Patience

LOVE. What exactly is that? We see "love" in many ways throughout the day...on tv, in acts of kindness, in relationships. But what exactly is love? The dictionary says love is this : 1."a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person." 2. "a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend." 3. "sexual passion or desire." But what these definitions are saying is that love is a feeling...and I disagree. Yes you can feel love towards someone...but most of the time those feelings come and go. I believe love goes way deeper than that. I believe you have to have love in you as a person, that it defines who you are. As a christian I feel that defining myself as someone "living in love" is very important. But I dont want to live on defining myself based off a feeling, b/c trust me....I am VERY emotional...and those emotions change from one moment to the next (haha the joys of being a woman...). So what does the bible say love is? Well I think one of the most important verses in the bible is 1 Corinithians 13: 4-7, which might be one of the most quoted bible verses. You hear it in just about every wedding (including my own!). "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seeks its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." On the surface this bible verse is pretty basic. But I think love is the number one most important thing in my life so I want to go deeper into that verse. So for these next few posts I am going to focus on this verse step by step and figure out exactly what it means.

"LOVE SUFFERS LONG"
Some translations say "love is patient". This means that God's love has patience with imperfect people. And guess who is imperfect? YOU AND ME!! There is not one of us who is perfect except for Jesus Christ. And what a relief that is! So many people have had bad experiences with christians and churches and the reason is b/c many "christians" dont act out of love. Most want to just judge others and tell people what they are doing wrong, and act as if they are too good. But that is not how God wants us to be. God is love....and if we do not have love for ourselves and others then we can not truly be serving God. God tells us to love our neighbors, and we can not do this unless we are patient. I can not truly live in love unless I am patient. Well it just so happens that I honestly do not like being patient....I want everything now! But God has taught me over and over that His timing is perfect and if I am not patient in that moment of waiting then I am going to miss out on what He is teaching me. First lets talk about being patient in the midst of trials and waiting periods.

I mentioned briefly in my last post about Gods plan in my life for me to move to Los Angeles. I can remember the exact moment when I realized that was what God wanted me to do. And let me tell you it came out of NO WHERE. I actually laughed at myself when the idea first came in my head. It was January 2005 and I had just turned 19 years old. I was a freshman in college and had my whole life planned out for myself. I had just gotten the first season of "The OC" on dvd and spent quite a few hours laying on the couch watching it. As I lay there watching it, a certain person really got my attention. The actors name is Adam Brody and he played the character of Seth. I thought he was such a great actor and was shocked that I couldnt think of anything else he had been in. So being the obsessive stalker that I am I decided to go online and find out everything about him. (Those of you that know me really well know that I get obsessed with things pretty easily hehe.) Anyways I found out that he had no prior acting experience, worked at blockbuster and loved movies so one day when he graduated high school he decided he wanted to move to LA to become and actor. Now to me this was so crazy....I didnt know people actually did that. I thought that people started when they were little on tv shows or whatever and just grew up and became actors. So I started looking at other actors to see how they started and found out a lot of them had little to no experience and did the exact same thing (Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, Julia Roberts and Jim Carrey just to name a few). This first sparked my interest and I began to pray about it. At this point it was amazing the way God worked in my life. I had everything planned out and this was not at all in my plans. But I trusted God and as he began to open doors for me and show me that this was that plan He had for me all I could do was trust in Him that he would provide a way. So in my mind I would just move to LA after the summer of 2005 and pursue and acting career. WRONG. God began testing his patience in me. As most of you know its pretty expensive to live in LA....and I had no money. So I said okay I will quit school and work for a year and save money to move. So a year goes by, I do some plays to start building up my resume and I work to try and save money. So the end of Summer 2006 comes along and I meet this guy (who I might add was pretty much the most amazing guy I have ever met) and his name was Chris Hoover. So as Chris and I start talking I basically tell him in so many words "I am moving in a few months so lets not get attached but you know we can hang out and have fun together." I mean most guys arent looking to be tied down in a relationship so this was like a major plus for him a this point in his life haha. So a few months go by and the exact opposite happens....we fell in love. Which was awesome and it gave me an excuse not to move b/c to be honest I was scared out of my mind to move across the country. So lets skip a couple years down the road. I had pretty much given up any type of acting career and decided I would just go back to school and do something else. Chris and I got engaged on our two year anniversary in September of 2008 and all of a sudden it was like God hit me with a ton of bricks. My love for acting and that passion I had for it that I pushed down inside of me and tried to forget about came back in full force. I always knew from that day in January of 2005 that God was calling me to move to LA and pursue acting, but the timing just was not right and being someone who is not patient and wants everything NOW I assumed that maybe I was wrong in thinking that was Gods plan for my life. So like I said that passion came back in full force (not that it really ever left I just didnt want believe thats what God had for me) so I had to tell my future husband that that was what I felt like we were supposed to do. So skip another year and a half and that brings me to today January of 2010. 5 years since God first sparked my interest with acting, and about 7 months from our moving date in August. *sigh* TALK ABOUT PATIENCE. But I wouldnt trade these last 5 years for anything. Both Chris and I are two totally different people than we were when we first met. We are both so much closer to God and actively seeking His will in our lives. Chris (who was very much against move to LA at first) is now just as excited as I am. I wish I could type out every little detail about these past 5 years b/c God has amazed me over and over. (But for your sake of reading through all this I wont! haha) It truly has been a roller coaster of ups and downs and highs and lows. (And still is on a daily basis b/c that is life) But God has never left me and everything that has happened has happened in Gods perfect timing. I now have patience in my life b/c I know without a doubt that I am in Gods will and he is guiding me along the way. Just like James 1:2-4 says "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you my be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." Trials produce patience and as we know patience produces love. And living in love should be the number one thing we strive for b/c that is what the whole bible is based upon. The more God tests us, the more patience we get, the more love we have, the closer to God we become!

So I encourage each of you (and myself b/c Lord knows I still need to learn patience at times) to strive for patience in your life. Whether it be patience at work (trust me I deal with people all day and I know how hard it can be to have patience!), or with your family, or with God. Just know that God has a plan for you and in His timing He will show you what it is. Patience is just one step closer to living a life of love for yourself and others. God has patience with us as imperfect people and we should have patience with ourselves, and with everyone we come in contact with. I found this quote awhile back and I think it is so true: "Love is willing to wait and keeps on being friendly to those who arent friendly back." I will leave you with a few other bible verses to check out on patience. Feel free to leave any comments or questions on here. I am open minded and would love to know what God has been doing in your life regarding these things!

1 Peter 2: 20-21
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8
Philippians 4: 6-7
Luke 8:15


Love,

Brittany

First Post

I have been thinking about starting a blog for some time now. Not even necessarily for other people to hear what I have to say (although if you want to listen Id be glad to talk haha)...but mostly for myself to hear what I have to say. I wanted a place to write out my thoughts, goals, dreams etc. Sometimes I feel like life happens so quickly I dont get a time to sit down and process everything that happens. So this is my place to do that. When it came time for me to name my blog I had to really stop and think about it. I mean I couldnt have something lame or boring it was a big decision haha. So I came up with "living in love", b/c for me that is my number one goal in life. Whatever I do I want to do it out of love. I think love is an amazing thing and it is something I base my entire life on. Sometimes it is a bit more difficult to show love than other times (I mean I am human...and I do get annoyed with people from time to time haha) , but it is something I always strive for. I have a lot of special people in my life that show me love and that I love in return....my wonderful husband, my family, my friends. But the most important love I have in my life is God. What is amazing about God is the love He has for me. When I say I love God with all my heart I know that I get that love in return. I know that there is someone watching over me every day leading and guiding me to where I am supposed to be, who has my dreams and aspirations at heart. I know that I am not alone in this world and it is such an amazing feeling to not have to worry about the future. B/c of Gods love for me I can show love to other people in different ways, and that is my goal for each and every day.

2010 is a big year for my husband and I. The end of August we will be moving to Los Angeles so that I can pursue my acting career SIDENOTE: What an amazing husband I have to move across the country for me to chase my dreams. He even told me the other day that its not just my dream anymore its his dream too! I am a lucky woman :) Anyway... whats funny about this move is that fact that I never thought I would be doing something like this. I had my whole life planned out for myself and that was not on my list of things to do. But what I have learned over the past 5 years is that I am not alone on this journey of life. I have an amazing tour guide up above to point me in the right direction. Everything I had planned for my life right out of high school has not worked out. Literally not one single thing. God took me on a complete different path and I am so thankful now I finally allowed God to take control. It has been a long journey where I have had to go through some really tough moments, but also filled with many many great moments. God has tested me and guided me to where I am now and throughout it all I have grown as a person and through my relationship with God. I have come to a place where I pray about every situtation in my life and I just trust that God will guide me to make the right decision. I now finally feel that I am ready to move to that next step and make that move to California and I can not tell you how excited I am! I have been waiting to do this for 5 years! (Talk about God teaching me patience...wow its been hard haha)

So for this start of 2010 I want to focus on each day. I want to make sure that I show love to each and every person I see and meet. I want to live each day to the fullest and not take things for granted. I guess you could say that is my "New Years resolution"( although I dont really like those b/c I usually pick something stupid and then break it haha). I know where God is taking me, although I dont know what the future holds. But one thing for sure I want to live my life for God and live a life of love. And I know that if I just keep God first everything else will fall into place (with a few ups and downs in between of course!) Everything happens for a reason which is why I know one of the big reasons I didnt move 5 years ago was b/c God wanted Chris and I to take this journey together and I know He has big plans for Chris too. I am just happy to be at a place in my life where I can honestly say with all my heart "If you lead me Lord I will follow, where you lead me Lord I will go." But for now God is leading me into the kitchen to make some dinner b/c I am hungry haha ;) I'll leave you with my favorite bible verse that I try to remind myself of every day. Matthew 6:33 "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things will be added unto you."

Live*Laugh*Love

Brittany