update

Thank you, Lord, for the beautiful rain! It's so relaxing and refreshing.

"...You will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the Lord..." Jeremiah 29:12-14a

Wow. I never in a million years could have guessed what would happen at this point in my life as I sought the Lord. This past week has been filled with nothing short of enlightenment by Him who created me and formed me. At times I have been overwhelmed by fear but that is not of Him. I pray, He takes away the fear, and what is left is... is... enlightenment. That's the best word I can find for what is still taking place.

All my questions in my last post... where do I go for clarity? I go to Him; I go to His Word. So I wanted to look up all the passages in Scripture that had to do with waiting on the Lord. Then I decided that I should look for other passages too, passages containing "follow," "lead," and "guide." Then when I was looking through my concordance I decided to go through my entire concordance and write down any words with their passage references that had anything at all to do with waiting, leading, and guidance. I wrote down all the words and references and thus proceeded to search the Scriptures for answers, clarity, wisdom, teaching.

I'm on passage 110 of 360 I want to look up!

Key words: wait, follow, lead, guide, guidance, choose, desire, destined, direct, discern/-ment, free/-d/-dom, help, idle, instruct/-ion, know/-ing/-n/-s, need, path, plan, requests, search, sluggard, steward, teach/-ing/-s, tomorrow, will/-s, wisdom, and wise.

So after I finish and then organize them all, I will try to be as concise as possible but also share all of my findings, all that He is teaching!

...

Okay, for the rest of this post, I wanted to share another thing I found very, very interesting just this morning. I was working on my list of things I want to do with my life (this has to do with some of my findings but I will write more later concerning the whys and so forth, again, when I'm finished with my research.) On March, 28th of 2009, I had written in my journal a list of different desires I had. I was going through that list and doing some revising this morning, although not much. I am not going to share all of my desires or the specifics of some of them but I was just amazed and dumbfounded into nothing but gratitude after looking at my list.

(in no particular order, again with many desires unwritten and many details omitted)

#1 Know and love Jesus more. - Well this is certainly happening, especially in this last week!
#2 Teach ESL. - I just found a one hour a week ESL cafe that desperately needed more English speakers. It's part of a ministry called International Christian Fellowship. Just the story of how I found out about it is nothing short of absolutely being God's hand. It may not be teaching full-time ESL and making tons of money but it is in fact part of my desire and God is supplying.
#3 Be hospitable. - Maybe this doesn't totally count but I do see any housework (cooking, cleaning, etc.) I do for my family as practice for being hospitable. I also thought of the birthday dinner party I'm having at home, it looks like there will be about 20 people here. I enjoy having company, making dinner for them, and, yes, even cleaning up after them. Isn't God cool?
#4 Enjoy good food. - You may scoff at this desire but it is true nonetheless. I'm amazed at God's creativity when I cook and enjoy good food. I have to admit, living with my Grandma has certainly provided opportunity for this. Praise the Lord for 4 seasons Aviara!
#5 Be a part of a church. - I love CCC. I love them. The Lord has given me opportunities to love and be loved, to serve and be served. Teaching children's Sunday school is an excellent way of doing both.
#6 Be a global Christian, love missions, get others to love missions, be involved. - I could of course use the opportunities the Lord gave me to tell people of where He led me this summer but He has also done more. Just this past Friday I was invited to the start of missions month at Escondido Christian School where I led the elementary chapel. I participated 6 of the 5th graders and excitedly talked about different countries the Lord had let me serve in - Mexico, Belgium, Uganda, Micronesia, Iraq, and Ukraine. Hopefully I was able to share some wonderful things about the Lord and the people all over the world that He loves with these kids. Also, with my mom on the mission board at church, I am now helping a lot with the mission conference in February. See all the little ways God is graciously, graciously blessing?
#7 Be involved with an international children's choir. - Okay, I don't wish to give you tons of details about this or why I want it and so forth and, at first, I just skimmed over this number thinking it was way in the future. But then I realized, God gave me an opportunity; again, okay, not exactly my desire, but still part of it and still great. The Ugandan Orphan Choir came to my church, not only did I get to simply hear them worship our great God on Sunday morning but I was able to hang out with them at Legoland and then in the evening during dinner. By Sunday morning I had made beloved friends that I will remember forever. They came up to me! It is wonderful to be known and to know, to be delighted in and delight in!!!

Can you believe the things that the Lord has graciously allowed me to be a part of in these past months? When I have been so angry and annoyed and impatient and... look! It makes me excited to think about what He will do in and through me when I am rejoicing in Him, walking close by His side, and praising Him all the live-long day!