He can see through it all…

I highly suggest you to find a person like Mrs. Ruetz, She is incredible. She loves God with all her heart, mind and soul. She can always lift me up when I'm in a bad place and a text from her makes my whole day a lot better! Her advice helps me more than she will ever know. Mrs. Ruetz believes in me and shows me God's love especially when I need it the most. She is a spitting image of God and she inspires me all the time to be a better person and to know our Lord better.

Mrs. Ruetz wants to know how I'm doing and what I'm up to, she wants to love me and guide me closer to Jesus. She is there for me when no one else is. She sees me at the end of the day, when I'm tired and when I'm too worried about everything else around me. But she doesn't go running away as fast as she can in the other direction, she checks on me and makes sure I'm still smiling through it all. That is just simply awesome to me.

We had our monthly Ignite service tonight at church and she is always there volunteering with a smiling face. She doesn't let anything get in her way of loving and pursuing her relationship with her God. It is breathtaking to me. 

Tonight, after I got home from Ignite, I sent her this message: 

"Thanks for tonight, thanks for giving your time to God and the community! You are so special to Him and for sure us! It's amazing how God can show us such amazing love in a million ways… through song, prayer, quiet times and especially other people!! 

My freshman camp director, Jill, says at every weekly meeting on Thursday nights:

'there's an imaginary shelf at the door, put down everything you came with, don't remember it during the time you have here, enjoy others company and enjoy being with God…' she goes on to say, 'If you must, pick it up on the way out. if not leave it on that imaginary shelf…'

How cool is it that God can see our brokenness, He can see right through our messiness. 

Mrs. Adair always said, to get us to understand the lesson we are learning, "Is your windshield dirty or crystal clear?" 

God can see right through your dirty windshield and all the bad things you pile on top of it. He makes my dirty windshield crystal clear. That blows my mind every time I think about it. 

He can see through my messy backpack and my messy room and He can see through my failures. 

He can see what we carried into church, He can see what we had to pick up on the way out and that He loves us anyways.

How stinking cool is that?!? 

I read a quote somewhere that said "don't pick up what you have already laid down at His feet."

I don't really know where I was going with this but I do know that God is good, so good to us and I'm forever thankful for you guys, this community and every other great opportunity that I get to have"

I pray that who ever is reading this tonight will push to love God as much as Mrs. Ruetz does. I promise you will not regret it. Your life will change. I aspire to be as kind as she is one day. She is a gift from God and I can't thank Him enough for her!! 

An Open Letter to My Ex-Best Friend:

Hi…

I don't even know what to say. 

We haven't talked in almost 2 years.

The last day we talked you started screaming at me saying that I wasn't supportive of you and your on again off again boyfriend. You said how bad of a person I was and wasn't going to get anywhere in life. 

There wasn’t room in our hearts to forgive at that time, and now too much time has passed. It’s too late.

Just letting you know, I'm doing great. So much has happened. I have found my true friends, people that will always be there for me.

You didn't share the same love for life that I did. 

Slowly, I stopped honking when I went by your house and one day it just stopped completely.

I heard you aren't with the guy that caused all this anymore. You had to come back to our school because you weren't allowed to be around him anymore. 

I heard you went to counseling to get help. I hope it did help.

I hope you have a better outlook on life now.

I hear you're with a new guy, does he know what happened between us? Does he know what all you put me through? Does he know about the first guy?

Soon, I just blocked your number from my phone and I still have you blocked on all social media.

I swear I could have seen you sitting front row at my wedding, not at all anymore. 

I still have to answer questions as to how you are doing and I shrug my shoulders saying I have no idea. Because I honestly don't. You probably don't even tell people about me when they ask do you? 

I’ll never forget the moments that we shared together. We ranted about boys and watched movies together. You are a part of my past; a part of my teenage years. Not apart of who I am anymore. At that time, you really didn't know who you were or what you were going to do in life but I sure did and I still do.

But now, we’re strangers. And it’s hard to believe that people could turn away from each other so abruptly and never look back. But, I guess that’s just how life works and that's exactly what you did. I hope this was worth it to you. I hope you realize everything you put me through. I didn't deserve that, any of it. You changed me for the better. I learned to let go, grow up and stop being friends with you. We couldn't find a way to work out our problems we were so immature and you were so quick to jump into an argument. 

Although we’ve done some very hurtful things to each other, I know that this had to happen. I had to grow up and I had to better myself.

From, 

Your ex-best friend