Seashells

So I am going to be pretty vulnerable for a second. I had a bad week...this is not me begging for pity...this is me telling you how faithful my God is.

I came back from Africa with this unspeakable joy. But slowly, thoughts of worthlessness and self-loathing began to plague my mind. My thoughts got pretty poisoned and I finally admitted defeat and begged God to remove these feelings from me and remind me of my worth.

From the moment I prayed that prayer on, God showed up. I cannot name a day last week that God did not manifest himself in a person to build me up or whisper to me that He loves me.

So here's tonight's scenario: I am working the desk - subbing. My friend Alyssa is sitting with me and we're working on homework between "chatter-box moments".

It's 11:30 and I see a girl sitting across the lobby. She lingers a bit and then comes up to the desk. Thinking she probably wants a Snickers or a Mountain Dew, I ask her what I can do for her...who knew that she actually was here to do something for me.

She asks me my name. Fancy that, she's an Emily too. And she happens to live in the same apartment as me in the opposite lodge. We make chit chat and soon it's clear that she's not here for late night junk food.


God put me on Emily's heart so she came to the desk to offer me encouragement and prayer. She saw a vision of me walking down a beach picking up shells. (For anyone that knows me at all, you know that the beach is my happy place) The shells signified things important to me...and when I had picked up all of the shells, I felt peace.

The whole time I'm sitting here dumbfounded and I steadily turn into a blubbering puddle. I am still without words...I saw my Jesus unbelievably clear tonight. This girl that I'm not even sure I've seen before felt led to come pray for me and encourage me...She felt led and she followed...and little did she know how valuable her words and prayer would be to me.

Her words and action increased my faith tonight. I feel unbelievably full of joy and peace. I burst into laughter thinking about everything that happened because it is so clearly Jesus. Wow.

Brucie