ONE day for the books

Well, today has been one of those days- y'all know what I mean. A day of emotions, tears, smiles, and a million other things. Let me preface this post by saying I am not a typically "emotional-over-everything" person, but I tend to hold back tears and emotions and eventually they all come out at once. So when I tell the events of today please don't think I am over exaggerating or being dramatic, just know that today was the day they all were released... and for reasons I believe were necessary.
Oh, and I am not in any way looking for pity, just explaining how a crappy day can be turned into quite the opposite with the help of Jesus

Let's start with a short synopsis of today's event, beginning with this morning. Comfortably sleeping in my bed, waiting for my late alarm because of 10 o'clock classes. Vicious knocking at the door wakes me up- here comes phase 1 of the day's upsetting events. I walked outside, just out of bed, and there lays my first pet, my dog of many years, Honey, on the side of the road in my yard, and a woman and her grandson saying words to me I honestly do not remember. One of the smartest dogs I have ever seen, definitely the smartest of our large pack of dogs, and she is lying cold in the yard. Keeping this brief in order to hold back emotions, something I am way too good at doing... After my dad comes back home and buries her, my eyes were tear-stained and my alarm was going off. Lovely start to my day---Fast forward to school. School goes by, boring as usual, then work comes around- Phase 2. I work in a daycare and was with the 4-5 year olds today, who just "graduated" from preschool to daycare, and are most likely adjusting more to being so-called, big kids, than their parents are. Short fact about me- I don't handle confrontation very well, especially when the floodgates have already been open and my contacts are already cloudy from crying. Nothing can hold me back at this point. So here comes THE parent, thinking for some reason I could handle it I volunteered to go talk to him when he sternly requested one of the workers to come outside. I should've read the signs, and given over that conversation to someone else but I didn't. Apparently his little girl had a huge (invisible) knot on her head and none of us told him she fell. We knew she fell but she was fine and was playing and we didn't see a knot to tell him about. Let's just say he was stern, and I was weak. Playing on the earlier events of the day, that was a bad combination. It took all of me to hold back the tears until he took one step out of the room, and I had a difficult time explaining to the other workers what was going on because I was basically balling. At this point I am hysterical- instead of singing "open the floodgates of Heaven," I'm begging, "Jesus close my floodgates." ----I know that wasn't funny, just pretend. Oh, and to top it all off I am walking around with one shoe off trying to get some fresh air on a horrible ingrown toenail that is making me limp- and if you have ever had one you will understand.

I couldn't meet Pastor Chris and not get a picture!

The story gets better here. My red face and teary eyes have been looking forward to one thing all day, and this one thing happens to be ONE at Church of the Highlands in Ttown, with none other than Pastor Chris Hodges(!!!) to speak in Tuscaloosa- all of satan's attempts to knock me down only made me unsteady, he never got me down and stopped me from going to ONE the way I know he was intending to do, and praise God for that! With friends eating supper, the laughter came. With worshipping Jesus in a small room with a bunch of sweaty college students who love him, the joy came. And with an awesome message on eternity from Pastor Chris, I realized that I had overcome the obstacles Satan threw at me and made it to church in order to hear one of the greatest messages and most impacting I have ever heard. It all makes sense now. I strongly believe that everything happens for a reason, and usually I attribute all things to God, but I realized that God didn't have a reason for my upsetting awakening this morning, my unpleasant encounter at work, or my throbbing toe that I should really take to the doctor- these were attempts to keep me from encountering God the way I did tonight- and I overcame them with the encouragement by friends, family, and ultimately Jesus Christ. It is crazy how a day that is from hell (literally) can turn into a day that I learn things I didn't know about God and feel the presence of God like never before. I was inspired by Pastor Chris to set a new motto for myself, "Give, Serve, and share Christ intentionally," and if I can get through a day like today then I absolutely can do that. I left ONE tonight with an awesome sense of fellowship from Jesus-lovers like myself, and also with a newly driven purpose to live my life by. How awesome is Jesus everybody???


*Side note- ONE Ttown is awesome and meets almost every Wednesday night at the Highlands office complex at 8! You have been invited- let me know if you have questions. Promise you will not regret going, it is the highlight of my week!!