Who's your best friend? Mine is my sister, Leah. We're 3 years apart, and at times couldn't be more opposite- but we are and have been the best of friends our entire lives. I remember going away to college and having a deep pain in my chest from how much I missed her. As we've gotten older and gone away to our separate schools (Michigan and Tennessee), I can honestly say that while we can go 3 months without seeing each other, and not doing much talking, nothing has distorted our friendship or how close we are :) Anyway, she's home!!
This past week was good. I'm proud to say I am doing so much better at taking everyday one day at a time. While I'd still love to know what's in the future, I'm feeling more peace about the reality that only God is to know the future, and He will reveal what His perfect plan is at the perfect time. 1 Corinthians 14:33 says, "For God is not a God of confusion but of peace." When I experience peace that surpasses all understanding, I know without hesitation that it's from Him- because there is no way I could experience that kind of peace in this time on my own.
I've picked up more writing projects at work- which makes me the most happy- and I'm also making a lot of good progress with the video series I'm creating. I'm feeling so much more confident in my video making skills (from planning, to production, to post-production, to exporting/uploading) it's great, I feel like I deserve the degree I'm getting in 3 months!
This weekend, my parents and I went to visit my grandpa. He's been in the hospital for a couple weeks and they recently just moved him to the rehabilitation center. My grandpa is 89 years old, and let's just say his mind and his body demonstrate that pretty well. My parents have a lot of decisions they need to make about him, and it's hard because I want to help, but there isn't very much I can do right now. Besides praying for God's peace and direction, they're the ones who have to make the tough decisions. I could tell my grandpa was happy to see me, but he's just not the same person he was even 6 months ago. I'm learning to accept this as the new reality, and cherish the younger memories I have of him.
After visiting my grandpa, we picked my sister up from the airport! Leah and I were able to go to a local coffee shop to work on homework and job applications- but honestly, we ended up catching up, laughing and crying for about 4 hours. My sister is so wise. She's gaining wisdom at 19 that I didn't get until 22. We talked about how muddy the future looks, both for her and me, and how there are so many things we were so certain and hard-headed about, until God stepped in and said "nope, you thought." It can be frustrating when your 'plans' don't go as planned, but then you realize how grateful you are in the long run that God overrode our plans. Things we were so certain about ended up being completely wrong (I'm sure everyone can testify) and while we could get annoyed about it, I choose to be grateful, for a lot of those things I thought I wanted and needed, God ended up saving me from what could have been a really fatal situation. We decided to live our lives with the "99% sure mentality" because as it says in Proverbs, "many are the plans a man makes, but it is The Lord who guides their footsteps."
On Sunday, our family drove to Moody Bible Church where we went to service (if you ever get the chance to go to a Moody service, do it, you won't regret it), and then we got coffee, went to Barnes and Noble, and then the Original Pancake House for lunch. Afterwards, we did one of my most favorite things in the whole world- we walked the lakefront. God blessed us with beautiful weather yesterday, so we, like the rest of the city, took advantage of the weather.
After they left, I met a new friend at Oak Street Beach where we ended up talking about our childhoods and future. I led our Bible study on Psalm 124 later in the evening, and then talked with one of my best friends from college on the phone for about an hour. Heading into week 9, I'm looking forward to the exciting things to come- and I can't wait to share them all next week :)
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