Ready

8 and a half hours before my flight takes off from Houston (that is if this terrible weather disappears) I am feeling ready to take on Lexington and school. Today was just what I needed. From getting a bright pink manicure with mom and black light mini golf with the fam to a lazy afternoon nap and packing with Omar, it was perfect. It was great closure to a great break. As my flight leaves takes tomorrow, I can know that I left feeling good about my time at home having the best balance of family, friend, and alone time.

Also, I'm excited because today marks my 7th straight day of doing all my New Year's Resolutions! They say it takes 21 days to make a habit, so that means I'm 1/3 of the way there! It definitely is becoming easier and easier especially with my quiet times and only drinking 2 cokes a day.

With that, Isaiah 8
Summary: Prophecy that Assyria will invade the land and then what it truly means to fear God

My take: First, I was so excited reading this first part because I've known the useless fact that Mahershalalhashbaz is the longest name in the Bible for years, but I've never actually read about him! Here he is in Isaiah 8! Then, there is a lot I really like about the second part of the passage.

I love verse 13b , "Let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread." I have to say I'm a pretty fearful person. I fear my future. I fear going and talking to people I don't know. I fear not being good enough. But, this is so cool that the Lord is basically saying, "Don't fear all that other stuff. I'll take care of it. Fear me." In so many of our "feel good" churches today, they tiptoe around fearing God and just talk about his love, but I think the fear of God is important to understanding His love. He is all powerful, all knowing, all powerful, and that is pretty scary because He can do whatever he wants to you, but that's also the reason He can love you like noone else can. No human in our own power can love people perfectly because we don't have the power, but God does! How beautiful is that?

Then, there's verse 17, which I have a love-hate relationship with. It says, "And I will wait on the Lord...And I will hope in Him." As i said in an earlier post, I tend not to be a very patient person. Thus, I don't like waiting at all especially when it comes to my future. I want to have every second of my life planned out 5 years in advance. I'm a planner by nature, so it kills me not knowing right now even where I'll be next year. I know, though, that the second part of this verse is what keeps me sane. Because I know my Lord has plans to prosper me, while I wait, I wait expectantly. I wait with great anticipation of just what awesome plans the Lord has for me, knowing that even though I can't picture it right now, the Lord's plans for me are so much better than my own! I have a hope and that's why I can wait.. maybe not patiently, but we're working on that one.

Lord, keep me safe as I fly back tomorrow. Bless this next week. Give the campus a calm and peace that only comes from you.