31 People(s): Micki

October 2, 2015January 4, 20173 Comments

Micki! Micki and I have been friends since August of 2003, 12+ years! She was my first MC friend and the first new person I met at MC. If you’ve been around me any amount of time you know I found my first group of forever friends at Mississippi College. I’ve wrote about my sweet friend Micki here before (read that post here)! We have a big, awesome group of friends we call The Friendgroup (that will get their own post soon), but Micki was the first one from that group that I met and clung too. We all met at MC or at a camp where most of us worked at some point. Micki and I actually became BFF’s pretty much instantly right before we both started MC. We both did two years at different community colleges and transferred to MC. The summer before we both started MC, we did summer missions in different parts of the U.S. It used to be a requirement for summer missionaries to attend a state wide debriefing. Micki and I met at summer missions debriefing, realized we were both headed to MC soon and didn’t know many, if any, people, and decided we were going to be friends. We went to every Welcome Week and rush event together, and rather quickly began to meet our other friends and the founding “members” of The Friendgroup!

We were pretty much inseparable all through our MC years. Neither us had a sense of direction to save our lives OR cell phones our first year. Somehow we always ended up going places by ourselves. We usually got lost and everyone always questioned why the let us go places together! College was the best and such a great place to start friendships and for friendships to flourish, but I think many of our Friendgroup friendships just got even stronger after college. We made our first adult decisions together, we made a lot of our first adult mistakes together, we experienced a lot of the hard firsts of adult life together! Six months after I graduated, I ended up in New Orleans for seminary without Micki or any of my girls! Micki sent me with Bath and Body Works lotion and soap for my sink to make it homey. I lucked up majorly when the boy that Micki started dating (her now husband) went to the same school I did! I really don’t think I wouldn’t have made it in New Orleans without Micki’s frequent visits to see me (and Andy). And then… THEY GOT MARRIED! And lived on campus where I lived!

I practically lived at their apartment and Micki was there for me for A LOT of really hard things that happened during that season. Adult life is just full of hard things. Death, loss, transition, moving, moving, more moving. Micki taught me the best unpacking tip ever – watch Harry Potter while you unpack! It makes it a lot more fun and you can make goals to be finished by the end of a certain movie. Speaking of Harry Potter, Micki was also the one who made me watch it/read it! I claimed to hate reading before Micki forced Harry Potter into my hands. There isn’t a significant (or insignificant) part of my life lived since 2003 that Micki doesn’t know about, whether she was there for it or not. There isn’t a thing I don’t want to share with her. I still tell her about every crush I’ve ever have and every insignificant thing that happens just like we did in college. Fast forward to now. She lives in Georgia with her super adorable family of four (Alice and Asher were added to the Micki + Andy mix), and I live in Mississippi.

We text frequently, talk when we can, get to see each other far less than either of us likes, but when we do get to visit it still feels like we’re just as close as we were when we were spending every moment together in each other’s dorm rooms. It feels like home. She’s my biggest blogger fan, trusts my fashion advice more than she should, loves her little family fiercely, is an amazing mom and wife, loves Jesus with all of her heart, and will always be one of my life lines. We’ve laughed together (oh man how we’ve laughed), cried together, been parts of each other’s families, spent holidays together, and really will be friends forever. AND we’re going to Harry Potter World together in February! I love my friend Micki and if you have a friend like her, your life is better because of it.

This is day part of my 31 People(s) I Love series. I’ll be writing about 31 people/peoples that I adore. Click here if you would like a list of all the posts in this series.

31 People(s): Jesus

October 1, 2015October 8, 20152 Comments

Sure, starting with Jesus on a list of the 31 people/peoples I love is cliche, but I really can’t start anywhere else!

Recently She Reads Truth made me cry [again] with a post that had me feeling all kinds of feels for the people in my life:

“The thing is, life is hard. Not all the time, for sure. There are so many things to give thanks for and to rejoice in, laugh at, and rest in. But there are days and seasons of life that are just flat-out difficult. Devastating. Heartbreaking. Gut-wrenching. You may feel alone and abandoned, overwhelmed and anxious, fearful, stressed, or heavy-hearted. You may feel hopeless.

But God, in His ever-gracious, all-loving, and all-knowing way, gives us each other to do life with. This life is not meant to be lived alone.

Yes, God has given us Himself, which is the greatest gift of all. He’s also given us His Word, which is chock-full of His promises and stories of His faithfulness and character. His Word empowers me, fills me with hope, and gives me strength and courage to face those hard days. He gives us prayer. I know I can cry out to God all day, every day. He is so sweet to us!

But He ALSO gives us friends. Friends who listen, who let us ugly-cry in front of them, and who help us regain perspective. Friends who remind us of truth and hope when we ourselves don’t believe. Friends who pray for us when we’re too weak and give us grace when we fail. Friends who know when we’re sad and hurting, and press in to ask us why. Friends who bring us coffee when we’re having a hard day. Friends who send us a card across the ocean just to let us know we’re loved.

Paul is telling us here to be that friend. Be that friend to your friends, to your family, to people new to your neck of the woods, to people a bit younger than you and a bit older than you. Be that friend to your brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.

Not only is this beautiful, but it fulfills the law of Christ. The law of Christ is not a set of rules, a list of dos and don’ts. It’s not about going to church, or reading your Bible for so many minutes a day. The law of Christ is to love others as He so abundantly loves you. Jesus gets so much delight and glory when we love those around us— when we think of them, serve them tangibly, and get on our knees to pray for them.

Friends, we have been set free to love. To give ourselves. To bear each other’s burdens.

May we do that today.”

-Straight from the ladies of She Reads Truth here: Galatians Day 12

We need people! And our loving God gives them to us. But they come from Him! God knows we need Him, but He also knows we need each other. All the people I’m overwhelmingly thankful for wouldn’t be in my life if God didn’t put them there. Our God loves us fiercely! He is good. He is great. He is gracious. He is glorious. He. Is. Enough. He loves so fiercely that He sent Jesus to do what we could never do – to free us, to put our striving to rest, to be the ultimate and final sacrifice. He loves so fiercely that He sent the Holy Spirit to guide us, convict us, teach us, etc etc etc. AND He loves us so fiercely that He gives us people. People who love us. People who [whom?] we love. People that refine us. People that help us understand the depth of His love for us.

We need people.

We need people because there is healing in confession. (James 5:16)

We need people to sharpen us. (Proverbs 27:17)

We need people to laugh with and cry with and celebrate with and mourn with. (Romand 12:15)

I love how The Message words Romans 12: 9-21.

^9-10Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

^11-13Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

^14-16Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.

^17-19Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”

^20-21Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

WE NEED PEOPLE! And I’m excited to tell you about mine. Stay tuned. 🙂

This is part of my 31 People(s) I Love series. I’ll be writing about 31 people/peoples that I adore! Click here if you would like a list of all the posts in this series.

31 People(s) I Love

October 1, 2015January 16, 201613 Comments

Once upon a time (two years ago), I attempted to do the #Write31Days challenge. I failed miserably. I made it maybe through the single digits of October if that. For several days I’ve been feeling the overwhelming need to write again and have been overwhelmed in a good way with so much thankfulness for all the people in my life that I love.

Last night at missional community, we picked a new life rhythm to focus on for the upcoming week. Bless was the pick – intentionally blessing others through words, gifts, and actions. I left excited, a million thoughts running around my head on how I could bless the people in my life. Words are probably one of my favorite ways to bless others. As blessing thoughts, the love for my people thoughts, and wanting/needing to write thoughts collided, I decided I wanted to write about my people or people groups. 31 of them. For 31 days.

I made a new note in my iPhone and way more quickly than I thought I could had a list of 31 people/peoples. The #Write31Days challenge starts today. Today I officially decided to try. I’m admitting I might fail, I might quit, I might be late, and blah blah blah. But? I don’t care. My people are great and worthy of a little intentionality on my part for them to be the subject of my longing to write + bless.

Join me as I adoringly talk about the people(s) I love for 31 days!