Okay, so I have no updated my blog in a while. :) Sorry family, I know you have been checking a lot. I have been so busy and when I finally come back to my apartment at the end of the day, I just want to do nothing at all. But, I will inform you all of what I think the Lord is calling me to do right now with my life. I am pretty positive that He wants me to start leading High School kids through an organization called Young Life. Young Life is a non-profit organization designed to teach kids about the LOVE of OUR GOD! It is amazing and every time I leave one of the meetings I am in awe. We are broken. Teenagers are broken. These kids are broken at home, at school, and some in DAILY life in general. Some just need HELP. They need a place to go to "escape" from all their brokenness and feel "safe". This ministry is here to provide that. Young Life reaches out to broken kids (not all kids who we reach out to come from "broken" families) and helps them pick their pieces up.

God really spoke to me when a speaker was talking about being a Young Life leader. She talked about how she is the type of person who loves being there for people and immediately trying to think of encouraging things to tell them to make them feel better when they have no one else to turn too. She said that as a Young Life leader, we have DONE OUR JOB if these kids go to God first, not us. We may want to "fix" it for them, but we just can't. We can provide comfort, but only temporary. God is permanent. As a Young Life leader, the job was successful if they can go off to college and not feel "lost" in their walk with Christ without their leader. They don't need us as their crutch. They need their Healer.This also ties in with friends. I always want to know "WHAT'S UP" when one of my friends is down. Instead, I do not need to think that I need to be the first one there to help, but instead let them go to God first.

I am pretty excited and this has always been something I have wanted to do, but now I think He is REALLY calling me. You know that feeling when you just KNOW that God wants you to do this? I am not going to be going back to a High School to be "most popular", "make best friends", or "date the quarter back", but instead I am going back to High School to help re-build God's children so that they may see Jesus Christ in some kind of way they have no seen before. If only some of them knew HOW MUCH HE LOVED THEM. He changes lives. That is my overall goal. Sometimes your heart feels things your mind just cannot explain in words? Well my heart is telling me something my mind can't really put into words here on this one blog, but I did the best I could. :)

Listening to God requires a deliberate choice to shut out the chaos around you and focus your thoughts. Is God someone you can hear? The Bible says He is, and the Bible is one of the main tools through which He speaks.

We live in a world of noise. Almost everywhere we go, we find sounds competing with our minds, keeping us from letting our thoughts get below the surface level. Hearing God's voice means not listening to the noise of the world around us. It's not easy, but it can be done. Believe me, I have trouble hearing God 24/7, and that is something I am praying about.

King David, author of most of the book of Psalms, gave us a model for meeting with God, "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul" (Psalm 143:8).

I am really excited about this new chapter in my life and hope that it ultimately leads me to do what HE wants me to do. He has a plan for everyone and he already knows what you will do before you EVEN come to the path of decision making. How cool is that! I can't wrap my brain around it sometimes. I just have to "let go, and let God."

I ask that you all continue to pray for my decisions about the future as I try to lead broken kids to Christ. I am sure it will be a journey with some bumps along the way, but an uplifting, healing, and most importantly, GROWING experience for everyone involved. Thanks for your support. Love to you all. :)


Neely

Lord, let me be your hands and feet!

Okay, so I have no updated my blog in a while. :) Sorry family, I know you have been checking a lot. I have been so busy and when I finally come back to my apartment at the end of the day, I just want to do nothing at all. But, I will inform you all of what I think the Lord is calling me to do right now with my life. I am pretty positive that He wants me to start leading High School kids through an organization called Young Life. Young Life is a non-profit organization designed to teach kids about the LOVE of OUR GOD! It is amazing and every time I leave one of the meetings I am in awe. We are broken. Teenagers are broken. These kids are broken at home, at school, and some in DAILY life in general. Some just need HELP. They need a place to go to "escape" from all their brokenness and feel "safe". This ministry is here to provide that. Young Life reaches out to broken kids (not all kids who we reach out to come from "broken" families) and helps them pick their pieces up.

God really spoke to me when a speaker was talking about being a Young Life leader. She talked about how she is the type of person who loves being there for people and immediately trying to think of encouraging things to tell them to make them feel better when they have no one else to turn too. She said that as a Young Life leader, we have DONE OUR JOB if these kids go to God first, not us. We may want to "fix" it for them, but we just can't. We can provide comfort, but only temporary. God is permanent. As a Young Life leader, the job was successful if they can go off to college and not feel "lost" in their walk with Christ without their leader. They don't need us as their crutch. They need their Healer.This also ties in with friends. I always want to know "WHAT'S UP" when one of my friends is down. Instead, I do not need to think that I need to be the first one there to help, but instead let them go to God first.

I am pretty excited and this has always been something I have wanted to do, but now I think He is REALLY calling me. You know that feeling when you just KNOW that God wants you to do this? I am not going to be going back to a High School to be "most popular", "make best friends", or "date the quarter back", but instead I am going back to High School to help re-build God's children so that they may see Jesus Christ in some kind of way they have no seen before. If only some of them knew HOW MUCH HE LOVED THEM. He changes lives. That is my overall goal. Sometimes your heart feels things your mind just cannot explain in words? Well my heart is telling me something my mind can't really put into words here on this one blog, but I did the best I could. :)

Listening to God requires a deliberate choice to shut out the chaos around you and focus your thoughts. Is God someone you can hear? The Bible says He is, and the Bible is one of the main tools through which He speaks.

We live in a world of noise. Almost everywhere we go, we find sounds competing with our minds, keeping us from letting our thoughts get below the surface level. Hearing God's voice means not listening to the noise of the world around us. It's not easy, but it can be done. Believe me, I have trouble hearing God 24/7, and that is something I am praying about.

King David, author of most of the book of Psalms, gave us a model for meeting with God, "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul" (Psalm 143:8).

I am really excited about this new chapter in my life and hope that it ultimately leads me to do what HE wants me to do. He has a plan for everyone and he already knows what you will do before you EVEN come to the path of decision making. How cool is that! I can't wrap my brain around it sometimes. I just have to "let go, and let God."

I ask that you all continue to pray for my decisions about the future as I try to lead broken kids to Christ. I am sure it will be a journey with some bumps along the way, but an uplifting, healing, and most importantly, GROWING experience for everyone involved. Thanks for your support. Love to you all. :)


Neely