Week One as a YWAMer!

Hey Guys!

  So, today is Thursday, April 3rd! That means that it's the fourth day of my first week here at YWAM Louisville! I'm so excited!! It has already been so great. I have been able to make new friends so quickly, which is practically a miracle for me! Everyone is so amazing and so friendly, it's literally impossible to not make friends here. It's also been pretty easy to get right into the swing of things. I haven't felt out of place, or even too homesick yet, which has been another big surprise to me. All in all, I'm already loving my YWAM family!

  One of my assignments as a DTS student is to keep a "creative journal." So basically, at the end of every week I answer questions and write down something that God has taught me. I'm keeping an actual journal, but they said it could be nice to post a public one too, so family and friends can keep up with what's going on in my life right now! It sounded like a good idea to me, so I figured I'd post it here on the blog! So I'll go ahead and just jump right into it! 

  When I first got here and learned that we have an hour every morning set aside for quiet time before starting our day, I honestly got a little nervous. I've never really had a consistent quiet time, let alone for a whole hour. I didn't really know what I was gonna do! So for the first couple days I kinda just sat outside on the bench swing, read my bible, talked to God, and enjoyed the sunrise. I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to be waiting for, or expecting to hear. I wasn't even sure I could hear God's voice, because I hadn't experienced what the other girls had been telling me they experience. I thought maybe He just wasn't speaking to me yet. After the first couple days of class though, I started to realize that God had been speaking to me all along. I felt like God had used what we were being taught in class to confirm what I had been thinking in quiet time. The first big issue that was addressed was surrender, which I had just been working through that morning in quiet time. I realized that there are quite a few areas in my life that I thought I had surrendered to the Lord, but really I was still holding onto them in my heart. Then we talked about our relationships with God, how they're personal for each of us, and that because they're personal God speaks to each person in a different way. That struck me too. I had been getting so worried that I wasn't hearing from the Lord, when really I just didn't realize that He had been speaking to me all along because I was too busy comparing it to someone else's relationship with Him. 

  Now, the two questions I'm supposed to answer are "what is one aspect of God's character that He has highlighted to me this week?" and "what principle or character trait is God challenging me to apply to my life?" Needless to say, I feel that in this first week God has shown me that there are still things in my life that I need to surrender to Him in order to really seek Him with my whole heart. Total surrender is definitely the principle I need to apply to my life. As for what aspect of God's character was highlighted to me, I have to say it was His guidance. At first it was difficult to know whether or not the Lord was speaking to me, or if it was just my own thoughts that I was hearing; but now I already have a better sense of His guidance, on just the fourth day! And I know that I'm going to learn so many more amazing things while I'm here! 

  So there's a bit of what I've learned this week! I'm so excited for what the Lord has in store for my DTS group! I know it's gonna be great. :)