thankful heart

Dear God,

:)

thank you for Jesus! for doing for us on the cross what we could never do for ourselves....thank you for you love...

thanks for family!

thank you for your Word.

thank you for sleep.

xoxo

Merry Christmas,

tyler

sitting.waiting.wishing.

dear God,

im sitting in my bed talking to my good friend Mary. yeah, you know, the amazing one who You sent to be a missionary in Africa. thanks for blessing us with the technology to be able to keep in touch so well. you knew we'd need each other....

but back to my first line-im still sitting here....i feel paralyzed. everything seems a little hazy. time is flying by...or im just moving in slow motion. either way, this is such a bizarre feeling...
it's cold in my room, my blinds are open and i can see the sunshine outside. it looks delightful. but for some reason i cant get myself from here to there. it seems like by the time im ready, the sun has set and it's dark again.

(im not sure what in the world im saying, i know this doesnt make sense, but i dont really care, i felt like writing to You and so im trying)

so basically what im trying to say God is i need your help finding my way out of this fog. nothing is concrete right now. i could go in any direction and i have no idea which one You want me to go in...at this point im not even sure what my options are. i feel like there arent any that seem right. once again, haze.

the title of this post is obviously "sitting.waiting.wishing" that's what ive been doing....literally. lol. and i know it's time to "stand up.take action.make decisions" HOW CAN I DO THAT WHEN I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE TO EVEN BEGIN!? i dont wanna make the same mistake i made at the beginning of this semester. i knew i wasnt supposed to be at lsu but id missed the deadlines for everywhere else and i didnt wanna sit out so i just applied even though it was literally the last thing i wanted to do...and i didnt finish the semester. although You did amazing things this semester and taught me so much...i dont wanna just make a decision i know isnt right for what's next simply b/c im out of time and options. what.to.do.

just told my friend mary (we were talking about schools and learning, etc) "if we went to a good school and were actually learning it would be awesome. i cant just get by. that's not me. im all in or all out. lsu=all out." lol. it's so true! i learned this about myself early on...when i go for something i really go for it. with track.........it was my life! i loved it, trained...put everything into it. but once it was over, it was over. all in or all out. if i cant give 100% i dont wanna give any.
 i dont like wasting time. and i cant help but feel like that's what im doing...but am i? our society puts so much pressure on us (and i put a lot on myself, although i dont always show it)  life is moving too fast. i think we all need to slow down and breathe and check our priorities-and put You first. for real though....im aware that im rambling and that none of these points really flow together. i dont care, im just typing, later ill make sense of what's going on with me today. as you know God, im a slow processor-much to my annoyance. ;)

alright, it's time to pack up, run errands and head to the Ville. Home sweet home is calling my name....cant wait to spend time with my family and celebrate You.

                                      

 
<3
t

story time.

                 picturas.  <3 enough said

xoxo, ty

amazing love

Dear God,

"amazing love how can it be that you, my king, would die for me?"
thank you Jesus....

finished "Traveling Light" by Max Lucado now reading "Radical" by David Platt
shout out to Eva & my beautiful Bible study girls for buying them for me!!! so thankful... learned so much for Traveling Light, help it sink into my heart and change me. really looking forward to reading Radical. the first chapter was so great, the end was my fav. sets up what to expect from the rest of the book:
"In the pages to come, we will together explore the biblical gospel alongside our cultural assumptions with an aim toward embracing Jesus for who he really is, not for who we have created him to be. We will look at the core truth of a God-centered gospel and see how we have manipulated it into a human-centered (and ultimately dissatisfying) message. we will see a purpose for our lives that transcends the country and culture we live in, and will see our desperate need for his presence to fulfill that purpose in us. we will discover that our meaning is found in community and our life is found in giving ourself for the sake of others in the church, among the lost, and among the poor. we will evaluate where true security and safety are found in this world and in the end we will determine who to waste our lives on anything but uncompromising, unconditional abandonment to a gracious, loving Savior who invites us to take radical risks and promises us radical reward."

everyone should read Radical. CANT WAIT TO DIVE IN. open my heart Lord...

it's been an interesting last couple of days. planning on going to the Dreamcenter tomorrow morning (satan is trying so hard to convince me to sleep in) and St. Francisville tomorrow evening for my sister's choir concert...

i hope to honor You in all i do.

i'll write tomorrow night, my brain is shutting down on me

love you so much.

<3 <3 <3
tg

quotes and verses

Dear God, 


today was long but good! i'm tired and ready for bed. enjoyed spending time with you tonight looking up these quotes and verses. thanks for leading me to them. i could write a whole blog on each of them but since i'm so tired, i'm just going to post them. hope they will speak to others.


verses:


"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."
-Romans 12:12


“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
-Matthew 7:24–27


"Godliness with contentment is great gain"
-1 Timothy 6:6


Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
-Genesis 22:2 

Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. 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

quotes:

God never witholds from His child that which His love and wisdom call good. God's refusals are always merciful- "severe mercies" at times but mercies all the same. God never denies us our hearts desire except to give us something better."
— Elisabeth Elliot

"Restlessness and impatience change nothing except our peace and joy. Peace does not dwell in outward things, but in the heart prepared to wait trustfully and quietly on Him who has all things safely in His hands."
— Elisabeth Elliot

"Waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry wihtin oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one;s thoughts."
— Elizabeth Elliot

"Does it make sense to pray for guidance about the future if we are not obeying in the thing that lies before us today? How many momentous events in Scripture depended on one person's seemingly small act of obedience! Rest assured: Do what God tells you to do now, and, depend upon it, you will be shown what to do next."  — Elisabeth Elliot 

"I have one desire now - to live a life of reckless abandon for the Lord, putting all my energy and strength into it." — Elisabeth Elliot

"If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only... to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, echo, or mirage.

-C.S. Lewis 

God, who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain”
-c.s. lewis 




We say, then, to anyone who is under trial, give Him time to steep the soul in His eternal truth. Go into the open air, look up into the depths of the sky, or out upon the wideness of the sea, or on the strength of the hills that is His also; or, if bound in the body, go forth in the spirit; spirit is not bound. Give Him time and, as surely as dawn follows night, there will break upon the heart a sense of certainty that cannot be shaken. --Amy Carmichael

The breaking of the alabaster box and the anointing of the Lord filled the house with the odor, with the sweetest odor. Everyone could smell it. Whenever you meet someone who has really suffered; been limited, gone through things for the Lord, willing to be imprisoned by the Lord, just being satisfied with Him and nothing else, immediately you scent the fragrance. There is a savor of the Lord. Something has been crushed, something has been broken, and there is a resulting odor of sweetness. --Watchman Nee

                                              i'm holding onto Your truth Lord.

goodnight...

love you

<3 

ty 

i called and You answered!

                                          Dear God,

so, last night was def a rough one! i did a lot of crying and praying...i was listening to music during all of this when the song below came on...i couldnt believe how exactly it mirrored what is going on with me!

The Valley by: Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors

[incredible band. one of my new favorites. went to see their concert with Dave Barnes in New Orleans last wk, it was phenomenal!]

lyrics:

I don't want to face this valley. I don't want to walk alone.

You say that you'll leave to find me,
Well I am begging you now to come.
Don't think I could face the morning. A heaviness is on my chest.
You say that you'll lift this burden,
Well I am begging you to bring me rest.

So come and find me in the darkest night of my soul.
In the shadow of the valley I am dying
for you to make me whole.
For you to make me whole.

I can't keep myself from sinking. From drowning down in all this shame.
My throat is worn out from calling for help.
And I am praying you'll remember my name.
I know I can't face this battle. Been surrounded on every side.
You say that you will deliver me.
Well I am praying you'll restore my life.

Answer me out of the goodness of your love.
In your mercy turn and lead.
I know it's you that I've been running from,
But I'm seeing it's you I need, need,
You're all I need.

So come and find me in the darkest night of my soul.
In the shadow of the valley I am dying

for you to make me whole.
For you to make me whole.

For you to make me whole.

after i listened to the song i picked up the book I'm currently reading, "Traveling Light" by Max Lucado. the first thing i read is this: Psalm 23:4 Though I walk through the valley [hello!!! just like the song] of the shadow of death i will fear no evil, because You are WITH ME." read a little more "you know what God wants? He wants you to face your sorrow. Denial and dismissal are not a part of God's grief therapy." and a little more "God will lead you through, not around, the valley of the shadow of death. And, by the way, aren't you glad it's just a shadow?"

                                                                         amen. my soul was so comforted. 

even so, it was a rough night, as well as tough day...I held onto the promise that You are with me and that relief would come soon.

tonight i felt God comfort and pursue me again. 

tonight was "Chick Night" at Healing Place Church. so fun! before chick night, i met up with a new friend, Karina, and we got hot chocolate and got to know each other a little bit better.  the first time i met her i def felt an instant connection with her, and tonight was a testament to that. i really enjoyed our time together talking about life, dreams, God, ministry, heartbreak, hard times, our pasts, hopes for the future...etc. After hot chocolate and great convo we went to the church! two of my friends, molly and maggie, also joined us which was a wonderful surprise. the whole night was such a sweet surprise, i didnt know the details of what it was all going to be about and it ended up being so perfect. God really pursued me through every little thing. chick night consisted of outdoor ice skating (they rented a portable ice rink, pretty sweet), christmas shopping (tons of tables of the coolest stuff all throughout the church), TONS of girls and women everywhere, and most importantly a message just for us girls from DeLynn, the head pastors beautiful wife. the focus of her message was for us to cling to the hope and peace we have in Christ. we dont have to search for it...since we are His children, saved by His grace, His hope and His peace and readily available to us. obviously i know this, but tonight i needed to hear it again. she shared a couple of verses on both hope and peace that really spoke to me and that ive been going back to all night.

hope:

Psalm 39:7

Jeremiah 17:7

Romans 15:13 

Lamentations 3:24

Jeremiah 29:11 

peace:
Numbers 26:6
1 Corinthians 14:33 *fav* "For God is not a God of confusion but of peace."
John 14:27
2 Thessalonians 3:16
Psalm 29:11
Isaiah 26:3












another thing DeLynn said when we bowed our head to pray was something like this "Focus on just Him right now, don't think about your mom, your best friend, your b/f, husband...let this time be for just you and Jesus...b/c one day that's ALL it's going to be" again, i know this, but right in that moment, it was EXACTLY what i needed to be reminded of. Thank you!
afterwards me, molly, maggie and karina went to eat...oh how fun that was!!!  truth, friendship & laughs <3 
God, You are crazy cool....to say the least. 
Thanks for speaking to me in various ways over the last 24 hours. I'm still hurting, still don't have the answers, but i do have hope in You. and i KNOW You hear me and i know You care. Thanks for surrounding me with people who love me so much and who have been praying for me! i'm so encouraged and amazed at the love and blessings you have lavished upon me in my time of need. I know I'm still in the valley, but i know you're taking me THROUGH it and not around it for a reason. you want to heal me! you want me to trust you. i know you're with me! i'm so thankful the "shadow of the valley of death" is just a shadow and that i have eternal life in you. no matter what i have to go through on this earth i know it's just a shadow compared to eternity with you. 
God, I don't know who reads my blog, (prolly no one besides my roomie, mom and a couple of close friends hehe) BUT God the cry of my heart is that everything i do will point others to You. i just want to be a light...even though im a mess (well, we all are) i pray that through this blog you would speak to someone. i pray you would use my raw communication with you through this blog to lead others to you and only to you....this purpose of this blog is not for my glory. only yours. if anyone else is out there and hurting or confused or begging to hear for you God, i pray this would reach them and encourage them. 
off to bed, long day tomorrow. cant wait to see what you have planned. open my eyes & heart tomorrow to ALL that you have for me. and please keep reminding me it's not all about me...i pray that tomorrow ill get to share with someone about how you're pursuing me.
i love you. 
p.s. please give my mom restful sleep tonight. and look after all those i love so much!
gnight
                                                         i hope in You and You alone, 
                                                                tyler kristian gordy