some thoughts

 Endless yarn, beads, small flower pots, crosses, and many more crafts are filling up my suitcase, along with books.
Reading, writing, conversations, family dinners, shopping, baking cookies... This Christmas break has brought many events that have twisted and turned and have brought me here. This past week I have been challenged with the topic of our hearts longings. What are you desiring so much of ? What are you constantly striving to find? Who and what are you looking at to keep on filling your heart up?

Consistency, what is consistent in your life? Does consistency satisfy you?

 This past summer, if i am thinking correctly, in June, I was riding back to camp from Hailey in a van. It is a pretty long drive, about an hour, so I had plenty of time to think. I was sharing headphones with Kayleigh. We were getting to the point of making our way up Galena ( a mountain pass, that many memories have been made on), the mountains on the right side of the road were just absolutely beautiful. They were not the Sawtooths, but the White Clouds, and we were right at the foot of them. The thing that struck me the most was while you are admiring these majestic mountains, you seem to feel as if you are comfortable enough in taking a DEEP BREATH,  taking a pause, letting it out, and letting a slight smile come to your face. It was as if this is where you can rest, find peace, and be able to reflect on the beauty of life. By resting your eyes on this view, you seem to believe this is "satisfying". As we kept making our way, trees kept passing and the mountain just stood still, it stood still declaring the beauty of God, and His almight power. The scenery quickly disapeared and was replaced with a wall of rock along the side of the road.

The simple joys of a day, a mutual understanding from another, love from your family, laughter that gives you a feeling that you can not give yourself, or the presence of a friend that you love, these are things that we long for. Why are we longing for them? We know that they are not perfect, that they can not even measure up to being perfect, but yet we long for them, why are we longing for imperfect satisfactions that are not consistent. Why? Another thought, when we get those longings, we desire more and more out of them when we know they can not continue to give more.

We were made to be filled with something GREAT, something that consistently satisfies us, something that our hearts are CONTINUOUSLY longing for. We keep searching, but we cover ourselves in a blind fold of this world and we are oblivious to what lies in front of us. We dont need to search, ITS been there. From the beginning it was there and it will remain there tomorrow and the day after and the day after that.

We were made with a heart meant to be filled with the love of God. THE LOVE OF GOD, and only the LOVE of God. What are you filling your heart with?
We suffer from the these "things" that we depend on to fill us up. When they cannot keep filling us we suffer, when they won't fill us, we suffer. In our suffering, our weakness, is where we see God.

Mathew 11: 28- 30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Those mountains satisfied me and I was able to rest for those few seconds, but once they were out of sight, I longed for more, I wanted more. God does this so that we can desire him more every day. He gives us a feeling of "this is what I need" and then takes it away. He wants us to find rest in HIM, He is a jealous God, He created our hearts and wants them to be for him only. He promises that He will not take His love from us, HIS perfect, satisfying LOVE. He is our rest, all he wants is to have us overflow in his love, we are just simply pushing it away.