Having the opportunity to ask a keynote speaker if he could time-warp back to his twenties and give himself some advice, I asked him what he would say. His simple answer was profound. “Live life by faith not by fear”.
I find myself at a crossroads. Graduating my BSU last May with a degree in Marketing, I decided to take the job offer my current employer offered me and begin the 9-5 work week. Working in finance has been interesting, learning about Roth IRAs and retirement planning. Berkeley, Inc has been a blessing and I have learned a great deal about this industry.
My heart has always been pulled toward ministry though and I jumped on the opportunity to become a leader for Student Venture at Mtn. View High School. Now my Monday nights are filled with teaching high school students about how to have a relationship with God, dodge ball and building trust with the students. Tuesday night I lead a college girl’s bible study at my house. This has been going on a year and a half and it has been incredible watching the girls grow and start to take on leadership roles in the group.
A couple times a week I’m meeting with college or high school girls hearing their stories and helping them grow towards God. There is a dire need for transparency, accountability, encouragement and discipleship for girls this age. Between relationships, self-image, career paths, friendships and family issues ladies between 15 and 25 need a Christian community to help guide them to making wise decisions and creating a foundation to be a Godly woman.
This is my heart. I love writing and preparing bible study material to help people understand God’s truths and how to tackle tough topics such as purity, the Holy Spirit, forgiveness and our identity. For example, the other day at study we were talking about having eternal perspective. I used summer camp as an analogy. Summer camp, like life is temporary. Why on earth would we knock ourselves out to be CEO of summer camp when we know we’re leaving in a couple of weeks? Why are we paving our lives to follow the “American dream” when we can’t take any of it with us? We need to be building up our treasures in heaven.
I believe we need to dream big. We need to seek after God’s heart and take steps of faith. We serve an absolutely incredible God who has dreams bigger for us than we can imagine. We need to put wind into each other’s sails to reach these dreams. Some of my dreams include writing a book and/or high school/college aged girl’s bible study material. I want to devote as much time as possible to discipling girls and preparing material to help them find truth and to bring them closer to God. I am not sure how exactly this is going to work, if I need to quit my job and try to raise support or if I will just write into the wee hours of the night, or finding another job! :) I'm willing to do whatever God wants me to do, I'm just praying about what exactly it is!
I am asking you for prayer; prayer for direction with my job and prayer for opportunities to share the gospel and to be Christ to others. Prayer to live my life out of faith and not out of fear. I hope that you are doing well and that you are chasing after God with all of your heart. He will change your life in amazing ways, trust Him.
In His Love,
Audrey
Isaiah 58:11
The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
butterflies or burritos
it all starts with that feeling in your stomach. some people refer to it as "butterflies", i think mine is closer to the "man, I'm craving a burrito" feeling, but food is my love language so i'm guessing it's the same thing.
then there is inevitably the movie date. PS when you are dating someone movie never means movie. Move is code for, "I want to hold your hand, or snuggle", if we're all honest, no one is really interested in the movie itself.
The first movie date is always marvelously awkward. You glance over...where is their hand? If it's just sitting there on their lap, open palm, that's a blatant green flag that it's missing something... YOUR hand. In it. If you play fight over the arm rest..that is always another green flag. hold my hand silly. now. not later, now.
We have skipped a critical step though. Before the hand holding is the "knee touch". This one is my favorite. It's the step when you sit close enough to eachother to...whooops, OH! our knees are touching! Weird, neither of us are moving. mmm. i like it.
New relationships are just plain fun.
From here on out though relationships get slightly more complicated, okay alot more complicated. Our nation is plagued with divorce. Marriage vows are broken left and right. So where do we go wrong? Now seeing that I am a 22 year old single girl I am not claiming to be a relationship expert. This is simply my two cents about some things that I do know.
Alot of people think love is a feeling. Wrong.. on so many different levels. That love-sick, hungry feeling in your stomach is a feeling, feelings are incredibly real but not something to be trusted.
Love is a commitment, not a feeling.
Say someone commits to train for a marathon. Maybe in the beginning they feel motivated and are out of their mind excited to train for this race. There is inevitably going to be a day, or weeks, where they do not feel like running. Running becomes zero fun, maybe even negative ten fun. But however rough it gets you are committed to running that marathon and you better dang well keep going. Download new running music for your ipod, find running buddies, get accountability, get new running shoes, but whatever the heck you do..KEEP RUNNING. It's the same way with love, and marriage.
Alot of people get into relationships because they feel they are missing something. The best relationships are the ones where our love for eachother exceeds our need for each other. We are created for relationship, but make sure that God is filling your needs first so that we are free to love others instead of demanding love from them.
So I realize i skipped alot of stages from "knee touching" to marriage, but this is a blog, not a novel :) I just want to encourage people to take their words and relationships seriously. Love is a commitment, not a feeling... For some more thoughts on love... from someone alot smarter than me!
1 Corinthians 13
Love is patient, love is kind, love doesn't envy or boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes and always perserves. Love never fails.
then there is inevitably the movie date. PS when you are dating someone movie never means movie. Move is code for, "I want to hold your hand, or snuggle", if we're all honest, no one is really interested in the movie itself.
The first movie date is always marvelously awkward. You glance over...where is their hand? If it's just sitting there on their lap, open palm, that's a blatant green flag that it's missing something... YOUR hand. In it. If you play fight over the arm rest..that is always another green flag. hold my hand silly. now. not later, now.
We have skipped a critical step though. Before the hand holding is the "knee touch". This one is my favorite. It's the step when you sit close enough to eachother to...whooops, OH! our knees are touching! Weird, neither of us are moving. mmm. i like it.
New relationships are just plain fun.
From here on out though relationships get slightly more complicated, okay alot more complicated. Our nation is plagued with divorce. Marriage vows are broken left and right. So where do we go wrong? Now seeing that I am a 22 year old single girl I am not claiming to be a relationship expert. This is simply my two cents about some things that I do know.
Alot of people think love is a feeling. Wrong.. on so many different levels. That love-sick, hungry feeling in your stomach is a feeling, feelings are incredibly real but not something to be trusted.
Love is a commitment, not a feeling.
Say someone commits to train for a marathon. Maybe in the beginning they feel motivated and are out of their mind excited to train for this race. There is inevitably going to be a day, or weeks, where they do not feel like running. Running becomes zero fun, maybe even negative ten fun. But however rough it gets you are committed to running that marathon and you better dang well keep going. Download new running music for your ipod, find running buddies, get accountability, get new running shoes, but whatever the heck you do..KEEP RUNNING. It's the same way with love, and marriage.
Alot of people get into relationships because they feel they are missing something. The best relationships are the ones where our love for eachother exceeds our need for each other. We are created for relationship, but make sure that God is filling your needs first so that we are free to love others instead of demanding love from them.
So I realize i skipped alot of stages from "knee touching" to marriage, but this is a blog, not a novel :) I just want to encourage people to take their words and relationships seriously. Love is a commitment, not a feeling... For some more thoughts on love... from someone alot smarter than me!
1 Corinthians 13
Love is patient, love is kind, love doesn't envy or boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes and always perserves. Love never fails.
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