India

Posted by Morgan

Well, I don't have a bunch of National Geographic pictures to accompany this post. I don't have fancy words or some beautiful and eloquent outline planned in my head. What I do have is an overwhelming sense of compassion, love, and justice. 

India is calling me guys. I want to go and I want to go now. I know people who have gone and people who are going over to India to help get girls out of the sex-trafficking industry and helping them cope with the hurt and pain that comes with what they've been through. And right now my heart cries to the Lord, "SEND ME NOW!". I want to go. I want to serve and I want to share the love of Christ and the power of his name with girls who are hurt and broken. I want them to know the redeeming power of God. I want them to be free of that bondage and the baggage. I want to share truth with them and I want to love on them. I want to serve the Lord. 

I am so DONE with American culture. It honestly drive me crazy. I hate facebook. I truly do. I wish I could get rid of it and still successfully communicate with all the people I need to right now, but I can't. I tried. I hate how selfish I can be. I hate how consumer driven our country is. It's all about what can I gain, what can I get, what I can do. Well dear friends, this life is not about you OR what you want. It's about the Lord and His purpose for you. And yes, I want to go to India because I feel like the Lord has given me a love and a heart for the hurting and I want to use the gifts He's given me for His glory.

I want to go and I want to go now. I wish the Lord was telling me to NOT go to school on Sunday and pack up and head off to India for the next 6 months. That would be incredible. But that's not what He's saying, and as I have learned over and over, the Lord's timing is perfect and it is the best. So I will wait - but when He says go, I am ready.
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God is SO good

Posted by Morgan
Let me just say that God is so good. This week has gone so much better than I thought it would and God has done three awesome things. 

The week started off with LOTS of studying for my last two tests in college algebra. And just so you know, I strongly dislike algebra. I had my last week of work, which I successfully completed! I also got my roommate and suitemate assignments for this fall :) I was worried about all three of these things, and let me just say AGAIN, God is SO good! 

Algebra: I made a 100 on one of my tests and I passed the class with an A. I was floored. God cares about even the smallest things in our lives. When we work hard and truly desire to do things for the Lord's glory. He is faithful. One of my friends said that she felt silly praying for a test for me, but she did, and when I told her I made a 100 on that test, she celebrated with me! It was really awesome to see hard work and dedication pay off, God is so faithful.

Work: My biggest thing with this job has been wanting to be a light in that office. To put it in someone else's words, I am "in the thick of the world". I have been surrounded by more non-christians this summer than I ever have before. The Lord has been showing me that my actions truly do speak about who I am. I always knew this, and I firmly believed this, but I have truly seen this summer how my actions can be just as powerful, if not more powerful as my words. During this past week I really do believe I finished strong. In the middle of the week, a girl that I have been a D-Now leader for came in for her appointment. I went over to say hey and she was like "Morgan?!?!?" and the assistant told her she could get up and come say hi. We talked for a few and that was really all. Later that day in the hall that same assistant said something to me in front of several of the ladies who are obviously not christians. She said that I am doing an amazing job - in all area. She said that it was obvious by the girls reaction that I have impacted her. She said you will never know how you've changed her life forever.


The phrasing she used stuck me instantly. What she said, about never knowing how I've changed her life forever, was something I had heard before....from 2 other people. As my last few weeks of work have been approaching I've shared my concerns and desire to shine for Lord with a few people. On two separate occasions someone told me that I may never know how I've changed my co-workers lives forever. I finished strong, and God is so so good!


Roommate and Suitemates: I'm going to spare you the details, but I had a roommate for the fall and then one day I didn't. So I knew I would be paired with 3 random girls. Let me just say that when I first found out about this, I was less than thrilled. My roommate is from Brazil, and if you don't know, Brazil holds a very special place in my heart. Well to be more accurate, part of my heart is in Brazil. But I cannot get off on that tangent, this post would become a novel in no time. :) She seems like a very precious girl. She's a few years older than me, but she is transferring into Lee not knowing anyone. I know that God has placed me as her roommate for a reason. I'm excited to pour into her life in any way that God shows me I can and should.


My suitemates seem like precious girls! They are long-time friends and they are from a city north of Atlanta! It's kind of unreal that I will be moving in 2 weeks from today!! I'm excited to get back and meet these girls. They seem like really quality people and I pray that the transition goes smoothly. But I have a good feeling about this. :)


Tonight, my heart just overflows with God's joy. I feel like putting a million smiley faces down right now, but even then, I feel like that wouldn't quite do this joy justice. Oh my, God is so so SO good!! :) :)


Singing Harmony,
Morgan
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I say it all to say this: Glory to God

Posted by Morgan
Life is such an interesting thing. Every stage of life that I find myself in brings new challenges, and if I'm being honest, I don't really like a lot of the challenges it brings. The art of surrendering is hard, and yes, it is an art. It takes time and patience and persistence. 


I've mentioned before that I am working in an orthodontist office this summer as a lab assistant, and for the most part I have really enjoyed it. I have learned a lot of new skills and I really do enjoy the actual work part of it. Being one of only 3 or 4 Christians is a whole other story entirely.  The last week I have been absolutely bombarded with attacks spiritually and indirectly from some of the women I work with. You would have to know the ladies in the office and fully understand the dynamic of the workplace, but trust me, I am not exaggerating any of this. 


Over the last 2 months I have had a variety of different conversations in that office. But in the last week, a few of the ladies have shown their disapproval/disagreement with some of my life choices: my relationship with the Lord, my choices on dating, the boundaries I put into my friendships with guys, and, believe it or not, my decision to wait till marriage to have sex. Now, have they come right out and said I was wrong about each of these things? Not every single one, but some, yes.  I know a few of these ladies well enough by now to know how they are and what they do when they disapprove or disagree with something. Some get VERY quiet, some quickly change the subject, and some flat out tell you that is not what they would do or would ever recommend anyone do.


A few days ago I had a really interesting experience and God has definitely shown me a lot through that. I won't go into the details of the conversation or the context, because honestly, when you are working with 13 women, the conversation takes an extremely awkward and inappropriate turn and let's just say that this was definitely one of those times. 


What I learned and what God showed me after the fact, is that who I am is speaking for itself. There are some things I believe in and things I stand for that I haven't come out and just said, not because I'm ashamed or anything, the opportunity for some conversations just hasn't presented itself just yet. But even without me saying those things out loud, the ladies I work with knew that I stood for those things. It really was a testament to the work that God is doing in me. It is an answer to my prayers to see that what I believe is showing through my actions.


 I say all of this to give the glory to God. I say all of this to say that God does answer your prayers. I say all of this to challenge you to seek the Lord and ask Him to shine through you and your actions if He isn't already.


Singing Harmony,
Morgan
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Surrender

Posted by Morgan
So I gave my blog a makeover. It's kind of what I want to do with my life right now. Being home this summer has been so good, but it has not been without it's challenges. I find that there always seems to be a theme for the stage of life I'm in, and right now, it is most definitely surrender. Yeah, fun right?


Every thing book I read, every song I listen to, every conversation I have seems to continually point me in one single direction: full and complete surrender. I am being called to release to the Lord all of MY plans, MY hopes, and MY dreams. I am being called to trust the Lord in a more full and complete way with my future. There are some things that I have always held on to, and I've held on to them very tightly. There are several things like that, mainly they have to do with my future. What I will do, who I will be with, where I will be, who I will be around. All things like that.


Letting go is NOT easy. And to be honest, I don't like it at all. I am really bad about thinking about some things and over-analyzing them. The hardest part of surrender for me, at the moment any way, is keeping my thoughts and my mind focused on the Lord and not on the situation, or the thing I am trying to surrender. 


When I say everything has been pointing to surrender, I'm not kidding. I was listening to my sister's iPod in the car last night and the first song that came on was "Holding Nothing Back" by Melissa How, the second song was "I Surrender" by Kim Walker and I was like, are you kidding me? God really does know how to get my attention. 


About two weeks ago I read a series by Terri Blackstock. They were Christian fiction novels - I LOVED them. There were four in the series, and they were about a family living the typical American dream. Then suddenly all the power goes out, and not just electricity, cars didn't work, cell phones didn't work, basically nothing electronic worked. The books were about their journey of trusting the Lord and surrendering to Him even when the circumstances around them told them to rely on their own strength. The family went through loss and gain, joy and heartache. It really got me thinking about giving God glory and praise when everything around you is going wrong. When it feels like life just isn't fair and that the Lord should be doing something about what is going on. I know I forget that He really is in full control all the time. Anyway, the books really taught me a lot about surrendering to the Lord, even when every your fallen human desires say not to. 


Well, this hasn't been the most up-beat post. But it's honest. And that really is all I want to be. Honest with what God is doing in my heart and life. I'm not going to sugar-coat things, I hate sugar-coated things. Anyway, this is where I am. Walking with the Lord, walking through the hard stuff, and seeking him on a greater and deeper level.


Singing Harmony,
Morgan
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Travel Bug

Posted by Morgan
I am currently fighting the urge to just pack up and move out west. It's always been a dream of mine(for years and years and years) to live out west. I don't know where the desire and love for the west came from, but it's always been there.



One of my friends recently went to Yellowstone National Park, and I stole these pictures from her facebook....but she won't mind.


Gorgeous landscaping....




See the rainbow?






BEAUTIFUL!!



Um, yeah that's not gorgeous or anything....



Snow covered mountain tops = LOVE



Would that not be AMAZING to see??
I mean, hello! Do you see why I want to go there?? Yes, I know this is a national park...but it's so pretty!!



It's kinda safe to save I have the travel bug right now. This post got WAY too long, so I deiced to make it a page all it's own :) Check it out at the top or click here :)

I wanna go see God's beautiful creation. 


Singing Harmony,
Morgan

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Grateful

Posted by Morgan

These are 3 amazing friends of mine, and I am so grateful for them! One of them I have known her whole life - almost 19 years! And the other two I have known over 8 years. They are fantastic people and I am so incredibly thankful that the Lord has placed them in my life for so long.



You know the kind of people who just get you and love you for you? The ones that pour into your life and when you leave them you feel refreshed? These are those kinds of people.



We went to a braves game for my birthday, the game got delayed over 2 hours and we didn't get to see any of it, but we had so much fun just hanging out and talking. I'm very grateful for these three tonight.

I've recently been reminded of the importance of having yourself surrounded with good solid people who will pour into you and hold you accountable. Because I'm working this summer, the majority of the time I'm surrounded by people who aren't pouring into me, and I've found that pretty hard. And then when I am around any of these three, I find that I am refreshed and relaxed and that my spirit is at peace. They are great people. 

I can honestly say that each and every one of them has helped me through MULTIPLE hard times in my life. They have ALL gotten phone calls when I'm sobbing, and they have all been there to pray for me and to lift me up. These three are the three who know my little habits, what I do when I'm upset, when I'm truly excited about something, and my real smile from my fake one. These are the ones I pick up the phone to call when I have good news to share. They are the ones that I text to say, "oh my gosh, I just had the most ridiculously funny thing happen to me". These are real, true friends. And I am so grateful for them.



We laugh a lot. Laughter is so good. For some reason tonight I feel like going on and on about how much I appreciate these three. But I think you've got point by now.


Singing Harmony,
Morgan
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Just a Bad Day

Posted by Morgan
You ever have those days where just about everything DOESN'T happen the way you want it to? Well, that was my day.


It started off at 6 a.m. when I got up to get ready for work. I was running late for work, hit some red lights and barely made it on time. My hair was having one of those "I don't care what you want to do with me, I'm gonna do what I wanna do and you are just gonna have to deal with it" kind of days. Just gotta LOVE those. I trimmed off a little of the gum tissue of one of the plaster models I was making [I work at an orthodontist office in the lab....which is why I was trimming models and currently discussing gum tissue]. And I wasn't supposed to trim off. Whoops. Live and learn.


Got off work at 5 - LONG DAY. Had to grab some dinner before heading off to my college algebra class. I was gone for the first two days of classes because of my family vacation, which the professor knew, so it was okay. I get to Moe's in PTC and I order my food after a very long discussion with the guy behind the counter about what I should get, only to discover that when I get to pay I have $3 and some change and NO credit card. Whoops. Yep. So the nice guy gave me my $6 and something meal for $3.17. Yay for nice people.


I get to school, eat my dinner, and go inside to talk to the people about getting a parking pass. Come to find out I need to make time in my already to busy schedule to make a trip to the beautiful town of Morrow, GA -which is a solid 45 minutes away- to get a pass [and by beautiful I mean sketchy]. I find my classroom and wait for other people to start coming in. When they finally do I ask about the homework and what I missed the week before. And the girl I asked very emphatically, and with a few choice words, told me how much homework we had been assigned this last week and this week.


To make a long story shorter, the teacher was a sub for the day, she went so fast and I barely understood anything the whole first hour(I almost cried during class, not even kidding), I didn't have my computer - which I needed - and, to top it all off, it started pouring down rain. One of the guys in my class stepped out for a smoke break and came back and said that the entire front row of parking was flooding, and where was my car parked? Of course, in the front. I asked if I could go move it and she said yes. Good thing I did too because the water was well above the half-way point on my front tire. My shoes got soaked through, my pants where wet almost up to my knees because the water was so deep and I was drenched.


I have to get up in 6 hours and work tomorrow, and I have 7 sections of homework and 2 quizzes due Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. 


I think it's pretty safe to say that today was just not my day,


Singing Harmony(or trying to anyway),
Morgan
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