"There is a place only love can go"

It is hard to believe that at this time in my life last year I was taking the GRE, finishing up Graduate School Applications, and stressing over if I would actually get into Graduate School, and only having one hundred some days left of my College Career. It is hard to believe that a year ago has come and gone so quickly. 

Fast forward and I am in Graduate School, I am learning so much about Social Work, I have celebrated, and I have felt defeated.This season has taught me so much about myself, about true strength, and about becoming an adult.  I know that I have been placed here for specific reasons, and I cannot wait to see where God takes me.  

Throughout my program, I am learning that it is not always about the skills, it is about being genuine in your work. One of my favorite Beth Moore quotes is "God shines the brightest light in the darkest places." No, we are not all called to be Social Workers, and see the "hard" of this world. We are not all called to be "that special person" and to go out and save the world. But we are all called to be genuine and love others deeply. I am learning that the responses I get as to my chosen career path are not meant to be negative about my chose profession, they are only a reaffirmation from God telling me that he has placed me, set me apart for a very specific purpose. 

"Oh, I know this song won't do
Enough to prove my love to you
In my heart you'll always know
There is a place only love can go
There is a place only you can go"

This song has been one of the many themes of this semester. To always remember there is a place only love can go. There is a place only [I] can go. 

xoxo, 

Mindy 

Say Nothing

I was given the book Love Does by Bob Goff own my 22nd Birthday from one of my dear friends. With having a January birthday and a busy Senior Spring Semester that allowed for no time to read anything other than stuff on Child Development, I placed this book on my shelf not really thinking I'll ever read it anytime soon. In May as I was packing up my apartment, and exams were slowly coming to an end leaving me a day that I had nothing else to do other than pick up this book on my self and begin to read.

As I began reading, this book opened up my eyes into how to have an authentic love for people and how to be humble about serving others. Through out every page I reflected in my mind as to how I could put these words into action. How I wished I could have been the person to have said that thought. How could I, a person who loves to serve people, to lift up people, and who is striving to work with people through the Social Work setting show these people this love I had for them. Through my time reading this book I was doing an internship working with children with special needs and their families. If you know me then you know that this was an experienced that really changed my life. This was also an experience that really allowed me to put these words I was reading in this book into practice.

A few weeks ago I finished this book. As a series of events in my own personal life played out, I was constantly drawn to return to a particular chapter in this book.  This chapter was talking about Jesus and all of his miracles. One of the illustrations that Goff used was to symbolized the Disney movie, The Incredibles to todays Christians. If you know the movie then you can remember that Mr. Incredible asks for a cape on his costume. His costume designer tells him "NO CAPES." The reasons behind him not being allowed to have a cape was because many superheros who had capes had terrible things happen to them. Goff then said that he believed that the point in her saying this is because "we can get a lot more done with capes." This then led to my favorite paragraph in any book I've ever read:

"It seems like every time Jesus did an incredible thing, He would say something similar to the people nearby. He raised a little girl from the dead, and what did He say? "Tell no one." He met a guy with leprosy and healed him, and said, "Tell no one." He healed two guys who were blind, and He gave them one admonition before moving on: "Say nothing to anyone." In a world driven by self promotion and spin, Jesus modeled something different for us. Jesus was saying that instead of telling people about what we're doing all the time, theres a better way. One that doesn't require any capes that can get snagged on something-something like ourselves. Maybe Jesus wants us to be secretly incredible instead."

This paragraph is something I have constantly been reflecting on throughout the last few weeks. As I start Graduate School in not even a week, going into a field that requires me to help others at all times, I must keep this paragraph constantly rolling in my head. In going into a field that wants to work with Children and their families, I will need to be that secretly incredible person that God has called me to be. I pray that through this year I will constantly strive to be humble, to not allow myself and my own agenda to get in the way of doing the work that God is calling me to do. I pray that God will begin to work this into your lives as well. As we work to advance his Kingdom, I pray that instead of bragging or having our own self-promotion that we seek God and like Jesus "say nothing."


Go be those silent Superheros.

xoxo
Mindy

The one where I stop counting

I know this is vary rare seeing me post on my blog, but I have decided once again that this needs to start happening more often than not. I am currently in My Senior year of College, President of My Sorority, and hidden under graduate school applications.
I have found myself recently counting down the days to the weekend (because my weeks are jammed packed), the days to Thanksgiving break, the days until Christmas break, and finally counting down the days until Graduation. With all of this counting I am becoming unhappy with the "current" Mindy. I am frustrated about where I will be interring this summer. I am frustrated that I do not know the Graduate School I will be attending yet (when I have not even finished my personal statement), I am frustrated that the days are not going by faster. But really I do not want them to.
As I was waiting on a class to start the other day last week I was looking at Pinterest on my phone. I found this quote.

"sometimes we are all too quick to COUNT DOWN the days that we FORGET to make the DAYS COUNT."

This past semester I have been way to quick to count down the days. I have forgotten to live the days as a college senior. I have forgotten to live in the moment and really enjoy the time God has given me. Though I have so many decisions to make in the next few months regarding where I am going, I still need to stop counting down the days and live today as me. I encourage you if you are counting down the days to stop counting. Life will happen regardless of you counting, and soaking every beautiful moment up is what makes the journey worth while. 

STOP COUNTING! I am.

 
xoxo.
Mindy

Colossians 3:17

At the beginning of this week I tweeted "let the five week countdown begin." Though I was not kidding at the time due to how upset I was about the combination of Practicum and British Lit, I really just cant believe that week one is already over. This week has taught me a lot not only in Practicum, but in my quiet time with God. 

This week I have started to develop some meaningful attachments to these children. They recognize me and can recall my name. They no longer begin to play with me and then introduce themselves to me and ask me what my name is. They know me, they snuggle with me, and they are listening to me. Though I am still working on developing my skills that are part of my requirements with my practicum, I am really getting experience with the children. I go on walks looking for "chick-monks", we get our purses and "go to work across the street", and we read countless books sometimes four times in a row. 

This week in my quiet time I have really learned "its not about me" its all for the glory of God. Though I am not in my "ideal location" I am there for a reason, and that is a reason that God only knows. Instead of fighting it, I just need to embrace it, and live it out. Enjoy those moments, enjoy those snuggles, enjoy those trips to "work across the street" because I am being a part of a child's life. I am helping shape them into the adult that they will be one day. I am helping to scaffold the interests, and to try new foods. I am there to be me. And I am there to show those children love, no matter how early it is, no matter how late I had to stay up the night before to understand my British Lit homework. Its not about me. Its about something so much greater. Its about him. 

This week after my few meltdowns. I heard a song on the radio. This really puts it into perspective for me. The lyrics say: 

"Well let me remind you, it all matters just as long
As you do everything you do to the glory of the One who made you,
Cause he made you,
To do
Every little thing that you do
To bring a smile to His face
Tell the story of grace
With every move that you make
And every little thing you do"

(Steven Curtis Chapman) 

"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."-Colossians 3:17

Love, 

Mindy

Where Positivity meets Practicum

As a Freshman in college I started out my year eager to begin classes to help me reach my goal of becoming an Elementary Teacher. Quickly I realized that the younger children were the ones that I wanted to work with and also transferring schools would lead me to be behind if I stuck with Elementary Ed. At Appalachian I found Child Development and begin to fall in love with the courses that I was taken. As a Sophomore I can remember studying all about the developmental stages and becoming so fascinated with it all. I was so excited for this career path, but that excitement quickly dwindled away as I started my Junior year.
As a Junior the course work that I was enrolled in was designed more toward Early Childhood Teachers and I did not want to be teaching, I wanted to work with families. This was my goal and this is what I was sticking too. I was getting so excited for the Summer because I had a 200 hour practicum where I thought that I was getting to work with a Parent Educator, but was told last minute that it was not acceptable. So I allowed them to place me in the practicum cite of their choice...because there was no other acceptable cite for them.

After a week of frustrations, unreturned phone calls, and things going back and forth, I was just tired and fed up with the whole situation. This made me loose my joy for the five weeks that were about to take place. Though I do not want to be in a classroom I realize that sometimes we have to do the work that we dont want to do in order to get to where we want to be. Through tear filled eyes and hour long phone calls with my mom the night before day one, I decided that I needed to choose positivity in order to gain some sort of experience through this process. 

It was up to me to gain these experiences that I needed, not anyone else, and no matter how much I talked about it nothing was going to change my location or the amount of hours. I just had to suck it up and do it. This morning when I woke up, I stood in front of my mirror as I was putting on my make up (as I do many days) and told myself "you can do this," you have been around children so many times in your life, this is just one new experience. As I walked out the door of my apartment I grabbed my positivity. 

Now that day one is completed, and I came home wiped out smelling like baby wipes, covered in sand from my head to my toes, and experiencing the biggest amount of snuggles a girl can get I dont want to leave my positivity at day one. I want my positivity to continue through all five weeks. I want to improve in my interactions with the children, I want to gain so many different techniques, I want this to be valuable. I dont want to leave the same way I came. 

Each day I will continue to learn, grow, and experience new ways of doing things. Each day I will take a little something and make it better. I will be better with each new day than the day before. And when I complain I'll remember to bring my positivity with me instead of my negativity. 

Mindy

my people

I thought that this past semester I was going to have more time to Blog again, but just as quick as classes started so did the papers, projects, tests, and then final exams leaving me no time to squeeze in a brief time to sit on my couch and enjoy a favorite television show, much less blog.
I am learning in life that I am going to have to make time for the important things. I cannot possibly read every bit of material that they hand me in each of my classes without spending the whole entire day in the library. I for one know that I have to have a life. I have to have relationships with others to keep me sane. And this semester though I tried to focus on my school work, I really tried to look at my relationships. People that felt like I had brushed them off, I made extra time for them. People that I spent a lot of time with I spent even more time enjoying that community together. It is in a community that we grow, we thrive, and we find out more about our own selves.
When I think about these people I think about my current summer interest "Grey's Anatomy." Christina tells Meredith that she is her person in one of the earlier episodes (where I am currently at in the series) and during the finale last night Meredith tells Christina that she is her person. I look at my life and I try to picture who my person is, but I can not picture just one, except I picture a group of people. I picture several people who are "my person" to get me through the day. I have that person who is the encourager, I have the person who is always a phone call away, I have the person who is always there, I have the person who always listens, and I have the person that I can always count on to make me laugh.
I know for one that I could not have made it through some of the moments of this semester without the people that were by my side. These people were there for the happy moments and my sad moments when all I wanted to do was lay down and cry with some Ben and Jerry's. These are my people. These will be the people that I will continue to build relationships with throughout the years. These are my people who I will be at there weddings and they'll be at mine, I will cheer them through mother/fatherhood, these are my people who I will grow old being friends with.These are my people who I know have my back (literally). These are my people who I know will always be there.   Its such a wonderful feeling to have people like this.

Do you have your people, in your own lives?

Peaks, Pits, Praises, and Prayers

Being a girl in this century I am a LOVER of Pinterest. If I could create the prefect house, its there. If I could dress children I dont have I have there clothes, bows, and halloween outfits all picked out. If I could design my perfect wedding without a budget I have a board for that too. Now life is not like a Pinterest board, and I probably will never master the art of making my food look as cute as theirs does even after following the step by step instructions, but Pinterest is good for something. A few months ago I stumbled across this picture:

Under the picture was a description of what you are to do with this journal, and it made me want to start one that day. Now I have yet to start one but with this new thing where I am going to start blogging more again I have decided to start it now. Each week I will share a Peak,Pit, Praise, and Prayer for my day that day or maybe that week. So here we go.

Peaks:

• I got to eat lunch with a High School friend that I havent seen in six months. We've both been away at college and had a lot to catch up on. We didnt even realize how long we had been sitting in the same place.
• I am growing so much in my on walk with Christ by being pushed to plan bible studies for 70 girls in my sorority
• I am soaking up so much family time that I can hardly stand it. I have missed my family while I was away at school this semester

Pits:

• I found out that Chick-fil-a is taking their Cheesecake off their menu and if you know me Im a lover.

Praises:

• Some of my friends have been struggling with a decision-they made the decision they thought was best, and its going to work out.
  
• Seeing all these boys step up and say that they want Godly women in there lives!!! (check out the live31 movement if you havent already) This warms my heart knowing that there is hope for me, my friends, and my family when finding someone to share our lives with.

Prayers:

• Prayers for me. I have some life decisions about where Im going to be doing internships, and practicums. These locations impact my future career and I want to go where God is leading me.
  
• Prayers for a friend who's steeping into a new stage in their life.
  

I hope you will join me in the Peaks, Pits, Praises, and Prayers of your own life. It really is good to stop and reflect on all the wonderful things God has given you and things that you can see as a pit but change into a peak for him.
Love,
Mindy