A gift from my King

While walking through a grocery store in Illinois a few days ago, I came across a lovely bouquet of flowers. At first I simply looked and enjoyed their beauty, then I started to get a little nostalgic feeling in my stomach. It suddenly dawned on me that I missed getting flowers. I am a complete sucker for any kind of girly gifts, but flowers are a true weakness :) I had a boyfriend who used to give them to me as gifts almost weekly. It always made me sad that something so beautiful would eventually wilt and die, so I took pictures of every single bouquet I ever got from him. THAT'S how bad I am, you guys.
Anyway, I had my sad little moment in the store and then went on with my day. The next morning I was standing in the kitchen, cup of coffee in hand, looking out the window at a beautiful Autumn morning. All of a sudden, I see a pink rose in front of my face. I turn around and my Grandpa has a rose in his hand that he picked from his garden just for me. "Grandpa," I said, "I didn't know you grew roses in your garden" He replied, "I didn't either. I've never seen a rose like this before"
So, not only did God hear me in the store that day, He got someone to give me a flower. And not just any flower, a special one that my Grandpa had never seen before! I don't know how much more I could ask for. I love when He does that. He took the time to show me that He does care about the little things in our lives. He cared that I missed getting flowers. He cared enough to show me that He was listening. I love knowing that the God of the Heaven and Earth cares enough to send His silly little girl a pink rose...just so she knows He loves her. :) You'd better believe I took a picture of it too!

Don't worry, it's only my will breaking.

God called me out on something. I won't go into details but it does have a little something to do with the BIGGEST surrender of my life; letting go of something that I am absolutely terrified of relinquishing. Why is it so easy to trust God in some areas, but not others? Thankfully, I had some wonderful friends remind me that God has a plan for us. He gives us a hope and a future. Not only that, but He promises to do far above anything we ever could have planned for ourselves...IF we just wait for Him. Knowing all this, it becomes pretty difficult to make plans for my life without asking God about them first...even when these plans look all rosy and perfect in my mind. I have to surrender my will, give up all MY plans for the future in order to be fully open to what God wants to do with me. Once I reminded myself that my life does not belong to me, I cried A LOT and told God that, yes, I still belonged to Him. He could still have me and do whatever He wanted with my life. When I was telling a friend about all this, she heard my tears over the phone and asked, "Leah, are you crying?" And I said, "Yes. But don't worry, it's only my will breaking."