The "Perfect" Holiday

There’s something about the holidays that just gets me. I hear all these magical Christmas songs about a white Christmas, walking hand-in-hand with your man, garland and snow cascading everywhere you look.. It sets up the most amazing picture of the “Perfect Christmas.” I don’t know about you, but I haven’t had a Christmas that the songs describe. Let me clarify, I LOVE listening to those Christmas songs. (Its November 17^th and I have already started listening to them. Judge me.) But sometimes I have a tendency to be disappointed if my holidays or Christmas doesn’t turn out like I hear in the songs. Obviously I know it’s just a song that was made up, but I know I am not the only one who dreams of a perfect Christmas like in the songs! Admit it people!

But in reality, the holidays can be hard for many families. It is such a happy time to celebrate, but it’s also hard because there are families with missing loved ones. Maybe a father or son is off fighting for our freedom, or families couldn’t fly across the country to see you, or a family member has passed away. It can be sad to have those memories without some of our loved ones there. I have struggled through the past few holidays as well and it just doesn’t seem like the holidays are “perfect” anymore. But we are making new traditions and memories now! We will always have to adapt to change in our lives and this is a part of it. What makes the holidays so great now is remembering what I DO have and the family members and friends that are still with me! We can have the perfect Christmas by just looking around and seeing how God’s hand has placed all the blessings in your life.  

Today was particularly a difficult day for me and I just couldn’t stop thinking about my mom! Most days are great and I don’t hurt too much anymore. But for some reason, this morning I was just overwhelmed with utter sadness and loss. Nothing caused it, today wasn’t a special day for any reason. But when you just push down all the hard feelings, it tends to all build up. I know the “three-year mark” of my mom passing away is coming up and it kind of feels like it looms over your head until it is over because everyone knows how hard that day is going to be. I had to miss a class and just come home, lay on the couch and have a cry fest.

Three years without seeing my mom feels like an eternity, but I am constantly filled with peace because I know I’ll see her again. There is a song called “Christmas in Heaven” by Scotty McCreery I keep listening to. The first time I heard it I balled like a baby, but it just describes what our loved ones are experiencing for Christmas in Heaven. I highly encourage you to go listen to it! I love the picture he paints of the “snow falling down on the streets of gold and the mansions all covered in white.” I would sure love to see how Christmas is for them! It hit me today, the perfect Christmas songs I’ve been hearing on the radio sure do sound like the Christmas the angels are experiencing in Heaven. If that’s true, I sure cannot wait to get there! But it will be FAR greater than the perfection I can come up with in my head! Hard to believe isn’t it?

So here’s to happy holidays and happy memories yet to come. If you are missing someone these holidays, you are not alone! They should be remembered and missed. But I would also encourage you to look around and see what you do have, you would be surprised your long list of things you are thankful for if you sat down and wrote them out!!

Inspiration

Little things inspire us throughout the day and we don’t even realize it. It’s like a little flame goes off in our head and a brilliant idea is created. Maybe those are God’s ways of getting our attention. Yes, God is all around us every second of the day. And His way of guiding us is laying little pieces right before our feet for us to pick up one by one.

I feel inspired when I am walking to my 8 a.m. class early in the mornings and see the sun peeking through the trees or reflecting off the gorgeous buildings on campus. There are some days where everything seems so clear. The air is crisp and clean, there is a slight breeze mixed with the sun hitting your face. It’s a freeing moment followed by the sheer anxiety to get to your class on time and just hoping there wasn’t a homework assignment due.

Usually these are just typical days. It seems like the same old thing everyday. These college years go down in the record books as a crazy four-year rollercoaster that doesn’t even have words to describe it. Living with other college students, all-nighters just to get the insane amount of work done, balancing chores with family, work and friends…it’s overwhelming at times. You grow to respect college like you respect deep water in an ocean if you’ve swam out too far. It feels like it can just sweep you under in an instant if you stop working at it.

I don’t take my journey of life lightly. I have some very sobering scars and memories that I carry with me as reminders of what I experienced growing up. Those memories remind me how dangerous, but beautiful life can be. It reminds me of the people who had the biggest impact on my life. 

A true family doesn’t get made just because you all grew up in the same house and were raised by the same parents. Family gets made when they are standing right next to you gripping your hand so hard at a funeral that you can feel their pain that shares along side yours. Family is made when you decide to stick together when it seems like the sky is falling and everything is disorienting. Family is made when the future looks obscure. It’s the decisions and the sacrifices you make to put your family first before anything. It’s the memories and the difficulties and the heart-wrenching moments that keeps your heart together. Family is one unit and it will stay one unit until your last breathe.

I want to see the extraordinary life God has set for me. I feel like I’m waiting for this big moment to happen so my “grown-up life” can finally start. But there isn’t going to be some bright shining moment one day.

Some nights I lay awake worrying like an immature girl. My brain scurries around like a squirrel desperately trying to find an acorn. These questions roll through my mind so fast, I can’t even process it.

“How much money does one have to make to be successful?”

“If I make a lot of money, but I don’t like my job, is that still successful?”

“What if my major isn’t challenging enough?”

“Where the heck do you start looking for jobs when you graduate?! …who do you live with…I better not live by myself…Can I still live in Texas?!”

These questions I constantly worry about is enough to make God roll on the floor laughing with my lack of trust I choose to put in Him. If only I just let Him deal with my future, I would get a lot more sleep at night.

Life is constantly building one day at a time. We are all building, growing and learning each day and that is what is making us stronger. Strong enough to be able to hold whatever life throws at us. You don’t have to go on big elaborate trips or have loud family gatherings to make your life complete or have good stories.

I love His gift of life He has given me. He wants me to live it and use it to better His Kingdom, to make Him belly laugh at my stupid mistakes, to break down and break through. He gives us glimpses of hope and redemption. He makes us laugh out loud when we realize we are trying to control our own lives.

So for now, I want bright days, ones that make me want to sing loud in the car with the windows down, cook a delicious meal for my family, walk on the beach without a care in the world. (Especially not about what I am supposed to do after graduation.) God wants that for us, to enjoy the beauty of each day He has given us as a gift. Don’t waste it.

Love you all, Lauren

Don't Give Up

I used to think I had my life all planned out. It was set. Graduate high school, go to college at Baylor, graduate, move to Dallas, meet a guy, get a job, get married, live happily ever after.

But the Lord laughs at my humanly-made plan because that is not even a fraction of what He had in store for me. In my head, I thought “I’m typical.” Normal life, good family, good school, I’m smart, good relationship with the Lord and good friends. A tad boring right? But I was happy with my life. I was content with my friends and I really didn’t think I needed anymore. My family was a typical American family. All in all, I was content and I didn’t want anything to change.

But why would I settle for that life where you just coast through everyday? I didn’t really want to be bothered or step out of my comfort zone. A world where nothing is difficult, no surprises, no changes and everything is easy. I feel like a lot of people yearn for that kind of life. But if you did have that easy life, why would you need the Lord?

Over the years, I have learned to be thankful for the hardships that come. Yes, there are some days I feel like I just want to break to a million pieces because the weight of the world and being “successful” is just too much. The comparison to classmates and friends is enough to convince yourself that you’ll never be good enough.

I’m sick of that mindset. I didn’t realize it at the time but all those hardships and disappointments have made me weak and strong at the same time. Weak because I can’t go through one living second without the Lord literally carrying me through. And strong, because I don’t expect for things to be easy anymore. I WANT to go to the Lord and say okay, this is impossible and I can’t do it. I am not physically, mentally or emotionally strong enough.

Life isn’t about living happily ever after. The world doesn’t work that way. All of the successes you’ve seen from people were followed by about 100 failures before. But they kept fighting.

I am still extremely guilty of this, but ever since I was little, if I couldn’t be perfect at something the first time, then I convinced myself I couldn’t do it at all. For example, riding a bike. Ready for an embarrassing fact? I learned how to ride my bike when I was 12. I started trying to learn when I was about six, but I would get on the bike and try to ride, and the second I fell, I would throw a hissy fit and give up.

I hate to admit it, but I'm still that way with a lot of things. I wish I could tell you I keep fighting and trying after I fail something, but that is what I've been trying to work on lately.

If everyone gave up after they failed then I don’t know where we would be.

Winston Churchill failed the 6^th grade.

Thomas Edison was told he was “too stupid to learn anything.”

Abraham Lincoln was a failure of a businessman at first.

Albert Einstein couldn’t read until he was 7 years old.

Michael Jordan lost almost 300 games, missed over 9000 shots at goal, and 26

times he was given the ball to take the game winning shot and MISSED.

Henry Ford went broke five times before he succeeded.

The list goes on. 

These are the people I think about when I don’t feel like fighting or trying anymore in school or in hardships.

I want to have the perseverance of those men who never gave up. It starts with the little decisions and actions that build the character to not be afraid to keep trying. If I accept the fact that things are not going to go exactly as planned, then it might just be the Lord closing that door and opening another one that is better.

Life is going by too fast. I don’t want to look back and think I didn’t fight for something as much as I should have. I have one more year of college left. And it will be filled with some failures but even larger successes, all solely because I didn’t give up.  

Brighter Days

Well after the last few posts, everyone has been so loving and encouraging! People have been telling me how glad they are I opened up and shared my heart. So I figured I should keep going with it. Even if no one is reading it anymore, it’s still helping me J

It feels good to write again. It helps me gets my thoughts and emotions straight.

Every day is so different from the next. One day I feel like I have “pulled myself together” and the next day I feel like an emotional wreck.

Everyone goes through stages of grief after losing someone. At first, you go through the stages rather quickly.  Like a different emotion every day (or every hour..)

The five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Not everyone goes through all of these exact stages, but I definitely experienced most of them.

I thought I was acting bipolar there for a while because I would be in a different mood so often. But I started to think about the grieving process and it made sense that there are so many emotions happening that you just can’t deal with it all.

As I mentioned before, about a week after losing my mom I thought I was okay and “coping.” That would be the denial coming through. But as the months went on, the stages of grief drew out. At some points I would feel anti-social, not wanting to talk to anyone, especially about my mom. Other days I was angry.

I can’t explain what I was angry at because I had no idea either. I guess I was just angry everything was changing so fast. I was angry at the people who had great moms.

(Of course it was actually insane jealousy, but I thought I was mad about it at the same time.) I never showed the anger but I definitely felt it. I was angry at God for doing this to my family. I knew it would happen someday… but why did it happen when I was in college? Obviously I am out of the house while in college but I feel like I need my mom more in college than in high school.

Other girls would tell me their complaints about their mom, like they were annoying or over-controlling. And sitting there, in my head I was fuming mad. They had their mom alive, yet they were still complaining. Don’t get me wrong. When my mom was alive, I got frustrated and annoyed with her just as much. But it’s hard to hear people complain about their mom when they still have one.. I wanted to shake them and say, “Just appreciate her!!” But I could relate to them as well because after being hurt by my mom so many times, I knew the frustration they were feeling.

Nowadays it doesn’t bother me to hear girls talk to their moms. Yes, I am jealous of course, but it makes me happy to see them have sweet and healthy relationships in their family. Every girl should have that.

I miss talking to moms a lot still. If I could sit and talk to a mom all day, it would be the best day on the planet. It never gets old. Give me ANY mom and I’ll sit there and talk to her like there’s no tomorrow. I think those are God’s little joys that He gives me because he knows I like it so much.

Some days I was genuinely happy my mom was in Heaven. I feel like she can see me more now than when she was alive. I talk to her in my car while I’m driving and tell her what I do everyday. Yes it sounds weird, but that’s when I feel closest to her. I wish I could hear her responses but I just imagine what she’d say.

Our joke was that she ALWAYS wanted me to have lip-gloss on. Any time I left the house, she would have to check to make sure it was on and colorful enough. And if she ever saw a picture on facebook when it wasn’t on, I would get a text from her about it if I wasn’t home. It used to drive me crazy cause I didn’t care if “you couldn’t see my lips,” but now I think about her every time I put it on.

Life has changed a lot now. I think that’s what I was least expecting. For everything to change so fast. We moved from our house in Plano because it had too many memories of my mom everywhere. We packed it up and moved out to McKinney. I was already at Baylor and rushing to be in a sorority. All my friends were changing and everything was different.

It was just my dad, Taylor and myself. And every time it would be the three of us, it was a reminder of who was missing. But as time passes, it’s starting to feel normal just having a family of three. But being the only girl and sharing a house with my dad and brother results in me being “out voted” in everything we do since I’m the only girl. I know if I spoke up enough they would listen to me, but I pick my battles and just let them go eat where they want.

So, needless to say, I am getting used to the guy movies, the fast food and making sure they both look appropriate and brushed their teeth. (Yes, no matter how old they get, you still have to remind them to wash their clothes and use deodorant.)

If anything, it is preparing me for when I live with my husband!

But day after day, I remind myself how blessed I am to have a loving brother, dad and extended family who continually love me and check on me every week. I am blessed and thankful for such amazing friends and a wonderful school. The things I dealt with in the past make me stronger and I rely on the Lord every step of the way. I cherish the times I have with my loved ones and don’t let a second of it go to waste.

Love you all,

Lauren

Gaining Strength

What I didn’t mention in the last blog post was I actually went to Zambia, Africa, after my trip to Italy. There is something in me that has a hard time talking about this trip because it was so personal to me.

My brother met me in Florence, Italy, the last week of my study abroad and we flew to Zambia straight from there. After a six week study abroad trip, I was extremely homesick and I was jealous that the rest of the group got to go back home to the states.

But I took the extremely long plane ride to Zambia to get my brain back on track with the Lord. I knew I was going to Africa to open up a house in honor of my mom in an orphanage, but that’s all I knew. I had no earthly idea what to expect. Taylor and I met up with my aunt and cousins in London and we all continued from there together.

The week consisted of playing with the sweet Zambian kids and fixing up the house for the kids that would be opened on the last day of the trip. Walking around the slums, I saw kids running around half naked and completely filthy. They would see us and scream “Mzungus!” while running at us. Mzungus mean ‘white people’ and they loved to just walk with us and hold our hand. I could tell they were desperate for love and affection.

We had been in the slums for at least an hour walking around and it hit me, my heart wasn’t breaking for these kids. I looked around and saw despair and a lack of joy in the moms’ eyes. The dads were already in the bars at 9 a.m. and had no intention of being around their family.

I was so mad and confused at myself that my heart felt like stone while holding a little girls’ hand right next to me. I don’t mean to sound like a heartless person, because believe me I had a huge place in my heart for those sweet kids. But at that moment, I was so scared of hurting that I had just built up the walls around my heart so I didn’t have to hurt anymore.

Granted, no one wants to feel pain. And after these past few years, I was so tired of hurting, but compared to the luxuries I get back in the states, why wouldn’t I let my guard down and let these sweet kids touch my heart?

I knew it would hurt to let myself feel again. I let myself become numb. I guess I thought I was protecting myself, but in turn, I was only causing myself more problems.

Believe me when I say it’s hard to knock down the walls you build up. Easy to say, nearly impossible to do. But during the week in Zambia, I told my cousin I would work on it. She encouraged me to let myself feel again, even if it was painful. I wanted to feel what it was like to see 12 kids from the slums move into the house that was in honor of my mom.

I knew she would’ve wanted that. She would want me to heal and process after she passed away.

I never got the chance to say bye to her. In some ways I know that was a blessing. I couldn’t imagine what that would have been like to say bye to the very person that raised you. I would have felt like my heart broke into a million pieces.

I had already started to let go of her when she was still alive just for my sanity. I still loved her as much as a daughter could possibly love her mother. But I knew there had to be some separation. I remember the day I had come to terms with the fact that she wouldn’t be around much longer, and I think that day was harder than the day she actually passed away.

I thought I was awful for being somewhat relieved when she had gone to be in Heaven. It didn’t seem right for me to be happy for her, cause everything in my entire being wanted her to be back with me. I was still devastated, but why wouldn’t I want my mom to go be with her Savior, in a perfect body, where there would be no more sadness or temptation? Of course I wanted that for her.

I was still in shock about a week after the funeral, but I had actually tricked myself into thinking I would be alright with all of it because I wasn’t crying all that much. I guess I was just in “survival mode” trying to get everything done with the funeral arrangements and taking finals at Baylor.

But when everything settled down and everyone went back home after the funeral, that’s when I fell apart. I thought everyone was just going to forget about her. People still asked me if I was okay, but obviously there are no words to say. I was worried about my family. I didn’t just lose my mom. My dad lost his bride, my grandparents lost their sweet daughter and my aunt lost her sister. I was worried and hurting for them as well.

Some people back at school asked me how I could manage so well after losing her. To answer your question, I wouldn’t call it “managing.” I was barely getting through. My grades dropped the next semester and I couldn’t even listen or comprehend anything in class. I was just going through all the motions of life. I’m sure anyone who has lost a loved one could agree with me.

But as each semester passed, the days got easier. I was still going through the grieving process so there were some days I barely got through. But overall, I knew I was healing and it would take time. If it weren’t for my friends and family, I honestly don’t know where I’d be. I wasn’t always the most fun to be around on some days, but they loved me when I wasn’t very loveable. And for that I am more than grateful.

I wasn’t sulking around all day everyday being depressed, but there were some days I couldn’t stop thinking about my mom, and those were the days my friends and family stepped in the most.

My relationship with the Lord was strong way before my mom passed away, but it is on a new level now and He is the one that pulls me out of bed in the mornings. Every single person on this earth will let you down or disappoint you at some point. But the Lord never falls through. He’s there on the days you need Him most, and He’s still there on the days where he’s not on the forefront of your mind. Just keep trusting Him even in the dark times.

I know God has the most perfect plan for my life and my family’s life and we continue to rely on Him through everyday.

This is a verse my mom always loved and I always think about her when I read it.

“But those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
 they will walk and not be faint.”

–Isaiah 40:31