So once again, I waited about ten years to blog. It seems to be a pattern for me. Todd and I recently celebrated our 1 year anniversary! YAY! I have learned so so much in this past year. But I think the biggest lesson I am thinking on right now is where these lessons come from. Before I probably would have said from experience, mostly painful ones. You know, things you learn from making stupid decisions. It's very similar to my driving experiences. I know my way around Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor because I have been lost so many times in the middle of these cities. Unfortunately, that's probably not going to change anytime soon.
I have started a study in I Corinthians recently and I'm using a book along with it called Be Wise, written by Warren W. Wiersbe. It really makes me think back on how I started following Christ seriously in my life. In the past, I went to a Christian school, connected to the church I went to where all my friends and even some of my family attended. I had a safe, little bubble to live in. 
In this bubble that I lived in, I knew what was expected of me. Come on now, a girl who grew up in church, went to Christian school and sat under very doctrinal teaching, obviously I am to be a leader among my peers. I had a testimony to uphold, and all this knowledge to draw from. Unfortunately, I made decisions based on those things. I seemed to be missing something very important in my life and I couldn't figure out what it was. I was a leader in youth group, involved in church, had a prayer group at school, and tried to do my "devotions" every day. I should be very content and be filled with joy, right?
It took a couple years for me to start feeling the effects of my errors in reasoning. I was stuck in a job that I didn't like, becoming more and more like the unsaved people I worked with. I didn't really know what I wanted to pursue for a career and I was in a unhealthy relationship that was getting too serious. It's not pleasant to think on these things, but that's the amazing part. I was rescued from my misery. I found direction and forgiveness. Where? Well I can tell you it wasn't in christian school and it wasn't in church ( I'm not knocking those institutions, I'm just saying sadly, it's sometimes easy to miss the point of them).
The Good Shepherd left His flock and came after me. Now I have purpose, as Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 2:2 - For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The christian life is not about being a better leader, knowing more verses, or being able to name the dispensations, it is about CHRIST. Decisions I make in life should not be based on me or my needs. "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power." (I Cor. 2:4-5)
"If you hear preaching about duty and command, it is very proper, but if it be the one sole theme the teaching becomes very
legal in the long run; and after a while the true gospel which has the power to make us keep the precept
gets flung into the background, and the precept is not kept after all. Do, do, do, generally ends in nothing being done." Spurgeon
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