Straight From My Heart

What a day!! This has probably been one of the best days so far in the Philippines, and definitely in Quezon. My day in the schools was incredible, and the Filipino pastors I was with had a huge part to play in that.

My first school this morning, I was with a Filipino pastor named Randy. He was going to translate for me as I spoke to about 500 elementary school students. I had expressed yesterday evening that I felt a little bit like I was falling into a pattern with my gospel presentations, like I was more "following the same outline" for every school that I spoke at. Randy told me before I spoke that I should just speak from my heart. So before I went on, I prayed that God would help me to speak from my heart and to just say the words He wanted me to say. After that presentation, I can honestly say I've never felt as wonderful as I felt afterwards. I really feel like God just spoke through me, rather than me trying to speak for Him. The rest of the day was wonderful, because I finally felt like I had found the way I was supposed to share.

My third school of the day was a high school, and I had to speak to a crowd of about 2,500 high school students. I felt SO intimidated, walking up onto that platform, because for some reason, the crowd just seemed really big. I was feeling some pressure from the principal, because she hadn't been the most welcoming, and my heart was just feeling very nervous and stressed. God works wonders, because I simply had to ask him to calm my heart and He did.

When we try to "speak for God", I don't think we even realize that we're doing it. It's more of a conscious thing, something we do without even realizing what our actions are implicating. It's such a humbling experience to really let God speak THROUGH you for the first time, because it's such a powerful feeling. He has a perfect plan, and for the first time today, I think it really hit me that there's a difference between a permissible plan, and a PERFECT plan. He has plans that are permissible, and that usually come about when we insist on having something that He wasn't going to give us. Then there are His perfect plans. If we're willing to sit and wait for His timing, and allow Him to speak through us, we will get to LIVE His perfect plan. I don't know about you, but I'm not willing to settle for a permissible plan. I'm not willing to settle for a "permissible" gospel presentation, I want to let God speak through me and have a perfect presentation. Even if it's something as simple as waiting for the right person to marry, it can make such a huge difference. I'm sure that sometimes, God has the perfect person in mind for us, but in our selfishness and impatience, we push for the person we want, and sometimes, I think God says "okay, you can have the second-best option, and I'll keep the best one!"

The simple lessons in life that we can pull out of experiences are amazing. They are never ceasing to amaze me every day that I spend here. The littlest things are teaching me the biggest lessons. Why is it that our eyes only seem to be open to these lessons when we are on a mission’s trip, or at church camp, or at church itself? Why is it that we don't seem to truly have our eyes open for these moments every minute of every day? That's something I'm bringing home: God wants us to always have our eyes and ears open, because the lessons he's trying to teach us are important! When we speak from the heart, when we let him have complete control, that's when the perfection in His plans come out. So how about you? Do you want to settle for God's permissible plan, or do you want to wait and suffer a little bit to live His PERFECT plan?