Life Interrupted = Divine Intervention

Do you ever feel like God is trying to tell you something?

That is how I have felt since we have moved to Roxboro. Between discussions Lee and I have had, Sunday School lessons, Revival preaching, reading Radical, and my personal Bible study- I keep hearing the same things. Maybe one day, I’ll take the time to sit and type those thoughts out in a blog. Today is not that day.

Moving away from home has not been easy, but I have learned so much that I wouldn’t have learned if I had stayed in my “comfort zone.”

Currently, I am participating in a Bible study at church called Jonah: Navigating a Life Interrupted. When the author of this study is speaking on the video, I feel like she’s talking to me.

Let’s admit, we all have plans for our life. Some people have very detailed, specific plans. Others just have an idea in their head of how they’d like their life to go. My plans included marrying the man of my dreams, building my dream home on my parents’ land, being an elementary school teacher at Headland Elementary, having children who could stay with my mom while I went to work, then my children would go to Headland like I did, etc. Of course, God had different plans for my life. In January 2007, Lee and I began dating. Did I see that coming? NO! From the beginning, I had this feeling that he was “the one.” Two years and eight months later, we’re engaged. Then in July 2010, we were married.

Due to this marriage, my life headed in a different direction. This occurred because Lee was called into the ministry. He also felt called to further his education in seminary-Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary to be exact. So, here I was going to be-fresh out of college-moving 10 hours away from home! God wasn’t through working this out, though. Lee put his resume out to churches in the Wake Forest area. When we went to visit the seminary in April, Lee had two informal interviews with churches in the area. After prayer and consideration, we felt called to continue on with a church in Roxboro. In May, we flew up for a formal interview. The church called Lee to be their youth minister. He accepted. Then, our plans shifted. Roxboro is about 1 hour and 15 minutes from Wake Forest. We felt like it would be most effective for us to live in the community where we went to church and served. We prayed about this decision too and it was tough-mostly because we were waiting to see where I could get a job. Soon, it came down to time to make a decision. I still didn’t have a job. So, we had to go on faith and we chose to live in Roxboro. God worked it out for us to be able to rent a cute house in a wonderful location from some very nice people. He also worked it out for me to have a job (for more on that see my Sarah blog).

The point of all that was to show that my life is not going according to my plans. Now, understand that I’m not being negative about where we are living-I’m simply pointing out that my life is going in a different direction then I would have ever imagined.

“’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways’ declares the Lord.” Isaiah 55:8. God’s plans and our plans are usually totally different. This Bible study on Jonah is going to show us how to embrace these interruptions in our lives and view them as God’s intervention. The author of this study points out that all major characters in the Bible had their lives interrupted. When your life is interrupted, it is often God working things out for you to have an impact for Him. The way things have worked out so perfectly for our move to Roxboro really makes me think that this is exactly where God wants us right now. I have no idea why He put us in this specific place at this time. I also don’t always like it (again no offense-you imagine what it would be like to be 10 hours away from family, friends, and everything you’ve ever known). I just know that I want to be in His will.

There’s a quote from the Bible study book that I liked (it’s underlined and starred in my book). It says “It is easy to say that God and His plans are our most essential endeavors. It is entirely another thing to live like this is so.” I hope that through this Bible study and the other things that God is teaching me, I will live like His plans are most important to me. It is so easy to “play church,” but it is time for us to stop playing church and start following Christ. I’ll stop there, though, because that is a completely different thought and it could be a blog in itself.

I’ll end with this-You can’t escape life’s interruptions, but you can change your perspective on them. If you think of your interruption as God’s intervention, you could make a huge impact on the people you come in contact with and do something that will outlive you. As mentioned before, my life is not going according to MY plan, so I’m excited to see God continue to work in my life. I will keep you updated as I learn more.

Living a Life Interrupted,
Megan

My Latest Creations

I am so ready to be more settled in (SOON) so I can do some crafty Christmas stuff. I LOVE Christmas time and I LOVE crafts. I’m also looking forward to all the baking I get to do at Christmas time. I also LOVE to bake. I have had time to do a little bit of it, though.
I made a cute appreciation gift with my class for Cafeteria Workers Appreciation Week. Each class had to make something and give it to the cafeteria workers on a certain day. I gave each student a baking cup…I don’t know what they’re called-it’s the thing you make cupcakes in. The kids wrote a nice note to the cafeteria workers and decorated it. Then, I hot-glued them on a green pipe cleaner and arranged them in a basket with fake grass. So, it looks like a flower arrangement. I thought it turned out very cute and I got lots of compliments on it.


At school, they also had a bake sale for Relay for Life. I decided to help out by baking something. I had a box of Devil’s Food Cake mix with a recipe on the back for Whoopie Pies. I decided to try it out. I didn’t actually eat one myself, but I got a lot of compliments on them and people said they tasted very good. Here’s the recipe:

Whoopie Pies
Cake:
1 box of Devil’s Food Cake
½ cup of oil
3 eggs
¾ cup of water

1. Preheat oven to 350º
2. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper
3. Beat cake mix, eggs, water, and oil on medium speed for 2 minutes
4. Drop batter onto cookie sheet and spread in 2” circles
5. Bake 7-9 minutes
6. Cool completely

Cream Filling:
1 container of cream cheese
1 container of vanilla frosting

1. Soften cream cheese
2. Beat cream cheese and frosting until light and fluffy
3. Spoon onto center of a cake and then top with another cake
4. Press two cakes together to spread filling.
5. Chill in the refrigerator to harden


Lee’s favorite cake/cupcakes are yellow cake with chocolate icing. This is usually what I make him for his birthday or special occasions. However, I always make it out of the box mix and can frosting. So, I decided to try making one from scratch. With Lee’s parents coming to visit this weekend, it seemed like the perfect time for homemade cake. I successfully made both the cake and the icing from scratch. I haven’t tasted the cake yet, but I did lick the icing off my fingers and spatula …and let me tell you…it tastes FINE! I just hope the whole thing tastes as good.


So, I’m glad I’ve been able to have somewhat of an outlet to do something I enjoy. I look forward to sharing more of my craftiness and baking as it gets closer and closer to the best time of the year!! I also hope to completely finish my classroom bulletin boards soon and post them on here. My cricut has been VERY helpful in my classroom.

Until next time,
Meggie Homemaker

We're Almost Settled

Well…our house is almost unpacked and organized. Notice, I didn’t say that our house is almost finished. We still don’t have a lot of decorations. We have things that were given to us as wedding presents and things that we already owned. More than likely, though, that will be all we will have for a while. Decorating and preparing a house in general is expensive! I’m hoping to be finished by the end of this month and have pictures up on Facebook. I’m also hoping to have my wedding album ordered and prints from the wedding ordered by the end of this month. I’ve been using Shutterfly to make photobooks recently. I already put together, ordered, and received a photobook of our Rehearsal Dinner and I’m currently working on one from our Honeymoon.

I really love my job. I just feel like I’m never prepared or organized. I’m hoping that will come soon. It all just happened so fast, though, and I’m very blessed to work with great people who have helped me out.

Within the next two months, we’re expecting two important visits. Lee’s family is planning their first visit to Roxboro. They want to come see where we live and work. Then, my family is planning their second visit. Hopefully, Meemaw will be coming with them. I’m excited about these visits! I miss my family!

Speaking of that…here are some other things I miss:
• My family-I don’t even need to explain this one and I mentioned it above. I grew up very close to my family. We had a lot of family gatherings and family vacations. I miss all of them.
• My friends-This is another no-brainer. I have known some of my friends for my entire life. This gets worse when I’m watching TV shows or movies that I used to watch or talk about with my friends.
• Football-Yes, they have football in North Carolina, but it’s NOTHING like football in Alabama. In Alabama, 95% of the people live football during the fall. Everyone goes to Headland football games…you can see people there that you haven’t seen in years. Everyone’s statuses on Saturdays revolve around football. Most discussions on Sunday and Monday (and sometimes on into the rest of the week) revolve around the previous games.
• LaBamba’s-Even Lee admits that he would rather eat LaBamba’s than the Mexican restaurants here. No offense to those places, but I just LOVE LaBamba’s. I get cravings (especially on Sundays) where all I want is a bowl of LaBamba’s cheese dip. The workers there are so friendly and they know you if you’re like my family and go all the time.
• College Ensemble and Simple Offering-I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I really enjoy singing and I miss singing with these two groups. I know that my singing improved greatly because I was a part of these ensembles.
• Comics-I loved reading the comics in the Dothan Eagle. We do get a local newspaper here, but there’s no comics-just political cartoons.
• Harvest Day and the Peanut Festival-I know that these events haven’t occurred yet. When they do, I am going to be very sad that I’m not going. I have attended these events every year for as long as I can remember. The Peanut Festival is a huge deal for the whole Wiregrass area. I have so many memories there from putting together an FCCLA exhibit, to making it a family event, to hanging out with friends there, to going on dates there. I saw a lot of good concerts there. I will miss walking around and viewing the exhibits, crafts, and pictures (my favorite). I will also miss eating all the good food.

Those are just a few things I could think of off the top of my head. However, don’t think I’m miserable here. I really am doing better than I thought I would. Lee and I are settling into our home and married life. We have great neighbors! I have a great job that I love and I work with awesome, helpful people. We go to a loving, caring church where the members have welcomed us and taken care of us. God has truly blessed us and I know that we are where we need to be right now.

Well, I just wanted to give an update of what’s going on with me. Hopefully, my next blog will be giving you a tour of our home.




Until next time,

Megan