Hello beautiful friends, family, fellow blog stalkers, team mates, or just an awesome person I've yet to meet,
I want to say thank you for clicking on this blog post. Thank you for following me on this path God is leading me on! Thank you for supporting me financially, prayerfully, for coming to my fundraisers, and for loving me so well.
I'm sitting here at Panera, soaking up the wifi, thinking about what to write about, and I feel nothing but an overwhelming sense of gratitude. I look at my World Race account and see that I've already met 2 of 4 financial deadlines ($6,535.79 out of the needed $15,500) and I seriously go speechless, my jaw drops, and tears fill my eyes. I pinch myself to see if its real, blink my eyes really hard and open them again to see if I'm seeing things. When I realize that its TRUE, that I am officially leaving in September, that this is actually happening, words cant express the emotion I feel. I am so grateful.
GRACE: unmerited favor
Grace is what I am COVERED in!! Friends, Im about to get really real with you and tell you a few things so you get a better picture of what I'm talking about…
I grew up in the chuch and wanted to be a missionary since I was 10, after an encounter with God. After High School I went to YWAM for a year, earnestly pursuing whatever God might have. Then, LOOOONG story short, a few major life events happened including a good friend being killed, an engagement that failed miserably, major depression, and taking emergency custody of my 17 month old nephew for a period of time. OH, and during this time, I completely walked away from God. I wanted nothing to do with Him and believed He could never want to have anything to do with me. Especially after the ways I felt I betrayed Him and so easily caved under circumstances after honestly devoting my life to Him.
Then, something incredible happened. I spoke to God. I told Him that He needed to soften my stone-cold heart because I finally figured out I could NOT fix myself, and you know what happened? He did exactly what I asked Him to! He put color into the world again. My depression? Gone. The healing that He has brought to me has grown in me so much faith and confidence in His goodness and most importantly, His love for me. The more open I am to His presence and His truth that confronts the lies I beieved for so long, the more I fall in love with Him.
Now, years later, when I think about the provision and all the dreams and visions He has restored, I am speechless. Again, the definition of grace: UNMERITED FAVOR. That's the ONLY explanation to why I can do what I am doing. I am filthy rich in grace. I am submerged in it. I am filled from the top of my head to the tips of my toes in His grace. The fact that He is sending me to share with other women the truth of their value, when my value has been challenged, is a picture of grace, The fact that I can sit here and write about the purposes and plans of my life and tell you that you have great destiny on your life as well, when for a while I wished I were not living, is a picture of His grace. I'm telling you, His grace is so good. And we are ALL covered in it!
I know this blog is getting super long, but I have to share with you the magnitude of what He has done. I can scarcely believe it. Every time someone gives to my trip, every time someone graciously offers to help me fundraise, every encouraging word, I am reminded of How good He is and how much He loves me.
Again, thank you for reading and for supporting me. I am seriously amazed. I can only imagine the incredible things to come.
Love,
Laura
Galatians 3:20
Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.
2 Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;
