Heart Listeners

I shuffled through a crowd of people, trying to find someone to talk to. We were at a homeless shelter with our youth group, and we were hanging out talking with some people in the game room. Most of the people were playing games, or someone who didn't have much of an interest in talking to a teenager. I glanced in the corner and noticed a man sitting by himself. Unlit cigar tucked cautiously behind his ear, a hat covering his head, a half grown bristly beard, and dirt jammed under all of his fingernails, he didn't exactly look like a person who would be willing to talk with me. Still, I can at least try, I thought to myself. Walking over to him, I said hi and introduced myself. I asked if he liked the cooler weather we've been having. All I had to do was start small talk. Before long, he was telling me his life story.

He told me everything from his childhood memory of playing on the train tracks, to being laid off work and running into the homeless shelter. We talked for over an hour, and it was surprisingly easy to talk to him. All I had to do was ask him a few questions and he'd start pouring out more details from his life.

All this guy needed was for someone to listen to him. Someone to sympathize during the sad parts in his lifestory, someone to laugh with when he told a happy childhood memory, someone to understand that he wasn't a stereotyped homeless man.

There are many, many people in the world like that. Not all of them are homeless. Some just need someone to listen to. They need someone who will listen with their heart, to truly understand how they feel and love them regardless of what they've done. Will you be that listener?

Kayla Joy

Honking Love Isn't So Loving Afterall

I stared out the window, watching the cars slowly crawl by. It was rush hour, and a sea of cars flooded on the highway, all impatiently thinking about how late they were going to be. Some showed their frustration through their faces, others through honking noisily. Either way, no one was having fun.

Sometimes, we're in such a rush to get where we're going that we miss out on chances to share God's love. Whether it's through praying for someone when you're stuck in a flood of cars, praising God through music, or simply smiling at someone through the car window, we're given plenty of chances to show what's important in our lives. If we impatiently sit in the car, honking at the person ahead of us...what does that say about our priority in life?

Kayla Joy

Tantrum Trust

A little girl pulled herself up on a small plastic playset. She peered over the end at the ground and giggled happily. She advanced to the corner of the plastic playset, not realizing that there was a hole in the platform. The hole was made for toddlers to go under and play, but she had just learned to walk; she wasn't noticing the hole. I picked her up, placing her safely out of the hole's way. Not happy about this, the little girl started to cry. She couldn't see the danger. She didn't understand why I moved her.

Sometimes, we want things our way. We want to be in control. We want to go where we want to. We don't even realize how close we are to falling off. The good news? God knows. If He places you somewhere in life you aren't happy about, try to see through God's eyes. He knows why He placed you where you did. Don't throw a temper tantrum everytime you think you're headed in the wrong direction, trust Him to lead you.

Kayla Joy

Giving Him all the Credit

"Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be." ~1 Corinthians 12:14-18~

I know I can get down about my talents. While I may admit I'm skilled in certain areas, when I start comparing myself with other people's talents, I overlook the talents I possess. But God says that we each have different gifts and abilities. We don't all have the same, but that's okay! He made us to have different talents. Though one might seem more important than another, they all rely on each other.

Don't be caught overlooking your own talents in the process of looking at someone else's. No matter how small your spiritual gift may seem, it's essential. It's going to benefit someone else if you use it. God gave you that talent for a reason. Use it to glorify God and bring Him praise, don't let it get buried under the dust of discouragement. 

Kayla Joy

P.S. It's my third night writing in a row! Think I can keep it up? :)

Swallowing Challenges VS. Smashing Challenges

I frowned, pushing a bottle of yogurt away from me. I was only a few years old, and I had been pushing this yogurt can back and forth between me and my mom for minutes. She was determined to make me eat it. I was determined to not let a drop of that nasty thick liquid ruin my taste buds. Eventually, showing her how serious I was, I picked up the yogurt and threw it on the wall. Pink yogurt sagged down, sliding slowly down the wall as I watched with glee. My mom, on the other hand, was not so happy about my latest achievement.

Sometimes, we complain when challenges get thrown in our lives. Instead of swallowing them down, we prefer to slam them against the wall and try to forget about them. But God's ways are different than our ways. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts." Thankfully, His ways are different than our ways. He knows what He's doing. Sometimes He allows challenges in our lives so that we can grow from them. If we didn't have challenges--what need would we have to rely on Him?

Kayla Joy

Childlike Obedience

I sat crosslegged on the floor, smiling at a 7 year old who was making my hair. I was babysitting her, and, taking a break from the endless rides of "horsie", she wanted to make my hair. She just finished putting pig tails in my hair, gleefully exclaiming that it was her first pony tail ever. I complimented her on how nicely she made it (and really, she did a good job! Pulled out much less hair than I was expecting!) and she dreamily sat back, telling me she wanted to be a hair stylist when she grew up. I asked her what other things she wanted to do when she grew up, and she told me, "I don't know what God wants me to do yet. But I'll do whatever He tells me to!" This statement was so surprising for me, coming from a 7 year old. At that age, most 7 year old's are dreaming about being a ballerina or a princess in a land covered with sugary candy.

If a 7 year old has that much wisdom, shouldn't we? Shouldn't we submit to God, realizing that He has our whole future mapped out? While we may ponder what we want to do as adults or for a job, He doesn't have to ponder it. He knows it. Have obedient childlike faith as this little girl does--let Him tell you what He wants you to do with your future.

Kayla Joy

Possible Carrot Starvation?!

I sat stone still, wide-eyed, nibbling on a carrot, picking at a half eaten bologna sandwich, and watching with terror as a traumatic event that would forever impact my life unfolded out before me. Our toilet flooded.

I was 5 years old, and to me, that was the worst thing possible. I kept imagining it getting worse and worse--what if we used up all of our towels and it still was flooding? What if it flooded our house and we were trying to swim to safety in it? What if it suffocated us, filling up to the top of the house, burying us alive, swimming under water? What if we managed to live, but all that water completely destroyed our house and we were homeless? What if it washed away all of my carrots and I starved to death? As I said before, it was a very traumatic event.

I know that I certainly worry too much in life. I worry about an upcoming test, I worry about people, I sometimes even worry about if I’m worrying too much! Matthew 6:25-34 is a beautiful passage for when I’m worrying too much. One of my favorite verses in that passage is verse 27, “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”. That’s a pretty powerful verse. It makes me back up and ask myself if worrying was worth it. It makes me wonder if I wasted time pointlessly worrying about something that was going to happen whether or not I worried about it.

In the end, it turns out I’m still alive--not swimming frantically in a house that is quickly filling with water from our toilet. We still had clean towels left over. We still had a house to live in. And, most importantly, I still had my carrots to enjoy munching on. At that time, I was so stuck on the present that I couldn’t see through my worries. My worries clouded my vision. Don’t let your worries cloud your vision, see past them. Anytime you feel the urge to start worrying, start praying for someone instead. That's a hobby that you won't ever have to question its worth.

Kayla Joy