The great outdoors.... Ah yes I love the woods and going camping. So Fun! This has been the reason I haven't blogged for over a week. I signed up to go camping with the church school's Senior Survival. It is where the school takes the senior class out into the woods for 5 days and teaches them survival skills as well as ties them to life skills and spiritual skills to reach the world for God.
So I was super stressed before the trip. Not because of the woods, but because of the teenagers. :) I don't know why I volunteered, they caught me on a super good day or something. :) Because normally I'm terrified of youth work especially teenagers. For some reason I'm scared they won't like me or will rebel and i won't have the guts to keep them out of trouble. But this must be the year that God feels like stretching me by getting me to volunteer for things I never would before (thinking of the Triathlon running thing as well) :)
So the whole car ride there my heart was pounding and I was starting to panic a little. I road with another women I know from church that has been through many a camping trip with these girls and assured me the whole way that things would go fine and I had no need to worry. That helped some and it was nice to know she was along too in case things got crazy :)
Long story short, 2 days in I started my monthly friend 2 weeks early, my hormones were a little wonky, and I was getting emotional about reading a simple Bible verse. The girls were starting to complain about everything and I was feeling way inadequate. After a good talk with the other woman on the trip and few shed tears, God showed me that He was with me and I needed to focus on what He thought of me and not what the girls thought.
By the last day, I finally realized that God had a plan for not only the girls but for me too. We were all physically and emotionally spent, but most everyone was glad they made it through and overall had a good time.
The last morning I got up the courage to do a worship a short worship with the girls, sharing a verse close to my heart. So I shared that my best friend in junior high was terminally ill with leukemia. One night before she died she wanted her mom to read her a verse. Her mom opened the Bible to this verse, but couldn't bear to read it so she searched for other verses till my friend begged her to read the first one she opened to.
- 1 Corinthians 4:16-18 - " Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" NIV
It's not about what goes on around us that matters it is what goes on within us in our hearts with Jesus that makes all the difference. I realized that my beautiful friend had realized this before she died and found comfort in these verses. And I realized at that moment that God had worked in my heart as well as these girls.
Whether these verses had impact on them I don't know, but I hope in a small way one day it will come back in their memory and give them strength when they face some of the hard times of growing up and what life will throw at them. Fixing our eyes is the key to peace and change within. Focusing on Jesus and what is unseen is what gives us life from within despite what goes on around us externally that we see.
The girls decided I was okay at the end, and I decided it was a good thing for me to go despite my fear. So the woods was fun, hard, and wonderful all at the same time. This momentary trouble a step closer to the eternal glory God has in store for us. Trees, Dirt, and Eternal Glory AMEN!
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