these are a few of my favorite things.

nothing holding me back by bryan & katie torwalt

It's been almost a month.  WHAT.  No wonder I've been so crazy lately, lolol.

I've deemed this summer the Summer of Roadtrips.  In the last month, I've been to Anderson, Travelers Rest, Easley, Ninety Six, Greenville, Cashiers, NC, Augusta, and everywhere in between.  I've seen lots of people and done lots of things.  Here are some of those things:

Jesus has taught me a lot.  I think I'm probably one of His #1 clients because He seems to always be working on me, haha.  The Lord has done mega work in me.  He's been teaching me about myself, about others, and about Himself.  Since it's been 23 days, here are 23 (and really, I'm limiting myself here, I could go on forever) Jesus truths I've learned [and lately, these are my favorite things]:

1. Jesus is big, big, big enough.

2. Jesus is very sweet, sweeter than I deserve.

3. Jesus is faithful always.

4. Jesus gives hard times because we need hard times.

5. Jesus is the only perfect example of love.

6. Jesus is much wiser than we are.

7. Jesus is present and with us.

8. Jesus always provides enough.

9. Jesus gives us life and without Him, there would be no point.

10. Jesus is a friend that we should commune with.

11. Jesus blesses us even when we don't deserve it.

12. Jesus fixes our messes.

13. Jesus is kind. 

14. Jesus is concerned about our hearts, not our "needs".

15. Jesus makes the "bad" times worth it.

16. Jesus knows best [even when I'm convinced I do]. 

17. Jesus is the only one that can genuinely heal.

18. Jesus is more than we think we need.

19. Jesus is close and near.

20. Jesus is the only sure hope.

21. Jesus has a perfect plan that is what is best for us.

22. Jesus adores and desires us.

23. Jesus can't be stopped.

It's been a blast.  Some of my favorite times have been over the last couple months.  I've met some awesome people, I've been blessed by good community, and I've gotten a glimpse of the love that Jesus has for me.  I've felt loved and prayed for and provided for and cared about and I know that Jesus has provided all of those feelings.

In the midst of all my roadtripping, the Lord has been working on me.  I've had to face some harsh realities.  He has shown a lot of things to me, both about myself and about the world, and it's been uncomfortable.

I've learned a lot about my sin.  Like the way that I can be relentlessly selfish or the way I have an insatiable need to control everything or the way unkind remarks I say and think when people fail to meet my expections.  In regards to what I've learned about the world, it would be that no one cares about meeting my expectations.  Hah.  That sort of seems like an obvious one, but I'm having to constantly remind myself of it [easier said than done]. 

In all things, I trust and believe that Jesus is good.  I trust and believe that He has my best in store.  I trust and believe that the sacrifice of Jesus was and is enough to cover all the troubles I make.  I trust and believe that love is the sweetest thing.  And I stand firm in the fact that the Lord is sweet.

I'm more than thankful that Jesus never found it hard to love me because lately, I find a lot of things hard to love.  I'm thankful that His love doesn't waver cause mine sure does.

In the times that I find my life to be "hard", Jesus proves to be best.  Over and over and over again.  When I try to give the perfect qualities of Jesus to the people around me, they fail me and Jesus reminds me that He is the only perfect one.  

Jesus makes it good.  Jesus makes the bad times manageable and the good times sweeter.  He makes the things that are supposed to screw me up the things that honor Him best.  He makes my heart better and my hope solid.  

Jesus can work in the wreckage of my heart.  Over and over, He has proven Himself faithful to me and I'm blown away by His goodness.

I'm not sure I accomplished much of anything by this rambling, but if you declare something enough, you can start to believe it.

Thank you, Jesus, that you are immeasurably more.  Thank you for being a friend to me.  Thank you for loving me when I make myself unlovable.  Thank you for adoring me enough to sacrifice everything for me.  Thank you for providing for me.  Thank you for fixing my heart and calling me Yours.  Help me to never forget that.  

ps: I'll probs be back soon with a *hopefully* much more coherent post.  Thanks for reading anyway.