I grew up in the church and I gave my life to Christ when I was about 4 years old. But over the past few weeks I have realised that I don't really know what my role and responsibilities are as a young, single woman in God's kingdom. The role of wives and mothers is talked about a bit more, though not as much as I think it should be, but I am not a wife or mother and I am not likely to be one for a number of years. The reality is that I need to know what God requires and expects of me and how I should be relating to the rest of the body of Christ. My hope is to make this a life long study, and in the process, to discover God's specific will for me. 

As a servant of God, redeemed by Christ's death my yearning is to serve him as he desires me to. To do so I need to know what he requires.

Therefore, I have decided that I am going to begin a study though the Bible about my role and responsibility as a young, single woman of God. I will be journaling what learn, and I will also endeavour to blog what I have learnt once a week. I hope that those who read this will be encouraged to search for themselves to discover what God requires of them.

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift, that is why it is called the Present" - Kung Fu Panda

This has been a hectic week of trying to plan for next year and complete this last 6 months of school well. It has not so much been the actual work but more the thoughts. I keep waking up in the middle of the night with thoughts like "If I go to ______ uni I could do _______ course but I need to well in ________ subject," and the blanks are always different. I am feeling the weight of all of these plans because I know that ultimately my goal is to be on the mission feild as that is where I believe God is calling me but the path there is uncertain. My justification of all the time spent is that what I am planning is leading toward making God know to the world.

But on Wed I was reminded that making God know happens now. I recently found some stickers with the name of my friend's daughter so I wrote my friend a little note to go with the stickers and sent it off. The next day I received an email to say that the note was greatly appreciated and that the two verses I had added (as a post script out of habit) were very relevant. And at that moment I was reminded that God can use us now, as we are. We need to not get so caught up in the future that we forget we can be a blessing now. And certainly, training is important, but we serve a God who is all powerful, and what is more, he uses our weakness! All we need to do is pray that he will use us and trust that he will. And for that I am very thankful because I know how often I mess up.

I wanted to share the two verses that I included in the letter to my friend and I hope that they will encourage you too.

Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)
but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not be weary; they will walk and not be faint.

1 Peter 5: 6 & 7
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all of your cares to the Lord because he cares for you.

BlimeyCow

It has been a long time since I posted. I guess I felt like I created blog this so I could let people know about my preparation for my missions trip over a year ago. And then after I returned I didn't really have anything to say. I suppose I could have mentioned the Beach Mission I went on over the summer and what lead me to do that, but I didn't. I just felt like this account had become redundant and I didn't really have anything to say that people would be interested in hearing or that I could be bothered sharing. I felt like anything I put up needed to be related to missions as that what I created it for.

But I realised that it doesn't need to be about missions trips or to be written for people to read. It doesn't really matter if people read what I write. And according to my stats people have been reading this over the past year of no activity. So I can only hope that what I write brings glory to God. And to achieve that I might as well write.

I doubt that I will have much time to write this year, but it is worth at least trying to write. So I am going to start by saying that I was recently introduced to a group called BlimeyCow! If you ask any member of my family they will tell you I am obsessed. I prefer to say that I just really appreciate and enjoy their videos, especially their Messy Monday series! Every Monday (US time) they post a new video on Youtube. These videos address social issues and serve to challenge and encourage viewers. They are aimed at teens and young adults, but I know that many people of all ages enjoy them. I think part of what I appreciate the most is their honesty, reality and partly their sarcasm. Their main purpose is to encourage people to think about the way they live, especially whether it glorifies God.

I would encourage everyone to have a look at their stuff, so here are some links to their pages:
BlimeyCow home page
Youtube
Facebook
Tumblr
Twitter

I hope you all enjoy them as much as I do!