I Had A Dream!!!!

I had a dream that I would hold a bachelor and hold a certificate that states I finished 1600 hours of beauty school by the time I was 21. For me, to set goals and reach them without quitting or giving up even when I want to with everything in me feels sooo rewarding. Of course I could never have gotten through it without the help of my loving Savior and the support of my family and friends who constantly served as my sideline cheer squad. 

To say the least it has been one very very hard and stressful year. A lot took place and there was a lot thrown on my plate, day in and day out I had to choose between quitting or striving forward.  I opened and successfully closed yet another chapter in my life and it feels sooo good. School was not an easy task for me to take on , it took a lot of blood, sweat, tears, dedication, hard work, long hours, and sleepless nights just to name a few things. Hahhaaha ohh the joy and happiness I feel to be finished and have all my school years completely and totally behind me. 

I am so excited to see what the Lord has for me next. People keep asking me if I know what salon I want to work at or what I want to do next. Honestly I don't know for sure........I know God has huge things out there for me that go far beyond a paycheck and making a living. What that looks like exactly I do not know yet. In the mean time I am remaining faithful to following where He leads and listening for His guiding voice. There are deep desires in my heart that I long for more then anything but that the Lord has asked me to hand over to Him, to wait patiently on, and to trust in His perfect will and timing. While I wait for and anticipate these things to come to pass continue to seek our contentment and peace in the place that He has me in right here and now. This is easier said then done but I am so grateful that I don't have to go it alone, that Savior loving leads me by the hand knowing every high and low place up ahead . That every bend and winding turn in the road has already been mapped out by the navigator of my heart and life. What peace and comfort comes from the knowledge of this great truth. Thank you Lord. Only He know the plans He has for me, but this I do know that they are plans for a hope and future and not to harm or destroy me. Praise the Lord!

The Beginning of the End and the Start of Forever

Today marks the first day of the last week of school for me!!! School at Paul Mitchell that is. It has been one of the longest most trying year for me and I cannot be more grateful to my heavenly Father for carrying me all the way. On the days that is seemed i would literally not make it out, both physically mentally and emotionally Christ who is ever faithful, ever sovereign, ever gracious , not giving us more then we can handle sustained my soul. There were dark mornings of feeling depressed and overwhelmed by the sin and environment of school that i would just cry and cry asking why I had to go one more day. There is such a heavy, dark cloud over peoples souls and it is soo hard to keep ones self afloat in a spiritual battle. Christ has continued to show me and give me evidence of the promise that this work that He has begun in me He will complete it, that not matter how dark a place may seem He will bright through my one little life if I but let Him. I am not saying that this calling is an easy one by any means but I am here to testify that is a rewarding and satisfying one.
As I finish this last week strong and cross the finish line, completely a goal I set for myself over two years ago I am proud to say well done. It has always been in planted in me to finish something once it has been started and I have faithfully done that. I set a goal for myself to finish college and cosmetology school by the age of 21 and it feels good to look back at all the hard work, sweat and tears (literally) and see the task completed. I am soo excited to see where the Lord takes me and all the doors He opens for me along the way as I am now free from the burden of school. The Lord has already proven faithful as He has already opened doors and provided opportunities in the near future for me to bless others with the gifts, talents and passions He has so graciously poured out. Our God is great and greatly to be praised, in the highs and lows He is ever faithful ever true never failing with love unending.

WAITING

This post I read this week really encouraged me and served as a great reminder. I wanted to share it because I know for sure I am not the only person who struggles in the area of being patient and waiting on the Lord for the desires of my heart !!!

Waiting on the LORD
August 6, 2012 by Paul Tautges | 0 comments

Do you like to wait? If we are honest, most of us would have to answer, “No.” We were born with an innate tendency to do what we want to do when we want to do it. Our flesh cringes at the thought of having to wait, yet God’s Word compels us to wait on the Lord. Does this mean that we are to sit back on our spiritual recliner, kick up our feet, and wait for God to show us what to do? No! Contrary to what we may think, waiting on the Lord is not passive. It demands a great deal of effort. It requires saying “no” to our impulsive nature, and living in active submission to His will revealed in His Word. A quick survey of the Scriptures reveals 6 truths about waiting on the Lord.

Waiting on the Lord is not easy. David wrote, “Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord” (Ps 27:14). Waiting on the Lord requires self-discipline. Rushing ahead to fulfill our own will is not difficult at all, it comes naturally, easily. However, surrendering to the will and ways of God, submitting to the authority of the Word, requires a constant resistance to the flesh. Self-denial is the daily duty of all those who claim to be disciples of Jesus (Matt 16:24). We must, therefore, be realistic and approach the concept of waiting on the Lord with a great deal of vigilence lest we usurp God’s timetable. At the same time, we must be careful not to use, “I am waiting on the Lord,” as an excuse for delayed obedience or a lack of self-discipline.

Waiting on the Lord means trusting in God alone. In order to wait on the Lord, we must cast off all other objects of trust and rest in Him alone. Psalm 62:5 says, “My soul, wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him.” God has a way of stripping the idols out of our lives so that He alone receives our attention. He is the God who will not share His glory with another. Whether it is trust in finances, people, good health, or our own plans, waiting on the Lord means we must willingly abandon those things which replace trust in God.

Waiting on the Lord is essential to discerning God’s will. Psalm 25:4-5 says, “Make me know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the day.” The psalmist understood that in order to know the will of God we must desire His guidance and wait for His leading with a teachable and submissive heart. Often times, God does not bring about what we believe to be His will until our hearts are completely surrendered and content in Him alone. As long as our determination is fixed upon what we want, God’s will remains a mystery. If we are not obedient to the truth that He has already revealed, why should He reveal more?

Waiting on the Lord includes confident expectation of His mercy and grace. Psalm 123:2 says, “Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress; so our eyes look to the LORD our God, until He shall be gracious to us.” In times of uncertainty, we must have confidence in His character as the God who is gracious and compassionate and full of mercy. We can confidently expect His mercy since He is the God who will never leave or forsake His own. We can rest in the sufficiency of His grace even when we cannot see His plan.
Waiting on the Lord means trusting Him with our hurts. In Proverbs 20:22 we read, “Do not say, ‘I will repay evil’; wait for the LORD, and He will save you.” When we are hurt by others, it is tempting to take matters into our own hands and retaliate. Waiting on the Lord means trusting Him enough to be obedient to our responsibilities and leave other matters with Him. It means depositing our hurts into His trustworthy control. After all, He is the only one who is completely just and will one day right all wrongs.

Waiting on the Lord results in experiencing divine strength. Restful submission to the will and ways of God is the way in which He renews our strength. “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary” (Isa 40:28-31). As creatures, we experience times when we are weary, yet God never gets tired. Could it be that God has designed us that way in order to make us aware of our complete dependence upon Him? God delights in us when we wait on Him because He receives more glory and we experience the joy and pleasure of soaring on the wings of His strength and grace.

Singleness- Blessing or a Curse?

Singleness- Blessing or Curse?

Today's guest post is by Emily Duffey, who is a member of the RGCC Staff. Emily is a life-long resident of Kansas City who loves coffee, reading, studying the Word and spontaneous conversations with random people about the things God has done in her life and in this world. Emily has never met a stranger. She is outgoing, friendly, and says she is amazed at how she sees God using her in life.  Enjoy!

I am an avid reader, and I find myself turning to blogs with regularity. I enjoy the vastly differing views from reader to reader, views that offer fresh insight on living this Christian life in a way that glorifies God. I found myself the other day reading through a series of blogs on singleness. I came across one written by a single pastor. The blog post itself was greatly encouraging to me—and then I started to read the comments below. At first, I just rolled my eyes, but the more I read, the more disturbed I became: “Hey, pastor! You should meet my cousin! She would be the perfect wife for you!”  “Pastor, God will bring you the right woman, you just wait”… and my favorite, “Once I became content in Christ, THEN God decided to bless me with a husband!” I am sure these comments were intended to be encouraging—yet all the encouragement boiled down to assurances that God has not forgotten this man in his singleness, and don’t you worry—He will fix that one day! The encouragement becomes a source of great discouragement, and further fuels the discontentment so many singles fight against every day. Singleness can be painted very quickly as a curse to endure, not a blessing to embrace.

So which is it, a blessing or a curse? I vacillate on that question. Some days, I love right where I am: a single woman in her early 30’s, able to serve in a rapidly growing ministry (spending time that would not be available or appropriate, were I married with a family to serve), with the ability to pack up and go whenever I need to go: to various conferences, house sit for a friend, the emergency babysitter… I have the time many of my married friends do not (and frequently wish they did!) to serve in this way.  There are the days, though, I watch my married friends with their husband’s, and let me tell you—it is a battle! I fight discouragement, jealousy, envy, and loneliness (to name a few) with the best of them. These are the days that singleness feeeeeels like a curse. I see how happy my married friends are, and I long for the day that I may be counted among them. I genuinely have to be careful in guarding my thoughts against this line of thinking. It can be difficult in a ‘married church’ to do this. The older I get, the less single women there are around me; most of my friends are married, raising families, simply living the life I WANT to have. It is so easy to fall into self-pity and the “why me?” thinking.

I fight the same battle of countless single women, ceaseless questioning that swirls around in the recesses of my mind (usually at the most inopportune moments)… Why am I still single? Why doesn’t God want to bless me with a husband, a family? What did I do wrong? What do I need to fix so that God would change His mind about me? What do others do that God blesses them, and forgets about me?

I struggle GREATLY with hearing so many women tell me, "once I became content in God, THEN He blessed me with a husband" as though THAT is the magic formula... get content, do whatever it takes, because that's when God will decide to bless you. We totally miss what God is doing in those moments... to become content in Christ is the goal, not to get a husband! I am to find my contentment and solitude in the Lord, period—if that means I one day end up a wife or NOT!

Singleness IS a blessing, as is marriage. The question is, which blessing have do you have now? It changes!!... I hear singles wishing to be married, and marrieds wishing they were single again, able to serve undistractedly. Do we use our singleness to be undistractedly devoted to the Lord? Or is it more opportunity for sin? Singleness is not a curse (although, at times, it sure can feel like one!). This begs the question, though—where is my focus in those moments, when it feeeeeels so horrible to be precisely where God has put me? In those moments it is critical I remember the truth of Scripture. I ask myself the hard questions—the ones I need to hear, even if I don’t want to meditate on these truths at that moment in time. I pray through the Scripture to focus my thoughts on His thoughts; I aim to become more like Christ in those moments.

 Is God sovereign over my marital state? Yes. God is God, and God does what He wants with what is His. Everything God does is for His glory—and for my good!
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Is God truly enough? When God is enough…we stop checking out every guy who walks through the front doors of the church for wedding bands and sizing up the single ones as potential mate for the future. When He is enough... we stop trying to 'hook up' everyone in the universe, and we humble ourselves before GOD, waiting on Him to reveal His perfect will in every situation... moment by moment, knowing that if He wishes me to marry, the perfect man will walk into my life for this purpose, and NOTHING I can do will thwart God's purposes. I cannot drive off the man God has put in my path for me to marry! We walk forward in the state we are in—the one God has sovereignly placed us in—and rest in His goodness.

My soul, wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation and my glory rest; the rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah. Psa 62:5-8

Is God good?  This might seem like a strange question to ask at this moment, but what happens when we fall into self-pity and our focus is solely upon our marital state, lacking contentment in where God has placed us, envious of what others have and we do not—we are calling in to question the goodness of God Himself. Emotions easily get in the way of remembering this truth—God is good, and God loves me because I am His. Nothing can separate me from His love. I am secure in Christ.

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom. 8:37–39

What benefit is there for me to be single at this moment in time? I can serve undistractedly. I can encourage and exhort other (single) sisters in Christ to follow Jesus, and live my life in a way that glorifies God and points to His perfect will. I can rest confidently knowing God’s plan is always perfect, and that if I do marry, He is working out His perfect will in that man as well. If I remain single, I can be encouraged to know that this is purposeful and intentional, and I can glorify God with confidence in His goodness.

But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and his interests are divided. The woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. This I say for your own benefit; not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is appropriate and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord.  1Cr 7:32–35

I never saw myself as a single in my 30’s. I had this arbitrary number in my head that 23 was the perfect age to be married. I quickly learned when I rolled over into 24, and then 25… and beyond… that I cannot set an age on what God is doing in my life. I am encouraged, though, to know that God knows what is on my heart. He knows the desires of my heart better than I do. I often find myself at a loss, how to pray… do I pray for a husband? Do I pray for contentment to remain in this state? I rest, knowing that the Spirit of God is interceding on my behalf before the Father, praying for the things I don’t even know to be praying for.

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.  Rom. 8:26–28

So, I stand, waiting for God's man to initiate, as does countless other single women in the church; I wait, finding my contentment in Christ... but I'm not waiting for a husband. I'm waiting for my Lord to work out His perfect will in me.