Beauty Among Thorns: Dreams.

Everyone has a VOICE. Everyone has a DREAM. Everyone has a STORY.

God has been teaching me to FOLLOW my INSPIRATIONS. I'm a big dreamer, always have been. My dreams have always been grand and adventurous and wow. I wanted to be a Missionary Nurse and save the orphans in poverty. I wanted to reach out to the poor and feed everyone. I wanted God to send me out into the world and take me on this grand adventure. Then my Nursing dream died. I'm not medically minded (as much as I loved the doctor and surgery shows). I'm just ME. I learned through that closed door that I have a NURSE'S HEART. I care about PEOPLE. So I pursued working with people with disabilities. I have a long list of experiences working with them all the way to being a CASE MANAGER. Wouldn't you think I found my DREAM then? Still not! What was God doing with me? I'll tell you. He was taking me on a JOURNEY. Through heartache and pain and struggle. He was calling me to REJOICE in ALL my disappointments.

I quit that job. I dearly miss my team (and gee dang, do I have stories about my team haha!) but I don't miss the job. In God's PERFECT TIMING, one of my DREAMS came true and I married my best friend. See the thing with God, I'm slowly learning, is He WANTS our DREAMS to be fulfilled. He gave us those DREAMS for a reason. We need to KEEP holding onto the DREAM because it WILL be fulfilled, maybe not in our time but definitely in His timing...ALL...FOR...HIS...KINGDOM...PURPOSES.

I moved to Minnesota. I left my Ministry behind, my family, my job, my world I've always known. I got here and couldn't find a job for MONTHS. Then out of nowhere God blessed me with a job, working as a Paraprofessional at a school. I liked it good enough. The kids were cute, the teachers were great...... but then less than a month later I got LAID OFF. What the deal God? What was the point of that? I'll tell you the point of that, my husband was blessed with a full time job out of the deal, that's what. Through a friend of mine at the school, her husband hired my Sam. Praise the Lord for that, but what is the Lord doing with ME?

My DREAM...... my dream is be pleasing in the sight of God,

to come to the end of my life and for my God to be PROUD of me.

I TRY too hard sometimes to make my plans happen, to make my grand adventurous dreams happen. I TRY too hard to please God instead of just living day to day FOR Him, and THAT pleases Him. You wanna know what pleases God? HERE IS MY CONCLUSION...... when the Holy Spirit whispers to you or in some cases wacks you over the head, telling you to do something, or when God INSPIRES your heart to DO something whether it's something small like talking to the lady sitting by herself at Caribou or something big like going to South Africa as a missionary or (in my case right now) God is INSPIRING me to build Beauty Among Thorns Ministry that He has laid on my heart. You DO it. Follow that INSPIRATION. You know the feeling; when you're heart is pounding, your palms are sweaty, you're excited and nervous and anxious. Follow it. Step out. God has NEVER let me down when I make that STEP.

I STILL don't know how my DREAMS will be fulfilled or when but I'm following my INSPIRATIONS today.

And trying everyday to live by the words of Romans 12.

The best thing we can do through our pain as it says in Romans 12 is to SERVE others, be PATIENT in trial and FAITHFUL in prayer. Satan especially loves us girls because he knows he can make us useless by attacking our emotions. He tempts us to stay home and cry or starve ourselves or convince us we’re worthless. Instead we need to fight back and SERVE others in need.

Ladies... accessorize yourselves in the INSPIRATION of the Holy Spirit, clothe yourselves in the words of ROMANS 12

Here is how Romans 12 says we should live.......

-give your bodies to God because all he has done for you

-let your body be a living and holy sacrifice

-don’t copy the behavior of the world

-let God transform you into a new person

-learn God’s good and pleasing will

-don’t think you are better than you really are

-be honest in your evaluations of yourselves, measuring by the faith God gives

-we are many parts of one body, we belong to each other

-prophesy—speak out with as much faith as God has given

-serve—serve well

-teach—teach well