Twenty Lessons I Learned In Twenty Years

I recently celebrated my 20th birthday (it was on March 23, 2014). It's funny because 20 doesn't feel all that different from 19 which didn't feel different from 18 which didn't feel different from 17 and so on. Yet 20 feels very different from 17 so somewhere in there things changed. I celebrated my birthday with different people than I had with just a year ago. It's amazing to think how quickly the people that you think will be there forever are gone. It's also ironic to realize this and then still think that the "new" people I celebrated with this year will be there for the rest of my life. Want to know a secret? One of them, maybe two if I'm lucky, will be a part of the rest of my life. Last year I celebrated my birthday with a fairly large group of people...a year later and I'm still friends with two of them. But, enough about that...so roughly 20 years ago I came into this big big world.

(I'm the infant, not the chubby ginger FYI.)

I came out screaming and peeing all covered in goop, as my dad describes it anyway. I went from being this little bald thing to a 20 year old with ridiculously curly hair (that was so unkept that when I got all of the dead ends cut off a couple weeks ago it has resulted in a humiliatingly short "triangle boy-bob" (all my fellow curly haired friends know what I'm talking about) and I have vowed to regularly trim my hair as to avoid this catastrophe again." About a year after my birth I was provided with my "built in best friend" in the form of my cousin Caleb, with whom I celebrated the big 2-0! So while we're not as close as we once were, we're still going strong. 

(He's taller than me now, has black hair, and is kind of a human mass of solid muscle. I discovered difrizzer!)

When I was six my baby sister was born. I've lived in 5 towns, 2 states, 8 houses, and attended 3 different schools. I haven't learned everything there is to learn, but I have learned some. I'm not going to share everything I've learned with you, but I'll share some. I want to share 20 things that I've learned within my 20 years of life. Most of them I learned from other people. such as my parents or teachers.

1) Kevin Bacon is not in all of the historical movies, just the good ones.

2) Christ loved me so much he died for me and without him I am nothing.

3) If you try hard enough you can get all of the bubbles out of GermX

4) There is a world full of broken and hurting people and God has anointed and chosen me to help them and to love them.

5) Sisters make the best friends and they will always be there. Cherish them, spend time with them, protect the, and invest into them.

6) Car surfing is NEVER a good idea and will ALWAYS end in an emergency room visit and a pair of crutches.

7) Talking to strangers can actually be dangerous (that's a "fun" story.) STRANGER DANGER!

8) You are capable of so much more than you think you are.

9) God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called. Answer his call and he will equip you.

10) Parents really do know what they're talking about.

11) The book is always better than the movie.

12) You will find very few friends that you stay close to after you guys move away from each other. When you find these friends hang on to them. They're amazing!

13) Never having dated or kissed anyone doesn't make you a reject or less desirable. It just makes you someone's one and only instead of one of many. 

14) You'll thank your mom for making you learn how to cook and do laundry.

15) God will always provide.

16) Not everyone will like you and as long as you're not a jerk that is perfectly okay and even normal.

17) When burning trash ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS make sure the fire is completely out before you leave or you may come back to find your neighbors field in flames.

18) "Tomorrow is always fresh with not mistakes in it, yet." - Anne of Green Gables

19) You literally will not talk to hardly anyone from High School after High School so stop investing so much into what they think about you.

20) Life is not hard, it's difficult. But, it's also fun and worth it. Enjoy live and live ever day to the fullest.

So, there are just some of the things I've learned in my two decades on this planet. I hope that if you haven't learned some of these yourself you will. 

~ Carrots

P.S. Today (March 24) Is Crowhead's birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE! I LOVE YOU!

Where do I go from here?

We all talk a lot about our purpose in life and what we are suppose to do. But, how many of us actually do what we think our purpose is? The sad truth not a lot. So many of us start out with good intentions but we get stuck along the way. Yes we want to fulfill our purposes in life but going where God wants you to go and fulfilling what he wants you to filfull is super hard and it is so much easier to do some of it find a comfortable spot and them just stay there. 

Recently I have been stuck in the complacency of being in a comfortable spot. Not doing anything out of the will of God but not working toward the goals and purposes God has for me. It was a hard awakening realizing that I was no longer moving forward. It wasn't even something someone else could have told me. It was all internal complacency with where I am at now. It wasn't until I came face to face with my passion in the fo of an African children's choir this last weekend that I realized anything had changed. 

As some of you may know my passion is for the children who are alone. The ones who need love because there is no one else there to love them.  Don't let me get started on talking about them because I will cry. Long term my goal is to open a coffee shop that I will use the proceeds to support organizations internationally who are helping those children. 

Sitting there listening to those children whom had most one or both of their parents and literally had nothing. Rebroke for heart for them. They had so much joy and enthusiasm for life and Jesus that I wish so much that I had. They had gone hungry and had gone through such terrible things yet they can talk about how they know the God of the universe loves them. It is so beautiful that it brings me to tears just to think about it. 

So now that I aware of my problem of complacency I can fix it. I must learn what it takes to keep my heart broken for these children as I work my way down my path to someday having a coffee shop to help out. In prayerful consideration of what I should be doing a few things came to mind of how I can keep my heart open for my passion (They may differ depending on what your passion is). 1) Pray. Pray for whatever area you want to be in. Pray for areas that you aren't involved in but are connecting with your passion. Pray for the people you will be connected with (especially the people you don't know yet). 2) Give. Yes I am broke but even I can sponsor a child for $40 a month (if you want to sponsor a child but don't know how shoot me an email I have list of some favorites). Yes it sounds lame but you never know how much sponsoring a child can do for that child. It will also help keep you aware of the need around the world. It is also super cool to receive letters from your child. 3) Discuss. How are you going to be able to make connections or get to know people when you don't know what their passions are and they don't know yours? What if one of your friends had a God inspired idea for you but you never found out because you never talked about anything deep like the future? Also if you start discussing what you want to do now it is so much easier to discuss it when you are actually out there doing what you love. 5) Donate. Yes I said give already but that is more directly related my passion. By donate I mean give to groups that are doing what you want to do. It gets you familiarized with other organizations in the area to are going into as well as be getting connected with these groups you will most likely get news letters and info about what is going on in those organizations. 6) Read. My last point read, read the Bible (helpful for everything), read books and biographys about people who have done and topics related to what you want to go into. Such  as if you want to go into missions in Asia you are probably going to want to read any memoirs from missionaries who have been. Or books on learning the language. 

Remember the passion God has put inside of you. He put it there for a reason use it to your advantage. God loves you and wants to see you succeed. 

Religion that is pure and undefined before God the father is this: take care of the widows and orphans in their affection, and keep ones self unstained from the world. -James 1:27

KAITLIN: And The Year She Fell Off A Car, Couldn't Get a Job, And Learned How To Be A Leader

     At Honor Academy of The Ozarks we have these fantastic things call Mid-Year Defenses. Basically half way through your year (there's a Grad Defense at the end of the year) you do some sort of presentation to answer a list of questions and explain how you've grown and why you should be allowed to finish your year. They want you to be creative. My Undergrad year I did a Video of interviews for my Mid-Year and Prezi for my Grad....this time for my Mid-Year I made a comic! I want to share it with you guys! I know some of the strips kind of need explaining...I apologize that that's not going to happen unless you directly ask me in comments or something. So, here is a comic about my GI year.

 

So there ya go. Hope you enjoyed it.

~ Carrots