A Beautiful Mark

People fascinate me. I love sitting in a crowded place and watching people walk by. Is that creepy? Sometimes I sit and make up stories in my head about the people walking by. I make up stories about couples as they walk by, and what caused that person to put on that particular outfit that morning and what they were thinking. I love hearing people's stories and learning what makes them who they are, and I love watching people's stories develop. 

I think that might be one of the reasons I love Jr. High ministry so much. I get to be part of their story for a brief time, but I also get to watch them grow up, move onto high school, and hopefully college and beyond. I know I won't stay in touch with all of them, but I love the relationships that I have kept with some of my former Jr. Highers. It's so much fun to see them become the people that God wants them to be and to begin to see the purpose for which God created them. I get to see their unique strengths develop and see how they choose to serve God within those strengths. Their stories are relatively short at this point but they're beautiful.

Everybody's story is important. Our story is part of who we are now even if it wasn't quite a fairytale.  Each one of them is different but each one has one particular thing in common- it began with the Creator of the universe putting it into motion. God has a unique purpose and reason for your story, it may not be what you think it should be or what you wish it was, but it's purposeful. Each of our stories bears the mark of it's author and what a beautiful mark that is. 

I Am Solar Powered

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to spend about a week in Washington to visit some friends. This was my first trip to the Pacific Northwest and it was wonderful. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous and it only rained 3 times throughout the whole week! However, despite the surprisingly nice weather (my friend's dad referred to it as "balmy" although I would hesitate to call 50 degrees "balmy"), it was still pretty gray most of the week. This is how I discovered that I am solar powered. I need the sun. I thrive with the sun. As soon as the weather turns gray all I want to do is curl up on the couch near a fire and watch movies or read all day. Needless to say I was sleepy the whole time. However, despite my extremely strong urges to hybernate I had a wonderful time with very dear friends. I'm glad to be back where the sun shines though. Flying into San Diego was marvelous. It was 75 degrees with perfectly clear blue skies and I couldn't help but smile.