A word of encouragement...

Well, its been a week and 1 day since I last wrote. Since then, I've trained it back up to Milano to get my apartment keys and a few school things figured out, and I've come back to Piemonte. Its been a pretty neat week. I did a few drawings for some the guests we had here. One- the view of Vignale, and the other a bunch of roses growing against a wall. I know I should've taken pictures of the finished drawings but, I never got around to that. But I really enjoyed doing them.

I went for a lovely walk on Friday. I hadn't been going as often but on that particular day, once I stepped outside and felt the slight crispness of the soon to come Fall in the air, took in the brilliant rays of the sun, I just had to do it. So, I walked. And as I did I talked to God. And yes, He talked back to me. I said hello and asked how he was doing. Yes, I know exactly how that sounds. In return, he asked me the same. I told him. I continued to tell Jesus the things that were on my mind and on my heart. Funny. Seems no matter how much I try to down myself about something I felt I didn't do perfectly, or no matter how much I refuse to really congratulate myself on something that I did well, God always knows how to counter that. He steps in, and tells me how He thinks about Me and that particular situation. He always speaks kind, soothing words to my heart and I have no choice but to accept them because, well he's always right. Well as we, yes we, walked along, I brought this up to him. "Lord, why do you keep encouraging me and speaking well of me when clearly I neither deserve nor have I earned it?" He replied plainly "You don't encourage people because they deserve it, you encourage them because they need it." I couldn't say anything after that. I thought about that and realized, yeah, yeah that's true. The walk through the winding roads of the Italian countryside became that much sweeter because I was hanging out with my Dad and he was taking a walk with his little girl, his "Little Princess" as he calls me. Now, I know to many this sounds kind of funny and perhaps even a little crazy. Thing is, the truth often does. I've no qualms with that; the truth never fails in the end. Not only was that simple walk a blessing, it brought me joy and caused me to want to be a blessing to someone else. Thats the thing about joy, its infectious. Even since that particular moment, I've felt the presence of God much more personally and have experienced his presence a bit more "tangibly" as well. Thats another story. I will say though that, I'm not afraid. My life is about to change a bit and it won't be an easy one. Its one of those things where you could easily go into panic attacks and be anxious and worried all the time. But Im not. My Father told me I don't have to be. He's holding my hand, and he's always by my side. I think I'll just trust him instead.