Grace, you are accepted

Happy Sunday!

Last night I had, once again, a dream that I've had a lot lately! I had a dream that my teeth fell out...

It's the weirdest thing, and it seemed so real when I was dreaming, ha, I was relieved to wake up and still have all my teeth!

It was mostly just my moller teeth, but they just keep getting loose and falling out.

I looked it up today to see what the meanings said (I find them interesting sometimes)

One site said this...

Teeth are symbolic of the ability to make decisions, and problems with teeth can be related to indecisiveness.

Dreams of losing teeth could mean that you feel you have lost the ability to make decisions, and you may feel that some situation is out of your control, or you are headed in a direction you don't want to go in.

So weird! I can relate to feeling that way right now, for sure. (but...a lot of the other meanings that sites listed I couldn't relate to. Example) you may be experiencing menopause.. uummm I don't think soo.hahah)

Anyway... I wanted to share this quote from Grace Walk today:

"Some Christians believe that God's acceptance depends on how faithfully they serve Him. But God's love and acceptance are totally unconditional. A person's behavior has absolutely no influence on God's love. He loves you because in His grace, He has chosen to do so. You can't do anything to gain God's acceptance, because Jesus has already done everything to cause the Father to accept you. You are fully accepted by God because you are in Christ. You can't improve on total acceptance, and God already accepts you totally."

Trust in the Lord with all your understanding...

Do you ever have those moments when you hear something that is exactly what you needed to hear?

Those are the best. Usually....

I've been racking my brain about a job "dilemma" that I'm sure I am making out to be much, much bigger of a "decision" than it actually is.

Let me give you more detail.

Do you remember how I said in my last post how I had been subbing for a computer person the rest of this week? Well, yes. I did it. Andd.... I feel way less excited about the actual job than I thought I would. =/ I just really didn't care for it too much..

I was really bored, and felt like I didn't really have any purpose in being there. I basically "watched" the children while they were on the computers... and that was it. And I also had a crazy amount of prep time when there weren't even any students in the lab. So...needless to say I got a lot of "fun" reading done..haha..but that's not really something you want to happen when you're supposed to be working.

So I prayed for God to open or close doors and show me what I should do about this position. (because I applied for it) Well, yesterday I got called to interview for it.

I said that I was still interested in interviewing and then I was SUPER confused.

My brain feels SO conflicted. It's something I had been feeling that I didn't want to do...and now I have an interview and so I'm thinking, maybe it's where God wants me to be right now?

I've been trying to get advice from so many people I know, and with each person I talk to, I still keep going back and forth in my head about it.

It would be GREAT to get in the district and connect with a whole school, faculty and all.... but at the same time, will I be able to get a teaching job after being an aide? (that's the ultimate goal here)

For the time being, I've decided that there is no harm in interviewing and that maybe afterwards, I will have a better idea of what I am supposed to do.

What I meant about hearing something at exactly the right time, was R&R this morning, and also the video post on the she seeks website.

R&R was all about following where God leads, and making sure that you are in agreement with His way, not that He is in agreement with your way. Sometimes God tells us to do things that we don't really want to do, or calls us to things that we're not sure about (I'm not saying God is for sure calling me to this, bc I don't know that). It was about how "His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts".

It really just made me realize that I need to stop trying to control things and let God do what He will do...whatever that looks like.

She seeks was about trusting and following the plan that God has. Sometimes we get NO's from God about things...

We need to seek out God for different decisions in out lives and listen so that we can follow His plan and path. He will make clear what He wants us to do, or what we shouldn't do.

So, I'm hoping to spend a lot of time in prayer about this until my interview on Tuesday morning. I would appreciate prayers from others as well! :)

Life. I was a worm now I'm a butterfly

Happy Wednesday y'all. :)

This post will be super random updates of my life... and other random thoughts.

1) I've been getting SO many neat hair ideas from pinterest. I wore my hair like this today, and I was so proud I could pull off putting it like this! :) (I just had to share. )

2) This past weekend on Saturday I got to take some "couple" pictures for my friends. :) Here a couple of my faves...

To see more, visit my FB page! (to the right, to the right)

2) Yesterday I wasn't subbing. I went to the mall and applied to five different stores..hah. Yes, I'm trying to get a second job. We'll see how that goes.. I applied to: Gymboree, Christmas Tree Hill, The Shoe Dept, American Eagle, and Claire's. There are some that I would much rather work at than others... Hopefully I'll hear back from someone.

3) I'm subbing in the same school for the rest of the week. :) I was there today, and I'm subbing as the computer person until they hire someone new to fill the position. It's quite funny and plain ca-RAZY how it's working out bc I applied for the position...haa. Maybe it will go somewhere? maybe not..? Idk. I'm not even sure which way I want it to work out, so I'm giving it to God.

4) I've been reading this book called "Grace Walk" that I got for my Birthday. It's AWESOME! Totally recommend it. I've been taking a while to read it, because I'm reading it along with the novel I'm currently on at any given time...but man, it's good.

The other day it compared us, humans, to a worm. We were all worms. I was a worm. You were a worm. But just like worms, we are now butterflies. You don't look at a real life butterfly and say "hey, what a cool converted worm!"....you don't. Because it WAS a worm, but now it's a butterfly. It will never be a worm again.

That's how God sees us when he looks at us. We were worms before we were called righteous in His sight. When he looks at us now though, He sees our NEW SELVES, He doesn't see what we were. He sees what we now ARE. We are a new creation and THAT is how God views us.

soooo good.

(now of course I tried to put that in my own words, so really people, read the book)

Happy end-of-week-ness!

Blessings for Sunday

I just love and appreciate people so much. That's not directed at anyone specifically, I just really love people.

This was a pretty "crowded" weekend. Saturday they had a joint baby shower at the house here, so I met a ton of people I didn't know, and ate a ton of really yummy homemade food.

Saturday night I got to hang out with a camp friend and we had so much fun. It was great to see her. We walked around MU's pond, went to the mall, and watched a hilarious movie on tv called "New in Town". I had never seen it, but I loved it.

I also got to finally do another "photo shoot". Nothing too big, just a random one, but I'm excited to look at the pictures and edit them. They are of my friend and her bf.

Today was busy, but I'm so grateful for a few reasons.

1) I'm really enjoying going to church at CBC. - I love the ABF (adult fellowship group) I'm a part of in the morning, even though I barely know anyone yet, I love it and hope to form some good relationships there eventually. Today we talked about the importance of words and how they can come at just the right time, or not the right time.

In church the message was on Grace. More on that later.

2) I got to see amazing girls who I am blessed to call friends. -We went to Panera for Jamie's b-day and then went to the park and took pictures. It was such a gorgeous fall day today!

3) Life group tonight was pretty spectacular. I love the group of girls God has pulled together, in all our differences. We all get a long so well, and it's so awesome to talk about God in a group setting again, and to bond with others in different ways. Sooo neat.

Yayyy God. :)

Personal Prayer of Identity

I saw this on the Wonderfully Made blog and I like it so much that I am posting my own prayer.

I am not (my relationships)
I am not (my training/degree)
I am not (my job)
I am not (my gifts)
I am not (my failures)

Here's my personal Prayer of Identity:

I am not a friend, daughter, grand-daughter, cousin.

I am not an Elementary Education expert.

I am not a substitute teacher.

I am not caring, patient, genuine, or crafty.

I am not jealous, worrisome, selfish, or angry.

I am none of these.

I am a naked soul clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

Slow week

It's only Tuesday....and I do realize that. But this week subbing seems so slooooowww.

Monday was columbus day also, so I guess that could have something to do with it.

I mean, doesn't anyone get sick anymore? goshh..

;)

I kid, I kid.

In Christ...

I am complete and secure in Christ and He is ALL I need.

I'm trying to embrace this truth this morning.

What an amazing truth it is!

God provides SO many blesses, but none that truly satisfy the need, or longing in my heart for joy like He does.

I read on another blog this morning that we look to be joy-filled from lots of different things.

Right now, for me, it's job security. I just feel like if I had my dream job as a k-6 teacher right now, everything would be perfect. My joy would be complete.

Um...HELLO Kari?!

So. false.

Whether I had that type of job or not, I would find that even that wouldn't bring full, and complete joy or perfection in life. I would still always be looking to the next and the next thing to satisfy.

God may pour in the blessings but I want to strive to remember that NONE of these things are necessary or things I deserve. I'm not entitled to them and God still remains to be the one thing/person that I truly need.

Amen?

:)

Salt and Light

Why can't I keep up with my blog? goshh.

I wanted to write in here since Monday but it never happens. I'm busy, but I feel like I'm not THAT busy.

This Monday Courtney and I went to a Bible study with college kids from the church we've been going to.

It was awesome! The way it works is that different people lead each week I guess, on a topic they have picked. It was pretty in depth and I really got a lot out of it.

We were mainly focusing on the first couple of verses in Isaiah 40.

¹ Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
² Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand
double for all her sins.

The boy who was teaching gave us a lot of hebrew words that gave more insight to the verses.

When it says speak tenderly it also means, personally...which I loved. God speaks personally to His people. We also talked about how it says MY people, and YOUR God.

God is OUR God. We are HIS. So cool.

"Her service"...meaning enlistment (challenge, battle) has been completed.

Basically the people in the passage were looking to Babylon and worrying about that... they wanted comfort and reassurance for THAT specific thing. God gave them comfort (listed twice which is always more meaningful) NOT for that, but because their sins HAD BEEN PAID FOR!

Often we want answers or we want to be comforted in certain areas, but God doesn't often comfort the way we think He will. We're looking at *this* over here, while God is saying, Yes, but look, your SINS are forgiven!! They are paid for! Find comfort in that.

We talked about the next verse a little bit too..."make straight in the desert a highway for our God". We discussed just HOW we can do that.

New light was brought to this verse for me :

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Someone in the group mentioned the difference between salt and light.

For salt to have any effect, it needs to be touching whatever you are using it with. For example, if you're eating corn, and you have salt next to you, it does nothing. The salt needs to be ON the corn. The salt needs to touch whatever it is to have any effect.

Whereas light, shines and can be seen from a distance.

We need to be both in this world! We need to get "up close and personal" with people to be Jesus, but we also need to generally shine our light, and live our days glorifying Him.

I love that.

In other news, I subbed 3 times this week :) And would have subbed all week if it weren't for my own little issues. I was in the same k-4 class two days in a row, which was good, and then I was in 5th grade. I love 5th graders.

I now have a cold :( no fun. Today I went to a district admin building to pick up an application for something in a school...not a teacher though. (I may say more about this later) That's the main reason I didn't take a job today.

I'm excited for the weekend!

Hope yall have a great one too!