Looking back...2011

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)

With it being the end of 2011, I was thinking back over the past year and where I was one year ago.  Let me tell you as I think back, I never ever would have thought that I would be where I am now.  One year ago I was working at the same place I had since my senior year in high school.  I felt stuck there after working there four and a half and not knowing what I was supposed to do.  It still amazes me God’s hand on every part of my life even when I didn’t know what was going on.  It’s funny how sometimes we think we know what is going on and God has a totally different plan for us.  Some of you might already know the story but I have a feeling some of you might not.  So here is the story on how I got to where I am.  It still amazes me sometimes on how God worked it all out.

In April or May I decided I wanted to do something different this year.  I thought about going on a mission trip but the one through my church did not work so I tried to come up with something else.  My dad suggested helping out at a camp.  So I decided to help out at Camp Conquest, the camp I went to when I was a kid.  After I applied and got accepted, I realized that the same week I was going to be helping out in the kitchen at camp was the same weekend that my family was taking our annual trip up to New York.  Well I decided to go to camp, and boy I am glad I did.  After Camp, in July, was the first time ever that I thought I might want to do something related to camp or a retreat center. 

I believe God put it on my heart and then he took me to Sandy Cove’s website. That is where I saw the page for Converge.  On the Friday after camp, I find out about Converge and that same day I find out that they were closing our other book store.  On Wed, I go down to Sandy Cove and meet Lindy and take a tour around the property.  One week later, I find out that my manager was going to be losing her job. Also, I get an email from Stephen asking to set up a phone interview.  So basically when something bad was happening with my job, I was finding out great information about Converge.  Now a couple months later I am apart of converge and I am learning so much.  I never ever would have thought a year ago that I would be where I am now.  I love how God had a hand in everything. 

12 Things I am learning

12 things I am continually learning during Converge

1.       Balance

2.       Dealing with conflict

3.       To enjoy the current moment

4.       If God brings you to it…He will bring you through it

5.       Mistakes are good…as long as you learn from them

6.       Stepping out of your comfort zone just helps/makes you grow

7.       9x out of 10… first impressions are always wrong

8.       Life is full of different adventures…it is a matter of if we will take advantage of them

9.       Hard times just make you stronger

10.   God brings certain people into your life to make you learn certain things

11.   Christ died for our sins and rose again…that is all that matters

12.   I am so incredibly blessed

I figure because there is less than a week until Christmas I would do something a little different in my blog post.  The first thing I thought of was the 12 days of Christmas…So I figured I wanted to list the 12 things I am learning during Converge. I am on break right now until the day after Christmas and let me tell you this was a much needed break and I am enjoying it so far.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas season!! Don’t forget the real reason for the season, it is so easy to forget about our Savior’s birth.

"For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6 (NLT)

Fasting Part 2

The fast I chose for the past six weeks was movies and TV.  Let me tell you it was kind of hard. I am the type of person who if I am in my room cleaning or just relaxing I like to stick in a movie and even if I am not sitting there and watching it I like to listen to it.  Then there are also times where if I have a stressful or down day I liked to put a movie in to get into a different world.  One of the hardest things for me was one night I had gotten back to our house at Sandy Cove at about 3 after a couple days at home. Well I ended up being there until about 9 by myself.  Let me tell you all I wanted to do was watch a movie.  I was feeling a little down and wanted to get in my little world of movies.  I almost broke my fast…I almost went to a movie theater also.  Sad, I know but thinking back on that night and other times that I had gone to see movies I realize that I use it as my crutch to not think about life and its hardships. 

I am not going to lie…I technically broke my fast for Thanksgiving.   With the agreement of the other Convergers, I watched the Macy’s Day Parade.  Every year my family watches the parade and even this year my sister and brother-in-law came over just to watch the parade.  I realized that if I correctly used movies and TV it can be good.  It is a relaxing mechanism and can be used for socialization.  It is all a matter of balance, balance, balance. 

During this time of fasting, I did use my spare time more effectively.  I listened to more music instead of movies.  I also got a chance to actually read a non-fiction and found that I like to relax by working on some jigsaw puzzles.

Also, I learned that everything you do affects others in some degree.  With TV/movies, there were a couple times when I walked in to the room, people had to turn the TV off, or I had to be anti-social because the TV was on so I couldn’t go into the room.  I also got to experience the other end of it also.   Renee fasted from listening to music and we had to be considerate of her and not listen to music while she was in the vehicle.  It was hard especially when I was driving to River Valley Ranch the week or so before. So part of what I learned through this experience was learning to be considerate of others.

So for those of you who are on this journey with me I would like to challenge you to think of something that you feel you can't live without and actually live without it for a couple of weeks.  It doesnt have to be 6 weeks like we have done but it def. is rewarding.  I have actually been off of my fast for just under a week and now I am more careful with what I watch and how much I watch it.  I have more time to do other more productive things with my life :)