God Works in Mysterious Ways

I came to Chick-fil-A this afternoon to drink my free sprite, have some time with Jesus, study, and procrastinate (where the internet is better than at Mommoms). I'd been here for a little over an hour, and Jesus had a different plan for my afternoon. I woke up feeling discouraged today. I've been sick for over a week now and my body and soul were feeling weak.
I got to CFA and sat down to have my quiet time and realized I left my headphones in Anderson. CFA isn't noisy, but it's not peaceful, either. It's not the type of place I can concentrate easily and hear from God. I was trying to read Scripture, but my mind just wouldn't focus. I look up and Megan Jessee walked in. We're not really friends, but she was roommates with one of my youth leaders and when I worked at CFA I talk for a minute when I took her order. She sat down at the table next to me and we said hey. I asked if she had an extra pair of headphones. She said she didn't. So what did she do? She gave me the ones she was going to use. I told her I was fine, that they were hers and she should use them. She wouldn't take no for an answer. She insisted that I use them. I got back to my quiet time and was finally able to concentrate.
When I was about done, I saw Russell Newton and his friends walk in. We're not really friends either, but he is dating one of Dani's sister's best friends. Russell started working at CFA a couple months ago and with the weather getting cold, he needed a CFA jacket. I had one from working here last winter and I told him a few weeks ago he could buy it from me for $15. Last night Dani gave me the money from Russell and it was $25. When I saw him today, I knew I needed to give him $10 because he way over-payed me. I tried to give him the money and he wouldn't take it. He said that someday I'd need $10 for something.
Then he and his friends sat down and he proceeded to lead them in a Bible Study. Talk about being encouraged! They were talking about one of my favorite verses, 2 Cor 4:18 "So we fix our eyes not one what is seen but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." I heard these boys discuss things like football and iPhones in terms of scripture and how one day, they will all just disappear. It all just kind of brought me out of my bundle of self absorbed pity. Duh, Alyssa, IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU!
God works in all kinds of different ways to get a point across. It took me a while to listen, but I got it. At least for today....
Also I just love seeing the body of Christ working, teaching each other through obeying Him. I hardly even know these people that have blessed me today, but we all have one big thing in common. We're all living for things unseen. It give you a little glimpse of the way things should be. The way they WILL be. 

A little bit too ADD tonight

Alas, I have failed to blog for the past couple weeks. I'm a horrible blogger. And it's not even that nothing exciting has happened. I think my problem is that SO MUCH is happening that I forget to take time to do things like write. I guess I'll take a couple sentences for each major thing that has happened in the past monthish.

Random side note for those of you who didn't see this picture on facebook. My hair is so long! These pictures were taken a year and a half apart. Crazy. Kinda blowing my mind.

Ok, first and most exciting things on the agenda: I KNOW WHAT I'M GOING TO MAJOR IN! This has been a long road getting to where I am. I've been saying I want to be a party planner or event organizer,  but I could never find a good major for that. Communication would work, but I would have to take 4 semesters of a foreign language and I don't get along well with foreign languages because of my dyslexia. I went to the career counselor at TCTC and we talked for about 15 min and he came up with what I should do. TCTC has a program called Administrative Office Technologies. With this degree, I would become a office administrator which basically means I would be working right below the supervisor planning, scheduling, and doing secretarial and clerical things. One of my friends calls me the super secretary, which is very fitting. What this also means is that I just have to get a 2 year degree which is FANTASTIC! The more I learn about this degree I realize it targets all my strengths. I'm just so happy! :)

Numero 2, you guys just need to realize how great my grandmother is. For real. A week and a half ago we made cookies, played Rummikub, and just talked. I'm finding out all kinds of things about her that I never would have known if I hadn't been spending all this time with her. One of my favorite bits of information (which I hear frequently because she forgets she's told me) is that she was dating other guys up until she got engaged to my grandpa. WHAT?! She justifies it by saying he lived in Florida and she was still in Georgia, but let's be real. That's crazy! Granted, it was about 60 years ago and things have changed since then but somehow I feel like that might have been a little weird even back then.

Thirdly, last weekend Jenny and I hopped in the car and drove 10 hours up to Aunt Patti and Nuckle Pete's house for the weekend to see our long-lost brother, Ryan. Normally we both HATE car trips but this was actually very enjoyable. Jenny and I are the same brand of weird. You stick us in a car together for 10 hours and the weird shines very brightly. Also, my brother has the best job ever this semester. He's a packaging science inturn at Godiva in Pennsylvania which means that they test the packaging of chocolate and then he is told to throw it away. Thankfully Ryan has a brain and doesn't throw it away. Instead, he takes it home and gives it to his family and friends. HOLLA!!! Next time you see me, if I've gained about 20 lbs, blame the chocolate. So anyway, we spent 3 full days in Maryland hanging out with Ryan, cousins, aunt, uncle, cousins friends, and our cousins adorable daughters. It was a great and restful weekend. I was kinda sad to come home to the real world again. 

Numba four, I have awesome friends. Some I've known since we were born, some I met in August at RUF, and other I met along the way, but I love them all. I've been looking back through my blessings book and seeing a strong trend how God uses people to convey His love to me through them. That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense now that I wrote it down, but its true. I've been trying to figure out what my love language is and I know for sure I'm bilingual, (and I don't know how much I believe the whole love language thing but thats a whole different arena) but I think mine might be gifts or acts of service. My friends are one of thousands of God's daily gifts to me which He gave specifically to me, and me to them. Because I'm a people person, when I have deep conversations or fun evening with my friends, I find joy in those times and feel God's love. I know He is taking care of me and providing EXACTLY what I need. That is huge to me. 

Well friends, I think that is about all I have time for tonight. There was actually a lot more I had planned to talk about buuuuut I talked too much about the other things and now I'm ready for bed. Hopefully I'll get the ball rolling and maybe blog a little more consistently. Maybe not. But for now, goodnight to all, and to all a good night! 

P.S. I did a little face juggling today and found these 2 particularly wonderful and wanted to share them with you all. Enjoy!