Thoughts on Friends

Friends are such a wonderful gift from God.

True friendship is such an interesting phenomenon to me. It requires love, work, time, investment, giving of yourself, vulnerablility, honesty, kindness, acceptance and usually forgiveness from time to time. I guess this is true of all relationships, I just don't really have experience with romantic relationships, so friendships are what I know.

I have friends that are 4-years-old and friends that are 80. Every friend blesses my life in a different way. I'm thankful for each of them and what I can learn from them. Four year olds can teach you about wonder and amazement and unconditional love. Eighty year olds can teach you about strength and courage and joy in the midst of all circumstances.

Sometimes friends are just for a season. This is kind of difficult for me to accept, because I really like permanence. I usually tell my close friends that they are stuck for life. It's true, because I really hate letting friendships subside. But, I truly have seen God place people in my life for a time, when I needed them or they needed me. And then we drifted apart, and you know, I think that's okay.

Friends can have a great influence over you for good or bad. It's up to you to decide. So many friends of mine have made my life better, just by knowing them. I hope my friends can say the same of me.

And then there are best friends - the ones who know everything about you, and love you anyway. The people who understand you better than sometimes you even understand yourself. The ones that you laugh with until you cry, the ones you cry with until you don't have any more tears left. The ones you can call at anytime and know that they are there for you, even if they live thousands of miles away.

I'm not sure where all of this came from, just thoughts floating around in my head this morning. I am so unbelievably thankful for the friends in my life. My list of priorities in life goes like this: my God, my family and then my friends. If you are reading this, and made it to the bottom, then you are most definitely my friend! :) Thanks for the blessing you are in my life.

Close to Home

The war on the border is starting to hit closer to home for me. I was reading my Dad's blog tonight about how this week there was another gunfight in Juarez that spilled into El Paso. A stray bullet actually hit Bell Hall at the University of El Paso. No one was hurt, thankfully, but my mom is now a student at UTEP and will be on that campus several times each week. It's such a scary thought to know that she is directly "in the line of fire."

El Paso boasts that it is the 2nd safest city in America. Seriously, they boast about it. It's all I heard both times I visited, and yet it is across the border from one of the most dangerous places in the world right now. I read in the paper yesterday that more than 1,800 people have been killed in drug related incidents in Juarez just this year. Hearing about something like that halfway across the world is horrible, but honestly sometimes I don't grasp the reality of the situation. Hearing about something that is happening just 2 miles away from where my dad, mom and sister are living is VERY real to me.

I know that God has called them to El Paso for such a time as this. Jesus is the only answer for healing on the border. I am a firm believer in Jesus' power. I believe He wants to do great things in the midst of this chaos and turmoil. And I am trusting that He has my family in His hands right this moment. If you think of it, please pray for protection over my precious family. It's hard to be so far away, especially knowing what is happening day to day in their area. Pray for healing in Mexico. Pray for an end to this war. Pray that God's love will be preached on the streets and that people will come to know Him in a mighty and powerful way.

My Dad quoted Psalm 91 in his blog, and I think it's a great passage to cling to:

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most Highwill rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress,my God, in whom I trust.”

Who I am

"Who you are alone is alone who you are."

The other day I was talking with some ladies and one of them shared this quote. It really struck me and I like what it says! I feel like over the past few years I have had lots of alone time. And during that time, I've found out a lot about myself. When I was in college, I was NEVER alone! Like seriously, I think it wasn't until my senior year that I even went to Wal-mart by myself. I was definitely dependent upon my friends. I didn't want to be by myself and have to reflect on how I was doing, what I wanted in life or any kind of introspection. So, I just filled up all of my time with people. Now, I did love spending time with my friends. Those friendships that I developed definitely have stayed with me and are such a big part of me now. I'm thankful for all of the time I spent with them and glad I did it. But I didn't know who I was really. I didn't know what I liked and what I wanted and what was motivating me.

Living by myself for three years definitely was eye-opening. I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted and didn't have to justify it to anyone. For a while, I was really lonely. But during that alone time, I began seeking after God more than I ever had before. I realized that He was truly ALL I needed. He wanted to be my best friend - the one I cried to, the one I shared my hopes and dreams with, the one to celebrate my joys with. God wanted to be my ALL. I'm still working on giving my life completely to Him, but the process has been amazing. Through this "soul searching," if you will, I have found more of who I am.

I am passionate about people, I love to travel and see new things and experience new cultures, reading is my escape - mostly for pleasure and sometimes to better myself, I'm inspired by testimonies of how God is working in people's lives, watching t.v. shows is my favorite way to make new friends, communication is the key to me - in my work life and my personal life, I love words!!!, I have a need to be spontaneous sometimes, road trips make me happy, my heart breaks for orphans, laughing is my favorite thing, dancing is so much fun (even all alone), I like to be original in small ways - like with necklaces, shoes and purses, I want be married and to be a mom, but I am finally content to wait on God's timing and not my own. These are just a few things I've learned about myself. Those who know me well probably knew a lot of these things and it's just taken a while for me to recognize them. Some of this stuff is trivial, other stuff is very personal, but it's all me.

I love you, too!

I just finished going through my first Beth Moore bible study on Saturday with my friends Katie and Melissa. We did Breaking Free and it was really wonderful! I learned so much about who I am in the Lord, who He wants me to be and how to get over things in the past so I can live in the freedom that only comes from Christ.

During our Moore-a-thon, one of the things that Beth was talking about was God's love for us. She challenged us for a week to say to God, "I love you, too" instead of "I love you." Her rationale was that God loves us - it's so obvious! He sent His son to die for us. God IS love and while it is a great realization to know that we love God, it is also so important to realize that everyday He is saying "I love you" to each of us. I'm not sure if I'm explaining this as eloquently as she did, but it has been neat over the past few days to say this to my Father. To imagine Him saying "I love you, Kalie" and my response being to acknowledge that and return it. I'm so thankful that God loves me. I don't know where I would be without His love in my life and I pray that my life is a reflection of God's love.

This study was really great for me, because not only did I learn a lot, but I also developed some discipline with my quiet time and spent intentional time with the Lord each day. I'm starting a new Beth Moore at my house in a couple of weeks with my 20-something friends here in Brownwood and I'm really excited about it! There are at least 10 ladies right now that are interested and I think it will be so wonderful to get to know some new friends and learn together.

My TOMS: Eyeballs and Gobstoppers

Last night was super fun! Two of my favorite HPU students, Amanda Hendrix and Molly Gore, graciously volunteered their awesome art skills and came to decorate my new TOMS. If you don't know about TOMS, you should check them out! With every purchase of a pair of shoes from them, a child somewhere in the world who doesn't have shoes receives a pair too. How cool is that? They have lots of really cool designs, but I decided that I wanted to be different (shocker, right?) and have my own original pair. Don't worry, I photographed the whole process so you can see exactly how I got the coolest pair of TOMS in the world.

Here is what we started with:
A plain white pair of TOMS

The design inspiration (thank you Houlihan's)

The supplies

First, Molly and Amanda sketched

their design in pencil
Then, they started painting
After a while, they switched shoes,

so that the shoes would be similar

They worked really hard for FOUR hours!!

And then they were done!

TADA! Aren't they awesome?
I've decided to become their manager, so if you would like to have the awesome team of Molly and Amanda design a pair of TOMS for you, contact me. Pricing is negotiable. :)