Me

My life can be summed up in these three words: prayers, potter, & popcorn.

Prayers. My whole life I've believed in God. I was raised in the church. And I do mean in the church. My grandfather literally helped build the church building I attended for most of my childhood. I grew up hearing about God and learning to love him. I strayed away and tried to do things on my own only to find my ideas didn't really work out so well. Shortly after high school I attended a discipleship program where I met my husband and we have built our lives together pursuing Jesus. Now, we have not been perfect and we've had our struggles but we fight hard for what is important to us. Though God has been around my entire life and I have believed in Him, I have never truly understood the depths of His love for us until or what it truly means to be a Christ following woman until recently. The past two years have taught me much in regards to living life with faith. I've prayed more than I ever thought possible and in those prayers I have found grace. Unbelievable, unending, insurmountable grace.

Potter. I love reading and it has also been a key part of me for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories are of my sister and I snuggled up on the couch while my mom read us Little House on the Prairie. I was around three years old and I can remember looking up at my mother's face and watching her lips move as she made the story come alive through her voice. I've been known to fully tune out the world when I'm engaged in a great story. (Just ask all my relatives and husband!) Yes, one of my favorite series to read is Harry Potter but that is not why I chose the word potter. The Potter fandom represents how I feel about many books I've read. I fall in love, completely and obsessively, with novels that grab parts of my soul. The excitement that many people have about Harry Potter books is the excitement I feel for reading in general. As far as things go, reading is the greatest love of my life.

Popcorn. Popcorn is by far my most favorite snack. I love the crunchy, salty, have-to-lick-butter-off-your-fingers-constantly kind. MMM! Aside from it being my favorite snack, it is also very unpredictable. Those of you who have ever made popcorn on the stove know what I mean! These tiny little kernels can really cause quite the headache. I feel like my life is like making stove top popcorn. I'm constantly checking it and trying to make sure everything is going evenly and that I will get the results I want (i.e. all the kernels popped!), but no matter what I do my favorite snack never comes out exactly perfect. Such is life. Life is unpredictable and no matter how hard we try it will never be exactly as we planned or wanted. Sometimes I think its better this way.

So, in a nutshell, this is me. I love deeply and act weirdly almost 100% of the time. I hope that by writing this blog I can encourage others to embrace who they really are. I hope they can learn how to find and trust God - even in the difficult times. I am still learning how and I know we can all learn together.  I'm learning to fully embrace life and the struggles it brings. I've finally found the place where I am no longer afraid. I love who I am and I think it's time to share that with the world.

In wonderful weirdness,
Alissa