Joy in Obedience

Camy here! When I was in college, we had a few couples from the church who would occasionally open their home to us, feed us dinner, talk with us about whatever we wanted. It wasn’t a regular ministry, but we knew they were always there for us if we needed them.

I wanted to give back to the college students at my church in the same way those couples had helped me with my walk with Jesus. So my husband and I recently started having a college Bible study at our home on Sunday around noon. We cook lunch for the students and then have a Bible study lesson. Right now, we’re going through a video Bible study on sex and dating.

This past weekend, I was making some Japanese tea for the students (all of them are at least half Japanese) when it hit me how happy I was to have boisterous college students eating teriyaki meatballs in my living room. Talking about history classes and raunchy coworkers and random things. Coming into the kitchen asking for more food. Barreling through bags of chips and bottles of soda.

But it wasn’t just a happy-happiness, it was a really deep-seated kind of joy that I felt down in my gut. A joy that really had no logical explanation—it was just there. And it filled me entirely. David’s words about cups overflowing came to mind.

I knew, in that moment, that this was what God wanted me to do, to open my home and my heart to these students. I wanted to chat with them about silly things like YouTube videos and about serious things like sex. I wanted to help them grow in their relationships with Jesus. I was filled with joy and a desire to serve the Lord in this way, to be obedient to Him in this way.

Is there something Jesus wants you to do for him? Have you hesitated in going through with it even though you know it’s something God wants? Remember that with obedience comes love and joy. You won’t be disappointed if you keep Jesus’ commands.


Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. Out now is her humorous contemporary romance novel, Single Sashimi, and her romantic suspense, Formula for Danger. In her spare time, she is a staff worker for her church youth group, and she leads one of the worship teams for Sunday service. On her blog, she ponders dogs, knitting and spinning wool, running, Asiana, and other frivolous things. Sign up for her newsletter for giveways!

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Waiting for the Next Big Thing

So Valentine's Day is over. (For some that may be a relief - my daughter told me that her teacher called it "Single Awareness Day")

What's next?

St. Patrick's Day - never been much for that holiday. Easter is around the corner. That's fun. Chocolate eggs and Easter egg hunts and celebrating how merciful the Lord is to us all. Spring is also around the corner (at least I really hope it is!)

I've been in a waiting mode for quite some time. I've had years of practice with waiting. Waiting is never easy. But waiting also never goes away. I've learned something about waiting - there is a difference between "just waiting" (picture yourself standing at a busy intersection waiting for that little green man to start blinking and tell you that it's time to cross the road) and "waiting on God".

Just Waiting

When we are "just waiting", we are looking for something to change - the "next, big thing". We are kind of just holding on until then. Back in college, I was convinced that no one would ever fall in love with me. One of my best friends, who I had a probably not so secret crush on, seemed only interested in dating my friends. True confession: I never had a boyfriend. Not once. But since I've been deliriously and happily married for nearly 16 years, I can assure you that I don't have one single regret about that. In fact, I'm pretty happy that it worked out that way! But here's the scenario:

in high school, you wait to graduate

in college, you wait to graduate

you wait to find someone

you wait to get married

you wait to find a job

you wait to have kids

(then once you have kids, there's all sorts of new waiting that starts to happen!)

Waiting on God

Instead of waiting "for the next big thing", I've been trying to practice waiting on God. How is that different? When we wait on God - we are looking for Him - not the next big thing. We are sharing with Him all of those dreams and hopes, but allowing Him to hold them for us while we focus on what he has put in front of us. I don't know what the next horizon holds. I don't know what it will look like. But I know that He is good, and He is the One that holds the future. So I talk with Him about my hopes and dreams, but my daily focus is on what He has put in front of me. We really only need be concerned about today. What are we supposed to accomplish for Him today?

If we're "just waiting" - we can miss what we are supposed to be doing today. We can miss out on the ways God is preparing us for what's on that horizon. Which means, of course, that it could just end up making us have to wait even longer because we're not ready for what God has planned.

I definitely don't want to miss out on what God has planned. So I'm going to wait on Him by dreaming with Him and being faithful with what He has put in front of me today. What has He put in front of you?

Sarah Anne Sumpolec is still trying to figure out what God wants her to be when she grows up. In the meantime, she writes YA novels, speaks to teens and college students, writes screenplays and is a Youth Theater director. She thoroughly enjoys being a wife and mom and you can find out more about her and her books at her website: a naked faith

Who are you listening to?

No one was more shocked than me when I didn't go to college.

The college talk in my house was always, "When you go to college," not "If you go to college." And my high school was Notre Dame de Sion College Preparatory School for girls. If anyone was on the road to college, it was me.

I had really big plans for myself, and they pretty much all centered on fleeing the nest in Kansas City. New York, Boston, L.A. Those kinds of destinations.

Until my senior year, when my college plans started creeping a little closer to home. I applied to, visited, and was accepted by Loyola of Chicago and Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. I also applied to K-State, where my boyfriend was going, but life in Manhattan, Kansas (or "The Little Apple" ... yes, I'm serious) didn't really thrill me.

Feeling totally confused about where I should go, I started asking everyone, "What do you think? Where should I go to school?" And everyone had different opinions and reasonings.

In the end, I wound up so flummoxed, I decided to take a semester off, reevaluate, and apply elsewhere. My second college search turned up even more fruitless than the first. I decided on University of Missouri - Kansas City, registered for classes, and then... Well, didn't go. So then I decided on K-State, now that my boyfriend had turned into my fiance. I don't remember if I actually signed up for classes or not, but I was pretty far into the process when I backed out.

After that, college became an idea I occasionally toyed with but never followed through on.

Everything worked out great. I wound up with the exact life I wanted for myself - husband, kids, writing - without the debt of a degree. We even spent some time living on the East coast, where I learned that I didn't want out of Kansas City quite as badly as I'd thought.

So, I don't know why, but at 3am last night, it dawned on me that in that entire process, I never asked God what I should do. I was a Christian in high school. I'm guessing I prayed once or twice about it, but I never actually sought His will in the matter. Instead, I sought everybody else's.

God's done a lot over the years to bring me to the wonderful place I am now, so as best as I can tell, this was His plan all along. But had I talked to Him from the beginning, I probably would have avoided a lot of confusion, stress, and hand cramps from filling out application forms. Something I intend to keep in mind as I continue to make difficult decisions.

Who are you listening to about those big life questions you have?

Stephanie Morrill

http://www.stephaniemorrillbooks.com/

Attention Seniors

This is my daughter Jamie and my son Thomas. Daughter Katie's not in this picture.

Anybody a high school senior and feeling a bit anxious about the future? Where to go to college?Who your roommate will be? What to major in? Have you applied to several and not heard back? Have you visited any campuses and still don't know what to do? Or, if you're not going the college route do you know what you'd like to do after high school? Do you know what path you're going to follow? Have you decided what you love to do? Your areas of giftedness?

Jamie is 28, Katie is 25, and Thomas is 18. When we took Katie to visit a college, do you know what scared her? The tour guides were wearing navy blue jackets. She said, "I'm not smart enough to wear a jacket like that." Oh, the fear that creeps in.

Thomas is filling out college applications and he'd love to play baseball in college. He doesn't know what he wants to major in (well, he hasn't shared it with his mother if he does). Almost daily he'll say, "Did I hear from any colleges today? Did you get anything in the mail?"

Here's what I can say as a mother of three--two on the other side of the "what will I do with my future" decision. It's okay if you don't have it all figured out right now. It's okay to be confused. It's okay if you're afraid of the "blue jackets." God will be with you through each fear and decision if you ask Him to help you.

Jamie and Katie ended up graduating from the same college one day apart. I'd have never predicted that. They began as freshmen in two separate colleges--neither graduating from that initial school.

There will probably be some surprises coming your way over the next few years. As much as we want to, we can't figure everything out ahead of time.

I prayed really hard when the girls were seniors--prayed they'd find God's perfect plan for their lives. I prayed they'd have wisdom as they chose a college, friends, and a career. This may sound odd, but as I'm writing in my prayer journal for Thomas, my prayers are shorter. Sometimes, I just write one word. THOMAS. I sort of smile on the inside because I know God knows his heart--just as He did Jamie's and Katie's. He holds the future. He knows the twists and turns. And when we surrender to Him, He takes our choices (even those that seem like mess ups) and works His Way.

If any seniors are in that what at I going to do after I graduate place, I'd love to add your names to my prayer journal.

"For I know the plans that I have for you, " declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

So much love,

Julie

High School Seniors

I've been teaching high school girls in Sunday school for 17 years or so. Every year, seniors feel the College Decision Drama after Christmas. Maybe you don't know what you want to do. Maybe you want a four-year degree. Maybe you are thinking about going to a two-year college. Small college? Huge college? Private school? State school? Room-mate?

We have two daughters, now 27 and 24. Yep, they experienced College Decision Drama too. Neither did too hot on the SAT, but they both got into college. And guess what? Both daughters ended up graduating from the same college, the very same December of the same year. One's a probation officer and one's a nanny--two very different majors. One daughter has a degree in Criminal Justice and the other with a Social Services degree, but each is gifted in her own way. Did they realize THE PLAN as high school seniors? Nope. No clue.

Are these kinds of questions circling your thoughts?

WHERE AM I GOING TO COLLEGE?

WHAT AM I GOING TO BE?

WHAT DO I WANT TO MAJOR IN?

It's never, no not ever happened that graduation comes and one of my Sunday school class seniors hasn't make her decision. The answer doesn't come quickly. Never in September of her senior year. Sometimes, not even until May right before graduation.

Does anybody have any graduation concerns?

I'd like to pray for you. Be at peace. God has a plan.

Love, love, love,
Julie

www.juliegarmon.com

The first year of college challenge

You may or may not know, I and my husband work with my church youth group. We had youth meeting on Saturday and the lesson was on the covenant of marriage.

It’s kind of cool to be a married person in youth group with my spouse also working with me. I feel like the high schoolers trust us because we’ve been with the youth group since before they started attending, and we’re also down to earth enough that they can ask us tough questions. Plus we won’t blab to their parents about what we talked about.

So we went over the whole “be faithful” and “oneness of marriage,” but my youth pastor added something that I thought was pretty insightful.

He said, “I want to challenge you all to not get into a dating relationship in your first year of college.”

We were all like, “Whaaaaat? Why not?” I mean, let’s face it—that’s when homework is the lightest.

His reason actually made a lot of sense. This is more true for girls than for guys, but it’s still good for a guy to take up this challenge. If a girl gets involved with a guy in her Freshman year in college, she usually spends a lot of her time with him—especially if she’s dorming and away from home.

She doesn’t have the time to develop real, deep relationships with other girls, and the first year in college is the most important year for doing this.

If they break up later in the year, or even in her second year, she doesn’t have a lot of close, intimate girlfriends to fall back on. It’s also much more difficult to form close friendships with other women in your second year in college, because they’ve all gathered in their own circles in their first year.

The distraught girl will usually end up finding another boyfriend. That’s not necessarily a good thing, because dating around isn’t as positive a social experience as bonding with other sisters in Christ.

Also, if a guy really likes you, and if he really wants what’s best for you, he’ll be willing to wait until your second year to enter into a dating relationship. No cheating by hanging out each night, driving you places, etc. If he’s not willing to wait, he’s frankly too selfish to care about anybody but himself.

I want to challenge you to this “no dating in my first year in college” vow. Well, pray about it first, obviously.

But consider devoting that first year in college to building female friendships, learning from each other, maturing with each other, praying for each other.