Claiming Truth

While I was in Georgia I decided that I was going to claim one truth a day for me and for a friend about Who we are in Christ.... I just read all of them again. WOW!

In Christ you are...

• God's beloved child (John 1:12, Eph 1:5)
• Christ's dear friend (John 15:5)
• Declared perfectly righteous (Romans 5:1)
• Free from condemnation (Rom 8:1, Col 2:14-16)
• United with Christ (1 Cor 6:17, Eph 5:31)
• A member of Christ's body (1 Corin 6:15, 12:27)
• The Temple of God (1 Corn 6:19)
• Filled with the "fullness of God" (Eph 3:19)
• A "Holy One" saint (Eph 1:1)
• Blessed with every spiritual blessing (Eph 1:3)
• Holy and Blameless (Eph 1:4)
• Bought with an infinite price and forgiven (1 Corin 6:20, Eph 1:7, Col 1:14)
• Bathed with wisdom and understanding (Eph 1:8)
• The recipient of an eternal, infinitely rich, inheritance (Eph 1:11,18)
• Possessed with the mind of Christ (1 Corin 2:16)
• Inseparable from God's love (Rom 8:35-39)
• One who will NEVER be abandoned (Matthew 28:20)
• The beautiful bride of Christ who "ravishes" the heart of God (Song of Songs 4:1,6:4)
• One over whom the Lord rejoices, sings and clap His hands (Zeph 3:17)

The rest will come tomorrow! Do you claim these are truth in your life? Because they are!

Just Dance

A lot is going on in the land of Adrienne. This past weekend was my favorite weekend of the year. OGLEBAY!!!! Every year all the staff, leaders, volunteers, committee, and friends of YL gather together at Oglebay to hang out, worship, dig into scripture, and learn how we can love kids and Christ better. This year the Tuel's brought their Wii and the game Just Dance. I'm waiting for fabulous video to be posted to facebook and then I'll post it to my blog. We played it for hours and hours! Hilarious!!!!

Oglebay stretched me in ways I had not imagined this year. It was my first year to host a seminar. Starting YoungLives: In the Beginning. It was a great turn out of people interested in maybe starting YLVS, I hope they got something out of it. I also learned I can communicate quite well. God has asked me to work on a couple of things 1) communicating 2) asking for help. Both so far are going really well. It is nice to know that when God asks you to change something(s) He will equip you to make those changes.

An oldie but a goodie

This is my story, this is my song: Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song: Praising my Savior all the day long.

Blessed Assurance. Jesus is mine

Oh, What a foretaste of glory divine

Heir of salvation, purchase of God,

Born of His spirit, washed in His blood

Perfect Submission, perfect delight

Visions of rapture now burst on my sight

Angels descending, bright from above

Echoes of mercy, whispers of love

Perfect submission, all is at rest

I in my Savior am happy and blest

Watching and waiting, looking above,

filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

Some days it is so hard to sing this song let alone feel like it is true... today is NOT one of those days for me...... THIS IS MY STORY... THIS IS MY SONG : Praising my Savior all the day long!

Can you sing the chorus after each one of these verses?

WH Duex

I spent last weekend @ Rockbridge. Rockbridge is a YL camp in Virginia and if you've been following me for awhile, my home last July. It was a great weekend with all the YoungLives staff in the Eastern Division. It was so nice to meet my other team members who are excited about sharing Christ's love with teen moms. I loved sitting at their feet, gathering suggestions, and just hanging out.

God slowed me down, always does at Rockbridge which is one of my favorite places on earth, and really gave me a glimpse into what the incarnation really is! I meditated most of the weekend on the fact that God desired me enough to put on flesh and come down here to get dirty! I love a man who loves the outdoors and hiking :)

We often think about what He did for us on the cross, which was HUGE but we often forget the magnitude that there was flesh to be broken and blood to be shed. Seriously, I just was and still am in awe that He wanted me that badly! He knew I wasn't coming to Him so He had to come get me!

That is what I have been called to do, go to where high school kids are, I can't sit back create a nice little program and expect them to horse up and come hang out. So I go to the school, stand awkwardly in the cafeteria, or I walk down the halls as people wonder who the heck I am. I mean seriously if Christ can do that for me.... I am happy to throw the old hiking boots on and slap a visitors badge on and set out on a little hike through the halls....

Well the visitors badge I'd be okay if they did away with that... I mean just slap ADULT on my forehead! Geez they are cramping my style!

Watering Hole #1 SharpTop: Winter Training

January has been a month of traveling and there is still another weekend to go. I was expecting great things at each one of these 'watering holes'.

This was my second year of WT, my class was Pastoral Counseling, Intro to Family Systems. I had no idea of what to expect from this class. I knew going in that my family was dysfunctional so I wasn't really expecting to learn that. I didn't! Instead I learned that the roles I filled as a child out of survival and necessity I was still operating out of today. Without pouring out our family history (I'll save your eyes from the craziness of it all). I learned some significant patterns that I now have the awareness and ability to break.

1) I do not ask for help well or at all.

2) My anger shows up as sadness, I never learned how to express anger.

3) I never offer myself grace.

4) I operate out of the fear of abandonment. - def a people pleaser!!!!

We had to do our six word autobiography, really hard! At the beginning of the week these were the ones I came up with.

1. Rocky start, determined to finish first.

2. Funny girl! Laughter covered my pain.

3. Feel forgotten, seriously where is he!?!?!?

4. Free spirited but can't stop roaming.

(after the week in class)

1. Did not remain on repeat button.

2. Confident that I wasn't looked over!!!

3. Knew I was wanted and loved!

As always asked: practically how will you apply these things... still pouring over my notes and laying these things at the feet of Christ who will over time speak into each of them and offer me the perfect plan to change them.

Patience....

Today I had lunch with some of my discipleship girls before they head back to all their schools. We were talking about 2009 what we felt like God showed us, how we have changed and what we are looking forward to in 2010. Looking back over the past year is something I really look forward to. I love journaling and love re-reading my journals.... you gotta love the journey as well as the destination!

I've discovered God has done some great things and is also taking His sweet time with some stuff. Over the past 8 or so months I feel like God has been asking me to be patient about a lot of stuff... most days I'm okay with this, I know He provides! Lately though I feel like my motto is.... I'm tired of waiting for patience, give it to me already and lets move on! I realize this motto means that I'm in desperate need of it... but seriously lets get it and get going.

I have seen some really great things begin to change for me as I've waited for a long time for God to develop some fun heart characteristics in me. Surprisingly as I ask for more patience... I realize I am a LONG way off from where I was and that my patience level has grown. He has also softened my heart for growth in communication. I told the girls today that I really am longing for God to begin to change my poor communication skills... I have a hard time actually expressing what I want to say in a time of crisis and I am excited about really taking a closer look at this.

Patience will come guess I just have to be patient until it does .... hahaahahahahahaha

Walking as a Cracked Pot

There once lives a water carrier in India. He used two large pots for his task. He suspended a pole across his neck and attached a pot at each end of the pole. One of the pots had a big crack in it while the other pot was perfect. The perfect pot always delivered a full portion of water from the stream to the master's house, while the cracked pot arrived only half full each day.

For two years this water carrier made the same journey. The perfect pot became proud of its accomplishments. The cracked pot was ashamed of its imperfection and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. Finally, one day by the stream, the cracked pot spoke to its owner about his bitter failure. "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize that I have only been able to deliver half my water to your house. There is a crack in my side which causes water to leak out. Because of my flaws, you don't get full value from your efforts."

Then the water carrier replied, smiling, "As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path." On that trip from the stream, the cracked pot looked around.

"Did you notice there are flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?" the master commented. "That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we passed these spots, you watered them. Now for two years I have been able to pick those beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, I would not have this beauty to grace his house."

It is the way God works!