Lesson(s) Learned

As I type this, tears begin to sting my eyes, which is exactly why I’ve avoided writing for a while because I knew this would happen. Each one of the words/phrases above: “engagement,” “deployment,” and “Living in the God Margin” bring a host of emotions to the table that words alone cannot justly or appropriately serve. Since I don’t even know where to begin, I’ll simply start here: Every good story has a certain amount of shock value to it.   From children’s literature to screen plays, twists, turns, and surprise endings catch us at every corner and keep us coming back and browsing around for more. This October, I have lived what some may call a “great adventure,” ridden what some may term an “emotional rollercoaster,” and experienced what some may even deem a “God encounter.“ While I’m honestly still trying to sort everything out and process it all, allow me to share with you my story… It all started on Wednesday, October 2 nd . My school (LCA) decided

If you want to know how to “Get It Right” on Mother’s Day. I have some very simple pieces of advice for you. 1.      Know who your mom isn’t. 2.      Know who your mom is. 3.      Make it more about her than you. 4.      Plan accordingly. With all said, let’s start with a story, shall we? Quite a few weeks ago, I went to Target in hopes of securing a Mother’s Day card before “all the good ones” were taken. (I assumed I had already purchased every Mother’s Day card Hallmark had to offer. #HallmarkPlatinumMember) I wanted to get a really good card for her. Because she’s a really good mom. Every really good mom deserves a really good card. Right? Well, yes. That, and I didn’t want to be interviewed on the evening news for why I was waiting until the last minute to thank the woman who gave birth to me. In fact, I remember watching the Jacksonville news one time a few years ago, and that happened. The news crew decided for some strange reason to intervi

For some of you in my life, you've been asking, praying, and waiting to see something noteworthy happening in my dating life. So have I. Because I don't exactly know where to start, I'll simply begin at the beginning. Jeff and I both went to school together at Trinity Christian Academy here in Jacksonville from kindergarten to twelfth grade. From first grade to sixth grade, we had all the same teachers. Because our last names are so similar alphabetically (Hazard and Hill), we were seemingly ALWAYS sitting next to each other. Seriously. Always. Around. Each. Other. haha… For those of you that know me well or have known me for a long time, you know that God's done quite the work in my life over the years in chipping away some (note: not all) of my childhood sassiness and giving me a sweet spirit in its place. However, for those of you that knew me then, you would readily agree that I was quite the "over-confident little girl" (to quote my daddy).

Lately, I've been going through a personal Bible study by Kelly Minter entitled "Nehemiah: A Heart That Can Break," and I have recently (within the last couple of days or so) asked that God would specifically break my heart for something that breaks His. Naturally, we all have those areas that touch a soft spot in our hearts, but this prayer I've been praying asked God to specifically break my heart for something or some area that I had not yet considered. In other words, I've been asking God to extend the borders of my scope of compassion. At the end of the day, I truly want my life and my compassion for others to mirror that of the heart of God for the world in its entirety. I'm not there yet. Not. even. close. Today, God very vividly answered my prayer for a broken heart for something that breaks His heart. But, as you can probably imagine, it came in a much different packaging than I originally anticipated (which, in itself, is a testament to

Sometimes, I like to make "deals" with God. Don't look at me that way... you know you've done it too. At the very least, you've thought about it. The deals I'm talking about look and sound something like this... "God, if You ______________, then I'll _______________." Oftentimes, in my own life, these kinds of prayer-deals with God flow from a result of uncertainty and a pure desire to have a "clear sign" from God on which way to go, what decision to make, what to do next, the timescale of when I should act on something, etc. However, sometimes, these kinds of prayer-deals that I make with God are a result of impatience or a lack of trust on my part. If God gave us all the "clear signs" we asked for, we'd start worshipping the signs and not the One whose very signature is written all over our entire beings. As a common worship song reminds us, "from life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny.&