually finished a post and actually published it- a sad thing considering I used to love writing and blogging. In the past four months my work life went from busy to chaos. I would leave work, hit the gym, come home and be so emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted I couldn't even find the motivation to open my laptop or look at a screen for one second longer. As the days turned into weeks and weeks into months, my life turned into a draining monotony of busyness.

Recently a few things have around me that make me realize how incredibly unpredictable life can be; things can change so drastically that it made me stop and ask myself it what I was doing was worth it? No.

A woman at work had an honest conversation with me, about how short life can be and how we need to forget about the fear of the future and the unknown and find joy in the moments we have with those we love. It's pivotal that we choose joy, find joy and pursue the dreams we dream about only to ourselves.

When I get busy, one of the first things to suffer is my quiet time reading the Word. Ironically, the Word is one of the most important things we can stay in to keep grounded,  rooted in His promises and cling onto the hope that He promises us. Deciding to take 5 to 10 minutes of your day to spend with Him and reading the Word can really set the tone for the rest of it. Life gets messy, busy, chaotic, and plain stressful but by rooting ourselves in those few blissful moments of quiet, peace and joy it can really turn your day around and make an ordinary day into an extraordinary day. So I choose to find the time, to make the commitment and to make completely ordinary days into fantastically extraordinary days.

"A busy life makes prayer harder, but prayer makes a busy life easier"

Stop Looking

 I've been searching for answers and, in full disclosure, I'm a girl and read too much into 'signs'. When I was deciding on where to attend college, I felt like every billboard or bumper sticker was a sign from God that to where I was supposed to go! I'm not sure if it's a female thing or just a me thing, but I am notorious for desperately searching for an answer and sometimes making up my own answer. 

Questions about future career- TODAY show has a segment about relocating to Guam…maybe God wants me to move to Guam and open an orphanage? 

Questions about a future move- see 10 moving trucks in one day…God wants me to pack up and go. 

Questions about pursuing a dream- find 15 inspirational Pinterest quotes, God is trying to speak to me.

It always seems when you stop looking, that's when you find what you're looking for.

I've been looking for answers to so many things, and lately I feel like I've been overlooking to find God's answer. Maybe His answer is more of a quiet whisper rather than an in-your-face lightning bolt…exactly what this type-A girl doesn't want :) 

Jeremiah 29:13 "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with your whole heart" 

Maybe it's time to stop desperately searching for my own answers and go back to listening for His guidance. 

Usually, when you stop looking, you find exactly what you need….His answers. 

Boom...Humble!

I accepted a new job in August that came about by God's hand. There really is no other explanation for it. I didn't even apply for the job really. I went in for an interview on Thursday, I got the job offer on Monday and started on Wednesday. I had less than one week to decide on what I was going to do, and in a moment everything changed. I was completely miffed as to why they wanted to hire me; I felt under-qualified, I really had no experience, the job technically wasn't even in my specific field, and I had no background in the financial realm. Yet they wanted me and made me an offer I just couldn't refuse. So I left my previously-known life behind and started a new chapter.

For about 4 months everything was going well. I was extremely busy and had little down time but was expanding my networking base, learning things I didn't know the first thing about (like equity lines of credit), and becoming a wiz at Photoshop, inDesign and Illustrator. Yet the last month and a half have been hard.
Things outside of my control and heck, outside of my department, have made it less than exciting to come to work in the morning. I was getting more and more down about driving the 40-minute commute to work every day. I was secretly on pins and needles about what the day would hold. It wasn't the stress or the high-demand area I worked, it was the never knowing how people were going to feel that day; were they going to be pleasant or down right mean-spirited to everybody in the building? Maybe I'm stupidly optimistic, as one of my professors told me once, but I truly felt everybody in the office had a kind spirit and genuinely cared for everybody else. Maybe not so much! Ha. 

Since Christmas I've really been struggling with down-right dread of the office. What was once a positive and supportive workplace had become gray and tainted with angry words and accusations. The strangest part was that it was all happening around me! I was never once involved in any cross words or heated debates, but hearing your boss get cursed at on a daily basis can bring down your spirit. 

One afternoon at lunch I just called my mom in absolute despair. I couldn't keep coming into an office that had so much negativity and hatred, it was killing my spirit! After a long talk with her, I sat in my car and prayed that God would just give me guidance to where to go next, it was the only thing I could do at that point. 

I went back to my office, turned on Pandora, clicked on the "Hillsong" channel and just prayed that God would fill this place with His peace and serenity and give me the strength to persevere through it all. 

It wasn't until today that I remembered doing that a month and a half ago; I had three separate people tell me how I changed their attitude at work. One guy told me that I must see the good in everybody because I always had a smile on my face. Another guy said that I was quite possibly the most cheerful person he'd known. Then a woman in the office came up to me and just said that she did something this weekend because of me. All within one day! I put the dots together and realized that God hadn't changed the work environment necessarily, but He had changed my heart and let me be a light to the office. Isn't that the most fulfilling thing a Christian can do? I can't think of a better compliment than 'you reflect the light of Christ'...even if they can't put their finger on why I'm so happy or always smiling; the thing is they can sense I'm different! The amazing fact is that I don't have to talk about God 24/7, but that my life and my testimony can be a reflection of His grace, forgiveness, love and acceptance every day of the week. 

And God just said -boom...humble!-

1, 2, 3…JUMP!

Sometimes it feels like its never the right time. It never feels like the right time to quit your job. It never feels like the right time to take a trip to Europe. It never feels like the right time to start dating again. It never feels like the right time to move. Society makes us feel like it's never the right time to do what we dream of doing. 

Well guess what, there will never be the 'right time' to do it.

I had a friend disappoint me recently because they bailed on me because of timing. Well know what, life is always going to get into the way. Work is always going to be busy. The house is never going to have all those projects finished. Your family is always going to be demanding you in five directions. You're always going to want to have more money in your account. Life does not press pause for our dreams, we have to make them happen. So make time for them. There may be no better time than present to do what you've always dreamed of doing. 

Psalm 56:3 says "When I am afraid, I will trust in you". Sure it's scary to take a leap of faith and just go for it. Move across country. Take a trip. Change jobs. Date someone new. However there comes a point in time when you have to rely on God and your gut instinct, take a deep breath, close your eyes… and jump.