faith, patience, and Kim Tone

I never really understood what it meant for God to promise something. I have seen God's promises all throughout the Bible. I have seen the Lord make promises countless times throughout those pages. And each and every time the Lord fulfills those promises.

I have seen Him fulfill promises in my own life, such as salvation, grace, comfort, provision, sanctification, joy, and so many others.

But this is the first time the Lord has promised me something personal and specific.


Lets be real, just because I have a specific promise it definitely does not mean it is easier to believe (I will share more about what this promise is soon).  This promise is not time specific. Which makes it difficult to continually believe not knowing when it is supposed to happen.  I guess Abraham never thought he would be 100 years old when he had a child.

Thankfully, a dear friend of mine was going through a very similar situation.

God had promised her and called her to go share His truth in the Middle East.  But she had to wait. She had to wait to finish school and wait to raise all of her support.  I cannot even begin to express how encouraging it was to watch her walk through this time of faith and patience.  She was so so patient! Even when the rest of her team had already arrived in the Middle East. She had such faith in God's promise to her that when she was given what seemed like an impossible deadline, she continued to believe.

I came across this verse recently:

Hebrews 6:12

We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.  

God's Word truly is living and active (Hebrews 4:12).  This verse is exactly what I need! To imitate the faith and patience God showed me in Kim as she waited for God to fulfill what He had promised.

Thank you my dear friend for being such an incredible encouragement! I am so stinkin' excited for you!!

Timing

One of my best friends and I went for a little walk today. In the middle of studying we took a break and walked 200 yards to the Weigles on the corner to get some milk.  It was a beautiful night.  As we walked we were realizing how our nights like this are numbered. Nights of frolicking, playing, being together, and not having a ton of things to do. Being so close to the end of college we can taste it, I think we realized just how precious these moments are.  That realization came along with a little regret of missed moments like that one over the last 4 years.

An hour later I'm sitting here on my computer counting the hours I have left to study for the two tests  I have this week and all of the things I have to do within those hours.  Oh boy.

"But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, "You are my God."

My times are in your hands . . ."

Psalm 31:14-15

What a comfort David's words bring! My times are in the hands of the Lord! 

The time I have left to study and all of the studying that needs to get done: In His hands!

The time I have left in college and all of the time I have already spent here: In His hands!

Praise the Lord that He is in control. I can sit here and worry, or I can trust in His unfailing love and His wonderful plan for my life. My times are in His hands!!

This is a picture of Lauren, Olivia, and I sitting on the seal on campus. You are not supposed to step on the seal while you are in school because the superstition is that if you do, you will not graduate in 4 years. Lauren and I both walked on it. We are graduating in 4 and a half and 5 years. Olivia didn't step on it. She graduated. I just find it hilarious. And appropriate! 

Lauren

Today was one of those lazy days.

I woke up and it was supposed to rain. I went to Walmart and grabbed some $15 rain boots (which are bright pink and I am very excited about) and went to class.  It was supposed to rain, but it didn't.

I spent my entire afternoon trying to be productive and work on school work and I failed miserably.

Then I spent the night with one of my best friends. We ate pazokie (its a cookie that you put icecream on when it is still warm so the icecream melts), watched Friday Night Lights, and talked about boys.  It was wonderful.

Lo, I am just so thankful for you.  And even though you're not Paul's biggest fan right now, he says it well . . .

"I thank my God every time I remember you.  In all my prayers for all of you I always pray with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel, from the first day until now, being confident of this that he who began a good work in you will carry it onto completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

Phillippians 1:3-6

Thanks Ladies

Katie, you have inspired me.
Quite honestly, you always have. I adore you, and our friendship, even though we definitely don't talk as much as we should. You are truly an incredible woman of God. Your faith challenges me every day. And now I live vicariously through your blog.


Becky, you have no idea.
You are such an encouragement in my walk with Jesus. I love our times together because you always challenge me. Yet it is always out of a heart that is so committed to the Lord and committed to loving people. You speak so much truth yet you are so stinkin' real!


Why these two?
Consistency.


Yes, these two women have inspired and challenged me in ways I can't even describe. Because they are so consistent.


And I just wanted everyone to know. So, thanks ladies.


AND
I going to try something new. The name of this blog is Running on His Word. catchy huh? ha. But my whole purpose in naming it that was because I want to literally be running on the Word of God every single day. Honestly, I need some accountability in this area. So here is what I'm going to do: Every day I just want to share a little bit of what I'm running on. And yes, you 11 blog followers get to help me stay accountable and consistent.


Psalm 73:26
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.


I love this verse. It is so true. My flesh and my heart fail. Every single day. I've never had any problem believing that my flesh fails. That can speak for itself. But my heart? Oh yeah, its a failure too.


Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?


Yes, that is the true condition of my heart. And I have seen that for sure (more to come on that soon). 


BUT 
God is the strength of my heart. 
Ok Lord. You promise that, I am going to CLING to it! 
And what is portion exactly. 


Well, Asaph was the writer of this Psalm. He was a Levite, which meant the Lord physically was his portion. He didn't have an inheritance, or land, but he lived off of the people's tithes dedicated to the Lord. He consistently had to fully depend on the Lord. And the Lord was enough.


Take a look at life for a minute. Do you put your trust in your flesh? Or your heart? And what happens when they fail? This verse is great because it is so real. My flesh fails. My heart fails. It is going to happen! If my strength is in the Lord and if he is ENOUGH for me, then LET my heart fail. Why do I so often run to depend on something so deceitful anyway? 


He is our portion. And he wants to truly be enough. He'll stop at nothing to be totally enough for you. 
Let that truth sink in.


And check out Katie and Becky's blogs. They are both awesome!
http://joyfuljava.blogspot.com/
http://katieevelynlewis.blogspot.com/

Number 1!!!!!!

My favorite memory from college . . .
Okay, lets just be honest here, again, this is not exclusively one moment. However, it started at one very important, and very pivotal moment in my college career.
My sophomore year, like every other year, I went on our Women's Retreat with CRU.  Saturday night during the retreat, one of the seniors gave an incredible talk and was completely vulnerable and transparent with all of us.  She had such a powerful message, and God totally used her words and her story to stir in our hearts and change so many of our lives.

After her talk, 7 of us piled in the back of a Tahoe and shared our lives. That night triggered the start of our accountability group, and a friendship that will last for the rest of our lives.  I am so thankful for these girls. They mean absolutely the world to me. We've had some incredible times throughout college, and I'm so thankful I've gotten to share it with them. From blizzard nights to the seven dwarfs, from rock painting to secret weekends, I've loved every minute we've spent together. I love you girls!!

3

Top 3 memories.

Let's start with a little background information. All through college I went on spring break with a group from Campus Crusade for Christ. The guys stayed in one house and the girls in another. The houses were about a block apart. My sophomore year was when this madness all began. One of the days during the week the guys all left to go play basketball. And while we tried to stay occupied painting nails, etc, us girls got bored and decided to prank them. Well we did some pretty hilarious things to that house (putting all of their shoes on the roof, shorts in the bottom of the freezing cold pool, switched all of their stuff into different rooms, put their towels in the freezer, stole all their food, and changed the passwords on their video games).
Well the boys retaliated and put 18 crabs and 2 lobsters in our house at 6 am. While we were all still sleeping. Awful. Definitely NOT my favorite memory.

All that to say there is a very high pranking expectation on these spring break trips.

The following year the four of us girls who are the pranking instigators all stayed in the same room. Carrie, Lauren, Olivia, and myself. Now there were 2 twin beds and then a set of bunk beds.  There had been rumors all week of the guys breaking into our house in the middle of the night and doing some crazy things to us in our sleep. And with the four of us in a room all feeding off of each others paranoia, we were ready for anything. After a few nights of failed attempts from the guys at pranking us, and one of the guys running into our house dressed up in a gorilla suit, we had pretty much assumed the pranking for the week was over. So as we called it a night around 2 am, we shuffled the boys out the door and made sure everything was locked up.  And then we went soundly to sleep, relying on the promises the older guys had made us that they were done pranking.

CRASH! SMACK! BANG!
I look at my watch, delirious, reading 4:10.
CRASH! CRASH! static (ok there was like a static tv sound, I don't know how to express that).
I sit straight up in bed. "Carrie. Carrie"
"What?"
" . . . there are boys here!"
"what?"
"there are boys IN our house."
"shh, go back to sleep."
"okay",  I say, and I lay back down. 5 seconds later, "No, Carrie, the guys are in our house! Listen!"
"Oh my gosh what are they doing!" She jumps up and locks the bedroom door.
I sit straight up in the top bunk as Lauren and Olivia shake their delusion. Carrie and Olivia then look out the window and see several figures running away from the house and down the street toward the guy's house. We assumed it was a couple of the sophomore guys, and they were carrying what looked like a laundry basket.
Lauren starts running around frantically. She grabs her blanket off her bed, goes into the bathroom and gets a water bottle, gets her phone, and starts throwing them to me on the top bunk. "Lauren, what are you doing?" I ask. "I'm coming up there!"
Carrie starts flipping out again. " . . . and guys I think I heard them say something about rats! I think they're going to put rats in our house! what if they put rats in our house!!" The light is now on, and Carrie attempting to pull the dresser in front of the bedroom door. "Someone HELP me!" Olivia, who is the only one left on the ground goes and helps her, while Lauren and I flip out on the top bunk.  Olivia then runs into the bathroom to get cups of water. At this point the girls in the other room connected to our bathroom have poked their heads in, and want to know what is going on.
"Someone threw something on our balcony" they tell us. Another major eruption of paranoia occurs. "Ahh they are trying to get into the balcony! Lock the door!!!" We then proceed to shove them back through the bathroom into their bedroom. The bathroom doors could be locked, but from inside the bathroom. We lock the other girls out of their bathroom, and then close our bathroom door. Lauren is back off the top bunk now, and Olivia has come up with cups of water. Yes, we were going to pour water on them if they tried to come into our bedroom. Awesome defensive tactics, I know. Meanwhile, Carrie is stuffing towels under the bedroom door and under the dresser to keep the rats out. Lauren is propping the ladder from the bunk bed up against the bathroom door, so that if the guys come in that way, we will hear them. And yes, I have yet to get down off of my bed! After successfully booby trapping and rat proofing our room, all four of us end up on the top bunk. Its a wonder that thing didn't break.

We then proceeded to call the guys. All of them answered their phones and pretended to be sleeping. They told us it was probably the younger guys, and they would come check it out. Oh yeah, thanks. They come scope out the house and find nothing.  No sign of any of the younger boys, and no sign of rats. So eventually, we put our water cups down, climbed off the top bunk, and went back to sleep.  The room was still booby-trapped, of course. We weren't taking any chances.

It actually was the older guys who had come into our house. The were throwing solo cups up the stairs and had put the t.v. on a static channel. Then pretended to have just woken up when we called them. Thanks guys.

The reason this night was so great, was how hilarious the four of us reacted in that room. We were freaking out. There really weren't any rats. And they weren't climbing on the other girls balcony, they had thrown a football up there.  But it made for a hilarious night. We were all so delusional. And honestly, my favorite moment of the night was Lauren, after frantically running around the room for 5 minutes collecting random items, looking at me with petrified eyes and a face that said "I can't believe you're asking me that question at a time like this", yelling "I'M COMING UP THERE!!"


I love you Carrie, Lauren and Olivia. You make my life.

Number 7!!!!

The day we all became friends . . .

One saturday afternoon during freshman year we set out to play some sand volleyball. Great idea, except for the fact that it started pouring on us after about 5 minutes of playing. So we retreated into TRECS and stood by the door soaking wet. Then Weezie's brilliant idea! Go to his house and have a slip-n-slide!!!!
And what else can I say? We put it on a hill, sprayed water on it and a little bit of soap, and let the rain do the rest! It was an awesome time!!

number 9!!

My ninth favorite memory from college. This is a fun one.

Sophomore year I had 2 amazing roommates. Carrie Fuller and Emily Stephenson. We were the Three Musketeers. We did absolutely everything together. Halloween rolled around and we had tons of ideas of what to be. So many that we actually decided to be 2 different things for 2 different parties; one the weekend before and one the night of.

And we are crazy. So this was just incredibly appropriate. Carrie was an Indian named Running Stream. Emily was a cowgirl named Brooke. And I was a horse, Named Strong River. Emily jumped on my back, and Carrie goes running into the party with Emily and I running behind. Oh and yes, we were screaming. Carrie like and Indian, and Emily trying to lasso her. Needless to say it was pretty amazing.
,
Oh but the night was not over. Some of us at the party were feeling a little mischievous. So we went to Wal-Mart, bought a huge ol' bucket of soap. Campus has some great fountains :)

And THEN Ashley, Cate and I (Ok I guess it was just Cate and I, haha) get kidnapped by Philip Glen. Yes. Thats right. And we go galavanting ALL over the country side looking for boxes. I have no idea why. Actually I do, but I didn't then. Anyway, we were driving all over Knoxville going through dumpsters getting big boxes. Philip and Hunter wanted to make a robot. Awesome.

By the time we got back to campus it was 3 in the morning. It was an amazing night. Hilarious, and a little out of control.

The next day, after the football game, it looked like it had snowed in the fountain :).