Since I have arrived at Adventures in Missions (AIM), I have received so much discipleship and teaching about Jesus! We’ve had morning devotionals, teachings, testimonies, and team time (a small group of 6). There have been so many good topics that the speakers have touched on such as, Lordship: handing over the authority of your life to the Lord, shame, conviction from the Holy Spirit, gossip, and constructive feedback. We’ve spent so much time learning about the Lord’s character, which is awesome, but it is also very important to have time with the Lord by yourself.

This past Sunday we were given 3.5 hours of silence and solitude with the Lord. This included journaling about how you were feeling about leaving home for nine months, what you’re excited for in this next season, reading the Bible, or just listening to God. This time was great for me, because I was able to process leaving home, dream about the next nine months with God, and I was able to see how the Lord has blessed me over the past year.

This past week though, it has been a struggle for me to find time to spend time with God. We have all these amazing teachings and then we have free time to spend with my squad, and I want to spend time with them because I love people and I want to get to know them all better, but it is important that I set aside time daily to spend time with the Father. In order to get to know Him, I have to read His word, listen to what He has to say to me, and pour out my heart to Him. What I’ve realized this past week is that if I want to get to know my Father better, that I have to pursue Him, nobody is going to make me go spend time with Him, I have to do it.

Today during our morning devotion we read Matthew 6:25-34 and at the end it says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God” and something I realized while reading is that those words are on the barn in front of our porch at my grandparent’s farm. The farm is my home away from home, we go there for at least 4 weeks every year. I’ve always struggled with going away and spending time with the Lord my whole life, because I want to spend time with the people around me, and I’ve realized today that God has been reminding me to seek Him first since a very young age. In this upcoming season I’ll be praying and trying to seek God first in everything that I do.