Be the Armor-bearer.

Recently at leadership Sloop (Virginia Tech's YL area director) spoke about a passage from 1 Samuel where Jonathan and his armor-bearer defeat the Philistines and bring revival to the Jewish nation (1 Samuel 14:1-23). It's over all a pretty ridiculous but pretty awesome story highlighting the power of God and how much he can accomplish when we stop trying to control everything, give him room to work and trust that he will. But in the midst of all the crazy battle plans and defeating of enemies there's one section of one verse that really stuck out to me. It's the last part of verse 7 and Jonathan's armor-bearer says to him, "Behold, I am with you heart and soul." Wow.

So for a little background - Jonathan has decided that he's just gonna go over to the Philistines and see what God is going to do in the situation. He's the only one in the whole Jewish army right now who actually has his weapons (for some reason the rest of the army is getting their's cleaned), so he just goes for it. It's funny to me because as you read this it makes it sound like he literally just decides on a whim hey let's go check out the enemies camp and see what happens. That's not normal or smart logic when you're kind of fighting a small war with these people at the moment, but he goes for it. Jonathan starts to give this armor-bearer of his a little bit of his plan for what they're going to do, but with out hearing much detail at all the armor-bearer says that line that's been nagging at me "Behold, I am with you heart and soul." When was the last time you said that to God? To be honest, I don't know if I ever have. I don't even know if I know exactly what it means to be with someone heart and soul.

It's hard to explain, but that line just gets me. Jonathan's armor-bearer has SO MUCH trust in him. He literally has no idea what's going to happen, there's even a good chance that they're going to die, but he still tells Jonathan that he is completely and utterly with him. He's got his back and he will support any decision he makes or actin he decides to take. The craziest part? Jonathan is a human. He is a broken and sinful human just like me and you. Yet this young man who carries his armor is able to see his trust in the Lord and is able to then trust Jonathan not just with his whole heart, but with all his soul. If the armor-bearer can have so much trust in a man he carries armor for why can't I be so trusting and so with the God of the universe? It also brings forth the question of what crazy plan is the Lord calling me into? What plan is he inviting me to be a part of?

My challenge for myself this week is to live more like the armor bearer. To be whole heartedly and souly with God even though I don't know what plan of battle he's having me follow him into. I challenge you to live like the armor bearer as well this week!

xoxo,
Abby

Word doodles are my newest favorite pass time, so here's the one that inspired this post!

The Magnolia House.

"How good and pleasant it is when sisters live together in unity." -Psalm 133:1

This time last year all the other freshmen girls had figured out who they were living with, where they were living, and some had even signed leases already, but Rene, Grace and I were out in the dust with no where to live. We tried to get excited about living on campus, looked at cheap apartments, searched for houses and more girls, but couldn't really get excited about any of our options. So we did what any good group of christian girls would do - handed it over to the Lord. We knew that he wasn't going to let us go homeless our sophomore year and that he had some sort of a plan in the cards for us.

Just before Christmas break a cryptic text changed all of our plans for the next year. Five girls a year older than us were moving into a HUGE house and needed three more girls to share it with. Three girls exactly. That always gets me when I look back on it, just how perfectly it all worked out - numbers wise at least. It's funny to me that at a random table in an empty dining hall the three of us committed right then and there to living with 5 girls we barely knew at all (and by that I mean all we knew was the basics there shared in our 30 minute meeting).

Less than a year later the seven of us (we lost one along the way) we had our house pictures taken, and that was just such a sweet reminder of house the Lord has knit us together in his love and in this house. Granted, we are broken humans. We have our faults. We fail at loving each other and showing each other Christ a lot. But honestly I wouldn't wish to be living any where else in the world right now. It really is pleasant and good living as sisters in the unity of Christ.

Shouts to Lauren Bradshaw for capturing our sweet and unique relationships on film, and shouts to my man Jesus for giving me these relationships!

Magnolia.

The "Bridesmaids" pic aka our actual BA selves.

Hay bales are hipster right? Well I'm obsessed with them anyway...

The Basement Babes.