Miss Peanut--You are an inside out oreo!

This week has been crazy awesome! God is good doesn't even begin to cover it. Let's just say last week was a reminder that I'm weak. I CANNOT do it!!! No matter how hard I try. GOD is strong for me. He does it. And that is what makes things beautiful.

I'm working as a counselor at a christian summer camp in the Huntsville National Forest. I just finished week three. This last week was Star of Hope week. I was in a cabin with 7 13/14 year olds. My co-counselor was awesome! We actually have the same name so we already felt like twins. :) Thank God for nicknames though! I'm Counselor Peanut and my co's nickname is Giggles.

The week started off just like a normal one and I was all "Oh, these girls are not even gonna be a problem!" ha. famous last words! From the beginning of the week I was getting these weird thoughts of dissention against my Co. I would immediately pray about it but it was still frustrating. It was weird because Giggles and I are awesome friends and we were so excited about working with each other and I knew that these thoughts were not from God. Anyway then our girls started getting attitudes and one was particularly home sick. Tuesday Giggles and I shared our testimonies. This shook me up a bit and I had some trouble re-focusing. I was hard bringing up my past but it was crazy how peritnent it was to these girls. "Miss Peanut, we though you was rich! You were just so happy!"

That night half of the counselors had prayer time and I prayed about the dissenting thoughts, re-focus and energy issues I had been having. Wednesday came. It was the middle day of the middle session of camp. Things went crazy! Our girls were being disrespectful and after a long hot hard day we were chilling at the pool. Giggles totally called me out. She told me how it was hard how I wasn't backing her up when it came to keeping on them to be a team player and be respectful and if they didn't want to do something they would run to me. She then went on to say how the oldest girls cabin's counselors had talked to Giggles about how I had been bad mouthing them. I understood about the first part. It was true. I was so busy grumbling in my head about Giggles that I didn't keep a clear head and notice the roots of problems we were having with our girls. The second part went straight to my heart. It had been so hard for me to keep a positive attitude about the oldest girls' cabin. They were uber competetive and put down our girls often. It would get to me and I would have to consiously keep my mouth shut. When I heard that rumors were going around it just hurt. That pool time I was just a mess! Oh Lord! I never cry, and never in front of people but by the time we got back to our cabin I had cried in front of the whole camp! OUr girls started to shower and one came out to Giggles and I and said she wanted to go home the next day. We asked her why and she wouldn't say. It came as a shock--she had been a sort of leader in the group and had shared her testimony with us the night before. It was crazy how sudden this change in her attitude had  happened. We talked to her for a bit and she said that she guessed she would stay. I knew it had something to do with my meltdown at the pool. Then Giggles and I had a heart to heart on just how much God was going to move this week and that we were all being personally attacked that week. We talked it out and then PRAYED it out. Imemediately our attitudes were changed. We laughed and hugged and felt awesomely encouraged. We went back into the cabin to some confused looking faces but our laughter was contagious. I prayed with the other girl who was homesick and after she cried it out was in an even better mood from before. That night was just awesom! Our whole cabin came together and had an amazing night. Giggles and I were on the same page, and were bathing our girls in prayer. The next night another one of our girls who had been the leader in our group and had had an amazing attuitude from the beginning shared her testimony. It was so powerful. That girl has such a  call on her life! Right before while she was at dinner she had a crazy allergy attack and ended being ok but I had a feeling it was because her testimony was so powerful. I was about to bawl by the end of it. The fact that she looked up to me, this crazy white girl so much, is only because of Jesus. She was "Miss Peanut, we're gonna call you peanut brownie!! You're so black!" She told me how she had had this experience with an angel and whenever she met me she got freaked out cuz I looked so much like the angel. It was a cool story (about the angel) and it just hit home that God had written my testimony for many people, but most definitly for her. Friday night (last night) we had a fireworks show over the lake. I was sitting there and as the fireworks were going off God whispered "Here. This is a present for you. This week has been long, just sit here and enjoy the beauty that I have invented. Enjoy this summer that I have given you." It was awesome. Right after, we had a night worship service around a fire. Its called a kindling service cuz the kids have an opportunity to go up and share something God has taught then that week. It was awesome and afterwards there was an altar call. Well that girl I was just talking about (no pics or names on the internet) accepted Christ. It was awesome! She told us that she believed there was a God and he had an awesome plan for her but she was just too mad at him to trust him. For her to go from there to where she was at on Friday night was just awesome!!!!

This morning there was a lot more crying. I kept it together until I shook this one 15 year old guy camper's hand. Our cabin had done a lot with his cabin during the week and I thanked him for the respect he showed my girls and me. I just shook me up to see this teenager from this rough background respect the girls.

There are so many stories from this week. Mostly about God's awesomeness.

Please pray for favor with me. I'll be in Houston for a few weeks in August and I have the potential of seeing these girls again. Pray that their parents and Star of Hope protocol would all be understanding. These girls are all back on the right track and are going to do amazing things for God. If it works out, I would love to be able to keep encouraging them in that area.

Next week I will be working with 2 CITs. (Counselors in Training). They will be going into either 8th or 9th grade. I'm excited to see how God will use me this week.

Love to you all.

Currently After the Music Stops By Lecrae see related

It has been a looooong time since I have written a blog post. A lot has gone down since Jan 6th or whenever. A lot of sad times, hard times, good times, laughing times, stressful times, growing times, times to remember. Ok, the cheesy hallmark stuff is over. I guess for a small snapshot here it is:

• Got disowned for two weeks (over christmas break)
• "Made it official" with my current bf Josh
• Had my car totaled by an unisured driver
• Made darn good grades
• Switched churches
• Slept from 4-8am almost every night
• Moved dorms
• Joined a sorority
• Got a job
• Got a "new to me" car over spring break
• Learned a lot about life and myself. 

I am exhausted!

Currently Blue Like Jazz By Donald Miller see related

There is this movie called The Ultimate Gift. It's a pretty nifty movie, I must say. I saw it right after my birthday. It's basically about this spoiled trust-fund guy who, in order to receive his dead grandad's inheritance, must go through a series of “tests”. These each end up being a lesson. Its complicated, so just go see it, read the book or look up the plot line on wikipedia. The point of all of this is almost out now, don't worry. Now at the end of the movie, it runs through each of the lessons the dude had to learn:

• The Gift of Work

• The Gift of Problems

• The Gift of Friends

• The Gift of Giving

• The Gift of Gratitude

• The Gift of Family

• The Gift of Learning

• The Gift of Money

• The Gift of Laughter

• The Gift of a Day

• The Gift of Dreams

• The Gift of Love

As the words flashed up on the screen, my life kinda flashed before my eyes. Each lesson brought to my mind a memory of an instance where I had to learn each one of those lessons.

Jesus is really funny, ya know? He's always trying to teach me something. Sometimes it takes one incident to learn, sometimes a week, a month, or years. Recently, you've heard me mention that “this week it's about obedience” or “this week I'm learning patience.” The last 2 months have been about snootiness. I am so freaking stuck-up! This is a really good lesson, but I think it has been the weirdest one yet. The thing about being stuck-up, is that there is a whole lot more to that attitude than what first comes to mind. It's not just a gossip-girl persona. You can be stuck-up about everything from jellybeans to Jesus. I've marveled at what it takes to slowly strip away being a snot.

On a side-note—one of the most true things I have ever heard, is the idea that when you ask God for something (for example, patience), you don't just wake up the next morning and BOOM you have patience. Instead, He gives you opportunities where you have the chance to cultivate patience. I've been asking Him for wisdom quite often lately. Even though the idea I just explained I fervently believed in when that first became “the cry of my heart” so to speak, I still stupidly thought wisdom was one of those things that you just had or you didn't...like some people just have a better inclination than others or something. It's really not that at all. The old are wise because the have lived a long time, and in so doing, have gleaned wisdom from their experiences (or opportunities)! Call me blonde, but that hadn't clicked until a little bit ago. I've looked back at all the crazy stuff I've lived through. Those things are a direct answer to that prayer for wisdom. Trust me, I have a LOT more to learn, but that makes me smile! I'm excited to see what Jesus has planned...what adventures are down the road. Oh, they will be hard, no doubt...but that's why they're called adventures. I think I may write a book one day on those memories that coincide with the lessons that I listed out at the beginning of this whole thing...

Currently The Ultimate Gift By Drew Fuller, James Garner, Ali Hillis, Abigail Breslin, Lee Meriwether see related