Reflection Questions:

What should I be asking myself? Is this what I want to be doing? How do I want the world to be different because I lived in it? How do I want to be different because I lived in this world? 

   One of the things that I ask myself a lot is am I loving other people to my full capacity? Things will come up in my personal life that either confirms this, or brings something in my character up that I need to change. It is difficult at first, to look at myself and acknowledge that I'm not always doing things the way I should, but when I listen to what the Lord reveals through either Bible study, prayer, or through other people and change it, I am so much happier that I listened down the road. It becomes a good point to look back on and see how God is still shaping me. 

   Is this what I want to be doing? I ask my self this constantly. I have dreams that I know I want to happen, but where I'm at right now, am I content in this process of getting there? Of waiting on the Lord, knowing that His plan will be the right one in the end? I think that yes, I have started to realize over the past couple of years, that this is all a journey to where my dreams end (giving them up to God), and where God's dream begins (trusting that He knows best and put those desires into my heart for a purpose). 

   When I leave this place, I hope that the world will be different in the way that people who were placed in my life will know about Jesus. That even the dream that He put in my heart, will make the world different because Jesus was brought to the crowds. I hope that He used me in a way that accomplished His purposes and not just mine. I want the things that I do in my life every day to show people that it wasn't just my life I was living. I desire to be a blessing to other people and a joy to be around.

    In answer to the last question, I hope to be different living in this world because I swam "upstream". I don't want to be associated with what the world's trends were/are. I hope to be an example to others of a different life, a better life. A life filled with truth, love, and a relationship with Jesus. Also I hope that the experiences I had in my life I truly learned from and that God was able to mold me the way He wanted because of the world I lived in.