That title is actually stolen from a quote from Audrey Hepburn. I love her, she seems so classy and lived such a seemingly charmed life. Notice I just said a version of the word 'seem' twice in one sentence. Audrey Hepburn was an actress, she lived a pretty public life, but actually didn't really like publicity. Who knows if all of the things that made her the idol of so many truly made her as happy on the inside as she 'seemed' on the outside.
So why this blog? Because I am turning 37 in exactly 37 days tomorrow and I am tired of dreading and being depressed by my birthdays! I am tired of living by what 'the world' tells me is normal. I am 36 and 11 months old and I am proud of the person who God has created me to be and I am ready to start living like it! haha (make sure to read to the end or you'll miss my announcement about my Facebook 37th bday campaign ;), haha)
I recently read a book written by a Godly woman by the name of Marian Jordan. It is entitled, "The List - Figuring Out Prince Charming, The Corner Office, And Happily Ever After". I actually came across the book by accident and ended up reading it all in one sitting. Reading Marian's story, was like reading about my own. She talks about how all of us grow up with a list of things we want to accomplish in life. For example, getting your drivers license at 16, graduating high school at 18, going to college, getting a good job, getting married, having children, having grandchildren, retiring, etc...
But what happens when things in life don't happen according to that list? A lot of people, in fact I would say, most, live their lives out exactly or pretty darn close to what they thought they would. They might have a few bumps a long the way, they might have a bit of a later start, but it happens. But what happens if it doesn't. What happens, if you wait, and wait, and wait and keep waiting...
That's me...I am waiting...I finally finished the college part, but I am still waiting for the amazing career and prince charming and the perfect children and the ... perfect life.
I guess I have always known that I had pretty high expectations for all of these things, but what I guess I forgot among all of MY planning and list making, was that somewhere a long the way I started more often than not leaving God out of the equation. I stopped trusting him to have it figured out and started trying to make it happen for myself. I guess i thought that if I left it up for him he was probably going to wait until he thought I was 'ready' and who knew how long that was going to take and I didn't want to wait that long, because what if he made me wait until it was too late for me to have kids to get married, or what if he wanted me to give up my career plans and make me teach math or something?
Long story short, I didn't trust God. I had lost my faith. I knew I loved him, God had been a part of my life from before I could remember, but he had become more like an accessory to my life, instead of the vital part of my life that I needed him to be.
That. Stops. Today.
I am dedicating this 37th year of my life to falling back in love with my savior, Jesus Christ. I am going to learn how to love and trust him with my life again!
To kick this off I am going to take the next 37 days before I turn 37 and post on FB (https://www.facebook.com/jessica.springer.5) -and I am also copying my FB posts as a comment to this blog post- every morning until my 37th birthday, a reason why I love Jesus and why I am thankful to be alive no matter how old I am and no matter what the future holds, because I trust Him and have faith that my future is going to kick ASsteroids!
Seriously though! Most of you know the verse, in fact, it's pretty popular: Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."
God said it! I believe it! Now I am going to live it! And I am going to blog about it! If you want to read about it, follow my blog! I will post a link to my blog occasionally on Facebook, I may send a link to this out to my original DC blog e-mail list, just to let you all know what is going on in my life, but otherwise I won't be e-mailing it out regularly like I did with my DC blog, so if you want to follow, you will need to actually subscribe to the blog to receive notices when it is updated, or just check back occasionally. It won't be anything exciting, just my journey with Jesus, but maybe my journey can help someone on their journey and THAT would be awesome!
I am actually a little nervous about putting all of this out there, - but hey, it's like putting a Christian bumper sticker on your car, if you put it out there you have to live it, because people will be watching how you act...God gives us two pretty important directives, to love him and to loves others, and how can I love others if I am not living up to the example of loving him? So here I go...
