ANNA! My sweet, rambunctious friend Anna. She’s also part of the squad and we hang out at least every other day if not every day. Another BEAUTY too. I mean seriously, my friends are gorgeous. We’ve been friends for a year and a half too, but it feels like so much longer (in the good, forever friend kind of way). She’s another one of the interns at my church and everyone has loved her since the moment she arrived. She’s a vivacious little human, so full of life! She loves to hug and I love hugs so we work out well in that way. She’s a baby whisperer and kids love her because she’ll roll around on the ground with them or toss them up in the air over and over again. She seriously has just as much energy as they do!

She too is ridiculously talented. Anna is a self taught beast of a drummer! She’s amazing on a full drum set, rocks the heck out of an octopad, but my favorite way to watch her play is on her cajón (I had to google how to spell that, I don’t music). That’s what she plays most Sunday’s when she leads worship for our gospel family. Somehow she’s able to play the cajón with one hand, shake a shaker with another, bass kick the cajón with her heel, and use her other foot to tap a tambourine… WHAT?! I can’t even rub my belly and pat my head at the same time. It never ceases to impress me AND she’s worshipful while she does it! She’s also a self taught carpenter of sorts. She’s built really impressive benches, a chest, a coffee table, and an awesome plant box just in the short time I’ve know her.

She loves bikes, maps, ked-like tennis shoes, and doesn’t want to admit that pink is one of her favorite colors so finds other creative names to call it (peach, salmon, faded red, etc). She keeps us all from getting lost by being a human GPS. She’s hilariously not good at the internets (I will have to send her a direct like via text to read this post because she won’t see it anywhere else and/or know how to get to it, and she probably won’t even see the text until tomorrow!). She’s a great cook and an adventurous eater! The way she can put away a meal impresses me. Seriously! I always tell her I wish I could be a fly on the wall on all her first dates and watch guys be impressed with the amount of food such a petite human can put away. It’s a skill! She has the quirkiest phrases and sayings and oh my gosh they’re catchy. We often all find ourselves saying some obscure phrase or repeating a quirky mannerism that comes straight from Anna’s brain/mouth. Her expletives are the names of random people I like to call her imaginary friends – Claude, Shelly Patelly, Shelly Ford, and more.

Anna is one of the most adventurous people I know and just being friends with her makes me a little more adventurous. She’s a ball of fire and an energetic little monkey! Seriously, if something is climbable, she’s going to climb it. She’s fearless and brave. It pushes me and inspires me and I LOVE that about her. I’m the ultimate scheduler and she’s the ultimate go with the flow type and I like that being friends with her helps me be a little more spontaneous and less reliant on my calendar. She’s smart and chock full of wisdom. She sees the world through bright eyes and full of possibilities. She cares about people so deeply. She makes me laugh ALL THE TIME. She too has good genes, a Godly family, and the most adorable nephews ever. But again, my favorite thing about this gem of a friend is Jesus in her!

Anna has such a hunger and heart for the Gospel. She truly lives out a gospel centered life, always seeking to let grace cover her sinfulness, never hiding in shame, always wanting to find ways to achieve intimacy and closeness with Jesus, and forever inviting the Holy Spirit in. Her thoughts are deep! She asks questions that I never think to ask and really gets us all thinking through hard things and makes me want to dig in scripture and context to really learn things, not just stay on the surface. She really looks for God’s hand and guidance in everything, and it’s beautiful! She’s so bold, so vulnerable, and so transparent. She’s an inward processor, and as an outward processor, it makes me value the things she shares with me so much! She challenges me to dig deeper. She pushes us all to be real whether it’s good, bad, or ugly.

She’s beautiful. She’s quick-witted. She makes me laugh. She hugs me. Sometimes I want to pinch her cheeks. She’s a bantering champ. She loves me and our people well. I love that she eats the pumpkin things I bake even though she doesn’t like pumpkin. I’m thankful she has tools that fix things. I’m thankful she never settles for less in any area of life and inspires me to do the same. I’m thankful for the way she processes things and sees the depth in everything. I love the way her brain works. I love the way she loves Jesus. I love the way she loves life. AND I LOVE HER! Seriously I’m so blessed to call her a friend, to be challenged by the depth of her realness, and to get to do life with her.

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.

I briefly mentioned my “squad” when I got to talk to you about Sara. Sometimes I love new buzzwords and sometimes I hate them (I still think “on fleek” needs to die). I don’t love the overuse of the term squad by college and high school students, and so to spite me (the fun endearing kind of spite) Lindsey renamed our friend group message SQUAD. Urban dictionary (obviously a super reliable source) defines squad as “crew, posse, gang: an informal group of individuals with a common identity and a sense of solidarity.” The insignificant term is secretly growing on me, shh, don’t tell them. One of the many things I would say about us is that we have a common sense of solidarity. Our solidarity is freedom from sin and shame. And it’s beautiful! The one and only Lindsey was the initiator of our squad.

You’ve heard about my gospel family a lot (and they’ll be getting some posts too). We’re a missional community style church plant focused on being the family of God and living on mission together. Part of being the family of God involves not just going to a worship service and seeing each other on Sundays and Wednesdays, but getting messy in each other’s lives. We do a lot to help facilitate that, and one of those things are DNA groups – small accountability groups of 3-5 same gender people. Lindsey and Anna (you’ll get to hear about her tomorrow!) are interns at our church. Right around the time they joined us, we relaunched DNA groups to help accommodate the new people we’d acquired who weren’t in pre-established groups. As a person who is not the best with change, I WAS STRESSED! I just wanted to be in a DNA group with EVERYONE! I avoided trying to figure out who I was going to meet with as much as I could, and one Sunday morning we (Sara, Anna, Lindsey, and I) were all standing around and Lindsey in her excited bubbly tone said, “hey! want to be in a DNA group together??” I like to think our lives changed forever that day. (I have a flair for the dramatic, but really, they did!)

We dove in heart first, built trust quicker than I’ve ever seen a group do so, and never looked back. When the Holy Spirit unites a group of people, it’s just pretty dang hard to tear them apart. I’m ridiculously thankful for that! We celebrate everything – birthdays, first day of fall, holidays, good days, bad days that need cheering up, etc. We watch a lot of TV shows together – PLL, Nashville, Once Upon a Time, Gossip Girl, Gilmore Girls, etc. We eat A LOT of meals together. But best of all, we love each other through everything! Every bad day, every good day, every hard season, every sinful moment. It’s messy, beautiful, and worth it. Most of my favorite moments from the past year involve Lindsey and these girls! The most beautiful freeing moment that I’ll never forget was a night in DNA group. We got pretty real pretty fast, but we still were somewhat vague about our sin struggles. One night when I was being elusively vague about mine, Lindsey just boldly asked what I was referring to. It was a moment I’ll never forget when we all genuinely felt free to talk openly about our sin struggles. You don’t know what freedom is until you’ve been able to confess your sins to your people and have them love you exactly the same. Try it! It’s beautiful.

But you’ve heard about Sara, and tomorrow you’ll hear about Anna. Today is Lindsey’s day! This girl, y’all. Her joy and enthusiasm for life are contagious. Her love language is words of affirmation, and good grief she’s an encouraging soul. The way she lives life and loves others is enchanting. She’s ridiculously talented! Seriously. She’s a gifted and anointed worship leader. You KNOW I love my gospel family and always have. But the frequency that I’ve been lead to the throne room by singing praises to my God since Lindsey has been leading us is VAST. She’s also gorgeous and so fashion savvy, seriously I text her for outfit advice all the time. She loves cats more than anyone I know. She collects weird things like socks with food on them and old lady stuff. She’s so endearing and quirky, anyone would be crazy not to adore her. She’s sassy and creative. She an unbelievably brave soul. She’s recently embarked on the journey of being obedient to a call on her life to write music, and again I repeat, UTTER TALENT! I can’t wait for the day that she shares her songs with the world. She’s funny, an amazing wordsmith, intelligent, and wise beyond her years. She’s my go-to editor (she will find all the typos in this post), one of my favorite people to process with because our brains work so similarly, but by far my favorite thing about her is the way she loves Jesus.

Lindsey’s love for Jesus is real and untamed. She’s so vulnerable and transparent and it brings so much glory to her Heavenly Father. She’s so giving of her time, talents, and love to others. She’s so sensitive to the Holy Spirit it’s ridiculous! She sees opportunities everywhere and in everything. She feels conviction deeply and always strives to make her wrongs right. She basks in the love of her Savior and it’s evident to anyone who encounters her. She loves the people in her life so, so well. She pushes me to love and trust Jesus more. She reminds me of truth on a daily basis. She’s a fierce fighter of lies and goes to battle not just for herself, but for her people, DAILY.

She’s currently my squad, and will forever be a sister of solidarity for me. AND to top it all off, her family is pretty great too! As you know or may have picked up on, I usually don’t have plans for Christmas. This year was extra stressful and I wasn’t having luck finding somewhere to go. At the time Lindsey had only known me for 6 months, but she invited me to do Christmas with her family! It was fun, hilariously loud, and unbelievably gracious. Her dad is a hoot and genuinely one of the funniest people! Her mom is sacrificially giving. Her sister is one of my favs and I wish she’d come visit every weekend. Her Nana is the most Godly grandmother I’ve ever met. Her Pawpaw is as funny as her dad and talked about the chupacabra non-stop. Her uncle insisted on calling me Special K all weekend and prayed over me before we left (I cried, duh). She’s great. Her people are great. I’m so glad I get to call her friend.

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.

Oh Molly. Molly claims I didn’t like her when we first met, but I still think (and will always think) this is a lie. Molly and I also met right before I started MC and she is also apart of the aforementioned Friendgroup. We met at a mutual friend’s house right after I got back from summer missions. We realized we wanted to be friends when we re-met at MC a few weeks later. She was in charge of transfer ministry at MC, and I was a transfer. We probably couldn’t have been more different on the exterior at the time. I had a nose ring, some hideous unnatural hair color, wore skirts over jeans and sweat bands as bracelets, and had a recent first tattoo. Molly was (and is) a classic southern belle – red lipstick, clean cut, and a fan of polos. I always joke that I have no idea why her mom let her be friends with me, but she did, and even liked me! Molly and I are listed on Facebook as sisters, and this is a pretty accurate title for the role she plays in my life. We too have been friends since 2003 for 12+ years. There is probably no one in my life who has truly had to love me through the good, BAD, and UGLY like she has. Major emphasis on the bad and ugly.

Molly and her entire family are beautiful inside and out! She without question has always loved and accepted me with open arms, but her family has also always extended the same kindness and I can’t write this post without writing about them too! When we were in college, I got to go on family vacation with them to the mountains several times. Throughout college her mom always included me in family pictures when I was around, her dad treated me like I was one of his girls, and her littler sister also became one of my best friends!

After college when a lot of hard things happened for me and I found myself not having anywhere to go for Christmas, her family took me in and lavished love on me just like I was one of them! The kindness and love they showed me far outweighs any other memory from that Christmas (and most Christmases!). I don’t think for a minute that Christmas is about presents, but… I got more presents for Christmas that year than I’ve ever gotten!

Mr. Jamie (dad) has fixed my car and checked on me more times than I can count. Susu (mom) is so nurturing, genuinely loves Jesus, and really cares about all the people in her life. Leah Frances (sister) is such a joy, has always been wise beyond her years, and is and will always be one of my heart friends. And a side note – I got to be a bridesmaid for not just Molly, but her sister too! I just can’t say enough about them! But, as much as I love them and how sacrificially loving and giving they all are, the best thing they’ve ever given me is Molly, so back to her!

Seriously, Molly loves me so fiercely you should be jealous if you don’t have a Molly haha. She believes in me. She knows every ugly thing about me and still loves me. In every bad season I’ve had in life, I’ve tried to push her away, and she just won’t leave (and this is a very good thing!). She relentlessly loved me through my darkest season of depression, called me and kept calling me until I answered no matter how many times I didn’t (which was a lot), never ceases to speak truth to me even when it’s not what I want to hear, never stops pushing me to Jesus, and always always sees the best in me.

We have a mutual respect for each other’s dislike to talk on the phone, but it’s a good thing phone companies don’t charge per text these days. It’s rare they we don’t text each other every day and multiple times a day! Sure, most days it’s about the multiple tv shows we watch, but we talk through every fear, lie, worry, joy, excitement, and silly moment too. She really is my sister. We can yell at each other and know it’s only for our own good. We only expect the best from each other and won’t let one another settle for anything less. We say the hard things. We listen to the hard things. We never give up on each other. We see the best always. We see every potential and push each other to reach it.

I’m the Christina Yang to her Meredith Grey. She’s the Lorelei to my Sookie. No matter how many moments I have where I am convinced no one likes me or wants to be my friend, I never ever doubt that Molly will always be there. She’s my go-to, she’s my constant, I know there is nothing I can ever do to make her not love me. She has been there for everything, and will continue to be there for everything. She’s the real deal. Oh and she’s also married to a pretty fantastic guy! Her hubby Shawn is very much like a brother to me, we even fight like siblings. You know your bestie married the perfect guy when your hangout times look and feel the same regardless of whether he’s there or not. I love you more than life Molly! Thanks for loving me when I deserve it, but thanks even more for loving me when I don’t.

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.

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.

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.

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.

^9-10 Love 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.

^11-13 Don’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.

^14-16 Bless 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.

^17-19 Don’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.”

^20-21 Our 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.

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!

my people:

day 1 // Jesus

day 2 // Micki

day 3 // Molly

day 4 // Sara

day 5 // Lindsey

day 6 // Anna

day 7 // Brother

day 8 // Aunt Sandy

day 9 // Marissa

day 10 // Imaginary Friends

day 11 // The Friendgroup

day 12 // Brittany

day 13 // Gospel Family Part 1

day 14 // Gospel Family Part 2

day 15 // Total Woman U

day 16 // WACOHs

day 17 // Starbucks Lovers

day 18 // The Guild

day 19 // Coworkers

day 20 // RDs

day 21 // RAs

day 22 // KT

day 23 // OWLs

day 24 // Bloggers

day 25 // The Palmers

day 26 // Roe and The Ogeas

Day 27 // Lifesavers

day 28 // Other Family

day 29 // Daddy

day 30 // Future Husband

day 31 // Et Cetera

final thoughts