Oak Run

On the weekend of July 4th ( I know, it was forever ago, bear with me) some of the Princeville girls invited the ICC YG girls out to a Lake house in Oak Run to spend the night. It was such a blast to just be silly and have fun with these girls.

We played a goofy game called Headbanz….you have to guess with ‘yes or no’ questions what’s on your head.

And, of course being a girls night out, we had to do make overs with pedicures, massages, and face masks.

Below is Katie Schick pealing off her facial mask

My favorite part was the singing:

On Friday night I inquired as to what time we should wake up for breakfast. I expected 8 at the latest, but about flipped when they said 10:00 a.m.!!! Well, just as I expected, I was awake and done sleeping at 6:00. That morning actually turned out to be so much of a blessing that I often look back on it and smile. Sitting out on the dock with a view of the lake and the trees before me and the sound of birds proclaiming their morning hymns to their fullest and sensing the peace that was thick in the crisp morning air, I read, prayed, and sang for a blessed three hours. Starting the day like that, I knew it was going to be a good one.

And it was. We had a bountiful breakfast then sang and had a devotion together. Next we made note cards for a friend of Brittany Martin’s who has leukemia.

By 12:00 ish we were ready to do something active, so we packed a lunch and headed over to the beach to swim. After a few hours there we became pretty tired and decided to go back to the lake house. Well, once there, everyone crashed in the living room for about an hour, and still in our swimsuits, decided to go  swimming again! I opted out of this swimming session in exchange for a good nap in the sun. Apparently I missed out.

So, they wanted to float in the lake, but didn’t have any rafts. One of the girls came up with a good solution: life vests! Well, one thing led to another and they ended up putting the life vests on like diapers and floated around like that. The only problem was, if you flip over, its really hard to get back upright:

Below is Brittany Martin, Whitney Stickling, and Lindsey Kieser

 

The two Emilys’:Brooke and Emily back at the house before fireworks.

We got to the beach early so we tossed the football, volleyball, and frisbee around.

Blessed Be The Name

The drive to Eureka Lake Park is about 50 minutes. It’s a drive that I’ve been taking once a week for most of this summer (with the exception of the last two weeks) to play frisbee with the college group. Yesterday I excitedly got into my car. Looking forward to the evening, the long drive alone didn’t even phase me, in fact, I was glad for the chance of some quality prayer time. I turned on the radio to 91.5, but it soon faded into the background as I began to talk out loud to God.

At one point I had the thought that the song Blessed Be Your Name would be a great song to hear right now. I remember sort of praying that God would let that song come on, but I stopped myself thinking, that’s not fair because God doesn’t work like that.

Guess what: Not a moment after I thought that, tears welled up in my eyes as that exact song began to play on the radio.

Now, I’ll be honest, I’ve been struggling this summer. I can’t pinpoint one exact reason, but for weeks I would just break out in tears for no apparent reason. Nothing would excite me and all I could think about is when my next opportunity to sleep would be. It confused me to no end because Joy has always come so easily to me before and now all this crying. Before, all I would have to do is think about God’s creation and His love for me and I was all smiles, but now when I thought about those things, I would cry because I know I have friends who don’t know that love. If I thought of how great my family was, I would cry because orphans in Jamaica, Haiti, and Africa do not have a family. If I thought about my future, I would cry because I want to surrender it all to God, yet I can’t deny the fact that I do have dreams and desires and I felt my trust in His plan waning. I tried to be reasonable with myself and figure out why I’m sad and would come to the conclusion that I’m focusing on myself way too much. (This is always the reason for struggling in the past and to combat it, I would just make a conscious effort to really care for and focus on someone else.) But then I realized that I spend so much time alone driving and doing cleaning jobs that there is no one else around to focus on. I also thought that the turmoil inside must be because I’m not giving myself 100% to God, that I must be holding something for myself, therefore, not receiving the peace that comes with doting on Him. But the more I thought about that the more I cried because I truly am trying my hardest. I’m praying and reading all the time and working so hard to keep my every thought on Him and yet I continuously fail. Inevitably, my mind will stray during my prayers to the stress of school, planning of my schedule, thinking about my future etc. and I would catch myself and realize it too late. Through all this my faith was weakening. God, I thought, It’s impossible, I can’t do this, and You never seem to help me. I’m always hearing about how when we ask something of You that your answer may not be in our timing or it may be no, or wait, but God, Why! Why can’t it just happen now when I need You? Why don’t You ever work in the present?

Now I feel a bit sheepish. God does work in the “now”, He proved that to me yesterday in the car, my eyes just aren’t sensitive enough to see His work usually.

I think I’ve been making Christianity harder than it’s meant to be, I’ve been expecting too much of myself. God doesn’t expect me to be perfect, He knows that is impossible, that I’m human. He wants a willing vessel that desires to glorify Him, and then He will give the tools possible to serve.

I’m glad to say that I believe I’m pulling out of this valley that I’ve been in this summer by the Grace of God. He is so amazing and I just love Him so much.