Beauty after beauty

I am sitting in the Turpin Library at DTS very excited because I have an entire 45 minutes "free"! I say "free" because there's always something to be doing in seminary, but none of it is due within 24 hours. Thus, "free". It is a cold but beautiful day here in Dallas. I am enjoying admiring it from the inside of the warm and wind-free library.

It is indeed beautiful in Dallas. The city is one of the prettiest and cleanest cities I have ever seen. The sky seems bigger here and there's always something to do as long as you know where to look. We've ventured out of Dallas before and also seen a lot of beautiful things. We've seen waterfalls and hills in Oklahoma, lakes filled with fish, and a sky that seemed to stretch out forever over the flat terrain. It has certainly been an adjustment moving from the southeast filled with humidity and mountains to near the desert where it is dry and flat. But it always pays to look for beauty especially in the midst of change.

I also love seeing the beauty in the people I encounter. Since everyone I see on a day-to-day basis are still relatively new faces, I am having the opportunity to get to know them and learn who they are. I am so enjoying seeing the hand of God working in the lives of my fellow believers and seeing His image in every person I meet and get to know.

With the onset of spring, everything seems to have turned green! (My chiweenie doesn't see the beauty in it, however. She just makes sure to taste it all making walking her a chore.) In between sneezes I am enjoying seeing all the new flowers on trees and how lush it has become. There are many parks near where we live, but we have found one that has become completely green besides the path we walk on. The trees make it feel like you've escaped into some oasis. It is beautiful and refreshing.

God has been teaching me to rely on Him through all this change and through the challenges we have faced the past few months. I have learned that though this is hard to learn, it can be beautiful too because the process of learning to rely on God makes me more of the person I should be. When I try to rely on my own will, things are ugly, challenging, and not rewarding. Relying on God, however, things are beautiful, still challenging, but very rewarding simply because of the presence of God in the things I am doing. I hope that whatever you are doing or going through, you will rely on Him and let Him show you the beauty He has in store.