ITS ALMOST HERE, about a month away!
Thank you to all y’all that have all donated, prayed and supported me.
Packing has been a little difficult. Trying to fit three months of stuff in one backpack has been definitely a challenge, but I am slowly making progress. I have to confess this passed month has been really hard for me. Ive had some fears: fear that I won’t reach my fundraising goal, fear I won’t get along with my group, even fear that this isn’t what God wants me to do. Through all of that I’ve learned that its okay to have fear. What is faith without having something test it? I have been overwhelmed with fear and not knowing, but each time I feel as though I’m going to ‘miss hearing God’ or that I am ‘not strong enough to do this’. I have to remember that it is an attack and fear is feeding it, is pointless. God made me, he made me to love the things I love (even if it seems ridiculous) and feeding the negative is only hurting myself. Words have so much power, simply saying that, “I Am Worthy” can change everything. It is important to talk with care, not only to others, but to ourselves. Often we, or I, tend to say something about myself with the intention to make a joke, or maybe to hear it contradicted or I might even believe it is the truth. Whatever the intention is, it will always have the same result, negativity. You see words not only are sound waves, but they carry and impact whoever or whatever is receiving them. Have you ever heard of the student who put three plants in three different rooms? In one room they only spoke positive words, in the second only harsh words and in the third it was nothing but silence. Each plant had the same amount of light and water, the only difference were the sounds. The first plant grew healthy and thrived, the second became withered and the third just grew normally and that’s just PLANTS imagine people!
How does this have anything to do with fear? Well, the way we speak effects how we think, and fear is feeding the negativity. This is something I have been learning first hand these past few months. Anytime I start to think or say something or feel like I’m useless or unworthy I have to catch myself and it can be hard to get out of that feeling, so I start saying things I am thankful for: my mom, my brothers, my job, I have a roof over my head, no matter how small I think they are, if you say them out loud your atmosphere will change. I promise.
So today I encourage you to speak with care, even if it’s a joke. That saying that we’ve all heard way too much, ‘If you don’t have anything nice to say then don’t say anything at all’ is true, just look at what it did for the plants…
All my love,
Olivia
