Flowers, and cookies, and music, O my!: Prayer letter 6

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Right now I am writing from the peony garden in the Arboretum.  It is such a beautiful place that boasts God's majesty in thousands of blooms.  Each day I am finding myself in search of something beautiful to remind me of God's goodness, and a place to just be; to enjoy this very moment and embrace it for what it is and who I am in it.  In a way I think it calms my inner waters that are so easily disturbed.  It gives me a quiet confidence as if the Spirit is whispering, "It is ok to e you, to have a deeper sense of who the Father has made you to be.  You are loved, you are valuable."  Do you allow yourself quiet moments of beauty to just be?



I went home last week nad spent a lot of quality time with my family.  We went to Traverse City to run the Bayshore Half-Marathon, and then back to Eight Point Lake for the duration of the holiday weekend.  I have been doing a lot of reflection about where I was a year ago because I ran the full marathon last year in Traverse City and two days later hopped on a plane to Europe for the summer (feel free to go back in the archive and read posts from a year ago!).  I had no idea what was in store for me then, and now on the other side I feel like I met a part of myself that I never knew existed and somehow have spent the past year getting to know her and embrace her for who she is.  It has been really rewarding to see God reveal deeper layers of myself to me and indulge my new found love for adventure and simple beauties, and from that using it to connect and share with others.  It is a whole new way for me to share who I am with others.

These are all things that comfort me in the season of life I am in.  As I continue to seek the support I need to be released back to campus I sometimes feel isolated and alone, but it is so comforting to know that God is always with me and he knows me better than anyone.  Right now most of my friends are up north at the Leadership Training (LT) kick-off retreat.  It is an amazing time to be removed from the distractions of life and really focus on God entering into the summer.  I remember in 2011 when I did LT how important the retreat was for me.  There is a talk that our head pastor Steve Hayes gave that just walked through the gospel, and even though I knew it, it brought me to tears.  Grace is an amazing thing that we can never really understand and should give us so much joy each day.  Please pray that God can use the kick-off retreat to reach the participants' hearts in a new way so that they can know Him more.

I realized that I have not given you guys an El Salvador update in quite some time.  I have been following their Facebook page and they are doing daily devotionals through the book of Psalms.  Ironically the Psalms have really been speaking to me lately as well.  If you haven't read them in a while take a gander!  I think it is all the nature references, especially in the spring.  I don't remember if I talked about this before, but one of my best friends in La Libertad got married at the end of April.  The photos are beautiful and I know she is going to be a wonderful wife.  I don't have a ton more exciting news to share right this moment, but feel free to ask any question you might have, or follow them on Facebook!

On a fun note I wanted to share some of the things I am loving right now:

- I think I love this song more and more each time I hear it!
- Made these cookies a few weeks ago and OH MY GOODNESS!  They take some time but are TOTALLY worth it!

Standing in awe of the life I have been given,

Sigourney

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