yall! life is good. even dealing with some stress and sorrow, exhaustion and worry- life is good.
for such a long time friends would text, email, ask me " how is everything?" and depending on who it was asking they could get a variety of answers:
-you know, work, kids, life.
- eh, same old boring stuff.
- things are good!
- oh my gosh i'm miserable, depressed, exhausted, sad...i dont even know what to do anymore
cray cray!
in the last couple weeks i've been able to honestly say
" life is so, so good!"
i feel a peace in my heart, and happiness in my soul. i feel so much love for everyone around me. i feel inspired, motivated, brave.
can we talk about brave?
let me rewind: a few weeks ago our pastor Trey asked to meet us for lunch- i was instantly nervous. i felt like i was in trouble and being called in to the principal's office! every interaction i had in the past with priests, pastors, ministers, whatever: had made me feel intimidated and nervous throughout my life. joey & i met him for lunch and had a blast. it was like talking to a friend! he was so easy to talk to, open up to, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with him!
a couple weeks later he asked if i would be willing to speak at the 12stone snellville volunteer rally. whaaat??? me? speak? on a STAGE? with a microphone? i was shaking just thinking about it but knew i had to say yes. for two weeks i was a hot mess of nerves. when the night finally came i started to wonder why i ever said yes, ha!
but yall. wow. when i finished and stepped off that stage- i felt incredible. it was a rush! part of me was just in a fog, i joked that i blacked out cause i didn't remember a darn thing i said. my best friend brittany came along with me and took a video of the entire thing so joey could see ( he was home with the kids).
take a gander, here:
joey immediately began telling me over and over again how proud he was of me- it made my heart swell! that sunday in church, i went from feeling invisible- to feeling like a part of a family. so many people came up to me congratulating me on my baptism (what? yep! i got baptized 2/21/16!), and telling me what an awesome job i had done at the rally!
the following week at church? same thing! people knew my name! one lady told me it "made the night", another asked when i was going to speak again- and my response? 'well, whatcha wanna chat about?' CLOUD NINE! i joked with my pastor that if he ever needed a hype man, i'm his gal. just call me k-rick the slick! (kidding!...kinda!)
it was a pretty amazing experience. this past sunday at church we learned a lot about being a leader in Christ. initially i thought, thats not me, so i'm going to just tune out and enjoy my coffee...nope! God had other plans, He tickled my ear a bit and got the coffee to kick in so i was wide eyed and paying attention. courage, bravery, stepping out of your comfort zone. reaching out and talking to someone about church, about God. inviting someone to church. the little things, the big things- they all make you leaders.
i left church sunday all kinds of revved up and my mind spinning. it still is! how can i be a leader? how can i serve others? what can i do? what is the next step?
i don't know what the next step is, but i'm so excited for God to show me yall.
i want to serve others, all the time- its constantly on my mind. i want to pray for every dang person i meet. i want to love these people. i love my church family and feel so special to be included in that group of people.
but guys: you don't have to wait to be included. show up, and you're in! its the easiest (coolest) family to be adopted in to. they are waiting. God is waiting. you just gotta have an open heart, accept Him, show up, and live it up!
