Seasons...the only constant thing is change!

Hi there!

I just wanted to share with you the newest and most wonderful things that God has been teaching me over the past few weeks! He continues to reveal His character to me more and more everyday! He has placed great mentors in my life through the church...it's amazing!

I began a new study this week with my old lady club! There is really nothing more to call it but that...and I love it! How many 23 yr old girls do you know that go to a group called "Ladybugs" once a week to hang out with women twice, even three times her age! Oh, that's me! Vanessa Vann! And I wonder why I'm single! ha! But these women are just filled to the brim with knowledge, faith, wisdom, and (I'll be honest) REAL good cookin' :) We are starting a study focused on the story of Esther and digging into the seasons of life. 1)Planting Seeds 2) Growth 3) Harvest. I realized this is the first time that I have ever really admitted to myself to being in the Seeds category. It's this struggle that I have being on the bottom level, the inexperienced one, the one that doesn't have it all together...yet! :) But honestly, that's exactly where I sit!

Now more than ever before I am seeking; and not in the world but in His grace. Realizing that life happens at such different paces for everyone. God's seeds look differently inside each of us. It's the goosebumps that form out of a story of His children, the joy that erupts from seeing His finger prints, or the song that plays over and over again for "no apparent reason"... those are God's seeds being planted for growth later on. The phrase, "For no greater reason than this!" continues to be the phrase on my lips. God desires for me to be present in the moment; enjoying my season; discovering my "this."

As we, as a church, are digging into the Sermon on the Mount I have never been challenged the way I have been the past 3 weeks! Learning to empty myself before God, to truly embrace authentic brokenness for my sins and the sins of the World, and to embody humility - embodying the most powerful strength of Christ and yet still loving so gently.

God is up to a great work inside of me. Molding, stretching, breaking, and loving me! I'm not the person I'm supposed to be, but thank God I'm not the person I used to be! :) God is so Good...He's so good to me! I pray you are living for no other reason than this!

Growing in Him,
Vanessa