thank God for the little things

So the other day, God gave me a little slap in the face. It occured to me that I was simply not thanking Him enough. I mean sure I thank Him in my standard blessing of the food and for the day each day when I wake up and start walking to the bathroom to brush my teeth, but I'm sad to say that that's about it. It's not that I'm not thankful because I really truly am, but I guess I'm one of those people who never really thinks about it...until this past week.

I just want to give you a little background on my week before I go any further to give you a better idea of all that's been going on. We had rush last week which was awesome but one of the craziest times of my life. I am the secretary of my sorority, Sigma Phi Lambda, and so therefore was crazy busy! The other officers and I spent weeks preparing for this week and so last week it was class all day, rush all night, and then enter everything into the computer and send emails like a good little secretary after until finally crashing. I also had several tests that week on top of everything as well as a big research paper due, so needless to say I was ever so slightly stressed. Well, let me just tell you that the Lord is amazing. Rush went beautifully. We've never had a bigger turnout than we did this semester! We recently finished interviewing all of the pledges and we have over 40 girls pledgings this semester...our biggest pledge class yet! It was so encouraging to hear some of these girls talk about how excited they were to find out about us and about how amazing rush had been.

Well, of course I was thankful but besides the standard " hey thanks God!" I wasn't really telling Him how thankful I was, I just assumed He knew...I mean He is our All-Knowing God. But that just goes to show how human I am! So a few days after, a monsoon practically hit us. I was not dressed for rain and was wearing cute little white keds with a white tshirt might I add and then all of a sudden when I looked out of the window of the Union, the bottom had fallen out. I couldn't even see 3 feet past the window because it was coming down so hard! I was so fretted. I didn't stop to think that things had gotten pretty dry around here, nnnnnnoooooooo, I was just mad my shoes were gonna get wet. Well as I was walking out to my car about an hour later, the rain just stopped. As I was looking up the sky in kinda this "well it's about darn time" look, I saw one of the biggest rainbows I'd ever seen before in all my 20 and a half years. I was taken aback. I felt a little guilty, but since I was running late I didn't let it consume my thoughts much longer.

Well finally, yesterday, a dear friend and I were doing our normal run only this week was the week to up the pace. Oooh boy, was it tough. I felt like I was literally going to die on the sidewalk, and people were just going to have to walk around me to get to class for the rest of the day. I had a charlie horse the size of my body pretty much. I was practically leaving a trail of sweat on the sidewalk I was so hot. Well, as we were about to finish up the run, all of a sudden, even though the sun was shining bright, it began to first sprinkle and then pour down raining. It was amazing! It was so cool and clean and that's when it all hit me. How can I be thankful for the rain today but not the other day...what's wrong with me??

It's so easy, at least for me, to thank God for all of the big things...like when he gets you into a college, finds you a great roommate, helps you make a good grade on a really hard test, saves you from a wreck, or something like that. But it's really hard to remember to thank Him for all of the little things that He continues to do for us day in and day out...things like showing me a rainbow, cooling me off after a run with a light rain, enabling me to go on a run, giving me such good friends, not getting frustrated with me when I forget to say thank you, and so on and so on.

So, I know it's an odd lesson to learn from rain, but I guess My Creator knows I'm just a tad bit wierd so He uses wierd ways to get my attention. He reminded me of how much He really loves me and not just the love that I love food with (and trust me that's alot!) but like with real unconditional love that will keep loving me even next week when I forget to thank Him quite so often and He has to gently remind me again. So thank you Lord, thank you for giving me reasons to thank You even though I don't deserve it.

be thankful for your church...it could be worse

So this Sunday, while greeting all my old friends at church and listening to a Bible based sermon I could not help but be thankful for the church God has led me to. I also couldn't help but laugh as I thought about all the "hit-and-misses" I had while looking for a church here in Starkville. So I thought I'd share a few of my more memorable church experiences.

Freshman year of college is full of firsts...and churches were no exception. The Lord blessed me with a great Christian roommate, so we tried to visit churches together. The first Sunday after we moved in, we decided to visit the huge Methodist church here. Her parents were familiar with this church, and so we ventured off. We ended up getting hopelessly lost though and because of our 20 minutes of aimless driving, we got there pretty late. We followed signs taking us to what we thought to be the contemporary service. Well let me just say that this service was in NOOO way contemporary! It was in fact, the most traditional service I've ever sat through in my whole 20 years of life, and the fact that we walked in late, which elicited many stern glares only added to it. As terrible as it sounds, that is the most ready I've ever been to get out of a church.

Later, I visited a Baptist church in hopes of finding a Broadway away from home only to find instead a flashback back to the Orpheum. I later found out that the music minister was involved in theatres and musicals...it all suddenly made sense! So after a few weeks of going occasionally with a friend of mine, I gave up and decided to look elsewhere for a place not so showy and gaudy.

We then visited another Baptist church kinda outside of town. We showed up to discover that yes, it actually was a remodeled barn. And newly remodeled at thats since it still had an outside, barnyard smell. It didn't really click even though the people were friendly, almost too friendly and nosy if you know what I mean.

But we didn't give up! We decided to try some other denominations just to see what happened. The first was an Episcopalian that we headed excitedly off to at the time that it nomally started every Sunday. However, as we walked through the huge, creaking doors, we realized something was wrong...everyone was getting up row by row and walking to the alter. We had interrupted Communion! We slowly slid by people walking back to their seats and tried to search for seats as inconspiciously as possible. We meekly watched as the final rows took their seats only to then see the pastor rise and dismiss everyone. We confusedly stood up and looked around for some sort of explanation. Most everyone just looked at us oddly as they walked out until another college aged girl came up to explain that this particular Sunday they had made plans to begin an hour early in order to have time for a special luncheon after the service. We opted out of the lunch and went on home, slighly embarrassed.

We tried our luck again a few weeks later, only at a Lutheran church this time. Now this chuch I must say was probably our oddest experience yet! We dragged one of our sorority sisters with us this time and so all 3 of us got to experience the awkwardness. I know as Christians we are never supposed to judge, but this church truly had some problems. The regular pastor was not there for a reason that was not shared with the congregation. The man who preached never opened the Bible once. He instead gave the church a 2 hour pep talk about how they needed to stay encouraged amidst the issues going on within. He merely hinted at all the problems though and so the 3 of us girls sat in silent confusion as the people around us nodded vigorously in assent. That Sunday also happened to be the Sunday they provided lunch after the service, and the older ladies would not take no for an answer, so we stayed for a very awkward potluck. Here, they made even more hints towards the growing problems that were rising in the church. So as soon as we were finished, we thanked them and bolted, vowing to never return again.

That about sums up our church adventures of freshman year. As sophomore year began we were no closer to finding a church until the one Sunday we ventured out of Starkville to a little Methodist church in a town called Longview. Well, let me just tell you, it was a perfect fit from the moment we walked through those old wooden doors. We could sense something special about this place. Even though we are the youngest ones in there by at least 20 years and on a good Sunday there are only about 20 people present, it is amazing! The pastor preaches out of the Bible, and we get to sing such sweet, simple hymns to the Lord each week. On top of that, the people have reached out to us in the sweetest, most sincere way. One couple in particular has practically adopted us. We go to their home every Sunday after church and get to share a homemade meal with them and just waste away the afternoon with them. The Lord has blessed me so much through them!

I'm sure I'll have more stories about them later on, but I just wanted to share this with ya'll briefly so that you might appreciate Broadway all the more. There are so many churches out there that don't preach Biblical truths or show love to others and therefore do not glorify God. I never really appreciated Broadway or all that it meant to me until it was gone, and I was searching for somewhere to take its place. So I encourage you all to thank God consistently for placing you in such a sweet church for this season of your life. So all of that to say, be grateful for your church, I know I sure am now!