Patience

Just about everyone has read the verses in 1 Corinthians 13 most commonly referred to as the love verses, but have you ever stopped and thought about them? The first qualification of love is that it is patient. This makes it pretty clear to me what God thinks about the subject. When you write an essay in school, you are always told to open with a phrase that will catch people's attention and introduce your topic. This is exactly what happened with these verses. A lot of times it is too easy for us to struggle with waiting for love. As we get older we friends that are our age who are getting engaged, married or having a baby. I don't know about everyone else, but with every engagement or marriage that I hear about, I wonder why I haven't found that special person yet. Jealousy keeps me from being truly happy for the couple. Today I have started to change my prayers. Instead of asking God to bring me that special someone, I now ask for him to help be patient until the day comes when I am ready to have that forever kind of love. The kind of love that is talked about in 1 Corinthians. I believe that becoming more patient now when I am still waiting for that love, I will essentially be preparing my heart for it. I encourage you to pray for patience as well.

Your Fellow Water Walker,
-Ashlee

1 Corinthians 13

 ¹ If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
 ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
 ⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
 ¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

*courtesy of www.biblegateway.com

Stand

Sorry it's been a few days since my last post. I've been traveling all over the countryside. :) My family went to the mountains to visit my great-grandparents for Christmas and I came home knowing more than ever that the Smokey Mountains is where I want to live after I get out of college.

Today I was reading when I came across a statement about everyone needing a reason to stand. As I read that, I stopped and thought, that's what my blog will be about. Too often we forget that we need to not only be willing to stand for something, we need to actually do it. Don't push it off thinking that you can always stand up for it later. There might not be a later or the opportunity might pass.

"Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong."
-1 Corinthians 16:13

Don't be afraid to stand for what you know is right. God gave you good sense and the ability to defend it. Use both and you will always be good.

You're Fellow Water Walker
-Ashlee

After The Commons

A lot of times, we see the same verses over and over. Everyone who has ever been to Sunday School knows John 3:16, but only a handful of those people know John 3:17. Lately I've seen the verse Jeremiah 29:11 everywhere I look. I must admit it is one of my favorite verses and I even have it posted on my computer for inspiration. Today, I was flipping through the bible I got for Christmas (EEK!) and found myself randomly curious as to what comes after this specific verse. And of course I love the next two verses just as much as the starting verse.

Jeremiah 29:11-13
11: "For I know the plans I have for you" this is the Lord's declaration, "plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
12: You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
13: You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

Isn't that an amazing promise? God promises to us that he will listen to you when you pray to Him and you will find Him when you seek Him. It doesn't get better than that. What more could you possibly ask for?

God knows what He is doing. All you have to do is trust and follow Him.

Your Fellow Water Walker,
-Ashlee

Gone Too Soon

Today has had a very somber theme for me: Gone Too Soon. As we get older we find more and more instances of those that were taken at an age that is not a traditionally acceptable age for death. My first encounter with this tragedy was when an older student died in a car wreck when I was a freshman in high school. Later that some year, a classmate of mine lost her fight with cancer. As sad as both of those were, I didn't know the first student so once the black ribbons disappeared there was no real change in my day to day life, and the second student had been battling cancer for quite some time before her death so it couldn't really be considered a surprise. Both were horrible tragedies, don't get me wrong, and I honestly believed that both would be the closest-hitting young death that I would encounter.

Unfortunately, I was proven wrong just two years later. A girl that had been one of my best friends through elementary and middle school, and even up until ninth grade. Even after we grew apart, we stayed friends, text-ing and IM-ing at random times to catch up on what was going on in each others lives. I can still tell you exactly what happened the day that I was called out of my first period class so that my dad (who was working with the Sheriff's Office at the time and had been called to the scene) could tell me that my friend had been killed in a car wreck on her way to school. She was pregnant at the time and had just started turning her life back around, finally having things start to look up for her again. Today would have been her 20th birthday. Visiting her grave to place flowers there in her memory was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I wish with all I have that I could have been calling her up to tell her happy birthday instead. Or even better, giving her a huge hug.

Now there is a girl that I graduated with that found out today that her older sister was murdered. I have no way of even fathoming what her family must be going through. However I do know that their pain will ease. God has a plan. We don't know what that is right now, but over the course of time it will be revealed to us. I only hope that that knowledge can bring them some kind of hope. It will without a doubt be the hardest Christmas season for them, but with God's help they will make it through.

The statistics for this blog tell me that people are reading this, so I am asking one thing of my readers: Pray. Pray that this family will find comfort. Pray that justice will be carried out. Pray that God's Will will be followed. Basically, just Pray.

Your Fellow Water Walker,
Ashlee

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding"
Proverbs 3:5

Your True Home

There is only one week until Christmas and it is no wonder that tonight's post is inspired by a Christmas song. Almost every time I have turned on the radio in the past month I have heard the song "(There's No Place Like) Home For The Holidays" by Perry Como. This song brings out a lot of emotions for me.

Christmas has always been a time that I associated with being home and visiting family that I might not have seen in several months, or even possibly since the previous Christmas. My parents have been divorced and both have remarried since I was 5. This equals a lot of family to visit on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. My sister and I have developed a routine of sorts for our Christmas celebrations, traveling from house to house for different meals in order to visit with every one. This year, however, everything is changing. Traditional dinners have been moved to a different date and we are traveling out of state to visit with family that we haven't seen in years in a town that my sister and I have never been to. On top of all that, my sister and I moved out of my mother's house over the summer and aren't exactly on speaking terms with her. So where does that leave us on the whole "there's no place like home for the holidays" thing? Are we the exception? And where do we call home when our hearts are searching for just that? When searching for scripture to ease my mind, I came across Psalm 91. Though I had heard the first part of the psalm before I don't remember ever reading the end of the psalm. This is the part that really stuck me. I'm included it below in hopes that you will find reassurance in it like I did. When the world around us only holds questions, God holds answers. He is the only home we need, whether we are searching for somewhere to call our home or if we have the "perfect" early home. Remember that and you will always find refuge in the Lord.

Your Fellow Water Walker,
-Ashlee

Psalm 91:9-16
 ⁹ If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,”
   and you make the Most High your dwelling,
¹⁰ no harm will overtake you,
   no disaster will come near your tent.
¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you
   to guard you in all your ways;
¹² they will lift you up in their hands,
   so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
   you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
 ¹⁴ “Because he^[b] loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him;
   I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
¹⁵ He will call on me, and I will answer him;
   I will be with him in trouble,
   I will deliver him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him
   and show him my salvation.”

Too Much Time Has Passed....

Wow. I can't believe I went so long between posts. So much has changed in such little time. I am back at home for Christmas. My roommate moved back home for good so now I'm waiting to see who my new roommate will be. Two of my other friends have announced that they will not be back at school next semester. It's been a season of good-byes here lately.

All of these good-byes bring to mind one thing. In life, we have many people pass through our stories, only staying for a few pages or chapters before leaving again. It is sometimes really easy to forget these brief encounters, yet other times it is near impossible. There is a song in the popular Broadway musical, Wicked, named "For Good" in which the two lead characters explain to each other that while they don't know whether they have been changed for better or worse by the other person, or even whether they will see each other again, but that they do know that they have been changed for good. That is how I feel about these three girls that I have said good-bye to in the past couple of weeks. I hope with all of my heart that the last time I saw them isn't the last time I will ever see them, but even if it is, I know that they each came into my life for a reason. I have learned something from each of them and hope that I will always have them in my life.

No matter who you say good-bye to in your life, always remember that God will never leave you. It is his promise to you that he will always be with you. Humans come and go, and times will not always be easy, you can be sure of both of these things. But without a doubt, you have every certainty that God will NEVER leave you. He is beside you today, guiding you and protecting you through every step you take. If you feel distant from God, I can guarantee you this: It was you that put the distance there. God wants to pull you closer to him. Don't resist.

So tell me, how have some of the good-byes you have had to make shaped you? Are you a stronger person today because of a tough good-bye you made in the past?

"Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.'"
-Matthew 19:14

Your Fellow Water Walker, 
Ashlee