Hey everyone! Forgive me for not posting in a while. I’ve been in a weird funk and honestly I still am. I’m going to be a bit vulnerable with you all in this short blog post…
First, blogging honestly stresses me out. That’s why I didn’t do it last week. I sat down and tried to type something up and got frustrated so I closed the screen. Forgive me for promising to blog post once a week and not fulfilling that promise. I’ve decided to blog only when I have something to say. Now, this doesn’t mean I’ll go months without blogging! No! God is working in amazing ways here and there’s almost always something I could tell you. But until I feel the flow of an idea or thought process, I won’t try to create a blog post because it won’t turn out well.
Apart from the being stressed about blogging, I’ve just been in a weird funk. What does that mean you ask? I’m not sure. (Lol) I know it’s the enemy. He’s been messing with me a lot lately. I’ve been super homesick, missing comforts, getting very frustrated over the smallest of things, getting upset with my leaders for rules I think are silly (but it’s not their fault), getting annoyed with my squad mates, etc. Just a bunch of stuff has been putting me in a negative mindset/atmosphere.
Month one is over for the World Race! I can’t believe it! I only have 8 months left on this journey, 8 months left with these amazing people, 8 months to not focus on anything except getting closer to relationship to Jesus. Like… Wow!! Thanks God for allowing me to be here! Thank you for this amazing opportunity that I probably will never experience again. 😀
Family, friends, fellow brothers and sisters in Christ: the WR is amazing! I am learning and growing so much and I am so thankful to be here. But just like anywhere in life, there are hardships. Community comes along with conflict and if you don’t fight for unity and peace, it can fall apart quickly. As much as I’ve grown in the life of abandonment, sleeping outside and showering in campers isn’t exactly comfy. Everyone has bad days, everyone gets cold and tired. It’s just part of life. But God is so good, because in the midst of the struggles, frustrations and sadness, He blesses us. He has blessed me so much here! Let me give you a few examples of His blessings in my life right now:
- We used to not be able to start campfires — now we can and they even gave us wood to start them + marshmallows, chocolate and cookies to make s’mores with them!!
- Quiet hours started at 10pm which was hard for different schedule reasons… they extended our time to 10:45pm, which is so nice.
- Two nights ago, after a month of being disconnected from the outside world, we got a Chick-Fil-A dinner XD Which was so good!
- My amazing squad mentor (Kyndal Broome) is going grocery shopping for the squad and she has allowed everyone to request 2 items. She is so sweet!
- I wanted peanut butter crackers from the vending machine but got a granola bar too because my crackers hit one that got stuck by someone else on the way down and it fell for me.
- I get to go home 3 days earlier for Thanksgiving break!
Some of these were big blessings and some of them were smaller. The Lord gave me these blessings throughout my negative mindset moments. When I would be feeling down, He would give me a blessing. When I got frustrated with a fellow teammate, bam! Blessing!
Our God is a God of abundance! He loves to bless His children with good gifts.
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Sometimes it’s hard not to fall back into that negative mindset. I’ll receive those blessings, but then just go back to my funk, which let me tell you is not fun. 🙁 It’s a daily choice to choose thankfulness first. To choose joy over negativity. To choose the Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) over our fleshly responses. I encourage you to hold on to the blessings the Lord gives you each and every day. Don’t forget them. Remember His faithfulness in those times when you’re down or not having the best day. Also remember He loves you so much and He will continue to bless you. Even when you aren’t feeling too great, you can still feel the joy of the Lord.
That’s all I have for now! Tomorrow I will also be posting a very small blog. It’s some exciting news I forgot to tell you all about… what will be occurring at the end of this month. 😀
Lots of Love and many Blessings,
Alex
