Joy in 2012!!

There are 12 days left in the 2011 year. This year, this 2011, has been one of the hardest years of my life. There were times when I really didn't think I would survive...when my heart, my spirit, was so broken I felt like I couldn't breath. Many nights I cried myself to sleep, many days I just walked through the motions of living. I don't want to bring my 2011 into my 2012. I need 2012 to be better. I need 2012 to bring breakthroughs. I need 2012 to be filled with more joy, more laughter, more provision, more love, more humor, and more peace. I need 2012 to be good...really good. Good for me, for my family, for those close to me. I'm not to naive to believe that there won't be pain, suffering, sorrow, in 2012, but I do believe that God can and will (as it is my desire) to bring more of the good stuff than the other.
God told me the other day that I don't settle. I refuse to settle, so because of that, the rewards will be great but the time may be longer (you think?:)) I take refuge in this on most days, but there are these other days where I get so mad...why can't I just be ok with "settling?" Why can't I just be ok with that? I'm talking about everything...I want the "perfect for me" everything. The perfect for me job, car, house, spouse, everything. I've waited to long to just settle. I've tried to hard, had to let go of to much to just settle for being happy and content. I want anointed. I don't want to just survive!
That's all I have for today:)

Simply Broken,

Andrea

Have you ever?

Have you ever been in a place where you have told God that if you lose everything you have, if He chooses to take it all, then its okay? And really mean it? That’s where I am right now. I don’t have a job. Now, I am watching a friends baby, but it is all the way in Arlington and they can’t afford to pay me much, but I am grateful for anything at all, at this point:) So, my car (Lola) is 5 months behind in payments—which stinks because she would have been paid off in February. They haven’t taken her, she’s “hiding” at my parents—really her battery was dead when I moved so I had to leave her with my parents for the time being. I am driving my brothers car, which is also on the “repo” list…I don’t know what to do and have lost many hours of sleep over these two things alone, BUT there isn’t anything that I can do. I have applied for every job that I could, I have been to many, and I mean MANY, interviews, only God knows. Only God knows what He is doing, even when I don’t understand. My dad stresses all the time about money, the finances, taking on my brothers bills while he isn’t able too…BUT I know He who is able!:) I am learning that I cannot go by my feelings, or by what I see with my “fleshly” eyes. I must take on a new perspective. I must take a step back and change my glasses…adjust my vision…the God, the Creator of the Universe, MY God, loves me more than anyTHING in this entire world, this entire universe…so if he chooses to take everything that I have, I still have Him. It’s just stuff…He will always provide, He is always faithful, He always comes through. I can not worry---I can not lose moments of my life in worry. I must remember, I must declare what He has already done for me. I must remember the things that I do have that can never be taken away…my salvation, redemption, freedom, as well as my family, friends, love, hope, and a future. This valley may be long, it may be hard, and it may, at times, feel impossible to get through, BUT I am closer to the edge of the mountain than I was yesterday:)!

Simply Broken,
Andrea

A Dream...

I've been thinking alot these past few days, weeks. God has really been speaking closely to my heart, to my spirit, sharing alot of things with me. I have realized that I have spent the majority of my life in fear...fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of disappointment, or disappointing others, and just plain fear. There are alot of things I haven't done, I haven't tried, just because I was afraid. The things that I have done, the big changes, were thrust upon me, i.e. moving, getting my Masters, etc. I did them, I moved, I changed, but only because I wasn't given any other options. Would I have done half the things I have done if I had a choice? I don't know...I have a dream. I have dreamt for most of my life, to be a photographer. I want to own my own studio, have a dark room in my house, create pictures. I haven't done anything to make this dream a reality other than buy a camera and be deemed the "family photographer" during the holidays. At one point, I even enrolled in the New York Institute of Photography...I didn't finish...I lost my job and ran out of money.
What happened? Why haven't I pursued this? I believe I'm afraid of failing at it. I'm afraid that I can't do it, that I don't have any idea how to do it, so I don't even try. Satan HAD me so bound up in fear that I didn't take chances because I was afraid. I refuse to be afraid any more. I refuse to miss out on the things that God has for me to do in this life out of fear. Satan is funny like that...you spend your whole life one way and you don't even realize it---until now. So, I will do what I can with what I have, and let God take care of the rest. I will carry my camera around with me, and take pictures of anything and everything I can, and listen:) I have alot of things that I want with this photography business...I want a computer to edit the pictures, an editing program, the NIKON camera that I have wanted for forever, a tripod, etc. but for now I will do with what I have and allow God to use me now. I believe that one day I will write a book, and take pictures that will go along with that book. Shawn prophecied over me a few years back that I would write a book, and each page, each chapeter would have a picture that would go along with it, these pictures would be the key to tie in what I was saying, what I wanted to get across...I have a way with words, and would one day, have a way with pictures, that would change the world.
I have had many dreams broken over the last few years, but this is one dream that God is continuing to stir up within me over and over...I only fail if I don't try...
SO, what am I waiting for?!!

Simply,

Andrea

Lost...

Have you ever been in a place where you feel so completely lost? This is where I am. I feel lost. Completely lost. I feel like I don't belong anywhere, that I'm not LIVING my life. I have so many dreams, so many things I want to accomplish. When I look back on my life I want to be able to say, to see, that I have truly lived, that I have accomplished much, that my dreams came true. How did I get here? How did I get so lost? In a way, I feel like I've moved backwards---everything says I've moved backwards. I don't have a job, I'm living with my sister, I've loved and lost, etc. Before I left Waxahachie in 2009, I had a great job, a house of my own, a car, a "real" life...I had never truly loved. Now that I'm back, I've truly loved, but I lost him, etc. In my human mind, with my human eye, my fleshly perspective, I have walked backwards. BUT I know that God called me back to Hachie. I know that I am here for a season, I KNOW this. Noone else may understand it, but I KNOW. I've lost everything now, in a way, I've even lost myself. So, now I have to find myself. I have to rediscover who I am, where I went, what I do, etc. I have to define myself. I have to listen to my Spirit, not my heart as I have learned it is deceptive. I can't listen to anyone, ANYONE else. Only I know what God is telling me. Only I know what He speaks to me. If noone else agrees, or noone else understands, that has to be ok...because only I know what He is saying to me, where He tells me to go, what He tells me to do, etc. Only I know.

Broken,

Andrea

Broken Dreams

Broken Dreams. We all have them. We've all dreamt big dreams and then lost them...whether it be because we were afraid, because of the choices we made, or simply because they weren't necessarily God's dreams for us...God dreams big dreams for us, over us. This is where I am now, in the "land of broken dreams". I'm a dreamer, I've always been a dreamer. My siblings might say I'm unrealistic, but what's the point of dreaming, if they seem to big, to perfect to be real, right? I've had alot of dreams in my 32 years of life. Some have come to pass...I have a Master's degree, I have the car I've wanted since I was 16, etc. But some dreams have been broken. Broken so bad that I can't even pick up the pieces. I've had dreams of a marriage, a family, to be a wife and a mother. Sometimes, the reality of these broken dreams is so real, so unbearable, that it is hard to breath. I cry alot when I think about the broken dreams. I know this is where I am right now, it is still fresh, still new. I also know that on the other side of these broken dreams, when I have new dreams, it won't be so painful. These have been dreams I have dreamt my entire life...and for the first time, a year ago, I got so close...closer to seeing this dream become a reality than I've ever been in my life...and then a couple of months ago it began to crumble right before my very eyes, and i didn't know how, or couldn't, stop it. Broken Dreams...I know that God dreams bigger for me than I could ever dream for myself. I struggle with why He would allow things, just to take them away, but no matter what, Blessed be His Name. I'm a blank slate...I have no preconcieved ideas of what my future holds, of what my dreams are. I guess this is a good place to be huh? It allows Him to do whatever He wants...completely. I still have the dream of being a wife and a mother, but I also know that if that wasn't part of His dream for me, it wouldn't be a desire of mine.
He sees the big picture. He knows why this dream fell apart, maybe to allow for a bigger dream for both of us? I don't know...but, I do know that I give Him my broken dreams, so that He can give me His big ones.
I don't know if any of this makes sense, but I tried:)

Learning to live through my broken dreams,

Andrea

Faithful

I don't know alot of things...Shocker I know!:) But, what I do know is that God is faithful. He is and has always been faithful! He has never failed me, never fallen short of his promises for me. There's a song by Matt Redman called "Never Once." No matter where my life has been, what I've been through, going through, or going to go through, He has and never will leave me to walk alone. I may not understand what He is doing, why He is allowing me, my brother, my family, to walk along this path, through this journey, I don't know, and I may never understand---BUT I know that He is faithful!
There isn't alot more I can say about that. HE IS FAITHFUL! That pretty much sums it up:) So as you may be walking through what seems like the darkest time of your life, you feel you are all alone, you don't understand what God is doing, and you feel like He has left you, that He's just picking on you, or even that He hates you...trust me, He is faithful!

http://youtu.be/7OqZ5Quae8Y

Poured out my best...

I have poured out my best for you. I have given you all that I have, all that I am. I have given you the deepest parts of me, the parts that I held most dear, the parts that were most special. I have given them to you, and in return, I trust, I have to trust, that You will give me Your best. It hurts and it's scary. I don't know what the future holds, I don't know if I'll ever see him again, if I'll ever love like this again, if anyone will ever love me like he does again. I fear that this was my chance, this was my chance at love, at happiness, at being a wife and a mother...BUT You asked that I let him go, that I seek Your face like never before...I just hope You know what You are doing...:) He asked me, "So I have to seek God in order to find you?" I said, "Yes." Hoping that in his seeking God he finds more than me...knowing that there is a chance that he won't find me at all, but he will find something better than he ever dreamed. My prayer for him is that he truly seeks the face of God, that he truly sees God like he has never seen Him before. My prayer is that God completely shakes his world.
I hate being the girl who obeys...I hate the fact that when God asks me to do something, I just do it...yes, I ask questions, and I doubt, but I do it. Because the alternative scares me more. I won't entertain the thought of not obeying...I can't...and I don't know how some people can. There isn't anything that is more important than the obedience of God. I've come too far and I've waited to long to just have my own way, do my own thing...there are too many souls that I have to reach, to many books that I have to write.
Love...I will write a book about love someday. Marriage, I will write a book about marriage someday...what it is supposed to look like, biblically...that I know...so my fear of this being my chance, kind of stupid huh? I know the promises God has given me...I know that He has promised me that my marriage would be so good that it would look like a facade to some, but it would be real. So, this timing thing, this waiting, this broken heart---it will be worth it...atleast that's what I keep telling myself...

Broken hearted,

Andrea