A God Who Sees Us

Hi friends. I only have 9 days left. Pretty crazy. Things have been pretty drastic and radical around here. Things at Sea World are going well, I feel like my attitude is progressively getting better. I had a wonderful birthday! I went surfing, ate blueberry muffins for breakfast, shared the gospel on campus, had a party at a local coffee shop, and got a free piece of Kahlua cheesecake. My birthday rocked. I got to spend two hours reflecting on what God is teaching me here in California and also on my last 20 years of life. I spent some time wondering about what adulthood looks like for me. Im really excited. I find alot of freedom in it. Its like I have the freedom to make my own decisions and trust God in them. I feel like my childhood closed and the doorway to living a Godly adult life was flung wide open.

I had an incredible experience at church the Sunday before my birthday. By the way, my friends form Texas came to surprise me for my birthday. Brian and Christy are so much fun! They used to live twenty minutes outside San Diego. We checked out some beaches, at Hawaian food, Starbucks, and they dropped me off at the Padres game. THey are so good to me and a true example of pursuit in friendship. So the Sunday they were in I had a chance to really sit before the Lord and express some of the true raw emotions I was feeling. Alot of the hard times Ive gone through this summer were just straight up not fair. And what I thought this summer was going to be like has been nothing like that. And inspite of all that God is good and has a wonderful plan for the things that He planned for me to learn this summer. So after many tears and honesty before the Lord, this thought came to mind and has stuck with me ever since. I have to "choose to believe the good things I know of God to be true." That brought so much ease to my pain. Thank God for church a Sunday morning to refresh me. I have also learned this summer that God is a God who sees. He sees HIs people, and what goes on amongst them. HE sees me and my hard times, my laughter, my tears, my thoughts, and what happens to me. I feel so often that I have to be heard, but when I believe that He sees me- all that goes away.

I spent an afternoon with my friend Danae, who I met through our biblestudy at the Deaf coffee night. She is learning ASL, is married, and has two kids. I went to the park with them and I asked her oldest son Nikeo (meaning conqueror- we are more than conquerors in Christ found in Romans). I asked him, age 5, what the thinks about Jesus. He says, and I quote, "Jesus- He is good. He died on the cross to save me from my sins, He raised from the dead, He walked on water, He does good and not bad, and He heart is sooo big." It was the sweetest thing Ive heard. Made me choke up, oh to have the faith of a child.