Back in Perspective

I leave for the Brother's in just one week. Yesterday I got to see the house that we will be moving into. We will be staying first for one month in the Sister's guest apartment, and then, after some work has been done to it, we will move into the house for the rest of the year. I am getting more and more excited to go, but also more and more anxious about the move. I'm not having second thoughts about going, but I am feeling a little bit of anxiety about a few things. I went to mass today however at a different parish than I usually go to and it helped me to feel so much more at peace with going. The priest gave a really inspiring homily, and when I got home I found some really great stuff to put my mind at ease.

For example, I have been worrying a lot about not having all the things I have at home to make me comfortable and cute. I will have to leave most of my clothes at home, and I won't be able to take very much of my stuff with me. We don't have very much storage space. But, I found this passage and it really put things in perspective for me.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from he way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?' or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?' All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil." -Matthew 6:25-34

Also, I have been a little nervous about the other girls. I have met a few of them and we have all been e-mailing for the past week or two and they all seem really nice. But I have never had to live with anyone other than my family, what if it's difficult to get along? This verse helped me realize there is nothing to be worried about. These girls are there for the same reason I am =).

"I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is also a minister of the church at Cenchreae, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the holy ones, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a benefactor to many and to me as well." -Romans 16:1-2

The most important thing is to just be open to God this year. Even if I have to live in rags and I don't have a diet coke (lol) all year, and even if I don't feel like I have a friend in even one of the other girls, if I trust God that he led me to this and wants me to grow from it everything will be OK.

This year is going to be great!