Stuff and such

I just finished the book, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close." Well let me tell you, it was extremely weird and incredibly stupid.

I went to Land of A Thousand Hills coffee shop in Atlanta by a river by myself and then a few weeks later with my friend Joy. It's beautiful there! There were gross, bright neon green inchworms that would hang down from trees or be on tables though, and when we got in the car to come home there was one on my pants and I just grabbed a band-aid box from behind my seat and tried to push it off, but it killed / smeared it in the process. So gross! Thankfully I was not driving. Besides the gross bugs, I like the place.

Last Sunday at one of our Slovakia meetings we discussed spiritual warefare, and the verses about the armor of God. I know those verses, but realized I don't know how to apply them. So I read this book on my kindle and it was helpful! (Posted last night what I got from it.) Slovakia is in 3 months. I've had weird dreams about it - in one I was in Slovakia and there were sidewalks with lots of platelets because it was floating on water and you could jump or run funny and the whole thing would move cool because it was on water. Ha.

Ooh, exciting news: I've wanted to go to the beach for the past 6 years and couldn't find anyone to go with me, and now I get to go mid May with several of my friends from bible study!! We'll be staying at a house right on the beach, and it will also be during my birthday! I will be turning 24! I am beyond excited about this trip!! I want to drink coffee, eat ice cream, read a book on the beach, take pretty pictures, and sit on the giant front porch of the house we'll be staying in overlooking the beach. I. Am. Stoked.

Sometimes in life things happen and you have no idea why. You might realize or assume why many years later, but sometimes you just have no idea. And other times God is gracious enough to be more clear in showing you why He does things the way He does. This past week a friend told me something that made me see why God did something in my life. It was a realization that made me say, "God, thank you for saying no to my asking before. Thank you for knowing it wasn't good for me. Thank you for creating circumstances that protected me from a much deeper hurt than I have felt so far." It's like when you read a book and at the end of it you go, "OH! That's how it connected!" or you see how things events in the beginning that were confusing are then made clear. It is like that with our lives, and the fuzzy stuff that we go through leads to His ultimate glory and His protecting arm in our lives even if it hurts during the time being.  Sometimes it may just be that "xyz" is a really good option / choice / circumstance, but God has something even better than that. If I don't get a really good job, it might be because God has a great one for me or one where I am better used. I think this applies to all areas in life.