summer oh eight

i've been sitting here typing and retyping what i want to say...explaining where i'm at.

honestly, i can't figure it out...

hoping for this summer to bring a lot..
growth.
learning.
pain.
perseverance.
movement.
consistency.
relationships.
understanding

If I had to try and describe where I want to be at the end of the summer..it's here:
I want my perspective and my mindset to be completely shifted from thinking about myself to thinking about others. I want to have a better picture on how the Lord plans to use me to love the world to Heaven. I want to be reminded that a lot of things I worry about..aren't eternal and that the things I often don't remember..are. If I were to put this simply, I want to be a better person; I want to be more like Christ.


My hands hold safely to my dreams
Clutching tightly not one has fallen
So many years I've shaped each one
Reflecting my heart showing who I am
Now you're asking me to show
What I'm holding oh so tightly
Can't open my hands can't let go
Does it matter?
Should I show you?
Can't you let me go?

Surrender, surrender you whisper gently
You say I will be free
I know but can't you see?
My dreams are me. My dreams are me.

You say you have a plan for me
And that you want the best for my life
Told me the world had yet to see
What you can do with one
That's committed to Your calling
I know of course what I should do
That I can't hold these dreams forever
If I give them now to You
Will You take them away forever?
Or can I dream again?
-barlow girl

Inconsistent.

I am the most inconsistent person that I know...

One week I am doing great, loving the Lord and showing Him the same. Then the next week comes and I decide that I am too busy or too tired to open my Bible. Why do I do this to myself? I see what I need to do and then don't do it...sounds familiar.

"So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin."

This verse from Romans 7 is exactly how I feel right now. In my head, I know that I want to be with the Lord and follow His path every single day but...why do I struggle every day with simple things like reading His Word and talking to Him? That has to be the other law at work within.

I hope to start recognizing the evil within me and ridding myself of it. I know it is going to take a lot of effort and probably even some uncomfortable moments but I hate being so inconsistent. The Lord waits on me every day for me to show up and I continue to let Him down...even though I KNOW what I'm doing; I sit and actually know that I am choosing to give that part of my day up..the part that includes my Maker. I absolutely hate the human part of me and know that my next step in my journey is figuring out how to tighten my slave chains that are connected with Christ while trying to rid myself of the other chains that have been holding me back for too long.

Well...this is where I'm at.
Frustrated but eager to succeed...ready to step it up and show up every day.