breakthrough.

break·through

Noun:

A sudden, dramatic, and important discovery or development, esp. in science. A significant and dramatic overcoming of a perceived obstacle, allowing the completion of a process.

i remembered seeing her walk down the street that first night. i remember seeing her face scrunched up at us like we had horns growing out of our foreheads. the pain in her eyes was penetrating, deep enough to cause a stirring inside my heart. "Lord", i prayed, "help us reach her." 

she literally hated us for some time. her story is so detailed i couldn't make it up. after a series of tremendous heart wrenching events, her heart is encased by a 10 foot thick wall of brick and mortar. no one, especially not "church people", is getting in.

but friday night, she hit her limit. he almost killed her and her unborn child. she needed someone to talk to. 

as i saw her across the street walking towards us, my heart began to race. 

Holy Spirit, i ask you to start breaking down this wall!

make her open. make her see You, Father, in us!

as i prayed out loud they came closer. this was our chance to speak life into her spirit. LA called to me and said to go. and then i heard the Lord say,

Just listen 

so that's what i did. 

for the first time since we have known her, she approached us. 

for the first time, she wanted to talk with us.

and for the first time, she let us know it was okay. 

the Lord put her on my heart the very first night. but it wasn't his timing yet. 

she wasn't ready. 

now she is ready to talk. 

i knew she didn't want me to pray over her in that moment, but she said i could on my own time. 

and that is when we experienced breakthrough. 

she recognized me as someone who will love her RIGHT WHERE SHE IS.

she saw my heart wasn't to condemn or judge her... it was to love. 

she told me she was happy to hear i understood. 

that my friends, is breakthrough. 

and i cannot wait to speak with her again...

i think these past two months of living in Atlanta has brought to much hope into my life. the Lord is moving in a mighty way here. whether that is through organizations like NightLight or at Grace Midtown or in the individual lives represented in all of my community. 

God is doing something big here. 

friday night, i was given much encouragement. 

first was that my God is faithful.

that He is reminding me of this through my patience in His timing and in His hand on my life.

second was that whatever plan He has for me are bigger than my idea of what He wants me to do. so erase them. 

so i am also experiencing breakthrough.

everyday.

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xoxo.

mb.  

sleepin' in.

today i did something i haven't done in ages.

i slept in.

it may have been the food coma i was in last night from an AMAZING mexican dinner with will, or the fact that i will be up kinda late tonight doing the "lawd's work."

but my body needs to be rested and free from the temptation to get all sleepy/tired/narcoleptic tonight. no attacks from satan here...

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today i was filling out a form to submit to this nice little nannying website. 

i thought it sounded a little sketchy, but how else do you find nannying jobs?

i have asked around a little here and there, but i decided it really wouldn't hurt. 

because i deeply miss my kids back in auburn. i miss keeping my babies and dancing in the kitchen to the allman brothers. 

i miss swinging and playing games with tubberware. 

so i am looking for a nannying job- part time. so if you know someone in my area... holler at your girl.

but anyways, i was filling out this form and it asked me what my favorite children's books were. 

that is a dangerous question for me... especially when you are limited to about 800 characters. 

i remember reading a lot of books... or i mean having a bunch of books read to me by my loving kindergarten teaching mother. 

but i recalled about four that struck my little heart once again.

forever will love dr. seuss and all his marvelous works of literature. kids will never tire these out. this one especially.

another beautiful yellow cover. i think i read this book about a million times at Mamaw's house. 

mom read this to me often. i got to read it to Ellabug just as much. it's a classic.

and finally this gem. 

last night we were in Barnes and Nobel and if my blood sugar had not been in the pits, i think we would stayed for about 6 hours. literally. that's one thing will and i share, the love of a good book. my choices are probably a little more "hipster" like some good C.S Lewis, which i would categorize as a classic, but whatever...

well, i am off to read another new book called Freedom Tools... book number for in the past month. 

may God bless and keep you.

xoxo.

mb.

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And a HARVEST OF RIGHTEOUSNESS is sown in PEACE by those who make PEACE.

james 3:18

in the FEAR OF THE LORD one has STRONG confidence, and his children will have refuge.

proverbs 14:26

2 weeks.

happy two weeks in atlanta.

had wonderful week while the Grands were in the Bahamas. only one bad thing happened... i lost the dog. thankfully, a sweet family found her roaming the streets after she ninja-ed out of the high security prison-type fencing in an effort to "get out of the storm". the family kept her over night and i retrieved the little ninja yesterday morning before the Grands came home... that was unnecessary stress on my heart.

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officially, today was the first day of training for the marathon. the past two weeks have been a bit of "pre-training," getting used to the hills of Atlanta and finding places i like running best. our program is about 20 weeks, which puts us right and ready for the october marathon. this is a big bite to chew, but i have great accountability and an actual real life running partner. it's nice to have accountability like i did last time with dad. will is faster than me, so i have catching up to do...

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this week i had dinner with myra at antico, one of my favorite spots in atlanta. and the following day, steph and i adventured to historic norcross, ga. and we had no idea we were going to fall in love with the little downtown. it reminded us of downtown opelika and made us miss auburn for about 3 seconds. we recovered quickly.

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a week from tomorrow i start at NightLight. i got the greatest text from my cousin last night, encouraging me in my mission and calling for this season of my life. most importantly, he stood beside me and challenged me to observe the "great oaks of faith" i will be surrounded by. which only leaves room for growth.

LIFE ACCORDING TO MY iPHONE

because i forgot....

went to passion city church and jane was being baptized! it was so cool to see and hear her testimony! blessed to know her!

will's clever naming while we were at Chow Baby in atlanta. it was entertaining to watch the waitresses face when she said my name...

          

           

lots of laying out and eating raw foods this week...

baby snake, in the back yard... dying so i saved him

also, please pray for my baby sister. she went to the ER this morning because of extreme abdominal pain. we are praying for ultimate healing on her body. they believe it is something like appendicitis, however they are talking about ovarian cysts. i just found out about 2 hours ago... so if you read this soon, please pray.

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have a blessed wednesday.

mb. 

munchie monday.

DISCLAIMER: this post was meant for yesterday, however i was distracted by a phone call...

if i ever wake up without something specific to do, i find myself longing for my once busy lifestyle pre-senior-graduation-mode.

then i think about it for three minutes. 

and decide there is much to be thankful for during my time "off."

for example, i took a two hour nap today. might i add that i achieved at least 7 hours of sleep last night and needed no nap today, however, when i felt my body calling for a siesta, i accepted. and i didn't set an alarm...

i finished a book today by Naomi Zacharias call The Scent of Water. it's about human exploitation and her fight and passion to achieve peace and justice through her efforts. and her prayers. and the battles she sees others fighting. it is beautifully written and crafted in such a way that invites you along side her journey. it gave me a mini preview into the work i will be doing this summer. 

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being that it is monday and i am a fan of alliteration and cooking, let me give you a little munchie for moday. 

meet the SNICKERDOODLE CAKE with Brown Sugar Butter Creme Icing. 

probably the best cake i have had in a long, long time. props and shout out to little miss sister who baked this beauty for mother's day. she did a two layer, sometimes is calls for four. because we did two, go with half the icing. but, it is so good. with a little vanilla ice creame... yummm-e.

click on the name up there and it will give you a link to the website where sister found this gem. you will not be disappointed. 

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tonight i took a trip back to my early days of writing this blog. true there are not as many spelling errors or awkward sentences. i went through times of happy posts and sad ones. there were also long lulls of no posts at all. but somehow, i find myself sitting behind the old faithful laptop sharing my thoughts with an open world. 

today i read a blog from three different women who are hosting a conference for women in the blog world who are Christ followers , discussing their influence in the world and how they can make a positive impact for Jesus through blogging. 

what a cool way to reach people for Jesus. 

it's called "Influence" and it's hosted by these three women, 

Jessi

Haley

and

Casey

i have been reading their Mommy Blogs for some time now, and must say the reach they have for the kingdom is amazing. maybe it is their love for their children, or the hard times they have been through, or their ability to write honestly about their lives with transparency and grace.

i admire their risk. it is so easy to pretend like everything is perfect on your blog. post perfect pictures of pretty things and people. make your house look spectacular, dress your kids (or imaginary ones) up in their best get-up and put on a little show. 

but these ladies don't even try this. they just live, and write for the kingdom. and making our Lord famous and His name known.

it's impressive.

today's aspiration... do that. 

Hotlanta.

wednesday morning i woke up to rain outside. but that didn't slow me down. 

i have made many trips to atlanta in the past, however this trip was far from what i am accustomed to. 

driving through tiger town starbucks is a trip ritual. hazelnut skinny latte please. and as the rain sprinkled into my car window as i grabbed my coffee from the barista, i realized, this time, i was going home.

i now am settled in beautiful bustling atlanta. i have enjoyed getting moved in and am growing more used to the "you say 20 mins but me 45 mins" away. i am learning to parallel park better. and it's only been three days. 

in other news, i graduated college! finally i am able to say those words. after the four year of writing this blog, there has never been a post that school was not looming overhead, barking at my brain, waiting to be done after i made a little post. my creativity and whitty juices all flowed into that mass called education. 

now. i get to learn. and do. 

         

i also got an iphone. which has been remarkable. a struggle sometimes to pay attention to other things going on, but it's still new... so i am allowed right?

now that i have an awesome phone that takes incredible pictures, my life is all of the sudden more documented for everyone and their mother (literally in some cases) to view it. so here is my life recently according to my iphone (this will be a traditional saturday post... all the cool blogs do it)

         

i have successfully run twice in atlanta so far. will and i went to piedmont park today to run and he (as expected) was much faster than i am. we enjoyed the time together, none the less and made about 5.2 total miles in the may heat. the wind was our friend, however. 

a special shout out to the lovely fender mandolin that brian gave me. i am learning chords at least one a day. i really like it. it is good for my baby hands and squatty fingers to play. and not to mention the fact that Ellie Holcomb uses onc. which makes me feel that much more capable of mastering the instrument.

brian told be i couldn't come back until i was the master mandolin player of the year. which, might be a stretch, but we have hope. 

OH YEAHHH!

I got the summer internship at NightLight! my whole mind has not wrapped itself around the fact that the passion the Lord has given me in this life if going to see itself in the light this summer. i will be blogging a lot about what i will be doing later. i have some emotional feelings right now, and i am learning a lot through the books i am reading for the adventure. if you want info about this organization in Atlanta, look them up here! 

did i mention how happy i am to be so close to this guy right here?? because i am. enough said. 

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sitting here at this desk in this new room is a little odd. mostly, because this is now where i stay, not where i visit.

part of me was scared to move here. part of me was a little apprehensive. part of me was pumped.

now, i am more excited than anything. 

i have been given grace to proceed in life. the Lord has shown a little glimpse into His will for my life.

today, i saw a slice of my future. not planning on it, but i saw it regardless.  

and the Lord showed off. 

my heart leaps inside my chest when he pats me on the back and tells me good job. 

when he gives me a nudge in the right direction.  

i prayed for the opportunity. he gave me a desire, and a calling, now he is equipping me.

and he is showing me His LOVE through another. 

a picture of HIS LOVE. 

how could you ask for more?

you can't. because there is nothing else but HIS LOVE.

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well, that is a significant update. i look forward to posting more about my adventures through post-grad life. 

get outside today. green> screen (outside is green...screen is like a tv or computer... ya digg?)

peace and love. mb.