Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Heart of Friendship

In life, we all make friends and have friendships that may last forever or may not work. Some friends come from school, church, work, or they might just be your sibling...who knows.

Since I've started ACC, I've learned that relationships are extremely important. But something I learned that I've grown used to is having "time with the girls". Having a friendship with the girls I've met at ACC is something that has helped me over come obstacles, cry to, talk to about something funny that might have happened, or just to simply TALK. Now having time with the girls is always important to do, but another thing that's important to do is to have that one person that you can count on a.k.a. your accountability partner (and preferably that person should be the same gender as you unless your married). Mine happens to be a girl I met at East Coweta my junior year. Who would have thought that having a celebrity crush in common would bring a friendship that is still one I will never give up. 

You're probably thinking...where the heck is Sara going with this? 

My accountability partner is someone I can go to for help, to cry to, to laugh to, for advice, etc. Something I've learned in the past is if you ask someone to be your accountability partner, you better expect them to tell you what you don't want to hear majority of the time and you must take it. Will you cry? Absolutely. Are there times where you can laugh? Sure. If you know for a fact that you aren't going to able to take the advice and truth that your accountability partner is going to give you, then I highly suggest that you not ask for the accountability at that moment. There is someone you can always run to and speak to about life and that is Jesus. He is always there and knows your heart. If you want to seek that accountability partner, then pray for God to provide and He will be faithful.

My accountability partner happens to be my best friend. She is always there for me for anything I need. There will be times where she will begin to tell me something and I wish I could plug my ears and not listen. But I know her so well that when she speaks to me about anything I will listen and take it to heart because she wants whats best for me. The reason for them speaking from their heart to yours is because they want whats best for you and they love you. I had to learn that after letting my best friend go for about 7 months and I hated every second of it. Luckily, I'm so thankful for God seeing my friendship with my best friend coming alive again and making it stronger than ever. 

I'm sure everyone who reads this already knows who the girl I'm talking about is. But when you have someone in your life that means so much to you and you love them, never let that person go. In my situation, I know God placed her in my life on purpose. She is the only person I go to for everything in my life and she is also like I said, my accountability partner. She is someone in my life that makes my heart for God want to never stop going and she is one of the most incredible women of God that I have ever met in my almost 20 years of life. I'm so honored to know her and to be able to always share my heart with her. God always speaks to me about her and says "This is a friendship that will never die. As she impacts you, impact her. As she speaks to your heart when needed, speak to hers when she needs it. When she needs someone, be that person. Always pray for one another.". 

To end this I want to say, if someone loves you and wants to be a part of your life with the Lord let them. They will never leave you. The Lord never fails and will always bless you. 

Monday, August 22, 2011

More To Family

So I have decided to start a blog since I've seen a few others start one lately. It'll take a bit for me to get used to it but please hang in with me :)


For my first blog ever, I want to share a word I've had on my heart for the last couple of days. This one single word is so close to my heart and that word is: family. Family is know all over the world as "blood" or "being related", but today my mind thought of it a different way.

Yesterday during touch time at ACC South Campus we were asked to do something different and that was to go around and say something we were thankful for instead of going around for prayer requests and praying for one another. The one thing that came to my mind as soon as I got into my group was "I'm thankful for my church family". I began to describe that I feel more free to go to my church family than to the one's I'm related to. I looked at the people in my group and couldn't help but smile and just be like I said, thankful.

Today as I was working and having time to just think about everything, the thought of loving my church family popped back into my mind. In that time I thought wait a second, I'm not even related to any of them yet they are like family to me. Being a family to me in the body of Christ has nothing to do with "being related" but as a matter of fact it does have to do with the word "blood". Not the AB, O negative, B positive, or whatever....Jesus' blood that was shed on the cross to forgive our sins. Jesus' blood is the reason why we all can stand together as brothers and sisters in the freedom we have in him and the victory He won. Yes, we are His sons and daughters which makes us all brothers and sisters in Christ.

As I was looking around Atlanta City Church yesterday during the most incredible worship service I've had in a long time, I was looking upon my fellow brothers and sisters and that gave me the best feeling in my heart. The feeling of being brothers and sisters by Jesus' blood and His sacrifice makes me thankful and proud to look at the ACC congregation and say to myself "this is my family, and i'm so honored to have the privilege to call them brothers and sisters".

To end this long blog from my heart, I want to say to all who read this: thank you for being my family. I am so honored to know every single one of you. I will always stand by my family no matter what! All of you will forever mean the world to me!