His Mercies are New Every Morning

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in him.' The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." Lamentations 3:1

I have been so blessed by rest, community, and time with the Lord this week. As I am seeking the Lord, he continues to teach me, grow me, and astound me. One very real blessing is my Monday night bible study that my sister in law Holly is leading.

Last week, surrounded by a group of women, many shared that they felt their time with the Lord was lacking. For myself, I shared that this lead to feeling of guilt and shame that the Lord was not a priority. This led to a discussion about how the Lord is a "functional parent", in other words He knows how to reach us according to the specific way He designed our personalities and the way we think and feel. We were assigned a homework assignment: How does God best communicate with you?

After thinking about the times that I feel God speaking, I came to realize that while my journaling and quiet time WERE important ways that God communicates with me, I also felt like God speaks to me through other people. I am definitely an extrovert and so talking and speaking with other people about my emotions and thoughts are so important for me. I realized that God uses other people to speak to me and He does this often. I also feel like the outward way I express what God is speaking to me is through writing (and talking it out with other people).

All this to say, if you feel guilty about not having quiet times with the Lord, don't allow the enemy to use that. Seek time with the Lord, and be thankful when you have it, but realize that God uses many avenues to speak to his children, just like an earthly parent would. This was such a huge realization for me. I love the time I get to sit with God, but I don't need it to be quiet. I like to talk out loud to other people what I am learning, or talk with God out loud about it and this is OKAY. My quiet time does not need to be literally quiet. God reaches us in so many ways.

In other life updates, I got to take a trip to see my family and my best friend Mandy get married. This was such an encouraging time.

Mandy on her wedding day! :)

Also Tony and I have been working with our dog Sage with separation anxiety and I am learning a lot through the process. Funny to see fears of being alone in a dog kind of teach a lesson to me.

Sage whose nicknames so far are: Sagey Girl, Sageicle

Teaching has been BUSY, but I am enjoying my students so much. Teaching is definitely a passion and I am beyond thankful to wake up every morning and go to a job that I feel totally aligns with my calling. I try to take time to thank God for this every morning. I am learning a lot in teaching about letting control of my expectations and allowing God to do his work in my students and myself during the day. Through his grace, I am growing and (hopefully) getting better as a teacher each day.

House progress is slow going but home finally feels like home. I no longer picture our apartment when I think of home (this happened for awhile). I am getting excited about decorating our guest bedroom and we are looking into adding a wood stove (gotta be toasty and warm for the winter).

I am looking forward to the holiday season! Tony and I are staying in Alaska this year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Our first snowfall came yesterday- Hello, winter!

Thanking God for his steadfast love and mercies that I know are new EVERY morning.

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