In the Quiet

+ J.M.J. For what felt like years, I had been praying to God, begging Him for the peace that surpasses all understanding. What I expected in return was the feeling of peace. I thought that I was peaceful. I experienced times of brief respite from the stresses of life, usually when I was completely alone.  This year, I met Matt, my boyfriend. As we began to spend more and more time with each other, I began experiencing an overwhelming sense of peace. One evening, as we sat together in the park, just enjoying the scenery and talking quietly, something popped in my mind and I spoke it aloud: "I feel like you're an answer to prayer." I told him that I had praying for years for the peace that surpasses all understanding, but I had no idea that God would send a person in whose presence I could grow closer to God and feel completely at peace.  My peace does not come from my boyfriend. God supplies the peace, but allows Matt to be the instrument which I exper...

J.M.J. I'm sure you've heard about the concept of being God's instrument, right? Someone will say to you, you're the instrument of God in this situation! And you may wonder at some point, like I did, what exactly that means. As some of my readers know, I'm not the best at letting go and letting God. Actually, I really stink at it. Someone asked me recently, when I said that I was stressed out, "What do you have to be stressed out about?" When I stated that it was my classes, this person said, those are not stressful! I realized in that moment that although I was feeling burnt out, that this person was right. The classes themselves aren't stressful. How I'm reacting to them is. And, since they have impacted me in such a negative way this past semester, I'm going to take a step back from classes next semester and figure my life out. I digress. At different times in my life, people have reached out to me because they know I'm re...