so many thoughts...

there has been so many things going on in my life, that as i sat down and thought about what i should blog about, that overwhelmed feeling started creeping up from the pit of my stomach. 

i don't know how to explain the way that i have felt just this past week alone. i have had feelings of excitement, anticipation, sadness, guilt, happiness, pain, self-pity, gratefulness, frustration. wow. am i the only one who has all these feelings on any given day? it's like a big roller coaster ride, but yet you need to somehow maintain the look that, "i have it all together". 

of course none of us will have it all together until we get to heaven, but we do try our best.

so for now, i will talk about 2 topics.

one is pride. darn-it-all-pride.

i have been realizing a lot lately that basically everything that i deal with in my life involves pride. 

even self-pity is really pride, because i am thinking about MYSELF!

and while we were going through a sermon series in church about the traps of the devil, i was reminded that satan uses that one the most because it was that problem right there...pride...that got him kicked out of heaven.

so, last week, when i found myself in a situation that involved someone acting like they were better than me (actually, my husband. but i take that to mean me) i went through this whole entire thing in my head that went a little something like this.

-i can not believe that that person is treating my husband like that.

-how does he get off thinking that he is better than us

-oh wait. how am i supposed to be treating him...um..exactly the opposite of that thought that just came into my head.

-think of others as better than yourself. hmm..

-well...God will take care of that problem, and God is the judge, and he is going to have to face that himself.

(until God showed me this verse in Timothy...and it honestly blew me away)

-the context is that paul was being treated unjustly, and being forsaken..to which he says.

I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge

-wow. this is an amazing thought to me. i need to come to this place in my life: when i am hurt, or treated poorly...even if it is unjustly, i need to pray that God will just forgive the person, NOT judge them. wow again.

-rachelle...you have such a long way to go.

and that just about sums it up. so i decided to stop thinking of myself and my problems and my hurts and focusing on other people. and God has blessed me so much because of it.

which brings me to my next topic. The Porch.

as you all know, we were forced to move from our old location to the front space. it's the same building, but a different room. we had to take walls down, and put in new flooring, and paint all the walls. we had a lot of people put in a lot of hours to get it usable.

yesterday was our grand re-opening.

we had 3 teen girls come in, and i was again reminded of why we started this ministry.

it is all about God's Word. 

Jesus changes lives. 

He gives life, and he gives it more abundantly. 

i want to spend all of my time making sure that people hear this message.

here are a few pictures of the new location.

we have some needs still:

we need prayer support. 

we need financial support, and

we need help with our website.

i am so excited to see what God is going to do with a prideful, sinful girl who is willing to be used by Him.