Dreams, Desires and Doubt

While some desires are fleshly desires, I do believe that some desires are God-given and with godly motivation. Such godly desires, I believe, are essential to pursue.

Often we ignore or stifle dreams and desires because we're scared of them. We're afraid they're not "God's will," and we're terrified by the amount of hard work (and trials) the dreams will take to accomplish. If God is giving you a passion and dream to do His work in some form or another, chances are, it IS God's will.
Maybe that's a little bit bold to say, but I do believe that.
I always ask God, "But how do I know it's Your will?"
I find that usually after praying about and seeking godly counsel, if it is still weighing on my heart so heavily, it is probably worth pursuing as God's will.

I really do not believe that God's will is some deep, mysterious calling that we will magically be enlightened by. Maybe it is for some people, but for the everyday Christian, God's will is an everyday call to action. Living in God's will is seeking to glorify Him in whatever talents, abilities and passions He has given us. After all, such talents, abilities and passions are given to us by God and are meant to be used for His glory and to share His Word with the world.

If you have a desire and it is a godly one, ask.
Ask for wisdom. Ask for completion. Ask.
Ask who? Ask GOD.
Ask how? Ask in FAITH.

Matthew 7:7-9

⁷ Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. ⁹ Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?

James 1:5-7

⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. ⁶ But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Don't doubt that God can do whatever it is you're seeking Him to guide you in. If you ask God, but don't believe He can do it or will do it, why WOULD He do it?
No, God is not a genie in a bottle to give us whatever we want, but He does give us the privilege of talking to Him and sharing with Him our deepest desires and cares. Maybe things won't happen how you picture them or imagine them, but either way, it will be a good thing. God loves us more than we love ourselves (and we all know, that's a lot).

Jesus Christ does not disappoint, and He does not abandon.
He fulfills, He makes whole, He provides and He loves.

21 and the Best Birthday Yet

So this may in fact have been the best birthday ever. That may be a really generous statement, but as far as my memory recalls, today trumps the rest.

After a slightly trying week, God blessed me with the most lovely, uplifting day, and on my birthday, mind you. What I kind God I serve =).

Last night I stayed up until midnight and rang in the 21st birthday with a reading of the January 16 (birthday) "Jesus Calling," devotional, along with the Proverb of the day (Proverbs 16) which was incredible, as usual. I then went to bed, hoping to sleep in, but ended up being wide awake at 6:30 a.m. which I considered a wake up call from Jesus. So, finally by 7 a.m. I decided to start my 21st birthday off the right way in prayer to my Savior. So I had a good time talking to Jesus =). Best person to start my birthday off with! I then read Ephesians 4 which is absolutely INCREDIBLE. And I need to reread it over and over. And so do you.

So, after my time with Jesus, I was able to talk to my beautiful parents and siblings, which was awesome as usual. They wished me a Happy Birthday and said sweet things, and they made me even more thankful for them than I already am.

I then got to enjoy a delicious blueberry pancake and fruit breakfast with my SLD, Loren, thanks to the mini rot's yummy food! Off we went to convocation where I got to sit with all of my lovely Dorm 2 ladies and see some friends from the brother dorm. Oh, I need not leave out that Towns graced us with his presence in convocation as well, which is always very interesting. It's almost like Jimmy Stewart was there for my birthday!

So after convo, enjoyed a lovely Developmental Psychology class with another birthday girl, Grace-Anna, and it was fantastic. After class, had lunch with one of my very close friends and former roommates, Carla, and she gave me the most elegant cameo broach. She knows me so well! Then on to my interesting "Announcing" class which involves us talking like television and radio professionals and is very humorous.

Once classes were over, I met up with two of my very good friends Heather and Andrew, and so our adventures began for the day. Off we went, to random places by random modes of transportation. Actually, just to North campus on a wet bus (it's been raining all week). Andrew shared a disgusting and disturbing story about an awkward couple he observed, but I will spare you from despair and not share the story. I literally gagged, so that was memorable.Wet buses are disgusting, by the way.
So, to North we went to retrieve packages (yay birthday gifts from my Mama!) and things and to enjoy some intense games of Ping Pong (which Heather cheated at numerous times. Just kidding. Kind of). After our tournaments, Heather and Andrew rushed me to dinner, which at the time I had no idea why. Little did I know, these sneaky folks had invited a few of my good friends to go to dinner to celebrate my birthday. So we went, and they distracted me with toys until everyone arrived.

The beverage of choice on my 21st birthday? Water with lemon, and proud of it.

After dinner with these lovely folks, I came back to the new hotel-dorm which has newly been occupied by my lovely residents. Boxes everywhere, wet randomness, chaos. You name it. So much entertainment! A few crazy occurrences on the hall... sicknesses, broken doors, missing drapes, moving shenanigans. Just all around adventure. 
 My hallmates then began singing "Happy Birthday" to me as I walked down the hall, gave me flowers, a card, a picture of the hall folks and a delicious turtle cake. Such sweet, kind-hearted people on my hall =). Thank you to my sweet roommate for working so hard to make today special, even though we didn't get to see each other very much!

The last hour of my birthday was spent with my lovely Developmental Psych friend (who shares my birthday), Grace-Anna. The turtle cake could not be eaten alone, so we had a little birthday party together in the lobby of our hotel-dorm, ate cake and drank Diet Coke.

What a day.
So incredibly thankful for all of the wonderful people in my life who show me so much love always.

Also, indescribably thankful to my Jesus for blessing me with such people and such a day to remember =).

Thanks everyone for your love and care for me! I didn't expect any of it, nor did I deserve it.
I'm blessed by you all <3.

Reliable Joy

Happiness is so fleeting. One day, life is good and all is well in the world, and the next it feels like the sky is collapsing into a deep abyss. Emotions and feelings.. so unreliable. So uncontrollable.

So where do we find comfort? Where do we find stability?

There may not be a lasting happiness, but there is a lasting joy.
Happiness may be fragile and comfort may be vaporous, but the joy in Jesus Christ is eternal.
Those "moments" you love and never want to end pass into memories.

Jesus Christ does not change. His love does not change. It does not leave. It does not get bored.
God's love is reliable because HE is His love, and HE does not change.

Don't be discouraged if life seems to be in a valley, and remember that there is always a consistency in your life if you have Jesus Christ. What hope we have in Christ. What eternal love we have. Never unloved. Never alone.

Quinntroduction

So, first impressions of living at a hotel. Let's see...

I walk in. Ahoy! A lobby and front desk! Well this is interesting. I continue down the carpeted hallway only to see an extremely long hallway and a number of rooms. Wait, you enter the building from the 3rd floor? Stairs. Ok good. This will take me to my 1st floor destination. Down I go until I reach the lowest floor where the laundry room also resides.
Tra la la through the hotel I go, maintenance men everywhere installing doorknobs for all the lovely residents on my hall.
What is this? Still not at my room? I continue walking until finally, a left turn and hallway later, my roommate's and my room. Oh hello. Giant balcony window/door to the woods and highway. Well this seems safe. SHUT THE SHADES. Ok, perfect.
Oh hey, own bathroom and shower! I like this.
Rearrange room with roommate. Rearrange again. The tall dressers almost crush us. That would be bad to die my first day moving in. Thankfully, we squish the dressers into their corners.
Begin unpacking. Then it hits me. I'm living here for four months. Woah mama. Speaking of which, I miss my Mama already. I think she misses me, too, because she keeps saying really cute things like "I can't believe you already came and went," and "It's so quiet and weird without you here." I'll take it.
Go on with our day. Hang out with the awesome RA group.
Annex RAs come and raid the Quinn with love and welcoming spirits? Absolute sweetness. Such kind souls and encouraging beings! Seriously though, I would LOVE to get to know these RAs better. What a blessing it will be to be their neighbors!

So there you have it, folks. What an introduction to adventures. Quinntroduction, I mean. Cause we're "quinning." We are the "Quin Folk." SO MANY QUINNSIGHTFUL PUNS!

Love of Everything Les Mis

Despite my extreme love for everything Les Miserables, I have failed at blogging about the recent movie. Yes, I'm surprised too. So, literature and theater freaks, I hope this post finds you well.

I am going to start off by saying that the movie was absolutely brilliant and beautiful. I had extremely high expectations, and I was pleased that the movie did not let me down at all.

• The filming- incredible.
• The cast- perfect.
• The interpretation of the Broadway and book- spot on.
• The music/singing- beautiful.

I was both moved and impressed by the director's accomplishment. I believe it's the same man who directed, The King's Speech. Am I correct? If so, this director knows emotion. He gets it.

The story of Les Miserables may be one of the most beautiful works of literature ever written. Jean Valjean's initial condition and lifestyle of thievery is dramatically changed when he is shown grace, mercy and God's love by a humble bishop. One act of kindness changes a man's heart forever, pushing him to show the same type of love and mercy to all who cross his path. Valjean's character is a masterpiece, his person painting the portrait of a good man.When he takes in Fantine's child at her death, he has the opportunity to really know long-term love. Cosette is his blessing, and he must protect the man she loves so that she may have a future full of love (since we all know her 'heart is full of love').

I absolutely LOVE the song "One Day More" because of the way it ties the entire story into one song. Marius and Cosette's love, Valjean's fleeing from Javert, Enjolras's battle cry, Javert's intention of shutting up the rebels and the Thenardier's dirty motives even in times of war. So good. But then again, I love the entire soundtrack. I mean, Red and Black... so incredibly catchy. I Dreamed a Dream? Powerfully heart wrenching. Do You Hear the People Sing? Motivational and patriotic. ALL OF IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL. I can't stand it.

I can't even really cover everything.. there is just too much.

I heard numerous reviews that Russel Crowe and Amanda Seyfried bombed their singing parts and expected some pretty pitchy, awful vocals from them going into the film. Honestly, I thought they did a fantastic job. Seyfried's voice in general is not my favorite but that doesn't mean she did a bad job. Crowe, however, I really liked. His vocals weren't operetta, but it fit his character and his voice was on pitch, masculine and powerful.
Of course, we all know Hugh Jackman OWNED his part in every way shape and form. So much emotion. So much passion. Beautiful vocals. Incredible acting. Jean Valjean truly comes to life. Anne Hathaway, however short her part, was beautiful in this film. She was one that I was slightly worried about at first, but she completely removed any doubt I had about her being able to sing. Her vocals were absolutely chilling, her passion spilling out into her songs, and her rendition of Fantine was fantastic.
I was absolutely blown away by Aaron Tveit who played Enjrolras. His performance was incredible and his voice was perfection. While I love Marius's character and though Eddy Redmayne fit the part well, I wasn't a huge fan of his voice. He was still fantastic overall, but I definitely preferred Tveit's performance.
The Thenardier's are pretty obnoxious and dirty characters to begin with, but Helena Bonham Carter and Sasha Baron Cohen NAILED the part. To a tee. Hysterical performance.

Can I just say, Samantha Barks? Fantastic. My heart. Ouch. So good.

http://www.lesmis.com/

There legitimately is so much to cover, but basically... if you aren't opposed to musicals, love classy films, appreciate powerful music and plot and are interested in history- this movie will blow you away.

Boston Love

There's nothing like ringing in the New Year by spending the day in Boston. Ok, it wasn't exactly ringing it in, per say, but January 2nd is pretty close.

When I went away to school in the South, I think I tried to convince myself that I would somehow realize that I was a southern girl at heart. I always romanced the South in my mind, making it a place of country bliss. It's like there's some sort of syndrome where you want to run wild and free away from your roots the moment you leap over the fence. Well, needless to say, my whole adventure seemed to produce opposite emotions. The distance and culture difference not only opened my eyes to my love for the North but also seemed to blow up my northern heart into a giant, Boston-shaped sun ray. Seriously though, something snapped in me. I have taken my amazing New England for granted.

 
Now, I can't get enough. The sharp Boston accents, the fast-paced environment, professionals and classy folks, the rich history, the small New England towns nearby, the sweeping trees, the majestic mountains of the far North, the wiry winters (though bitterly cold and easily frustrating), the airy summers, the breath-taking foliage in autumn and spring's fresh scent in the nipping April air. It's all so perfect. It's like a romantic dream dripped in history and drenched in class.

Honestly, Bostonians and, well, New Englanders in general, are so very misunderstood. No, we're not cold, grumpy folks with no sense of family and lacking in hospitality. We're not mistrusting brutes. We're street savvy with wise minds. We love those close to us with a passion, but don't leave our remarks for when you turn your back. We're honest. We're friendly, but you'll hear it how it is. No fluff. And I can tell you, I think I've just about HAD it with fluff (not marshmallow fluff.. that stuff is heavenly).Especially in churches. But that's another story for another time.

Now don't get me wrong, the South has it's charms and beauties as well, I just happen to be partial to the realism that I believe exists in the North.

There's beauty in reality that I think people miss on a daily basis.

Life is beautiful, and I'm proud of where I've grown up. The Boston area is the first place my parents (and all of my relatives for that matter) experienced in the United States, but it hasn't been the last. I'm so thankful for the memories that are cued in my mind when I'm surrounded by the New England folk, and I'm thankful that the memories are fond and beautiful.

2013: Day One

2013: Day One

Dear Self,

I decided it would be interesting to write a letter to myself to begin the new year.

Although I will not keep up letter entries to myself throughout the entire year, (because, who am I kidding?) I am currently writing to myself as if it's a normal occurrence.Why, you ask? Because it's a new year, and I don't need a reason. I post this letter to myself on my own public blog so that I can be held accountable, because everyone knows everything feels more official when you post it on the internet.

So self, when you go into 2013, there are a few factors that you must never forget.

1. Never let people become more important than God. God calls us to love people, but He calls us to love HIM first. Don't let people become an idol, and don't let service become a distraction.
2. It's okay to be bad at things. You are not superwoman, you are not all-powerful, you cannot be in multiple places at once and you are not made to be perfect, because, Self, you are not God. I know that sounds over the top and you may never actually think you are God, but when you act as if it's your duty to be the most fantastic multitasker in the world, that is attempting to elevate yourself to the level of God. So don't. Trust God and let Him be in control... it's a lot less stressful and a lot more productive.
3. Don't ignore the people in your life. Ever. They may not always be there. When you take people for granted, you skip essential parts of your life, wasting time and memories. Why waste any moment when life is like a vapor?
4. Remember the things that might hurt to remember. They help you not to backtrack to places you once were and never need to be again. It might not always be pleasant to remember those embarrassing, painful memories, especially the ones involving receiving consequences from sin, but in the long run, you will be better for it.
5. "God is not a secret to be kept." This quote by Newsboys/TobyMac captures quite beautifully the essence of your purpose. You are here to share the gospel, reach people, love people and show them Christ. Don't waste any opportunities, and don't miss any possibilities.
6. Just because you're single doesn't mean you're a loser. Ok, the fact that I'm telling myself this may seem a bit loser-ish, and maybe it is, but honestly, the truth is that being single is just another stage in life. "Being in a relationship" does not suddenly fulfill you or give you worth, because your only worth is in Christ. Take advantage of your singleness- go places you've never been, meet people you've never known, invest your time into people who need it, embrace spending time with your family every day, try new things, form new hobbies, get jobs you love, serve God in all of it.
7. Any life worth living is going to be hard. Don't take the easy route. Don't just do what's comfortable. Do hard things. Take risks, but plan accordingly. Show initiative, don't be lazy and don't miss out on good memories and wonderful people.
8. Trust God to provide. Don't spend your life worrying about finances, especially when God has blatantly called you to something and opened doors. If God has opened one door, chances are the doors will just keep opening. Work hard, but always trust God.
9. When you feel like you're stuck and no one understands, just keep going. Prayer and God's Word is ALL that will comfort you, so keep persevering and the hovering will soon come to an end.
10. Remember that you are here to LOVE GOD and LOVE PEOPLE. Don't get hung up on yourself. Life isn't about you. It's about Jesus Christ. God is who you are here to glorify. People are who you need to reach and what you need to be passionate about. Life alone is empty. Love people. Invest in them. Show them Christ.

So, Self, remember these things. When you feel like life in 2013 is crazy, out of control and unbearable, remember that this happens during every year. Hard times are inevitable, so just get through them. People are difficult. You are difficult. They will fail you. You will fail them. They will sin. You will sin. Push through. Trust God. Love God. Love people.

Cling to Jesus in everything.

Love,
Me