Thankful Thursday - Questions

I nearly forgot it was Thankful Thursday today! I will keep this short tonight, because I still have lots to do and am already very tired. But despite that, I have many things to be thankful for:

~ Air conditioning. It's amazing the weather extremes we have up here!
~ Good friends and co-workers. We had an employee meeting tonight, and it was splendid.
~ Being able to meet up with M's aunt, who I love (*wave* hi!!) for dinner. It was a very uplifting time.
~ Also thinking back to my trip home, I'm extremely thankful for the time with family and friends.
~ Safety driving back from home.
~ Almost being done with a very tiring work week.
~ And for having a really great guy to celebrate with tomorrow!

The other thing on my mind lately is just a ton of questions. Questions of God's will, and how He makes things work. Questions on what is most important. Lots of questions of how to handle different situations. I feel somewhat weighed down by questions right now, and I haven't really gotten any answers yet. I would appreciate your prayers for that. I'm thankful for having friends who will pray for me..you guys are awesome!

D.C.

The arena behind the Tomb of the Unknown soldier

One of the funerals we were privileged to see

Arlington House

Arlington Cemetary

Library of Congress

The Court House

The White House

The Lincoln Memorial

Vietnam Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

The view from the Iwo Jima Memorial

The Iwo Jima Memorial

Here are some kids that I ended up
playing cards with at the airport.

None of them spoke English!

That definitely made things interesting

Clouds on the flight home

Thankful Thursday!

God has been blessing me so much in the past few weeks. it's really hard to even know where to begin, and yet I feel like I can't put any of it in words.
.Last Friday, I was able to fly home and meet up with my entire family for the weekend. It was amazing to see all of them! To see my niece now walking with help. To see my other sister's baby bump! So precious.
I've also had the chance to catch up with a lot of old friends in the past week that I've been home. Something I'm very thankful for was the rare opportunity of my whole family being together so M could meet the rest of them. :)
My parents and I were able to take a short trip out to Washington D.C that I'll be posting some pictures from soon. It was a quick but rewarding trip to be sure. We had some adventures too, which I'll fill you in on later. 
It was really wonderful being about to sing with my mom for about on hour today. I can play the piano, but there are some song books that I simply cannot play and sing with, so it's such a pleasure to be able to do that with her. Ahh so much fun. I even got to make dinner with her.
Also, I do love my job, but it's been so nice to have the week off and sinply not think about it. I've probably only thought of it once or twice! That's pretty good for me.
I'm really excited for the rest of my week here at home! I'll try to put pictures of D.C. up soon for you. :)

A Singer's Heart

I have sung for as long as I can remember. I even have audio of me singing when I was probably 5-6! Granted, I wasn't the best singer at that point, but I think it's pretty cute. :P It was even pretty much in pitch. ( I just listened to it again...) Anyway, despite always being a singer, it has not always been easy for me to sing in front of people. I think this is a normal issue, so I won't beat myself up too much.. :D

I can remember the first song I sang by myself for special music at church: At the Foot of the Cross by Ray Boltz. Then it was requested that someone sing "Thank You" by Ray Boltz for our Teacher's Appreciation Sunday! I remember that one very well because a lot of the women were crying. Haha, that made me feel bad.

I have had lots of opportunities to sing alone and with a group over the years and I have gained so much from all of them. I was in a youth choir for a year and a half and it always bothered me how the other participants didn't take it as seriously as I did. It's true, I'm a teacher's pet. I was able to visit Philadelphia and Chicago with that choir and we saw Wicked and The Lion King. It was incredible!

I've also seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Phantom of the Opera. But honestly, the stage productions I have enjoyed the most have been those at Sight and Sound Theatre in Lancaster, PA. I've had the privilege to see a few different shows there, and they are all awe-inspiring. After seeing the first show there, I knew that I wanted to sing with them. I'd still love to do that.

Over the years, that dream has died off a bit. I began to think I wouldn't be able to sing that powerfully. I've never been able to sing my best in front of people..until today.

I was very blessed to be on the worship team at church, and one song we did was my personal request. I love this song so much. It is such a powerful song, and I love to sing it when I'm by myself. I sing really loudly when I'm alone. Anyway, I was afraid that like normal, I would tighten up during the service, but I love that song so much that I sung with all my heart. I must have been really loud..but I truly feel it was the best I've ever sung in front of others, and I'm so grateful for that..It was quite the thrill...

Thankful Thursday

Well, I actually remembered it this week! I actually was thinking about it all day. I don't have too much to say tonight, as I am very tired; but I do have some things to be thankful for.

I'm thankful for:

~ My Savior who allows me to be part of His family
~ Being able to feel the urging of the Spirit in a few different scenarios recently
~ Going through the process of growing up, and becoming who I'm supposed to be
~ Realizing the things I need to work on and understanding it could be a long process
~ That my friend is doing a bit better!
~ The wonderful year I've had working at Josie's
~ My boyfriend and his upright character
~ A day off in the midst of a lot of work
~ Having the chance to reorganize all my things
~ Learning how to play pool =P
~ Being able to play piano at the church and at the nursing home, and being appreciated for it
~ Being able to hold a friend's baby for a good amount of time
~ A random customer who is now helping me find a bike for free!

As always, the list could continue...God has very richly blessed me, that is for sure!

One Year and Counting

It's hard to believe, but I've officially been working at Josie's for one year now! The day after I moved up to live with my sister, I went straight down the downtown area and put in applications where my sister suggested. As I was getting to the end of the day I was getting pretty discouraged. No one I spoke with seemed very happy or friendly, and none of them made me feel like (1) they wanted to hire me and (2) I'd want to work for them.
I was just about to give up and go home but decided to go one more block and see if I could find this Josie's that I'd heard a lot about. Lo and behold! There it was, in that one last block. I took a deep breath, and went inside.
I found a girl behind the counter and she greeted me with a big grin and completely full of joy. I immediately felt comfortable in that place. She gave me an application and chatted with me as I filled it out. She even mentioned I should check back in since they were looking to hire immediately!
I left that building with a skip in my step and I called my dad. I told him about my day and said, "I know where I want to work!" I knew right away that this was the place for me.
Then two days later, I got a call from the owner and set up a meeting for the next day. The interview went very well, and I felt very confident. One week later, I got the ground shaking call that I was actually hired. I was so excited!
My first day was so much fun! I only worked for a few hours, just to start off small. I didn't realize it until a few months later, but I actually met one of my close church friends on my first day at Josie's! She had come in with her grandparents. I just think that's really cool.
Over this past year I have had to learn so much and at times it was very overwhelming. I found out very quickly that not only were my coworkers and bosses patient, but they were very kind, forgiving, and encouraging. I've never had a more encouraging work environment, and I couldn't be more thankful for it.
 I made friends quickly with some of the regular customers. I've mentioned some already in Golden Nuggets of Wisdom, Another Look Behind, Joyfulness, and Customer Blessings. I'm very happy to say that Josie (see link) did move back here, and is now a good friend of mine. *wave* Hi Josie!
Meeting all these wonderful people has made such a difference in my life and I am incredibly thankful for them. I love my job completely, and hope to continue there for quite a while! So yay for one year, and here's to many more!

Encouragement

Isn't it awesome to see God working in each other? I feel so blessed right now. I literally just got home from church, put my stuff down and came to write this post because I'm feeling so encouraged! 

We had a guest speaker at church this morning. I've met him one other time, but haven't heard him speak before, so I was really excited for today. 

He spoke about setting goals, and not only goals that we can achieve on our own, but to really dream big and set our goals for things we can't handle without others and without our Lord. He spoke about failure and how we'll all have times of failure, but that doesn't mean WE are failures. We are the saved and redeemed of the Lord, so that means we WIN! 

In talking with him and his wife afterward, I was deeply encouraged. I won't explain how, but they were able to hear from a separate source, things about me that I wouldn't always assign to myself. It was such a blessing to hear how my efforts are being noticed, and people do see something in me that they might not see in others. This may seem trivial, but he and his wife said two different things that really struck me. In his sermon he mentioned how we all have 'ups and downs', and then as I was leaving, the they were telling me to keep up the good work, and the wife said "it's making a difference". If you haven't been paying attention, those were two of my last three posts: Ups and Downs, and Making a Difference.
Every single thing they said had significant meaning in my life right now, and it's just amazingly crazy! Don't we serve an amazing God? One who knows exactly how much we can handle, and gives us grace to handle more. The One who bring others into each of our lives to be a source of encouragement. They may not realize what a difference they made, but I'm so glad they let the Lord speak through them.
Also, I can say that sometimes it means so much more to be encouraged by those who don't know you that well. My friends and family love me, and so I kinda expect them to be encouraging, and they have more an opportunity to see when and how I need to be encouraged. This family isn't like that. As I said, I've only met the husband once before, so almost everything they know about me is what they've heard from other people. I am just completely struck by what a blessing today has been already. Could it get any better?

Ups and Downs

The last week has been full of ups and downs for me. And the only answer I have is that I need to strengthen my relationship with my Creator. Everything in this life just falls apart when He's not included. I've had so many examples of that in this past week.

I've had a much harder time fighting Rejection and feelings of failure, and I've found myself thinking things that aren't necessary or true. I guess the positive thing I can take from that is that I'm actually recognizing these things as an issue now. 

I've also had a lot of issues come up recently that don't directly deal with me, but I am affected by them, and I simply don't always know how to respond. The hardest has definitely been coming to know of the deep depression one of my friends is in right now. I'd appreciate prayers for my friend. 

But, in these times of discouragement, God has blessed me with wonderful experiences that have completely blessed me. 

Probably the highlight of my week was doing a 5k this morning in 45 minutes. I wasn't able  to run the whole thing, but I'm still very happy with my result. I'm hoping I won't be a lot more sore tomorrow morning.
Today was full of blessings, including the wedding of good friends! It was beautiful.
Other fun things I did this week were teaching swing dancing twice, cooking some new foods, playing cards with some new friends at the nursing home, and going to a baseball game with M! 

Throughout this week, I always noticed that no matter how down I felt, I still had a hope within me that was stronger than the despair. My down moods have lasted a while in some cases, but I never fail to cheer up at some point. i consider that a huge blessing. What a blessing it is to have the hope which is found only in Christ. 

"Some trust in chariots; some trust in horses; but I will trust in name of the Lord"