Life Lessons

I have always liked school. I may not have always been the perfect student, but I enjoyed almost all my teachers, classmates and classes in my education so far. However, in the last few years I have come to understand that you don't learn solely in a class setting, but in the real world you learn real life lessons, things only learned through experience. I've learned so much already in the relatively short amount of time I've been in Beirut, but more than anything I have learned about myself and those in my life. Here are some of the things I have learned in that respect so far:

People are complex. They come with different backgrounds, different views on life and everything in it, different character traits and personalities, and they each serve a unique purpose in my life, whether they are family, a friend or a stranger I just met.

Nobody is perfect in this world, and you can't uphold standards for people that you fall short of yourself.

You need people in your life. That doesn't mean you need them for survival, but being independent, you still need people in your life who can give you love, joy, companionship, and that you can reciprocate those things with too. No one should have nobody to share life with, as good or bad as it may be.

People change. They adapt, grow and move on in life, and they may or may not stay in your life. That gives you the chance in the present to cherish the people around you and to make communication a priority with those who you care about and wish to know for as long as possible.

People matter and people make a difference.

No one knows what you expect/want/wish to have/or need from them unless you tell them and have a relationship that's honest. Expectations unmet can ruin relationships before you even realize it.
You have to check your selfishness in order to be the best friend/family member/significant other etc., that you can be. True love is an action first and foremost, accompanied by emotion in order to further another's spiritual growth. Therefore, you need to be willing to serve the other person over your own selfishness for those in your life you truly love and care about. That's nothing short of a life long challenge!

People need you too. Relationships and interactions are a multi way street.

God puts people in your life for specific reasons, even if you don't know what that reason is.

Be grateful. Now that I am far from many that I care about and I miss them every day, there are people here that deserve my attention and focus as well, and it takes trusting in God to know that I am here to learn something He has set out for me to understand.

Days Go By!

Sorry I haven't posted in about a week, I think I may have a case of "Blogger's Block" or something! It is kind of an unusual thing for me, even though I love to talk, to write about things or thoughts that go on throughout my day. As weird as it is to say, even living in a new country, my days aren't action packed with exciting things 24/7, who knew life can be as normal as ever through such a big change? While I write this I've realized how great a day I had, and now as most of your days have just began, mine is almost over. Sunday's are now my new "Tourist-y" days, and our adventure today was amazing to see. We left around 11 to drive to Byblos, an ancient port town and city of 8,000 years of ruins and history. Byblos was absolutely beautiful and the history behind the old and new of the area was exhilarating for me, I never knew I like history as much as I do until today. Walking through the ancient ruins of the city was one of the best experiences I have had in Lebanon so far. Roman columns,citadels, fortresses and artifacts are reserved in the miles long tour of the area. Huge stone towers, carved rock and beautiful architecture are nestled in on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, with the updated yet still antique looking port next to it. I learned the legend of Pepe, a man who was the decade long celebrity of the port of Byblos, and was so happy to have acces t
o walk along the Sea, as so much of it is carelessly blocked off in Beirut from construction, unused land and industrial buildings. Sunday's are ,y adventure days from here on out, and Byblos was the perfect awakening to explore Lebanon and the treasures I know this ancient land has to show me. But a little warning, if I don't post anytime soon, I've probably ran off to live on an old sailboat in the cutest port of Byblos, just so you will know where to find me:)

Never Truly Alone!

I believe that if someone was asked to describe me, they would say that I am a social person. I consider myself to be generally friendly, extroverted, a regular "chatty Kathy" and "social butterfly". So then the question of why I moved miles and miles away from almost all of those I loved and considered friends would be a natural thing to wonder. Until the last two weeks or so I was seriously asking myself that same question, even though it is something that was in my mind the entire time since I chose to come to Lebanon. After some moments of brooding, deep thought, prayer and some Skype voice calls, I came to the answer to this gigantic question invading my mind. Being seemingly alone, not having friends or things to do that fill up my time; these are all aspects of God's will and plan for me. Leaving behind those and the activities that took away my time from God gave me not only the chance to experience a new part of the world and gain valuable life experiences and opportunities, but has allowed me to be silent for once, quiet now to focus my life on GOD first and foremost. No more of the constant going, going, going that filled my days, but Instead I can spend the hours figuring myself out, who I want to be, what I want to do, reading the Word and growing spiritually. It's been hard, that's no secret and no shock, but it's so worthwhile, taking time out from pouring into the relationships around me so I can focus on pouring into the relationship that is the most important. While I wish I could call up friends, new or old, to go get coffee or try out a trendy restaurant, to attend a concert or go to the beach with, in the end, my life is God's timing, and when he wants me to spread my butterfly wings and be the friendship centered girl I love to be, I know then I'll be ready for His path for me.

Being Intentional

What if you only lived for one day. One day to do or say or experience what life is on Earth. One day to see and create and discover; to accomplish something purposeful. It is a crazy idea, one that is not an actuality in this life, but maybe the lesson of it should be a movement for this generation. Think about it. If you had only one day to live,what would it be that you did within those 24 hours? Cure cancer, invent time travel, scale the Great Wall, perform in front of a live audience, what would it be that you would do. If you knew you had a 24 hour period to live out, every second, minute and action would be intentional. Intentionality is a lesson I learned a year ago from a very wise person of leadership in my life. Intentionality is, in my opinion, something that people my age seem to be generally lacking. Being intentional means to do with purpose, existing solely for a specific and deliberate reason and outcome. Bringing intentionality into everything you do, from your words to your relationships, and to your actions and your motivations, bring then purpose into life. This lesson of intentionality was first focused in my life in order to mold me to be a stronger leader, but this lesson of going into everything with a pre thought purpose attains to every minuscule detail in my life. From being aware of how I treat new people and how I welcome them into a situation, how I respond to a friend or family member in a difficult conversation, and to how I choose to live my life based on knowing that it influences others, being intentional has the exponential power to produce change and growth in my life. Being purposeful in my life is an example that also indirectly affects those that are in my life in major ways. If you entered every conversation with the sole intention to grow the other person spiritually or relationally, to serve them and focus on them, imagine what this generation could accomplish. Each of our figurative "one days" would add up to the end of bullying, drugs and drinking related habits, negative body issues, abusive relationships, and all the other hardships that seem to plague people of our age and younger. These 24 hours, accomplished with full intentionality, would positively change and move our generation and those older and younger. Now these goals may be of an extreme nature, but implementing a purpose driven intentional way of living, with some hard work, can be the future.

Live The Life You Love, Love The Life You Live

It's one of my favorite phrases; I even have a necklace with the words on it. Live the life you love, love the life you live. 

It sounds simple even, to fill your life with the people, job, places and things that you enjoy. Because why would you live a life that you didn't want? Looking into the saying though there is much more than the surface meaning. While it is important and should be a goal to pursue living the life you love, and seems more attainable,(being that you fill your life with positive things and people not negative habits and an unhealthy lifestyle), it's much harder to love the life you live. Contentment as it is, is a rare thing to have and a beautiful thing to practice. I have now been to two countries where I have met exceedingly strong people regardless of their circumstances, and their strength came from their faith and the peace and contentment that they had.

Living eighteen years in a materialistic, consumerist and pleasure seeking  based country, contentment with what you have is not a commonly expressed popular idea. My faith, Christian friends and family instilled in me the encouragement of being happy with what you have, always being grateful for what God puts in your life. To practice that mindset is difficult though, as the media and world around us bombards us constantly with new technology, clothes, ideas, careers and skin deep thoughts that push us to want what we don't have. This more, more, more mentality fights with me at least, creating a inner battle with desiring things that I don't have, whether it's my image or money or what not, and that strays me away from loving what I have now. 

The benefits of loving the life you live and living the life you love to the best of our ability are bountiful though. Striving to live a worthy life, whatever that means to you, and then being content and grateful for what and who you have in your life is an idea that carries a lot of depth and weight with it.

But once you begin to dissect your life and contemplate what your purpose is and how you can give in this world, this phrase may not seem too far off in the distance for you to adopt.     

My Somewhat Cheesy 10 Keys To Happiness List!

1. Love is essential. Not the romantic comedy love or the valentines day love, or the way you love the new tv show. The definition of love that is first and foremost an action, accompanied by emotion, that has the purpose to grow the person spiritually is the real kind of love. Humans will always be short of the Agape love that God shows unto us, but when you truly act upon love for the spiritual growth of another, for everyone, then that is when true living begins.

2. Not all days have happy endings or happy beginnings. Everyday will present challenges, some tragic, some easily conquered, and some that threaten to make life harder than it should be. These days are what shapes character, and seeking positivity and faith when you don't see the sunshine is what is conducive to loving your life and living it to the fullest.

3. You are here to serve, not be served. Speaking in a completely stereotypical and very broad way, people like to have things done for them, to be served in life. You go to restaurants to be served, hair salons, department stores, all places where peoples jobs are to serve you, and it feels good. However, once you truly serve others, subserviently removing yourself to happily adjust to the needs of another, then you can find the purpose and fulfillment that being a loving servant to others brings.

4. A smile goes a long, long, long, way.

5. It's in the small things. Appreciating the little gifts of joy that life gives you is so important. The sweet voicemail your grandma left you, the email from a friend, the penny you find face up, the stranger who opens the door for you. These moments, whatever they may be, should be treasured for the moments that you don't see the bigger things as well.

6. Life gets messy, nobody's perfect, and chocolate makes everything better!

7. If you have a people around you who you love and they love you back, do whatever it takes to not lose them.

8. Always thank God for what you have and who He is and what He did. What if you had today only what you thanked him for yesterday?

9. You should listen more than you speak. (still working on this one!)

10. Like Forest Gump said with, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get," and C.S. Lewis' words that "There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind," I try to remember that it's not my plans for this world that my life takes, and I must trust in the far, far better life that the God who created me planned for.