first time.

tomorrow will be my first time giving a wyldlife talk. i'm nervous, excited, anxious, and so thankful to have this opportunity all at the same time. like i said in my other post about wyldlife-they really mean the world to me. the relationships i've built through wyldlife are incredible. and i'm beyond blessed to get to share about who christ is with them. i decided to think back to when i was in middle school (not the best years of my life...haha) and think about what i would have needed to hear when i was there age. i kept coming back to gaining a better understanding of how loved i am. to this day i still can't fathom/begin to understand how much the lord loves me but i've had glimpses, and with these glimpses of his love my view of my self, my view on friendships, relationships, parents siblings everything has changed.

so i decided i would talk to the middle schoolers about his love for us. my next step was deciding what story to use in the bible. i decided one of the best representation of the father's love for us in the new testament is the parable of the lost son. its a pretty common parable but i think it really demonstrates how much the father loves us. and no matter what we do, what mistake we make-he is going to love us. so deeply and unconditionally. then i had to decide on a story about myself to apply it to. i had a really hard time coming up with one. however, it finally hit me and i had the perfect story. its not really exciting or cool but its pretty funny. basically, my family was on a trip, we were staying in a hotel. and i decided at 1145pm to leave the hotel room to go explore (i was like 7 years old) i didn't tell my parents and just left. i guess i was quiet becuase they didn't hear me leave. so i wondered for a while and then realized how bad of a choice that was. i had 2 problems-1. i thought my parents were going to be livid. they had no idea where i was and they would be so upset with me. 2)i had no idea where i was. i had wondered around so much i was completely lost. so i just sat down and cried. finally a hotel worker came and found me. i was so scared to go back to the room because i was convinced my parents would be upset, but i desperately wanted to get back to the room asap. and when i arrived, they were so relieved. and happy i was back safe and sound. i felt so loved. i think this story relates pretty well to the story of the lost son too. the last step i had to take was applying this to our lives now. i think sometimes we think god will be angry or upset with us if we make a mistake. and then we have to do good to earn it back. but that couldn't be further from the truth. the lord loves us so much. beyond any measure. he has since the beginning of time. no not since the beginning of when we were born the beginning of time-when he created the heavens and the earth. that's insane. the reality is the Lord's love is eternal. the same way my parents had compassion on me and the father had compassion on his son when he returned. God has compassion on us. he wants us with him. and he is not going to stop until we come home.