August 16 - Emily Gibbs

How long have you been coming to H20?

I have been coming to H20 since May of last year, so a little over a year.

What do you like to do for fun?

I love to Ice Skate. I figure skated for nine years growing up. I also love anything outside. Hiking, running, walking, fishing, rock climbing, etc. I enjoy spending time with my husband and going on dates also. This may be slightly geeky, but I love reading English Literature for fun.

What's an interesting fact about you?

I finished my first two 5k runs last month. I ran the whole thing, which was a huge accomplishment for me.

This has been an interesting couple years for me. To give you a quick summery, my family moved to Florida almost 3 years ago, I stayed in Indiana for another year and a half. 6 months later my husband and I were married, and now we are 3 months away from Mark (my husband) going to boot camp to become a Marine. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. I am afraid of being apart from him for so long, I am afraid I won’t end up seeing him for almost a year, I am afraid of him being deployed overseas in the middle of chaos, I am afraid of losing him. But I have been laying it at the feet of Jesus…pretty much every day. Thankfully the Lord is good and reminds me that He is has a plan through a series of unknown plans. I am reminded daily of Jeremiah 29:11 “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord.”

I am in a time of waiting. I hate waiting. I am only patient when I have to be. Patience is not a strong virtue of mine. But I realized a couple weeks ago that God has me in a place that He is calling me to wait. I have been praying and asking God for answers, racking my brain for new ideas and solutions, instead of stopping and listening for God's answers, and I had just continued to talk and try to move beyond this. But He has answered me, He spoke to my heart with one word: “Wait.” Here I am now, in a place where I am trying to show up and just wait on the Lord. It’s a completely new place for me. I am praying throughout the day for God to cover me in "a blanket of grace" and to lead me. Even though I feel like bursting into tears everyday (for different reasons usually, whether its frustration, thankfulness, peace, being frightened, or amazement), I feel myself growing closer and closer to Him. Through my growing in the Lord and falling deeper in love with Him, I feel myself grow closer to my husband and deeper in love with him. I am so thankful. After the rough first 6 months of our marriage, I am so thankful to be in a place where God is drawing us closer to each other through Him. And to think it took so long to get back here. I am working everyday at giving my everything to God. Its hard, I am struggling most days to let everything go and stop holding on. But it feels so much better in the end knowing that God is in charge.

I want to quickly share a few things that God has been teaching me and encouraging me in.

1. “Shame off you” and “Grace on you”. I know we all are pulled down sometimes by Satan’s verbal attacks and it causes us to turn to self-pity. Instead of wallowing in shame and self-pity and regret, I am encouraged to be seeking forgiveness and letting go of the shame and the guilt and focusing on God's grace, letting yourself be covered by "A blanket of grace". I struggle a lot with self-worth and appearance and these two phrases have been an encouragement to me to stop focusing on feeling bad about myself and seeing myself through God’s eyes and to be full of His grace.

2. Proverbs 3:4-5 “Trust in the Lord with ALL of your heart, lean not on your own understand. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight.”

3. Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."

4. Psalm 27:1 “The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?”

Prayer Requests:

· Strength and peace for my husband as he works even harder to prepare for what’s ahead of him at Basic Training and beyond that.

· Strength and peace for me over the next three months, that I will be a blessing to my husband and lift him up.

· That Mark and I will continue to grow closer to each other and encourage each other in our walks with God.