Daily Boost of Encouragement

Life has thrown many unexpected trials my way lately. I guess my life hasn't been giving me the outcome I was hoping for. In some ways this is a good thing and in other ways it's a bit discouraging.

Life I was HOPING for at the age of 24:

• Have a job that I love, that pays me decent/well with benefits. . like health insurance . . :)
• Be married to a handsome man who loves me and loves God
• Have time and money to take fun vacations with that gorgeous husband of mine.
• Start having kids

Life as I know it at the age of 24:

• Barely staying afloat with a handful of different nanny/mother's helper jobs
• No Health Insurance
• Consistently getting sick: All in the past week dealing with overcoming a cold, getting an eye infection, and Strep throat and dealing with the doctors bills
• Overcoming the frustrations of dating and realizing how different men and women are and seeing that it truly is a miracle when people actually get married.
• Yearning to travel the world and get jealous of all my friends that get to go travel the world.
• Job hunting constantly and only getting emails telling me I wasn't qualified enough for positions.

So I guess life hasn't exactly come out the way I expected. It is a bit discouraging sometimes. But then when I step back from the nitty gritty of life and look at the bigger picture I see that the Lord does love me. This life is to prepare to meet God, it is to test and try us. We won't become all that we can be without going through these trials. There are days when I want to give up and say, "Lord, can I please have a break?" and then there are days where I see miracles happen. Like this past week, although in a few days I went from overcoming a cold, to getting and eye infection, to getting strep throat. . I saw a few miracles. My eye infection on Wednesday, lasted one night and then next morning after a long humbling prayer and good night sleep, the Lord healed my eye. Then I got strep throat on Friday. Saturday I went to the doctor, got antibiotics and Sunday my fever and sore throat were gone. I would say that is a miracle.

So life is hard. It pushes us to be better, to try our patience and humble our souls.

There are moments where I fall and it's really difficult for me to get up or want to get back up. But I have found someone who has given me strength. Someone that doesn't even know me, she doesn't know the strength she gives me each day and the hope that life will be better and that life is also better than I make it out to be.

This wonderful woman is Stephanie Nielsen. For those of you who don't know who this wonderful women is check out this video below of her story.

Stephanie has a blog that I follow almost daily. I read about her daily experiences: trials, uplifting moments, her love for her family and the love of her husband.

Nie Nie (Stephanie) has become one of my heros these past few months. She gives me strength each day to push myself to be better, to be more and to complain less.

For those of you that do follow my blog, check out hers.

nieniedialogues.blogspot.com

She truly is an inspiration and has become my daily boost of encouragement.