Into the Hands of the Potter

     Hi Everyone! Welcome to my first ever blog. Which would make this my first ever blog-post! I never really did understand the appeal of keeping a blog. Knowing me, if I had ever started a blog previously I would have written 3 or 4 awesome posts and then would forget all about it or get lazy and never write one again.  BUT this will be different.  It really will! My motivation: keeping beloved friends and family updated with all the crazy new experiences I will be having the next 5 months.  
     For those of you who don't already know: I am taking this semester off of school to participate in a missions training program.  I will be in Denver, Colorado for 3 months learning more about myself and the specific gifts God has given me to be effective in mission work, and then I will be overseas for 2 months (Location TBD) applying what I have learned on the mission field! The organization is Youth with a Mission (YWAM) and the specific program I am in is called a Discipleship Training School (DTS).  (WOW THAT WAS A LOT OF CAPITAL LETTERS IN PARENTHESES IN ONE PARAGRAPH).
     An important part of my blog will be writing specifics about what God is teaching me and ways I have seen Him actively working in my life, because I know He will be- not because I am in a 5-month mission-intensive program, but because He always does.  He's just cool and faithful like that. :)  Going into this new experience, God has been preparing me in many different ways. The word that has been in my head non-stop the past few weeks is "open".  I want to go to Colorado with an open mind, heart, ears, and eyes.  I am not going in with any expectations about what God should or shouldn't do. This is definitely easier said than done and requires surrender, obedience, and trust in God. But in the end, I much prefer to trust God and put the next 5 months completely into His hands than try to be responsible for it.  I know that anything I could come up with would not be even remotely close to the awesome, life-changing things He has in store!  Isaiah 64:8 says "But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand".  I have no greater desire than to be molded by God's hands.  Before I can be molded, though, I must become clay!  I need to be mold-able.  And this is where the idea of being "open" plays in.  I want to surrender myself to become clay.  It is a lot easier to form than stone.  Sure, God is able to form stone, but the process is a lot simpler if we start out as clay.  So you can call me clay, because that is what I am and strive to be every day.




p.s. I hope everyone likes/gets the title of my page! Credit goes to my awesome uncle, Uncle Ken. Considered putting the song in the background, but figured that would be kind of annoying to listen to while trying to read!