Learning Trust

"It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man." [Ps. 118:8]

Old pic of the wedding day! James & Paige with

Mom & Dad on 7/28/08, just after the vows.

It's been so wonderful to be home for the last week. My parents and Becca drove down to Virginia to visit Dad's side of the family. They were there from the 30th through the 4th. My last day at the toy store (seasonal job from Oct.-Dec.) was the 31st, so I had to stay and finish up my last couple shifts. After that, I drove back home to Perry. Even though the house was empty it was still great to be home. Christmas decor remained up through the New Year and that always makes things especially cozy.

While I was home I helped out at the pizza place where I worked in high school. It was such a blast! Great to see old friends again. I only helped out for three shifts, but any extra work is provision from the Lord for my school bill and I was happy for the hours.

On Becca's graduation day, mini reunion of our dorm from last year!

Because I spent the first two and a half weeks of winter break living on campus (since my job was in Jackson), it's been a huge blessing to be at home for a week before I head back down to school. Student Leaders will be regathering this Thursday, and I can't wait to see dear friends again! It's amazing how close you grow to be at New Tribes. The school is very small, so the staff and students really become your family. Although I'm incredibly excited to be starting my senior semester, a part of me is dragging my heals. I know that when I leave school, the experience will be over...and that's difficult to accept. God has really been challenging my thinking concerning change, and I'm so thankful that He is! Life is basically a journey of changes, and I don't want to live half-heartedly because I know the end of something is always coming. God's Word is so profoundly accurate when it says that God has set eternity in our hearts (Ecc. 3:11...check it out!). How I long for no more goodbyes. But for now, here on earth goodbyes do not come alone. For something to begin, something else must end. Resting in the sufficiency of Christ is the key to peace amidst the changes.

I read this passage this morning:

I cry aloud with my voice to the Lord;
I make supplication with my voice to the Lord.
I pour out my complaint before Him;
I declare my trouble before Him.
When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, You knew my path...
Bring my soul out of prison, so that I may give thanks to Your name.
[Ps. 142:1-3a, 7a]

My dear friend and roomie Shelley. Can't wait to see her! :)

It's been a very difficult choice to trust the Lord to provide for my school finances. I long to be free of worry and ever-clinging doubt, and so this Psalm encouraged my heart. David didn't try to be over-spiritual with his prayers to the Lord; he was raw and honest. The sub-script even says, "Maskill of David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer." (According to Dictionary.com, the root of Maskil is a Hebrew word which means enlightened.) David was in the pits, crying out to the Lord with complete vulnerability! Today, after reading Psalm 142, I sought to speak to with the Lord honestly, crying out to Him, "Lord I don't know how You're going to work this out! But You know what's going on and how You're going to use all this. Teach me to trust You." And He does! Every day...even in simply reckoning the truth that I am dead to sin and
alive to God. He has been teaching me daily to trust in Him alone.
Praise the Lord! Be encouraged in Him, friends.