#castingcrowns

From the grave meant to keep You to a stone rolled away

Your cross is the proof that love made the first move...

Wow. What a thought. What a peace in this song. (Love moved first-Casting Crowns)

Hi there! Welcome to my blog! I cannot think of a better way to start of my blog than by making my very first kick-off blog post about a song that I am letting set the tone for my 2019. 2018 was one of the roughest but most amazing years of my life. In quick summary: My parents sold their dairy cows, the camp I grew up working at cut their horse program, and I got married to the love of my life. Yup. It sure has been a year. 2019 for me is about self-confidence and remembering that our past does not define us. It also means I am walking into the first year of my life without horse camp. It is hard to describe what being part of a camp family means to outsiders. People who have never attended a summer camp or are not immersed in the camping culture cannot understand the full depth of what a week out of the year can mean for campers. I took it one step further and spent summers there on staff and returning to volunteer every single summer, even when I had to "grow up" and get a "real" job or internship. One of the main reasons I went was for the horses. I grew up on a dairy farm and I simply did not have the chance to ride horses but like any other young girl, I was obsessed with them. Christian summer camp offered me  an opportunity to ride horses and, at that point in my life (think 12-13), having to sit through devotions and hear about Jesus was a necessary annoyance I had to deal with.  As I continued to live life and gain more experience, when I returned to camp as a 24 year old volunteer, everything reversed. I found myself focusing on the devotions, putting my heart into every lesson I taught my 12-17 year old campers.  In 2018, the camp I grew up at made a decision to no longer offer their equestrian programs. I was a little shocked at first. Horses were my way of connecting with campers and I am not sure how my volunteer skills will fit into their new programming in 2019. However, there is one thing I know that will stay the same: God will continue to touch the lives of many children there. Which brings me to why I chose "Nobody" as my song for 2019. Camp was always a place where I and other teens like me could feel like somebody. I felt like I mattered, I felt like I was a somebody and not a nobody. It did not matter who I was at school, who I was to my family, or how many friends I had. My goal for 2019 is to carry that somebody feeling into my everyday life and there is no better way to do it than by listening to this song. It can be too easy to feel like this: "All my life I've been told I belong at the end of the line With all the other Not-Quites With all the Never-Get-It-Rights"

In 2019, my goal is to remember that I am somebody to God and he has a plan for me and my life that I am just not totally aware yet. As the song says: "Moses had stage fright And David brought a rock to a sword fight You picked 12 outsiders nobody would've chosen And You changed the world Well, the moral of the story is Everybody's got a purpose."