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I love you,

Whitney

The context of this verse applies so profoundly to this season of my life. I don’t want to talk about specifics because I’m sick of hashing it out, to be honest, but I will tell you that I’ve been dealing with several emotions that I haven’t really had to deal with up until this point in my life: crippling fear and loneliness. How precious this chapter of scripture is in addressing both.

Verse 1: The Lord is my light and my salvation -whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid? How many times have I recited this verse to myself over the last week…I couldn’t count. Some of my fear is rational, but Satan has done his worst trying to twist my mind, turning what should have been caution into an irrational fear. So what do I do to overcome? Seek His face! I just repeat that over and over. Your face, Lord, I will seek. Whom shall I fear…You are the stronghold of my life… You, and not fear.

“I’m lonely” is not something that I have ever said out loud. I’ve never even really thought it. But loneliness has been trying to absolutely tear my mind apart. Again, the devil’s trying to get a foothold during this season of transition, trying to convince me that I can’t survive alone and that I’m completely disconnected from the outside world. Honestly, I’m only disconnected if I let myself become that way. I have a tendency to hole up instead of reaching out. But not this time. Your face, Lord, I will seek. Whether in the Word or at church or in a friend, Your face I will seek. You are the stronghold of my life. You, and not loneliness.

The mind is such a battlefield. I think that all those internal functions of the body, the mind, the heart, are so tricky. They are so valuable and vital in spiritual growth and happiness, but are such fertile ground for seeds of discontent and falsehood. Our minds lie to us. Our hearts fool us. But at the same time we can pursue the mind of Christ and a heart like God’s. The only way to protect ourselves is to just have that confidence in God and trust that He’s going to protect us. Because, truthfully, what can we really do to protect ourselves? If someone is going to hurt us they’re going to hurt us. There’s nothing we can do about it.

I love how Psalm 27 ends. It’s seems so human to me, the way David is reassuring himself: “Wait for the Lord: be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

Wait. Just wait. It’s scary now, but He’s coming. Just a few moments more.

I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see him with my own eyes – I and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

Just wait.

So the Monday Manna scripture is this:

My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
Your face, Lord, I will seek.
Psalm 27:8

I hope some of you will participate! Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

If you need a refresher on the rules, click here. Oh, and if you DO decide to participate, do the right thing and give sweet Kristen a shout out on your blog.

Have fun!

Anyway.

It’s all about meme baby.

Here are the tag rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six Random Things About Me:

1. I like bananas but I hate banana flavored anything. Those new Vivanos at Starbucks? Gross. I’ll dip a banana in chocolate and pass out from the delicious, but squish the two together in a cup? Pass the vomit bag please.

2. In the same Starbucks vein, I absolutely MUST line up the logo on the cup with the logo on the cardboard sleeve and then both of those MUST be centered with the opening in the lid that you drink through. Back up off me with your OCD. It does not compare. P.S. – I saw the funniest flare on facebook the other day (one of you may well have sent it to me, but along with my OCD I am also ADD, so I forgot immediately who it was that sent it.)

What was I talking about…?

Oh right. The flare said “I’m CDO, which is like OCD except the letters are in alphabetical order, exactly as they should be.”

3. One of the funniest foreign language words I know is “ook.” It’s Dutch for “also.” I think it is also monkey for “please hand me a banana before I begin throwing feces.” It’s interesting the similarities between the monkeys and the Dutch. Maybe I should apply the same principle at Starbucks. Banana smoothie, hold the smoothie. Or else.

4. I was supposed to finish my 50 Day devotional entry 2 weeks ago but I didn’t turn it in until this morning. What are they going to do? Run it without me? Please.

Oh, I kid.

5. The next 5 songs on shuffle on my iPod are 1) Total Praise - Avalon 2) Let’s Stay Together – Al Green 3) All I Want – Joni Mitchell 4) Doth I Protest Too Much – Alanis Morissette and 5) Seasons Change – Corinne Bailey Rae

6. I think Vera Bradley purses are really, really, really ugly.

Tag 6 people. No. How’s that? If you want to play, knock your socks off. If not, you’re not breaking my heart. If you do want to play, leave your link in the comments. Also, if you’re into the Monday Manna thing let me know. I think that’s a super cool idea.

Peace out, sweet peeps.

This nearly made me wet my pants last week.

I think I laughed for a full 5 minutes.

That’s all.

Love, Whitney

**Update**
I just realized that saying that I “Blogsurf from my sidebar” very nearly makes me sound athletic. Don’t you think? Anyway. You know. Hang 10 dudes.

And the back:

Aw yeah.

The picture kind of loses the effect of the flippies, but you get the idea.

I need you to understand that this is the shortest my hair has been since 4th grade. My grandmother cut my hair when I was a kid, which meant that my hair was always short on the top, cut over the ears, and landed just at the nape of my neck. Now, if you read that closely enough, you know that what I’m describing is basically a mullet. It wasn’t strictly “all business in the front and a party in the back.” Mine wasn’t that fancy. Just plain ugly would about sum it up.

So ever since I’ve had any say-so in the styling of my hair, it’s been long long long. I grew it ridiculously long last year, had about 3 inches taken off for my sister’s wedding, then wasn’t cut again for 8 months. My poor hairdresser held the frayed, split, fried ends of my limp locks in her hand yesterday and made the “ooohhh…that’s bad….” face. I said – do whatever you want, but if you could cut it thicker that’d be great thankyouverymuch.

I love my girl. She’s completely amazing. If you’ve got the coin to drop on a fancy hair place (which I don’t, hence the 8 month haircutting hiatus) go see Amber at Joseph’s on the Square in Lawrenceville. She’s a blast, she’s amazing at the cutting of the hairs, and she shares my love of stupid Will Ferrell movies. Which, of course, is what we call a triple threat.

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PRAYERS. It means everything.

Love you.