When God Makes Me Laugh

I've already mentioned before how hilarious God is right?
well this week is no different.
this week, I prayed for humility.
just as a side note, when you pray for a character trait, God doesn't magically have it appear, he tends to give you a chance to develop it. I used to pray for patience a lot, and God gave me SO many opportunities to be patient, that half of me wanted to never pray for patience again, and the other half thought I may actually be patience. It was a tie.
anyways, This time I prayed for humility.
I have been working for about 6 weeks now and am starting to understand my job- FINALLY!
I didn't want to get over confident because that prevents learning.
I also wanted to be sure that I was loving on others and acting in full respect and sometimes too much knowledge puffs up a persons, my, head.
That all being said I prayed for humility and the opportunity to keep learning and loving on my new work friends, without any pride getting in the way.
The next day, for the first time in my career history, I didn't double check my schedule time.
The one time I didn't double check, I thought I was scheduled at 3:30.
I was actually scheduled for 3.
30 minutes is a HUGE error in hotels.
All that confidence and knowledge I was feeling,
definitely just got knocked down a level.
Thanks for the humility God, much appreciated.
Here I go back to neurotically checking the schedule every day.
God really is funny.

prayer.

Prayer is powerful.
I am so confident that God hears my prayers, and yours.
Yet still each time a large prayer is answered, I still am incredible amazed.
or maybe its more like in awe of how good God is.
This very morning I was praying for a way to see my family.
I work a lot, and there is little time for days off in a hotel.
my exact words this morning were
"Lord I pray you would allow for me to see my family next week, I pray for consecutive days off work"
That same afternoon my manager comes up and asks me "allie, do you want consecutive days off next week"
Is this real life?
Sometimes I think God is just looking down on me and giggling as I am continually amazed at his goodness.
Of course God can give me days off,
He is God over my work, over all managers over everything.
This isn't the first time God has answered my prayers using the exact same words I prayed them in.
God is good.
He is silly.
He is powerful.
I am especially thankful today.
San Fran here I come!

How Can I be of Service?

I started my new job as a front desk agent at a hotel this month.

Boy is it hard.

Next time you check into a hotel, have a little grace on those poor agents, because there is so many little details I had no idea about! But the technical stuff aside.
 I absolutely love it.

I love meeting new friends every five minutes.

I love remembering a guests name and surprising them with a specific question about their day or an activity they did.

I love getting to upgrade a happy couple, a birthday girl.

But what I love most is the impact a smile and a listening ear can have on someones day.

Dont get me wrong, its not all puppies and rainbows over here.

every. single. complaint. from any guest, any room, any time.

They ALL come to the front desk.

Its a hard eight hours of listening to people complain.

I am 100% positive I couldn't do this Job without Jesus.

What encourages me through the long shifts and the endless complaints is knowing this.

Each person I interact with is an opportunity to love them, to show them compassion, listen to them and act with a positive attitidude that only can come from knowing Jesus.

I know that God doesnt need me to do great work, and its humbling to be reminded how little I am needed. 

But My prayer today  is that he might choose too use me.

good better best

tis the season...for finals.

Although for the average student, finals week is well, finals week.

For a Hospitality student, we get three weeks.

1. For all the Projects due.

2. For all the tests in HTM classes.

3. For all the business class finals during normal SDSU finals week.

This makes nearly a month of cramming, freaking out, procrastinating and oh yeah, studying.

Have I convinced you to switch majors yet?

Anyways, as you may guess tis also the season for to-do lists

color coded, highlighted and organized lists. 

its a matter of survival really. 

What have I learned from all this madness?

It is OKAY to say no. 

I am an eager human being, ready to take on every new adventure.

but rather than juggle 37 commitments with grace and perfection.

I tend to drop a few or many.

a dear friend of mine told me the other day,

"say no to what is good so you can say yes to what is better"

isn't that the truth.

there are lots of good things, but there are also a whole lot of better things.

better commitments, better opportunities, better relationships.

it's scary to let go of something good,
but be reminded that if your not totally confident about a choice,
 there is most likely a better option for you, if you wait a little and work a lot. 

in fifth grade, my teacher had a quilt on the wall that said:

"good better best, never let it rest, until your good is better and your better is your best."
That has been a constant reminder in my life to always look forward.

thats all folks.

worth.

There are those days where everything just seems to go wrong.

I had one of those days last week.

I could go into detail about why my day was lame, but who cares?

Its over, and I was reminded of some good stuff.

So really, the bad day, is good.

Its really easy as a student, well more like as a human, to be hard on myself.

To see my failures as HUGE, and let them weigh me down.

The bad tests, the failed projects, the embarrassing moments.

You know what keeps me sane?

Knowing My worth is not in what I do, what others think of me, or even who I am.

My worth is in ONE thing.

Jesus.

That is utterly, completely and totally freeing. 

It doesn't matter what my grades are, how awesome of internships I get, how popular I am, how many events I plan, where I live, how I look...the list goes on.

I am a daughter of the MOST HIGH, ALMIGHTY KING.

sooo come at me bro.

But really this is good stuff.

What helps me get through each day is knowing that my purpose is SO MUCH GREATER than my 'titles' of student, employee, member of student org xyz, ect.

My purpose is to know God and to make Him Known.

Who better to cling to than our Perfect, Constant and Loving God?

Yeah, no one better.

So this week, and every week, every day, and every minute I am clinging to Jesus.

&&

Remembering, it's not who I am, but WHOSE I am.

friendship

To belong and to be known are two of the most important things we as humans need.

I have found two traits in friendship that I value very much, almost above anything. 

Besides trust of course.

These aren't your typical traits, I have never put them on my lists (which I make a lot of)

Or really given much thought to them, until now.

Ready?

Inclusive and Inquisitive.

Yeah yeah yeah, I like the alliteration, but thats not why I picked the words. 

Inclusive. What does that mean in friendship? 

When I am friends with anyone, or really when I first meet someone, my number one goal is always to make them feel included, wanted, accepted. 

Maybe its because I was created with this desire, or maybe it is because I am so aware of this in others, but when I am friends with someone, I want to be included into their life. 

Not just a tiny sliver of their life, but the ups, the downs: the good, the bad and the ugly.

The book of Ruth is the one of the most beautiful stories of friendship.

This story is about a widow, Naomi and her two widowed daughter in laws.

She is retuning to her homeland and urges her daughter in laws to return to theirs so they can find new husbands. Ruth, one of the daughters pleads with her to stay: 

 "Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God." (Ruth 1:16)

Thats kind of exactly how I define true friendship, not just the people you hang out with and pass time with, but those you do life with. The friend who says my friends are your friends,  invites you in on their adventures & most importantly encourages you to know God.

We are not meant to do life alone, we are created to connect with others. 

That brings me to Inquisitive. 

Inquisitive means to be curious, interested in knowing.

When I am truly friends with someone, their joys become my joys, their tears, mine.

When I have good news I can barely contain myself from sharing with those gem friends. 

A sign of true friendship is displayed when that friend inquires about my life in such a way that it is evident they are interested and that they care. 

Its easy to find people to have fun with, laugh with and enjoy life with, but finding those who invite you into their life and care deeply about your thoughts: those are hard to find. 

Invest in those people. 

When you invest in the right people, I promise you, you will aways walk away with more than you gave. 

broken reality

This week, darkness attempted to take joy from the world.

Again.

This happens a lot doesn't it?

The evil in this world is shocking, heartbreaking and truly unbelievable.

The only way to look past the brokeness is to cling to the hope that true life is coming.

Pastor Al from Reality Church in Boston said something beautiful:

"We were not made for such atrocities. In such darkness, the church—the people, not an

edifice—are made to shine as a city set upon a hill, and as a lamp in a dark moment.

As we mourn this moment, we do so with a hope that a Kingdom is arriving—a

Kingdom that will right all wrongs, and turn all our sorrows into dancing. Until then,

we look for ways to help others grieve with a hope beyond themselves."

http://www.realityboston.com/city-wide-prayer-a-message-from-pastor-al/

I have no idea how people can look past brokeness without Jesus in their hearts.

The only hope I can cling too when tragedy strikes is knowing John 16:33

“I have spoken these things to you so that you shall have peace in me. You shall have suffering in the world, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” ...

No matter how awful the world becomes, I know that My God has conquered it all. 

Darkness may fight to steal that victory but it simply can not win.

A wise woman shared this with my friend and I think it speaks great truth about Mondays horrific incident. 

"The devil may have moments in a day, but our Lord will always have His way."

While I will never understand this darkness, or the future darkness to come, I don't have to because I know that God is still winning, by infinitely more.