What If World

Two years ago around this time I was dating a wonderful girl and studying to be an elementary education major at Belmont Abbey College. Everything seem to be going by plan and it all seemed perfect. I had just told all my fraternity brothers that I was planning on marrying this girl and had been saving up for a ring.  After I graduated I would be getting married and living in the beautiful Carolinas.  If you know anything about me now, then you would know that none of this actually happened except for graduating with an education degree and I love what I am doing now. But every once in a while I will stop and think What If.

For the longest time I lived in that What if world.  What if I married that girl? What if I stayed in the Carolinas? What if I woke up every day to teach a third grade class instead of working as a youth minister?  But all of those things have changed for a reason. Some reasons God has already showed for me but the rest can only come through by my trust in him.  Talking to one of my best friends the other day about the past it began to make me think.  If we constantly concentrate on the past and the what ifs we are slowly killing ourselves on the inside.  We think about the things that could have been and the things that were once great, but they were great for that time in our lives.  God provides us with new opportunities and new people in our lives every single day.  If there is one thing that anyone takes from this article is that God provides for us.  Too many times we rely on our feelings and what is weighing on our hearts.  We must and should always rely on prayer and what God provides for us.

Finally, I have heard from many of people that sometimes they feel that they have lost their true love.  God will not allow something like that to happen if you rely on him.  I have found that my vocation at this point of my life is to be single. I fully concentrate on my relationship with him and he has provided some wonderful people entering into my life. I no longer concentrate on the what if I was married today, but concentrate on what will God do for me next.  I am a firm believer in true love. Again like I said in my previous article. God is love and God will PROVIDE me that love.

Love Like a Child

Has anyone ever told you to grow up and stop acting like a kid? Well plenty of people have told me that and I hate it. Whats so wrong with being a kid? I am actually envious of every child I meet. The reason being is the way they love another person.

Today in mass during communion I watched as every parent walked their child up and each child received a blessing from the priest. Every child looked up the priest with a huge grin on his and her face and received a blessing. That right there is love at its finest.  Children at such a young age have no idea of the horrors and pain in the world. They look at everyone with a loving smile and go on. As the child received his or her blessing they didn't know better then to smile as they received. They just received a blessing as we received the Eucharist.    As I watched many people at mass go up and receive the Eucharist as they do every Sunday and it becomes a routine.  Think if a child shows his or her love for a blessing why can't we show our love for the Eucharist.  A child's love is so pure compared to our own. 

There is one person in my life that I  have always seen this type of love in.  I talk to her all the time because she is one of the two most important people in my life.  She shows me every time what true love really is.  Every time we talk the same thing happens. We will have a nice conversation and tell each other what is going in our lives and she always ends the conversation saying "I love you".  Those three simple words seem to brighten my day every time. Now, most people say that those are just words, but when it comes from her I can tell that she means it every time. I know she means it because she talks to me about those three simple words all the time.   That right there is the love of a child. The love that no matter what is always there. The only place that this true love can come from is God. The unconditional love that only a child or someone that has a child like faith can see. The love that God wants each and every one of us to have and cherish. 

Today in mass God didn't tell me to grow up and stop acting like a kid. God told me to look back and love like a child. 

Little Acts of Kindness Brighten a Day

I know jumping ahead a little bit by this picture but I have to start somewhere.  This picture shows the first snow of winter on October 30, 2012 in Juneau, Alaska. This is not just some random picture where I am showing off how amazing Juneau is, but this picture was taken moments before the most loving children ran over to help me clean off my car so I could get to my meeting I thought I would be late for.   The one act of kindness that would spur a day that would seem horrible to most people but turned out to be a great day.

Being from South Carolina I never really learned to drive in this kind of weather. The roads were slick and I was sliding every where, but I stayed on the road and kept control. The problem was that my car didn't want  to go up hill. As I began to turn in front of the State Capital building my car began to slide right up against the curb and I was on a hill so I was stuck there for a while. But who knew the hospitality of Alaskans, I had three people offer to help me push it out, one person to put salt under my tires, and the Priest from the Cathedral come running down the road to help me. Now you can't find that kindness everywhere.

Kindness doesn't stop there. After the whole fiasco in downtown I finally made it back into the Valley. The Valley is where my main office (AKA The Bat Cave) and some of the most amazing people work. St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church has two of the most wonderful ladies working there. They are always making sure that I am alright and that I am taken care, so mom if you ever read this I am taken care of. But on top of that the front office lady got me lunch because she knew the trouble my car was having. A lot of people wouldn't do that for every body, but hey this place amazes me everyday.

No longer my plan but HIs

I hate writing, I hate reading, and I never thought I would ever write a blog. But hey I just moved across the country to Alaska and no one ever thought I would do something like that, so I guess its time for some other changes and starts here with this blog.

Every day I come home from work, snuggle up in a blanket and think about the day. I think about how crazy life in Alaska is and try to work through God's plan for me. Then I fall asleep wishing that I can share these great experiences with someone, but that becomes kind of difficult whenever everyone is three to four hours ahead of you. Luckily God has spoken through others and everyone keeps telling me the same thing to keep a blog. So for all you that want to read this it is not about my journey in Alaska, but God's plan for me as I move through life. Every day is different and I truly can't explain how much I have grown in words but hey this is my chance to try and do so.