fulfilled hearts

i havent wrote in a while. i think i could come up with a lot of excuses as to why i havent blogged but there not legitimate. i just want to write when i want to write and when my heart wants to write. im a little over two months into college and it is the best. i love old dominion. everyday i am overwhelmed with how the Lord is completely in control of my life (whether i would like to admit it or not) and his plan is incredibly better than what i could ever dream of. i think about last year and how dead set i was on Appalachian State and how now by a gut feeling im here at ODU and i literally cannot see myself anywhere else but here in the heart of norfolk.

something that has been on my heart and something that i am learning alot about right now is that the Lord is relentlessly fighting for you. and there is absolutely nothing in this whole world that is going to stop Him from coming and getting you and pulling you into his arms and looking into your eyes and saying i love you. this world is broken. we are lost. and we are wandering around searching for something to fill us. we try to fill a longing deep in our hearts with things that the world has said  YES! this will fill you! if you have this, if you own this, if you do this, if you look like this. you will be satisfied. we are constantly running ourselves into the ground trying to live up to what others think of us and we forget that we are not held to a standard of perfection but we are held to a standard of grace.  that the material things we are filling our lives with doesnt matter. that no one else's opinion matters. we forget that the only thing we need is a Savior. and his name is Jesus. we are constantly attempting to run farther and farther away from Him. He who is the only thing that will fully heal us. He who is the only thing that will truly fill us. He who is the only one who is constantly running farther and farther ahead of us so that he can hold us and carry us home when we turn to Him and say Lord i cant do this on my own any more. if we were only to let go of our pride, and shame, and allow ourselves to be completely vulnerable, the Lord would take that and make it into something far more beautiful than what this world could ever make of it. He would take our messy, stained, prideful, broken hearts and give us a new heart that is overflowing and radiating with joyous praise.

i think if we were truly able to let go we would live differently.  i think we would see people differently and i think we would so deeply that it would leave people baffled with what had just hit them. i think that we would experience life to its absolute fullest. i think that everyday we come to a point where we can choose joy, we can choose life, and we can choose Jesus. but its an everyday choice. and sometimes we mess up and choose things that aren't Jesus and thats when we have the amazing opportunity to come back to the foot of the cross and lay it all down. and once we lay it down we are redeemed children of the Lord. freed from the power of sin. made new by the spirit of Christ.

i hope to blog more than i have in the past months so def check back in (: this week really seek Jesus i promise you its worth it.

all my heart,
hp