Exposing Myself

On Sunday, I went to Grace Church in Powdersville. The point that has stuck with me is exposing our brokenness and sinfulness brings us freedom. Today, I am exposing my brokenness and my sinfulness so that I can feel free.

This year I have dealt consistently with control issues. I like to have all control in my hands where it should be in the Lord's hands. I have no say over what I am going to do tomorrow, or what I am going to do in the future. I have to rely on the Lord and know that he has the most perfect plan for me. This has been a hard one to give over to the Lord, but I can see so much improvement and it's amazing how giving over control to God has brought me so close to him. I can't rely on myself only Him.

Another thing I have been dealing with is insecurities. Of course all girls deal with insecurities but this year on the mission trip to New Orleans, Chris Armfield spoke about what are we hiding? The one thing that I kept hearing over and over again was

Your insecurities are robbing you of happiness.

I knew immediately that I was hiding my insecurities from my myself and even from God. I wasn't admitting to Him that I was weak and that I needed Him to get rid of thinking that I am not perfect.

"So God created man in HIS OWN IMAGE."

-Genesis 1

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."

-Psalm 139: 14

I have always heard all these truths but that night on the trip it just really hit home with me. Why should we worry about the way we look because God made us in HIS image. We are perfect in HIS eyes and there is nothing that he wants to change about us. 

Morning with God

This morning, I was sitting in my room, reflecting on all the wonderful things that God has provided for me this past year and with this summer. I have been so blessed with so many great friends who are constantly pouring into me so much and I can't wait to get back to school with them where it can happen even more frequently!

In my quiet time this morning I was reading 2 Timothy and it was about Paul's prayer and charge for Timothy.

"Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction."

-2 Timothy 4:2

Everything that I read in the Word seems to always relate to YoungLife in one way or another. This charge from Paul to Timothy is really a charge for all of us! Our "in season" as leaders is during the school year when we are constantly seeing our friends and pouring into them, but our "out of season" is this time right now-summer. We are still to be pouring into the Word, learning things for ourselves and so we can be prepared to preach the word all the time. God provides us with divine appointments and we always need to be ready for those to come! 

This verse also stuck out to be, so as you are going throughout the next weeks, I hope that your prayer is to always be prepared and equipped to do good work!

"All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

-2 Timothy 3:16-17

Running to His Arms

Wow has time flown by!! I have finished my freshman year and so many things have happened over the past few months that have shaped me for the rest of my life!! First, I went to Chicago for Spring Break and had the most incredible experience! My group was assigned to Street Evangelism and I was so nervous but I saw God work through every single one of us in some of the most incredible ways! I was able to truly see God that week and it was so awesome! We met a man named Jonathan! He spent 6 hours with us and introduced us to all of his friends and he taught us so much!! He was such an incredible man and it was such a blessing to meet him on the very first day we were there!!

MY TEAM!!

I come back and I have Quest Placement! It was one of the most exciting nights ever! I was placed on McCants Middle School/ Wyldlife MEGA team!! The group is so incredible and immediately we all bonded in the strangest ways!! I love my team soo much and I have had the opportunity to meet some of the girls and they are so awesome! I also had the opportunity to go to club and it was so much fun! I know that I am in the right place and that God is going to do some incredible things through my team over the years!

God has taught me so much this year but the main things is that we constantly have to be running to his arms because the devil will try to pull us away all the time but we just have to be in depth in God's word and in good community! I can't wait to get back after this summer and be reunited with all of my friends and see the incredible things that God does through all of us over our sophomore year!

"And this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ- to the glory and praise of God."

-Philippians 1:9-11

We need to constantly be pouring into his word to learn more and more about the Him and the incredible things that He has in store for us!

Divine Appointments

Being in a church is a huge part of my life, and so coming to Clemson I was a little upset about not being able to go to my church from back home but at the same time I was so excited about being able to find a new church and have a new pastor! The first week I tried DCF and I immediately fell in love with it. The church is so different from my church back at home which I think is what I was looking for because I realized that I am not the same person that I used to be. This week at DCF we talked about trials that God puts us through and it was hard for me to listen because God is putting me through a trial right now. Recently I have been feeling such frustration in my life. I have been so caught up in my "Christian bubble" that I haven't notice those who were striving for a friendship outside of that bubble. Everyday in Schilleter (which is our dining hall) we go to the back section and it is basically all FCA or YoungLife people and while it was awesome at first being able to sit with 30 of my friends it has now turn into something that I don't enjoy as much. I hate how we can all be so comfortable just sitting there and not forming personal relationships with one another because there are literally 20 conversations going on at once around you. As soon as I realized that God was putting me in this for me to learn a lesson, I immediately opened my eyes to what he was trying to show me. He was showing me that I am missing hundreds of lost people that are sitting around me that I could begin a friendship with. So not telling anyone I started fighting this battle alone and it was truly miserable, I hated sitting with all the people and no one really knew why. I was a lot quieter when we were in the big group which was so something I am not usually like. So I finally told a few people and then my small group and it was such a relief. I found out that I wasn't the only one but I was just the one that was feeling it the most. My small group leader told me that she has been dealing with this for a long time and she had told us about it before and so that's why I knew I could tell her. Her advice was to have such an overflowing passion of God that it flows onto those around me. I was like okay I can so do that! Then I was reading my book for Quest "Out of the Salt Shaker" and I was convicted once again because really I hadn't changed anything throughout my days to make it look different. "How could I be the salt of the earth if I can't ever get out of the saltshaker?" That was the question I was asking myself for a week. I was praying for God to give me BOLDNESS and I wanted him to stretch me and put me in situations that I wasn't comfortable with but I knew that those people would be put in my life as DIVINE APPOINTMENTS.

"We loved you so much that we were delighted to share not only the

gospel of God but our lives as well."

-1 Thessalonians 2:8

So after praying this for about a week, I went to a mission trip meeting last night for my upcoming trip to Chicago with FCA over spring break! We found out what our ministry was for the week and my group is none other than Street Evangelism.... My first reaction was "you have got to be kidding me" but then I realized this is exactly what I have been praying for. God is going to give me the BOLDNESS to go out to the streets of Chicago and form meaningful relationships with people who are striving for love in some way or another. I also realized that this was the answer to my trial that God had been putting me through. He was putting me through the trial so that I would be prepared and excited to be doing street evangelism. If he hadn't put me through the trial of being frustrated with my "bubble" then I can assure you I would have seriously been dreading going on the mission trip and I would have had the worst attitude in the world! It is one of the most incredible things how God provides in so many ways! I can't wait to be in Chicago in 19 days and having conversations with people that I would never expect to be having because I know that they will be put in my life as DIVINE APPOINTMENTS.

Full Obedience to HIM

Being a freshman, I have been trying to decide where I want to get involved on the campus, whether it was through FCA or through YoungLife. I thought YoungLife at the beginning of the year, but then I shut out God and decided that I didn't want such a huge time commitment as YoungLife was and shut that door. Over Christmas break, I was constantly praying for God to tell me what he wanted me to do with my life! Over Christmas break it was very clear that God wanted me to open the door back to YoungLife. I also knew that he wanted me to be involved with the middle school kids which is called WyldLife. My senior year of high school, I decided to start a 6th grade girls lunch. Once a month after church, we would get together and go eat lunch downtown and just form wonderful relationships! I came to Clemson, truly missing every single one of those precious girls. I knew right then thinking about them, that if I decided to do YoungLife I would do WyldLife because I could have such a strong impact of the lives of middle school girls. I came back to school and went to the first week of training and it was beyond incredible the excitement and thrill that I had after that night! I knew that it was exactly where I belonged and that nothing was going to change that. A week after break, we went to Sharptop Cove and I got to serve as a cook for the Tri-County region YoungLife and that experience was beyond incredible! That weekend seems like just yesterday but it was over a month ago that we got to serve hundreds of high schoolers. We now only have 3 weeks left until interviews and I am beyond excited to know that this is what God has called me to do with my life! God has been doing some crazy things in my life, the past couple of months and he has been pulling me out of my comfort zone in ways I could have never possibly imagined! Through this whole experience I have been challenged to give FULL obedience over to Him and to just have an overflowing amount of passion and love for Him so that I can share it with everyone that is around me! I know that by doing that, everything in my life will go just the way that He planned which is possibly one of the most reassuring things that anyone could ever tell me!

My friend Maddie and I cooking baked beans at Sharptop! (Something I will NEVER do again!!)

All About Me!

Hey y'all! My name is Mary Margaret and I am a freshman at Clemson University! My hometown is Greenville, SC. I am majoring in Elementary Education and couldn't imagine it any other way! I have a strong passion for working with kids and an even stronger passion for Christ! So far being at Clemson has been one incredible journey and I know that it is just beginning! 

"Do not worry about anything but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

-Philippians 4:6