Watermelon

Yesterday afternoon I went to visit my friend Ms. Clara. She is an 81 year old widow and such an awesome woman. We have the absolute best conversations. She makes me smile so much! She always has a story to tell, even if I've heard it five times. :) She was a midwife and raised 12 kids (several of them adopted). She has so much knowledge, wisdom, and a precious love for God. I love going to see her. We just sit and talk, and talk... She is so encouraging and knows the Bible so well! She'll say, "You know in Mark (or wherever), when it talks about..." I'm so thankful that God has placed her in my life. She has the greatest sense of humor too! She is always crackin' me up! She's very blunt about everything. Every time I leave her house, she always apologizes for talking so much, but I don't mind and I know she gets lonely. Yesterday she said that she would just love to have some fresh watermelon. She asked, "How much are watermelons these days?" I laughed and said I wasn't sure. (I don't like watermelon.)

I love to read. I get overwhelmed though by all the books that I want to read, knowing that I'll never be able to read them all... I read fiction and non-fiction. Someone the other day was telling me that they don't like to read fiction because they don't learn anything from it and feel like it's wasting time. I told them that I highly disagree! That may be true for some books, but when I read fiction I know that my imagination grows and I'm working my mind! One of the things I love about Stephen Lawhead, Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker's writing is the beautiful parallels of spiritual things. When I read This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness I started to get a grasp on what the Bible means when it says in Ephesians, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." Fiction certainly helps me to picture and understand different Biblical concepts. I just finished Black, Red, and White by Ted Dekker and they are amazing! They talk about this "great romance" between a man and woman and also between us and God. In the books they talk about how romantic love between man and woman simply mirrors the love between us and God. He pursues us, protects us, and woos us to Himself... It is only because of His love for us that we are able to in turn give love. These books paint such a magnificent picture of this! Needless to say, I don't believe fiction is a waste of time. :)

So I started Beth Moore's Bible study Daniel. It is amazing, so awesome! God is teaching me so much and I'm loving it! Sunday I was watching a session on DVD and she started talking about how God's Kingdom will one day reign on earth. She said that she believes He will literally reign on earth, and that's how I always understood it. The more she talked about it, the more excited I got! Just to imagine what it will be like gives me chills! And to think that it will be so much better than what I can comprehend! I've thought about all the cool fantasy worlds from books that I've wished to be a part of and I know it's going to be way cooler than that!!! It blows my mind! I can't wait!

I've been told that I'm too picky when it comes to guys. Nineteen years old and never had a boyfriend... Crazy right? haha Maybe I am picky... but I won't settle. Over and over I have to give this area of my life to God and ask Him to take control. It's only by God's grace that I am where I am today. I know all of the characteristics and things that I so desire to find in a guy and I know how much I want that. So as much as I want that, I started thinking about how I want to be everything that my future husband desires. I want to be the Proverbs 31 woman and honor my husband all the days of my life. As Leona Lewis so beautifully sings, "I will be... all that you want."