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Something that I have recently learned is that God really knows what he's doing. He knows what's going to happen before it happens. If he thinks that something won't do you any good, or will hurt you too deeply, or will cause you severe pain (emotionally, physically, spiritually), he won't let you go through it. He's got our backs. As humans, we don't realize that. We're too quick to act when something bad happens. We think of the worst. Something that I'm really trying to do is, when bad times hit, as they always will, I want to think of the good times. My big sister, Jenny, told me to think about this past year. Not the bad times, but all the amazing things God did in my heart, all the amazing people I met at camp, all the amazing kids I got to influence. This is what makes life worth living. And she is so right. I don't think, actually, scratch that; I KNOW that God never makes mistakes. It's us that make mistakes. We make mistakes, but God doesn't look at those mistakes how humans do. Humans have very closed minds. God looks at something that was done and says, look at what I can do with this, look at what I can make happen because of this. He can take something that is completely broken and make a master piece out of it. How amazing is that? I've noticed that we also care too much about things on this earth. Like, if someone drops their iPod and it breaks, they get so angry because now they can't use it. But, in the back of our minds, we knew that it wasn't going to last our whole lives anyways. I once heard that someone was at a restaurant and he had his iPhone on the table. The waitress accidentally knocked it off of the table and it broke. She apologized, she was so sorry. His reply, "It's not my treasure." This is how we should all view things. I love that perspective. But it's a very hard mind set to get into.
Another thing I've been thinking about: Mary, Jesus' earthly mother. How awesome would that be?? Picture this, you and your boyfriend are engaged, you've stayed pure, you love God, and all of a sudden something's weird, you take a pregnancy test and it says Pregnant,  but it's impossible, you've never had sex. God tells you that you are pregnant with his son, he's trusting you with his son from heaven, to raise him and to love him, to take care of him and to trust in God. How crazy is that?! I would give up everything to be in Mary's place! To have the son of God inside of you, to give him life, to love him and raise him and watch him grow up to be this amazing man, King. I can't even imagine. It would be so incredible. Even just being one of Jesus' friends. Seeing him at work. I think we can still be his friends and see him at work. I am and I have. It's incredible and I wouldn't trade it for the world. God is good.
God bless,
Ariel