Who's praying for you?

Ok, so I had the oddest thing happen to me this week. We had these 3 people come to the Eye Bank to film a video for us because we are trying to get a grant. Well, I hadn't really been too big a part of this film until the end of the day my boss says, "Hey Brandi come in here and watch this taping of these interviews, see if you have any ideas to throw in." So of course I oblige and join. I was introduced to the filmers casually from afar. Two of whom were a husband and wife duo. Now my first impression of the wife, we'll call her Anna, was "umm...interesting". Long bleach blonde hair, little too much make up for my taste, shirt a little tight for the chest area and way too much PDA for a couple working in a professional environment! And then a co-worker told me to check out the shoes. These things were like 100% what you would call stripper shoes! Tall, black, pointy, scary...lucky for her her pants were dragging the floor so you couldn't see them all the time. Ok so you get the picture...I was being a judgmental person forming way too many opinions before knowing a thing about this lady!

So as we are doing the filming we're all cutting up and making fun of whoever is getting interviewed,etc...I was making my usual witty Brandi remarks! (people at work think I'm funnier than most b/c i'm like the only young, single,non-boring girl in the office!) So i have no more interaction with this lady at all besides a few witty remarks as a group. The next morning they all come back by on their way home (kentucky) to say thanks and talk about the project.A co-worker comes to find me b/c wife and husband duo want a picture with me before they leave. (strange I think since I barely was a part of this project) Come to find out they are deeply religious and travel around the world sometimes singing and filming religious videos. Later the wife approaches me and says, "oh i was thinking and praying about you this morning and I have something for you" umm..interesting. So we say a group prayer for the project and say our goodbyes. As she comes to hug me she hands me a card. 

I open it and it's this precious card that has a little boy playing in the sand by the ocean...with Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you hope and a future." Inside the card she tells me not to neglect the precious gift God has given me and to soar above my adversaries life brings me. Saying that they are possibly the tools God is using to sharpen me and prepare me for something. Signing the card, your new friend Anna. I was deeply touched by this card, the verse and the words since I've been going through lots of life analyzing thoughts lately. I first felt overwhelming guilt that i kinda judged her before I even knew her and it just goes to say: You can't judge a book by it's cover. And I KNOW that and have learned that thousands of times in other situations and yet here I am doing it again. Once I got over being annoyed with myself I began to think how amazing God is. Here is this person who knows jack about me but has prayed all morning for me. It just makes you wonder who you can affect on a daily basis without even knowing it! And it's just adds it to the list of the amazing things God can do in your life! 

I think prayer is one of the most powerful tools God has given us!! So now i've been more concise about praying for others, especially those i don't know. I pray for the man I see on the way to work in the morning that has to walk over a mile to get to the bus stop. I pray for that family who has a flat tire on the side of the road. I pray for the lady at the parking deck meter. There's so many out there who need prayers! So today friends, I ask you why not pray for 5 new people you see that you don't know a thing about?! (sorry that was so long, it's a slow Friday!) 

P.S. I'm praying for you reading this! ;) 

Back in the Saddle again...

So here we go again...another month is about to begin. I know that most people try to start new things at the beginning of the new year but I decided that never works for me...so here I go starting a new commitment at the beginning of the new month (gosh i said begin a lot!) Since, as Liz says, "all the cool kids are doing it" I am never one to be left out of the loop! Even though I started this a year ago, I think this time around will be better since I'm always on here reading everyone else's blog. Hopefully my life/brain will be entertaining enough to add some interesting things here and there! 

Labor day lies ahead so I imagine there'll be something to write home about...off to Auburn for the weekend! 

Whiffs

It always amazes me how smells can take you to so many different places. It's often that I forget how powerful they can be until once again a fragrant whiff of something catches me off guard and transports me somewhere. Friday I was flipping through a magazine and one of those usually annoyingly bulky perfume ads swept passed my nose. The Clinique scent "Happy" took me back to late high school/early college days. I always got those free samples in my free gifts. Although no specific memory comes to mind, a feeling covers my body of a senses of "happiness" and a sense of how far I've come since my days of wearing "Happy"!

And then there's always my lovely perfume of L'air de Corfu! That quaint shop down a cobblestone alley in Corfu town. We went there for the yummy liqueur and left with a scent that shall always remind me of my time in Corfu. How different and carefree I was there. How no one, besides my best friend Haley, would ever see me again possibly. It wasn't until I returned home and that light scent crossed my nose one day that I realized what Corfu had meant to me.

I have no doubt that God gave us that amazing sense of smell for a thousand reasons...I'm sure there's someone out there that can't stand the smell of roses because it brings back bad memories of a loved lost but then there's also that person out there who can't get enough the smell of fresh rose because it reminds her of her husbands constant love and devotion. Every day I'm amazed by God's ways, so many out there that are right in front of us, yet we take for granted!

My Calling

Well it was another lovely day of working at the Eye Bank and I was able to leave work a lil earlier than the normal working American and got home in time to review my Tivo'd Oprah that I missed from yesterday and then today's show. Oprah (for those of you who don't know) is one of the most fascinating people I think. She has had such an extraordinary life and continues to only achieve more daily and hourly. The thing I admire the most about her is her giving spirit!!!! She gives and gives and gives! I can only hope that some day the Lord will bless me enough to give 1/2 as much as Oprah has given!

But on to my point...today's show was giving related...it was about 3 people who had made a huge difference in all different ways. And the show really got me to thinking about my life, as I seem to do a lot of these days, and to really finding out what my calling is. I have no doubt (just from my upbringing and from my knowledge of the Lord and his love for all his children and his reason for creating this earth & sending his Son to die) that we were put here on this Earth for a reason and God has a purpose for us all. I just wonder how long I'll be searching for my purpose. I'm pretty sure that there are many different purposes for me, I'm just mostly scared that the main one I need to accomplish is sitting in front of me and I'm missing it. I don't want to miss it! But the only thing I know to do is pray. Pray that I will see that calling and that I won't miss out on it when it whacks me upside the head! Ha! I do know that it has got to be something to help others. God gave me parents that have instilled in me a giving spirit and I have no doubt that I want to use that spirit to encourage other to give. As a end result all I want is to do that thing that spreads more love, more smiles and more happiness! :)

Just getting started

Okay so I'm still working on this whole blog thingy but I just feel the need to write! I guess I've always had the desire to do it but hopefully setting this account up it will give me a place online to directly "blog"! I have no doubt though that writting makes people smarter overall and can only make me a better person overall too. Plus if I'm really going to act on my quarter life crisis I'm going through right now then I better get on top of this world O' English. Ha!(more on that to come for sure.