Lessons

In coming to Thailand, I knew & was anticipating that God would teach me many lessons - lessons on myself, lessons on Him, lessons on others. I didn't know that I would learn so many lessons so quickly in the short time that I have been here. It makes me excited to see how much He will continue to teach me and the ways I will continue to stretch & grow in the rest of my time here.

I've been writing these lessons down for myself mostly because I have a horrible memory, but also because I wanted to be able to look back someday on my time here & remember how far God has brought me - not just physically in the distance from home to here, but in my relationship with Him and in becoming the woman He's created me to be.

A few weeks ago as I was thinking of all of these lessons I've already learned, God spoke to me & basically said to me (my paraphrase), "These lessons aren't just for you to learn. Yes, I'm giving them to you to learn & to grow from, but I want you to pass these on so that others can learn from them & grow."

Here's how the conversation followed (again, my paraphrase):

Me: (per usual when God wants me to do something out of my comfort zone) "Really?!? I can't do that."

God: "No, you can't; but I can & I'll help you. (per His usual :) )

Me: "Well, how am I supposed to share these lessons? I can't talk to everyone! And besides, You know how much I love talking (sarcasm)."

God: "Remember that thing called your blog? Write them there."

Me: "Well, no one will want to read them."

God: "Let them decide that. You just put it out there."

So, here's me putting it out there. From now on, when I've learned something that I think God wants me to share with others, it will show up here. (A lot of what I'm learning has been really personal, so it may or may not show up on here.)

I'm not very good with putting big, fancy words together & making it into some eloquent statement that makes sense like a lot of blogs I read. I'm not going to start trying that now. I'm just going to be real, to be me, & to try to make what I'm learning make sense to others as I put it out there. (I was going to write "put it down on paper", but this clearly isn't paper & I don't know what this is called. :) )

I think one of the reasons God brought me here was time - to give me more time & to learn how to better spend the time I'm given. Because of having more time, I've spent more time in His word, more time to talking to Him, & more time studying and reading some other helpful books. So, I've learned these lessons in different ways - books I've read, Bible studies & devotionals I've done, & from God in time spent with Him.

Here are a couple lessons I've already learned & re-learned (I'm not perfect, I tend to need to learn something a few times for it to stick):

* Shortly after I got here, I finished a book that I'd started at home called "Captivating" by John & Stasi Eldredge. (It was REALLY good!) When I picked it up to finish reading it, the first thing I read jumped out at me. It said "He (God) often takes us aside from every other source of comfort so that He alone can have our heart's attention." He had definitely taken me aside from every comfort source & now definitely had my attention! This is when I really knew that I would be learning A LOT of lessons.

* God is big & mighty & everywhere! This is what you learn in Sunday School & hear repeatedly growing up in the church, but in coming here, I now know it. This truth, God being everywhere, is His omnipresence. (This may be the only big word you ever read on my blog, it just means "present in all places at all times", and yes, I did have to google it to find the definition to describe it to you. :) ) Knowing that God is omnipresent has given me a lot of peace & comfort. There are so many ways I've learned this truth here. I know that when tough things are going on at home that I wish I could be there for, God is there. He can do so much more in that situation than I would ever be able to if I were there. And just because He's there, or here, doesn't mean He's in the other place less. As much as I've needed Him here, He's been there that much for everyone back home. This is probably turning into rambling because it's such a hard thing for me to wrap my mind around, but I know it is true & amazing!

So, there's just a couple lessons to start with. I already have two more lessons learned that God has put on my heart to write here, but you'll have to wait for those. :)

I'm looking forward to what God will teach us & where He will lead us if we let Him!