Summer

Summer is a hard season for me. Summer screams LAZY, COMPLACENT, and ... CHECKS. Why checks? I feel during this season I am constantly hard on myself. All I do during the summer is evaluate where I am with the Lord...a heart check, a soul check, a LOVE check. I have the least distractions during the summer, and because of that sadly, I am more convicted of the things that burden the Lord. Like I said..hard on myself. BUT, during this season God shows me His grace, He shows me that I absolutely can not do this life thing on my own! Realizing how great my sin is in the light of who God is makes me want to worship Him more. Realizing that conviction=discipline and discipline=obedience makes me want to rejoice in the fact that the Lord loves me enough as His child to look out for my BEST interest. Instead of viewing this summer as LAZY, COMPLACENT, and .. CHECKS. I  view this past summer as RENEWAL, REVIVAL, and RESTORATION. It is also REFRESHING. Summer is a great time to look back and re-evaluate where you are spiritually. What is the Lord teaching you in this season? What is He convicting you of is in the way of your obedience to the God?

Hebrews 12:5-13:
⁵And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: 

   "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
      and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
 ⁶because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
      and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."^[a]

 ⁷Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? ⁸If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. ⁹Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! ¹⁰Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. ¹¹No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

 ¹²Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. ¹³"Make level paths for your feet,"^[b] so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

[a] Prov. 3:11-12; [b] Prov. 4:26

Single Season

A friend once told me that if they could describe me in one word it would be "iceberg". What they said was this.."Kristen, people only see the tip of who you are, the basic level, but they have NO idea that there is a whole lot more to you than just what they see. Just like an iceberg, you only see what is there, but there is a whole mass of ice underneath the water." I have also been called an onion, where people have to peel away the layers to get to know my heart....so true! When the Lord said to guard my heart, I guess I took it seriously : )

21 years, that's how long I have been in this season of singleness...and there is only one word to describe this special season in life, GRATEFUL.
Grateful that I have had a chance to grow closer to the Lord with no relationship distractions, grateful that the only relationship that I have been in is with the Lord, grateful that the Lord has taught me how to be in a relationship when that beautiful day comes, grateful that my mind has been kept pure, grateful that the Lord has shown me how to fear Him in these years of being single.

Have I ever felt alone and unwanted? Have I ever felt like no guy would ever want to pursue me? Have I ever felt like I was just the girl a guy could be "friends" with? OF COURSE!!! My human flesh wonders why all the time why why why haven't I ever been in a relationship, Why haven't I ever experienced what it's like to go on a date, why haven't I ever been given flowers? Do I smell? Do I breath to loud? What am I doing wrong? All these Whys and What if's have haunted me all through high school and college.

Instead of asking all of these why's and what if's and how come's, I have come to a place in my life where I am saying, THANK YOU Lord for guarding my heart, THANK YOU Lord for teaching me how to wait on you, THANK YOU Lord for pursuing my heart, THANK YOU Lord for giving me flowers through your own creation...thousands upon thousands of flowers that is : ), THANK YOU Lord for thinking of me constantly (Psalm 139), THANK YOU Lord for loving me and caring for me, THANK YOU Lord for being patient, kind, good, understanding, loving, and for correcting me when I am wrong in the purest way. (1 Cor. 13:4-7)


So with this blog i just want to celebrate in these years of being single and celebrate what the Lord has done in my heart to prepare me for someone. God knows what He is doing!

To all of you reading this blog:
I pray that the Lord leads you to someone that pursues your heart, just as the Lord pursued ours for salvation.  I pray that what ever relationship you are in that you are seeking the Lord and His guidance for that relationship, I pray that you will understand love and that it is not just a fuzzy feeling-but rather it is an action, an act of obedience and respect, an act of serving and an act of giving, an act of self-sacrifice and of learning. I pray that you will first learn how to love or rather how to be in a relationship from the Lord first! Seek His Word!

God created relationships, the most important one is our relationship with Him. Wait patiently on the Lord if you are single, and seek Him in the mean time! His LOVE is so worth it...learning His love will be so worth it when you are in a relationship.
CELEBRATE in the waiting.