Monday, January 13, 2014

IT'S AMAZING WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN YOU JUST LEAVE THINGS ALONE



IT'S AMAZING WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN YOU JUST LEAVE THINGS ALONE

God's voice doesn't always sound the same. So much so that I won't even give examples of the different ways they can sound as it might differ for everyone. I will just give examples of ways that God was working in my life and speaking to me before I met the man of my dreams.

If you had talked to me a couple of years ago about the type of man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, my answer would've been an athlete who had very defined muscles, a FULL head of hair and he didn't have to be all that smart, but who definitely was a Christian. Over the years, things changed. I ended up sitting right behind a man and his wife at Church. That man ended up being, the pastor who was available to talk to me (oh yeah, I might've requested him) when I had issues that I needed to discuss with someone so he knew what was going on in my life-- most of the time we just ended up talking about life situations. A was so interested in how he met his wife because they are so happy it's unbelievable! By the way, this man is completely bald.

One day in church (of course I was right behind the bald man), the pastor mentioned how there are often things that Christians argue over that aren't necessarily a heaven or hell issue (something that will keep the person from heaven with there being one ultimate heaven or hell issue-- do you accept God as your Savior or not. Each Christian has different things that he or she would consider a heaven or hell issue, so I will refrain from mentioning anything further. After sitting behind the bald man for a few weeks, unbeknownst to him, he was assisting in God changing my heart-- I was beginning to become fond of bald heads hahaha. Or at least I was beginning to appreciate them and not think they were so bad after all.

Not too long before this while I was still at school and on campus all the time, I would often go sit in the math lab. Yes, I would definitely be getting the much needed help on my homework and I also enjoy doing math for fun, but after getting my homework completed I would just sit in there and listen to the "nerds." They would talk about math, science, physics, ?metrotronics?, and all sorts of other topics. As I would hang out with these friends, I decided that I would love to fall in love with a nerd.

Then one day when I was not in school and was able to really process the events taking place, I began thinking about how much of my concern over finding the right person was very superficial. Indeed, I did have being a Christian, as one of my top priorities, but I'm not sure what I was thinking when I was making the "checklist" per se. I know that God had the absolute perfect man designed for me and I was finally settling into the idea of waiting for God. Ef it took 1000 years, I would be fine because then I wouldn't have to worry about the man meeting my superficial criteria-- God's criteria is far beyond anything I could think of as "perfect."

During my period of singleness, I would constantly talk with friends who were married or in a serious relationship about their relationship. One that I specifically remember that correlates quite nicely with the relationship I'm in was when a friend and I were discussing her long-distance relationship. She described how she handled dating a person who was not in the same town, and how it actually made things much easier. At the time I could not understand that at all but now I can't understand how I would ever date a person in the same town. I have no idea where this relationship is headed, but realizing how alone I have to be while doing schoolwork, is what God knew about me and is why He put me in a long-distance relationship.

Friday, January 3, 2014

Just Want to Be Heard?


Just Want to Be Heard?
 
A few years ago my mom and I started a brain injury support group for the younger crowd, as there is a wonderful brain injury support group through one of the local hospitals but the crowd is mainly older adults. The newly created support group soon died out as all of the members went their separate ways (off to separate colleges, getting married, having children, and so forth). Now, as I am among the college crowd and young adults. I have found that many people, brain injured or not, just want somebody to talk to. Granted I have had brain injured people who enjoy talking to me because there is a commonality between us, but I have also had all sorts of people talk to me just because they want somebody to talk to and I totally enjoy listening. There are sometimes when my friends just want to vent and really don't want me to say anything and although that is hard for me (anyone who knows me understands that I have my two cents that always seem to get put in somewhere). I can just listen. I think that at some point I want to open a non-official practice where I just listen.

Right now I have no clue where to start with that and I have a semester or two left of school (to earn my teaching license), however I just want to note in my blog this fabulous idea that one day may come to be.