A Blessed Summer

I type this as I lay in bed wide awake, suffering from coffee overdose, completely exhausted physically and mind racing. In a bed in Jacksonville at a host home, with Christine asleep beside me, with music in my ears and trying to do anything to unload and settle my racing mind, I still feel the Lord's presence.

We are on week 2, day 2 and having so much fun. It's been such a great experience thus far. Completely worth it all for even the small amount of time we've had. Like I said, I'm in Jacksonville, FL, staying with a sweet elderly couple that has been so kind and hospitable. I am thrilled to be apart of such a great time of growing in the Lord.

As I think about how the last week flew by and how soon the next week will be over, I was just thinking about how nervous I was that I would hate it and be ready for it to be over. Silly, I know. But as I was thinking of this, God revealed to me that is was because of Him that I joined Summer Misnistry team and it is because of Him that I am enjoying it so. The Lord wanted to bless me this summer. He shows off sometimes. I can't help but feel overwhelmingly grateful.

I knew since probably winter that I wanted to do SMT. After I made up my mind, I pretty much had a peace about it from then on. It wasn't till it was almost time to leave Nashville and my two pregnant sisters that the utter fear hit me. Fear of missing out at home and fear of regretting the decision to leave everything for the summer. I then reminded myself to not forget what God led me to do. It was to leave my comfort zone and GO. But let me tell you, I didn't have to deal with that fear for long. immediately after arriving I knew it would be one of the best summers of my life.

I feel like God is just saying.. "enjoy yourself!" Like the reason He wanted me to do SMT was for me to experience His desire to bless me like never before. There's nothing like being in tune with God and knowing that you are following where He leads. Nothing compares to it.

It has been a learning experience in many more ways than one but what has stuck with me the most thus far is just learning to trust that He desires to bless me. I felt really compelled to share this. I hope it means something to someone. Hopefully it encourages you to take the step of faith and trust that God will provide your needs, provide your joy and bless you immensely on top of all of that.

Thank you God for this opportunity!

Loving Love

Lately, I've been thinking about what I'm like to other people. Now, there's a lot of things I would like to say I am. But how do people think of me? How will I be remembered?

Something I want to be remembered by is love. I want to love the heck out of people. Everyone I meet I want them to know I love them. Cheesy or not, I love love! And I want my life to be a picture of love. A life filled with loving others the way I have been loved.

I find it funny how being fake comes so naturally to us. It is perfectly acceptable- almost encouraged- to smile and be as friendly as possible, then say whatever you want about them behind their back. Now, I must admit, my personality is a pro at this. I can almost always immediately come up with something to say about someone. As many would say, it's the Francis Folsom in me to be that honest. My grandmother is known for saying whatever she wants whenever to whomever she wants. One of my absolute favorite and least favorite things about her. So as you can imagine, this is something I have to work towards. Real hard.

 So the question I've asked so many times is, "If this comes so natural for me to speak my mind, however am I supposed to stop?" Like I said, there's an immediate reaction going on in my head to most things and there's a likely chance it's going to make its way out of my mouth. How do I stop excusing it by saying "It's just who I am. It's the Francis Folsom in me." The answer is LOVE. Of course, because the answer to everything is love. Because God is love. And because love is awesome.

If my actions and words reflect my heart, then I want to be speaking LOVE and acting out God's love. As I sit here writing this I have the most ridiculous face/smile. An 'I LOVE LOVE' face. If you haven't seen it, consider yourself lucky. But I simply can't help but make this ridiculous 'I.L.L.' face when I think of love. Love is adorable. I adore seeing people do things out of love; to sacrifice out of love. IT'S ADORABLE.

So this people, is what I am thrilled to announce I am working on bettering. To change my heart to love and care for the people I meet. To NOT give into my southern ways and speak poorly about them. But most of all to show them the love that I've been so graciously shown.

I love that you read this.