Remembering and Processing with the Lord

 Hey friends! I hope summer is treating you well. I am excited about all the fun opportunities that the summer brings. We are meeting in person again for Summer Focus and I couldn't be more excited! I have loved getting to see my friends from other campuses and meet new ones. It has been such a joy.

We have had around 200 people these last couple weeks!
It has been so sweet to worship the Lord together!

We have been doing a sermon series about Loving God with our heart, not just our mind and I have loved it. This last Thursday I got to preach on the story of the woman who touched Jesus's cloak and received healing and how that story makes me love Jesus. It was a neat exercise to help remind me of all that the Lord has done this last year. Hindsight is good to help us see where God was moving in ways that we can't always remember at the moment. God has been so good and faithful to me in my life and I am thankful that I can share that story with others. (Here is the link if you are interested)

I would encourage you to be continuously remembering what God has done in your life. Remember the things He brought you out of, remember the gifts and graces He has given you. Remember how He has brought you to him and revealed his nature to you. Remember that he died for you and that He wants a relationship with you. Remember that you are made in His image, meant to reflect His nature and His goodness. Remember that those around you are also made in His image and we ought to treat them accordingly. 

Here is my peer team from the Last Year! I love these ladies!

This was from our end-of-the-year party!

Another thing I have been thinking through these past few years is how to deal with and process my emotions. I wanted to share my process(not my original thoughts) of how I deal with emotions. I believe that emotions come from the Lord and that we ought not to just completely ignore them or take them as gospel truth. The first step is asking God "What am I feeling?" We are quick to dismiss feelings but asking God what we are actually feeling is helpful to moving forward. Then we ask God "Why am I feeling this?" Sometimes it is easy to understand where things are coming from, especially if you know yourself well, but it can be hard other times. Then we ask God "What do you want me to do with these feelings? Do you want me to feel them or something else?" We don't serve a robot God. There are times to mourn and times to rejoice with the Lord. Asking God what to do with these feelings help us get an understanding of what God is doing in these feelings. There is a time and place for a range of emotions and we go to God to see what we should do.

Around finals, we passed out several hundred encouragements at both UNT and TWU!

God is a much better filter than we are. Take your emotions to Jesus and let Him change your mind or comfort you or whatever He thinks is best. We shouldn't let them go unchecked! I pray that the Lord helps you process the things in your life and go to Him.

Our Staff all dressed up as Garrett

Praying for you this summer! Be praying for my fundraising, I am about 80% to my goal! The Lord has been so good to get me this far. I am thankful that the Lord has put people in my life who love him and choose to support me in prayer and financially. Thank you so much!

Our new family addition!