Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name:
You are mine.
You are precious in my eyes
And honored, and I love you.
I have called you by name:
You are mine.
You are precious in my eyes
And honored, and I love you.
As another Shrimp and Petroleum Festival is recorded in the books, I can’t help but to dedicate my article this week to Good Ole Morgan City. I have the pleasure of calling this little piece of land my “High School-Hometown.” Although my one true love is Pierre Part, Louisiana (my real hometown), Morgan City holds a very special place in my heart. I would venture to say that during my high school years, even though I laid my head to rest in Pierre Part, I spent the majority of my time leaving footprints in muddy yards and tire trackers on the cracked pavement of good ole Morgan City.
I owe my greatest appreciation to Morgan City for welcoming me with open arms and a beautiful view of Lake Palourde on every drive into town, even offering me the opportunity to serve as a maid of their renowned Shrimp and Petroleum Festival. Most natives of Morgan City around my age have probably thrown up in their mouths by now upon reading about how I actually like their city. Just to be clear, this is really not a sarcastic article at all. I am dead serious when I say that I have fallen in love with my High School Hometown and everything it has blessed me with. If you are guilty of calling Morgan City by its little nickname: Morgan (starts with ‘sh’ and rhymes with bitty), please let me explain why I owe your city a huge piece of my heart. Two words: people and places. First, I have to thank Morgan City for connecting me with my enormous tri-city family. These beloved "family" members come in all different shapes, sizes, ages, and colors. One quality that stands out among the older (or should I have said wiser) generation of my extended family is their hospitality. I can't even count on my hands and feet how many homes I've been welcomed into, whether it was for a delicious dinner or for a lengthy chat about the latest sporting event. Even now that I am away at college in a different city, my tri-city family still keeps up with me, wishing me luck for my softball games and trying to shove food down my throat every time I pass through. As for the generation of family closer to my age, this group of individuals consists of the funniest, weirdest, and most warm-hearted human beings in the world. I am forever in debt to Morgan City for intertwining my life with such lovable people. Whether I am privileged to see them every day on campus or I only get to catch up with them once a year at the festival, when a Morgan City crew gets together, a good time is absolutely guaranteed to follow. I also do have to mention a special thanks to Morgan City for providing this girl with her first love. For even though it has caused some heartache on both sides, a first love is always worth mentioning if it is indeed a real first love. Second, the unforgettable places within Morgan City deserve some love as well for holding countless memories of sweaty summer days and chilly winter nights. Of course I had to first mention all of the people, who taught me every back street and short cut to our favorite spots. To begin with my absolute favorite, Lake End Park is one of the biggest reasons I fell in love with Morgan City. There is no place more peaceful than the wharf on a Sunday afternoon, where I can spend hours feeding bread to dozens of ducks and their adorable little baby ducklings. A very close second has to go to the one and only Seawall, where I've spent hours stargazing from the tailgate of a pickup truck as well as listened to my favorite Swamp Pop music from the bands of Rythmns on the River. I would probably be disowned by the whole city if next, I didn't mention the best Mexican food restaurant in the whole wide world: Tampicos. If I had a penny for every salsa-dipped chip I've ever eaten from that place, I'd be able to pay for every gallon of gas I've ever wasted riding around Morgan City having hearts to hearts or just jamming out with no destination whatsoever. The list of people and places I fell in love with through Morgan City could go on forever. Hopefully now you don't think I am absolutely insane for saying that I whole heartedly appreciate being able to call Morgan City my beloved High School Hometown. From the inside looking out, your city may seem like a boring little chunk of mud and water, but from the outside looking in, I see a beautifully woven creation, full of compassionate people and exciting places. So next time you catch yourself referring to Morgan City by its catchy little nickname, just know that there are outsiders like me, who absolutely adore the place you call home and never take a moment spent there for granted.
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1. Your "dream" is actually possible.The athletic world is competitive (obviously). You will be faced with tons of adversity, resistance, opposition, and difficulties, but don't you ever let anyone tell you that it is not possible to live your dream. If I would have listened to those voices of antagonism, saying that I am too small, not good enough, and lacking, I wouldn't be having the time of my life successfully living the dream of being a D1 collegiate athlete. Your dream is absolutely possible if it is backed by hard work and determination.
2. You gain a whole new family.Upon arrival at your college, you automatically gain 25 new sisters like I did (or in some cases 100 new brothers). You never have to worry about fitting in because your new siblings are just like you having the same ugly tan lines and awkward man-arms. You also have 25+ new moms, dads, grandmas, and grandpas, who will love you like their own and feed you as often as they can. 3. Good habits are inevitably created.The habits you create in college are very likely to follow you through the rest of your life. As a college athlete, you will definitely instill the habits of a healthy lifestyle. Academically, good habits will also be made when it comes to keeping up with your school work, which will eventually translate over the the work world later in life. Most importantly, college athletics will create in you the habit to get back up every time you are knocked down. You will inevitably be faced with adversity in college; you will lose games just like you will lose in life sometimes. You will learn how to stay grounded, humble, and persevere in order to come back even stronger. 4. Endless doors of opportunities will be opened.College athletics involve tons of people and places. You will constantly meet new people as well as travel to many new places. Your eyes will be opened to a whole new world you've never even imagined. You will make so many connections that your head will spin. These connections will surly open doors to job offers, relationships, new interests, and so much more. The spotlight shined on college athletes will also shed some light on doors you couldn't even see before. 5. You will learn to manage your time.You really don't have a choice as a student-athlete. Between condition, weights, class, study hall, practice, games, community service, and team bonding, you literally will learn to manage your time or die. Maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but I promise that you will learn how to squeeze in two 30 minute naps in one day, make it to class from the parking lot in three and a half minutes, and push through studying on a six hour bus ride. 6. Crucial life skills will be attained.Some of these crucial life skills include being coachable. One day when you have a great relationship with your new boss, you will thank your coach for teaching you how to follow rules, work harder than everyone around you, and take constructive criticism like a champ. You will also become a skilled public speaker. College athletes tend to be in the public eye and put on the spot a lot. Countless interviews, community events, and camps will give you ample time to refine your public speaking skills. Teamwork is also a skill, which cannot be escaped from in college. You will learn how to get along with all kinds of different people from around the country. You will learn so much about their hometowns, cultures, and may even pick up a few things from their crazy accents. 7. You can glorify God.God has blessed you with talents and abilities. Do not take this opportunity for granted, whether you are striving to become a collegiate athlete or you are already there. You can touch so many lives as well as gain so much ground on your path to Heaven through your years of athletics. So please, dream big. Work hard. Don't forget where you came from. Enjoy every moment God allows you to LIVE THE DREAM! 1. Introduce yourself to people and actually remember their names.Besides being able to go stalk them on Twitter later, remembering the names of people you are bound to see a million more times around campus is so important. It means a lot to others when you call them by name. You may even end up becoming really good friends. Plus, it’s awkward if you have to ask their name later on after you’ve already had like five conversations with them.
2. Use your time wisely.This item of the list is specifically to reassure you that it is absolutely acceptable to take 10-minute naps. On the other hand it is probably not wise to watch Netflix for five hours at a time like you did all summer. Personally, I think it helps to plan my day in my phone calendar beforehand to make sure I set a time to accomplish everything I must get done. 3. When someone offers free food, eat it.Free food is the best food you’ll ever eat. Always be on the look out to save money by reading your university’s email, bulletins, or newspaper about events. It seems like there’s always some kind of event going on that offers free food. Plus, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if you actually meet a few new people in your free food scavenging. 4. Call home.Do not forget where your bread has been buttered for the past 18 years. Your parents are probably at the stage where they try to play it cool by not calling every two seconds and aggravating you, but I promise they are just waiting to hear all about your college experience. 5. Get involved.You'd be surprised at how many clubs, groups and activities colleges have. The opportunities are endless. There’s literally something to be involved in for every single type of person out there. 6. Keep in touch with your best friends.While you’re calling your parents, don’t forget to call your best friends, who have inevitably gone to a different college than you. Yes, you will meet tons of new and awesome friends in college, but don’t forget about your roots. Don’t lose the people who know about your fourth grade buck teeth. You don’t have to talk every day, but let them know you love them and appreciate them as often as you can. Remember, you go home for Christmas break and summer, so there will be plenty of time to have fun again like old times. 7. Be a sponge.Absorb all possible information in the classroom as well as in the outside world. In college, it’s actually cool to be smart. It’s even cooler when you’ve gone to class and studied all semester so that during finals week, it’s not as dramatically bad as everyone says it is. Now in the outside world, you are on your own pretty much. Learn how to do adult things. Once you get a real job, you don’t magically understand how to adult in an instant. College is the time when you learn and do adult things on your own. Remember, you can call mom for her to explain how to do it, but you must do it yourself once you understand what needs to be done. 8. Thank God for opening new doors and closing old ones.While you’re at it, find your campus church and get acquainted. It’s really important to do this immediately when you get to college because chances are if you keep putting it off, you will never get around to do it. You may even lose your faith all together. Time spent with God will allow you to stay grounded, keep your priorities straight and release stress. Focus on Christ, and everything will fall into place. Marriage has such a beautiful fairytale ring to it. In reality, finding a good husband scares single girls like me to death. However, there are three men in my life that give me hope that one day I will find a good husband, who will love me and lead me to Christ.
The first man that gives me hope that I will find a good husband is my brother. I may be a little biased, but my brother is a pretty solid guy (and single too). I can't believe I'm admitting this, but he is smarter than me, he has an awesome sense of humor, and he actually owns a bible. Don't get me wrong, my brother definitely knows how to have a good time, but every Sunday you can find him at mass nurturing his relationship with Jesus. When I need him, he is always there. He may give me a hard time about it because I'm his little sister, but our late night heart to hearts prove that there is genuine substance under that receding hair line. He knows how to love and care for the women already in his life, so I am confident that when the right one comes along, he will grab her hand and never hinder in leading her and their future children to Christ. I know my brother will make the best husband one day, so it gives me hope that there must be another guy out there from our generation, who will do the same for me. The second man that gives me hope about finding a good husband is my daddy. I am so blessed to have a daddy that treats me like gold. He loves me more than life itself and never stops reminding me of this fact. When I ask him for something, he provides ten times more than what I asked for. My daddy cannot be outdone in generosity, except of course by God Himself. Out of all of the sporting events and academic banquets I've ever been involved with in my life, I can't think of time when my daddy hasn't been there bursting with pride supporting me. Just like my brother, you can always find my daddy in a pew on Sunday morning, and you can also find a rosary in his work pants pockets every weekday. My daddy gives me hope that if he can stay happily married to my mom for 29 years, then there must be another man among the 7 billion people in the world, who is willing to make that commitment to me. Even though my brother and my daddy make a pretty convincing argument that there is hope for me to find a good husband, without my third man of hope I would probably be a little more inclined to join eHarmony or Christian Mingle. The third man, even though He is much more than a man, is God. He is my ultimate source of hope. Without God's hand at work, how on earth could two people live together for more than 50 years without killing each other? I'm convinced that marriages are successful only by the grace of God. No force of humanity alone could pair up millions of couples from across the world and actually make it work out and even flourish into beautiful marriages. If God loved me enough to create me (even though He doesn't need me or anyone at all for that matter), to provide for me every single day, to forgive me when I inevitably fall, and to send His only Son to die for me then I think if it's in His will that my vocation is marriage, He already has the perfect man for me picked out. I trust that God is already molding my future husband's heart into a shape that perfectly complements mine. With all this talk about marriage and my future husband, I do have to throw out a small disclaimer that there is also a chance that my vocation is not marriage. In which case, I am also confident that God will completely satisfy my heart even if He calls me to the single life or religious life. Whatever You have planned for me God, I trust in You. Thank You for blessing me with hope from the two men closest to me. Thank You also for the hope I receive from You. Thank You for always coming through. Thank You for my future husband if He's part of Your plan. Thank You for Your perfect and holy will for my life. I love You Lord, and I trust You with all my heart. The night I wrote this article, I was supposed to go to sleep early, yet I found myself hours later wide awake with my fingers flying across my key board. Hopefully you can relate to one of those times when God puts something on your heart and you can’t even think about doing anything else until you accomplish what he has asked you to do. Sometimes God just lights this fire in our souls, and we can’t rest until we share that fire with others. This is one of those fires he lit inside my soul. I pray that this article can spark a little something inside of you too.
Today’s Gospel reading is one I’ve heard a million times. You are probably familiar with it as well. It’s the one where Jesus multiplies the fish and loaves to feed an enormous crowd. What I haven’t heard a million times from this reading is the part where Jesus says, “Bring them here to me.” Jesus asks the disciples to bring Him every last bit of food they could find. Only then did He work wonders and completely satisfy the hunger of the huge crowd. Boom! It hit me like a ton of bricks as I read this Gospel tonight. Only when I bring Jesus everything I have will He satisfy the spiritual hunger of my heart. I don’t know about you, but my heart aches often. My soul is constantly yearning for more. I am always searching for that full serving of bread and fish to satisfy my deepest hunger. Here in this Gospel, I am reminded of the truth that Jesus not only is able to feed me, but he also longs to feed me. He deeply desires to overflow 12 of my wicker baskets with more than enough fish and loaves to fill my aching soul. Jesus could have easily went along with the disciples’ suggestion to send the crowd away to buy their own food, but He didn’t. Mother Teresa so beautifully reminds us: “Jesus wants me to tell you again... how much is the love He has for each one of you -- beyond all what you can imagine... Not only He loves you, even more -- He longs for you. He misses you when you don't come close. He thirsts for you. He loves you always, even when you don't feel worthy...”Jesus longs to feed me just like he fed the large crowd. He misses me when I don’t come to him hungry. He wants me to run to him with an empty stomach. All I have to do for Jesus to satisfy every last bit of my hunger is bring him the little that I do have. So, here I am Lord. Here is the little that I do have. Here is my heart and soul. Here are all my talents and abilities. Here are my passions and desires. Here are my relationships. Here are my hopes and dreams. Here are the few fresh loaves that I have. Now I need your help, Jesus. This next part of my prayer is a little harder. You already know that though. Here, Lord, here are the fish that I would rather keep to myself. Here are the fish that sometimes don’t smell very pleasant. Here are the parts of my heart that I’m not using to nourish myself the way that you would nourish me. I am yours, Lord. Everything I am and every little piece of me, I turn back over to you. Your will be done. Thank You in advance for everything You are about to do in my life. Thank You in advance for the t12 wicker baskets full of blessings you will overflow my soul with. Now as a reader you have two options:
When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns. When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said, “This is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.” He said to them, “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.” But they said to him, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.” Then he said, “Bring them here to me,” and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over—twelve wicker baskets full. Those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children. Have you brought everything to Jesus? What are the fresh loaves of your soul that you would love to bring to him? What are the smelly fish that sometimes you hesitate to bring to Jesus out of selfishness or fear or doubt? What is it that Jesus is asking you to bring to him? What fish and loaves in your life does Jesus desire to multiply and overflow your wicker baskets with? Today, I surrendered. I gave up. I stopped fighting the fear that God wouldn’t fulfill me when I let go of every earthly pleasure I was trying to fill my God-shaped heart with. I finally let God be God. I finally came to him with an empty heart and gave him permission to fill it. I finally let God love me. Let me tell you, He knows the way to a woman’s heart: it’s bacon.
If you’re like me, when someone offers you food after a long day, you usually politely turn it down and hurry to the next fast food place on your way home. Today for some reason, whether it’s because I was feeling a little extra hungry or a little extra empty from my talk with God, I took a kind woman up on her offer for a home-cooked meal. It turned out to be the best bacon-wrapped chicken and sausage I have ever eaten in my life, with my absolute favorite side dish of peas. As I drove home with a full heart and a full belly, I was reminded of a few words I try to live by from St. Teresa of Avila: “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”Usually my take-away message is to be Christ’s hands and feet, but today I let someone else be Christ’s hands and feet. I let a very kind woman fill my plate and my soul. My heart is overflowing with gratitude knowing that I will probably never be able to return a favor like this to her, and that’s exactly how she intended it to be. This was God’s work. This was God loving me through this kind woman. This was God satisfying me not only with food to nourish my body, but also grace to nourish my soul. This was God, my ultimate lover, pursuing my heart and trying to woo me with a delicious home cooked-meal. By the way, God, it worked. God bless those who are your hands and feet on earth. God bless the beautiful eyes that saw a college kid’s hunger. God bless the feet that led me through the doorway of a beautiful faith-filled home. God bless the hands that set my place at the table and prepared a beautiful meal. God bless the soul that did much more than she could ever realize. While I’m at it God, thanks for getting through to hard-headed people like me that it’s a good thing to allow others to do something that we can’t repay them for. Thank you for allowing me to walk away even more full of grace by letting someone else be Christ’s hands and feet to me. ☄I want to be happy.
Don't you? I want to loved unconditionally and I want all the desires of my heart to be satisfied. Sometimes I trick myself into thinking, if just this one thing happens I'll be happy. If I win a state championship, I'll be happy. If he asks me on a date, I'll be happy. If my dad buys me this house, I'll be happy. Then the thing that I think will make me happy happens. It makes me happy, but then the happiness dies down sooner or later. Then, I want more. It may seem that I will NEVER be satisfied because I am such a greedy person but that's not the case at all. We were created with desire for a reason. God placed this deep longing, yearning, aching for more in us on purpose. The problem is, we long for the infinite. Yet, the only thing here on the earth are finite things. So duh, if we try to fill an infinite longing with finite things, we will never be satisfied. The good news is, there is an offer on the table. The offer is hope. Hope in Heaven. Hope in the infinite God who will one day fill our infinite desires with His infinite love. With infinite union with Him. So I don't know about you but I would rather not accept defeat that these painfully aching desires inside my soul are for no reason. I choose to believe that this desire for more was placed on my heart for a reason. I choose to have faith that one day my aching heart will be filled with more love, peace, and joy than I could ever imagine. Relationship Goals
You want flowers? God sends you thousands every spring You want a romantic sunset? Every day You want someone willing to take a bullet? Jesus took the cross, nails, scourging We believe the biggest lie from the enemy Let's talk about #RelationshipGoals tonight. We all want to be #RelationshipGoals right? Duh! This is what God created us for: to love & be loved. Longing for #RelationshipGoals is literally written on our hearts. God put this longing for love inside of us when He made us. But sometimes it's easy to believe the enemy's lie. The lie that says that we aren't good enough to be #RelationshipGoals. That no one is in love with us. That we aren't worth being pursued. That we aren't beautifully and wonderfully made. So what are some #RelationshipGoals we aren't good enough for? We want someone to bring us flowers just because right? Well, God sends us thousands and thousands of flowers every spring. We want someone to give us something beautiful right? God paints the sky every sunrise and sunset just to please us. We want a romantic love letter written to us right? God gives us Isaiah 43:4 "You are precision in my eyes, and honored, and I love you." We want someone willing to take a bullet for us right? Jesus took nails being driven into His hands as He was hung on a cross to die for us. He stretched out His arms on the cross and said I love you this much. But Jesus didn't just prove His love once and for all 2000 years ago. No, you are worth even more. He asks you on a date every week. He gives himself to You every single mass. He holds nothing back. He gives you his body and blood. He beacons you to become one with Him through the Eucharist. He loves you. He wants to be in a relationship with you. Because You are beautiful. And You are worth it. He wants to bring You more joy than any human being could ever bring. All we have to do is open our heart and say yes. We are part of the greatest love story ever in all of history. Embrace it. • Lord let me, let You, love me. • Because you are precision in my eyes, and honored, and I love you. He wants to fill our hearts with his love but sometimes we have to empty the junk out first to make room we must be open he wants to shower us with blessings we wants to pursue us he wants to romance us we just have to let him in and open our eyes to his love letters. We are part of the great love story in history ever. Many men wonder why they have such a hard time pleasing women. Has a man ever said to you: "What am I supposed to be, a mind reader?" "Nothing I do is ever good enough" "You are impossible to please"
Ding ding ding! Girl code! It all makes sense now! Duh! No man can actually ever satisfy us women. Precisely because we were made for more. We were made for an even more intimate, closer bond than we could ever have with our men. We were made for a relationship with our Perfect Lord. Only He can "read our mind" and know our deepest desires. Only He is "good enough" for us. Only He can "completely satisfy" us! Finally, us mystery-minded woman have a solution... 💗 A man will never be able to satisfy our heart like God does, so let's stop expecting them to. I'm definitely not saying lowering our standards is the thing to do. All I'm saying is that a relationship with God should be the one filling our mushy gushy hearts, first. Then comes our secondary relationship with men, made to help strengthen our primary relationship with God &&& to politely open every door leading us to Heaven where we will spend eternity with our soulmate, Jesus Christ. 💜 |
Megan LandryJust thought I'd share a few of my thoughts... Archives
December 2018
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