Forgot to post this-INSPIRED BY A FRIEND

To even begin to comprehend the conversation I just had with one of my closest friends, Haley, kind of gives me a headache (to be honest). The reason why that is, has to do with the level of incredibility and ridiculousness of the realizations that just hit me during this unplanned and totally random discussion. God works in the craziest ways sometimes, which brings me to my first realization... While I was thinking about how Haley and I became friends, I started tying together all the events and people that led up to us meeting and slowly becoming sisters. The first is that her step mom was my parents new interior designer. Next, since her last name is Atterbury, she just happened to be in my advisory. Also, I had always admired her from afar because she is so beautiful and just has this demeanor about her that I can explain. Finally, the fact that God somehow led her to go to Malibu camp last summer where I was a student leader, just was the jackpot. We became almost instant best friends. Along with Kendall, another one of my closest and dearest friends, God brought Haley into my life. He did this for a specific and completely purposeful reason. Ever since we became close, amazing and incomprehensible things have been happening in each of our lives. My prayers have been answered, and my relationship with God has strengthened a TON. God uses us, together, to create a more meaningful and exciting and fulfilling life-and we seem to miss this every day! We don’t realize JUST how much he has planned-ALL of the insane opportunities that are waiting for us. Tonight, something became extremely clear to me in that we are all sooo special and unique and have a relationship with God where he listens to JUST us. It’s my relationship, and it’s someone else's totally separate relationship. We need to keep perspective to stay sane in this world where so many awful things are happening all the time. We also need to USE what God has given us, utilize the fact that we were born in the suburbs of Portland Oregon into a middle class family. On my way home I visualized a teenage girl, just like me, somewhere far off in the world just crying out to God for help, and him replying that he has given a girl in Portland Oregon all the resources to help her and is just waiting for her to realize it. There is so much pain and destruction and sorrow and death and sadness in the world, that there is never a time when there is nothing to do. There is ALWAYS something to do. Those who wallow in their own self pity or complain about how they feel their life is stagnant really get to me. Look around. Not just in your own backyard, but in the world. We were not meant to be closed off in some caged bubble our whole lives. That’s not what life is about. It’s about finding something we truly believe in, the people who we really love, holding onto them, fighting for them, and doing everything you can to help them. BIGGER PICTURE needs to be everyones focus......whether that be in your own local community or across the entire world. hand cramp.