Gobbled Blessings... :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

As I sit here this morning, in a house surrounded with sounds of the day of thanks, I sit in awe at all I have to be thankful for today. I always try to be thankful of everything in my life, and all that God has blessed me with, but this year, as I reflect, I have even more to be thankful for than ever before! :)

I have been waiting for over a month now to write this blog, but was waiting to share the news with Papa and Nanny, in person, before I put it out for the "blog-world" :) Tuesday night, I was able to take them to dinner, and in true God-humor, it just so happened that Tuesday marked the one month anniversary of when everything went into motion! :)

Let me start at the beginning... :)

On October 24th, I received an email from Pastor Wes. He was asking me to pray about it, and see if leading the youth group was something I felt that God was laying on my heart. When I read this email, I was not just shocked and surprised, but I was completely elated and totally overwhelmed! :) You see, my God is just too incredible for me!

If you all remember, several months ago I blogged about God laying on my heart a ministry for young girls/women, where I would be able to pour into them, all God has been pouring into me in the last 16ish months. When God laid that on my heart, I had already become perplexed, because someone was already working with the girls at our church, and I didn't know how I would ever fit into the youth picture. I had asked Him and asked Him how He was going to work it out. He told me to trust Him, and so finally, I sat back and took my little paws off of it - and lo and behold, in true God-fashion, that's when I received the email! :)

So, to say I was excited would be a HUGE understatement! :) Just ask my mama... :D

In the last month, God has been flooding my heart and mind with message series, events, vision, structure, etc for our group! And thankfully, He has provided me with INCREDIBLE partners and supporters for this journey, that have helped me keep afloat! :)

Heath, my co-leader, and an INCREDIBLE communicator and man of the Word, is taking wonderful care of the kids right now, and is pouring into them and feeding them so much of the meat of the Word - it's just awesome! He has been awesome enough to allow me to send weekly letters to them, (and thanks to Mama who prints them out for me and delivers them to the youth house each Wednesday night!) and through that, I have already gotten to know several of the youth by them contacting me via email and text and sharing their lives with me! :) It has been simply incredible! :)

I sit here, in Texas, and wonder why in the world God won't just let me go ahead and head on back to Georgia, when all this awesomeness is going on! One day He finally allowed me to see why I'm still here - you see, if you know me at all, you'll know what I am about to say is completely and absolutely, without a doubt the truth: If I had been in Georgia, at the church, when Pastor Wes asked me to take on the youth, I would have jumped in wholeheartedly with my whole body - not just both my feet! And I probably would have been able to make it work for a while, but I would have lost steam soon. However, with doing it in God's timing, and in His way, I am being given the opportunity to just soak Him up, listening to the beat of His heart for His children, and have been given time to lay things out, plan ahead (fully) for different events and messages, and I have also been given this time to get to know the children, and for them to get to know me, without all the awkwardness of just showing up one day unannounced and taking over! :) Now, I already feel connected to these guys, so that when I show up on 12/30 (while I'm home for Christmas, I get to attend the youth service! Soooooooooooooooooooo excited!), I'll feel like I already know some of these kids, and since they already know a bit about me, we can just enjoy the time of fellowship and move right along! :)

God is sooooooooooooooooo good! :)

So today, on this Thanksgiving day, I am thankful for my family and friends that love me in spite of all my faults and shortcomings, my youth group that I cannot wait to get home and get in the middle of, my Jesus who gave His life to save mine, and my God that gave up His son, so that He might gain this daughter! :)

He loves you so very much! Don't EVER forget it! :)

And I love you so very much! Don't ever forget that either! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!