The Ever After Lady-T.E.A.L.

www.theeverafterlady.com

More info to come--this has been the great project of my last two years of college!

The Ever After Lady (T.E.A.L.) will be an online social media community for women that have been diagnosed with life threatening illnesses. 

Every woman deserves to live happily ever after!! 

Stay tuned for our new, interactive website! 

~Alexa    

Investigate

God is looking for imperfect men and women who have learned to walk in moment-by-moment dependence on the Holy Spirit. Christians who have come to terms with their inadequacies, fears, and failures. Believers who have become discontent with ‘surviving’ and have taken the time to investigate everything God has to offer in this life.- 

Charles Stanley

Life is an investigation- investigating who we are, who we want to be, who the successful people are (and what makes them that way), as well as discovering the reason we are on this earth.  

Whenever someone asks me what a passion of mine is, I often respond, "Theology". I love the study of why people believe what they believe and why they believe it. I love the investigation. I love the soul searching. It is SO human, and so real. It reveals our doubts, our concerns and our dreams. 

Our Heavenly Father desires that we investigate him. Dare I say, He wants you to sit down and attempt to critique him, analyze him, and find fault in his perfection. We are human-we want answers! We hope to investigate once we have come up with a hypothesis of why God is. 

When we proclaim that God is good, we search for his goodness. When we hear a friend say God is gracious, we search for evidence of grace. 

God desires an investigation. 

Why? Because he is faultless, perfect, constant, and THE answer. 

The solution to our problem is why we investigate- Our God desires to be investigated. He wants to be our solution. 

When we hear something about our God, let us take time to pray on those truths, and see if He in fact adds up to the world's proclamations. Often the world will lead us astray through their "feelings", instead of the facts of who God is. Or, we may encounter an outlier who is not in touch with the reality of our God. But, once we take in the world, and lay that against the truth of the scripture (our avenue for discovering the true and perfect God) we can discern what is false AND-(this is the greatest part)- we come to know the Lord better through the investigation.   

Here is an Abrahamic Promise for us that will sustain us in our searching. In Deuteronomy, we see a declaration by Moses, through the Lord. 

"But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all of your heart and all of your soul."- Deut. 4:29 

And this will all occur, because we serve a merciful God who will never forget "the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them". And, a jealous God who "is a consuming fire" ready to protect you because He desires YOU and investigates and pursues YOU daily! 

I find it pretty amazing that the God that we pursue is perfect- and it is difficult for us to find the motivation to continue pursuing Him.  Yet, we are so far from perfect- and our God investigates our hearts, searches them, and loves us unconditionally even through the obvious imperfection.   

Let us promise to investigate our God and search the heart of the Lord. We will continually be renewed, finding perfected goodness and holiness!  

Psalm 139:23- "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!" 

A Turbulent Heart

Yesterday I had the opportunity to serve on the "Student Panel" for High Point University' Admissions event, Presidential Scholarship Weekend. One young man in the crowd asked me a question that in the past, I had routinely answered without pause. He stated, "What was the toughest for you about the transition from highschool to college?" In the past, I had immediately responded, "not having my family close by", "meeting a new group of friends", or "being in a new environment." Instead, yesterday, I responded differently. And I said something-that at the time- did not make sense to me. I woke up this morning wondering why I said it, and where it even came from.
"You know, I believe the most important aspect of the transition is having a contentment of knowing where you are-and understanding that you will be in this new environment for four years. Know where you are, and thrive in it for four years. "
I think it is very interesting how often the words we speak are the ones that WE need to hear-not our audience. I had never said anything like that before to someone when they asked about college life. I continually create a lack of contentment within me- and continually find myself anxious for the future.

This morning I was reading a chapter in one of my favorite books of the Bible, Isaiah 40. It discusses comfort for God's people, that is guaranteed when we are in the grasp of our Lord. I noticed multiple verses that mention a common theme...

"Make straight the desert a highway for our God" (v. 3)
" Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low, and the uneven ground shall become level" (v. 4)
"And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together" (v. 5)

Isn't it so true that often our hearts feel one of two ways- like we are in the desert-thirsting for something more to quench the overwhelming desire we have within us. Or, we feel as though our hearts are turbulent-filled with mountains and valleys (sometimes within a 24 hour period!) and laden with uneven ground.

Just as roads transform rocky, sandy, shaky desert ground to solid highways, and turbulent hearts become stable and level, our Lord will do a work within us in the same manner.

He is the steadier of our hearts, the One who smooths the terrain, and the One who calms the violent emotions that take place within us every day.  This is how he comforts us! Often, He doesn't comfort us simply by throwing joy at us-maybe he comforts us by the steadying of our hearts, and smoothing  the rocky nature of our emotions.

The mouth of the Lord has spoken to his people, and continues to speak into our hearts every day. 

"Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need." Philippians 4:11-12 

The Lord God Almighty-with strength and power that we cannot fathom takes the time to mold our hearts and steady them. How beautiful is the image of the Lord, that shaped us and formed us, continues to take the time every moment of every day to speak truth to our souls. He does not tire, he does not grow weary, even when his followers do. He does not lose heart when our Hearts lost focus, grow dry or grow turbulent. 

Allow your heart to be steadied by Him. It is His beautiful way of comforting us. 

Contentment is found in the understanding of permanence. Even though we will not be found permanently on this earth, we can stay content where we are because of the over-arching, permanent, steadiness found in Him.