this summer.

Sooo summer is right around the corner  and i miss home soo much.  i don't even think i will be able to go back home until about the end of july. i cant wait to run straight to the ocean.  i'll never fully understand how peaceful it makes me feel. my favorite time to go is in the early morning before the tide has gone out...and the ocean is calm and not a soul is on the beach yet.  oh man i'm getting homesick just thinking about it! this summer will be so much different though, now that i am staying at school..i've never stayed here before and i'm not sure what God has in store for me.  but i know that i am supposed to stay here. atleast i know that much. so summer classes begin may 11 (yay.) and go till june 6th. my excitement is off the charts. but hopefully with a job and spending time with friends will help me not to be so homesick.  i've decided that i want to keep a journal this summer and see how much i grow, and see all that i learn and do. i really feel like this summer will be a transition in my life...its the first one i've spent by myself, away from my family.  and i want God to teach me amazing things.  so bring on the summer. 

Rescue Me. Hear me. Free Me.

It's finally nice enough to sit out on my little porch and enjoy the outdoors. There's a slight breeze, but it's warm, and that means that summer is on its way.  I was reading in Psalm 141 and 142 this morning. And for the past few days I've been taking my eyes off of Him....a dangerous thing to do. But I've been focused on school, my future, and distracted by things that should always take the backseat to Jesus.  So this morning was the first really deep and intimate time that I have been alone with Him in a few days. Oh how I've missed it. You don't realize how amazing it is to be alone with your Creator....if you have ever missed a few days or even a few weeks....that day that you come back to Him is like being reunited with the love of your life. And so I needed verses to help me, because I needed to feel His presence again- I needed Him back.  Psalm 141 just starts out so beautifully...

" O Lord, I call to you; come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I call to you. May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting of my hands be like the evening sacrifice..." Also the first part of verse 4 is my prayer right now, that I won't slip or fade away from His love...I need to always have my intimate time with just me and HIM. "Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil..."

And then I just kept reading and in Psalm 142 it gets reallllyyyy good in verse 5 

"I cry to you, O Lord; I say, You are my portion in the land of the living. Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me....set me FREE from my prison that I may praise your name." 

Those verses are my prayer to God today.