Watching people

If you are anything like me you can relate when I express my joy for people watching. There are few thing much more peaceful than sitting down in a busy area and viewing the numerous people as they hustle by. Being the Christmas season, it is the perfect time to do so. I find it mind boggling seeing so many faces and realizing that I am merely one soul in this huge world. So many individuals, so many personality, so any dreams, so many stories. I do not know any of these people, yet I can relate to each knowing that we are all humans. Their lives are unknown to me yet for one instance we are connected through the fact that we are sharing the same moment in time. It donned on me today that for all of the times that I sit and people watch, I myself is sometimes the one being watched. There is something refreezing about the fact that I live in a world where very few people know my story. I am just one of the many. One with my own fears, dreams, and passions.  

The next time you are out in the busyness of life, take a chance to sit and people watch. Grasp the unique opportunity to share a moment in time with a complete stranger and appreciate the uniqueness of each individual in our world. 

SO much more.

God is always doing so much more than you think He is.

This has resonated with me for the past month now. Not always do we get to see the results of God working through our lives. But sometimes, if we are lucky, God reveals glimpses of the marvellous work He is doing.

Taylor and I recently planned an event called "The Cross". At the event, we showed a Billy Graham film and then Taylor shared his testimony. When "The Cross" was on our hearts to plan for our school we had no idea the impact that it could have. I prayed for 20 people to come and for God to reveal himself to each person. The day of the event I stood and the back of the room in complete awe. God had sent 150 people. God had a much bigger plan than I could have ever foreseen.
One girl on my team recommitted her life to Jesus that night. I had no idea that my passion for planning this event would result in someone coming to Jesus.
I am meeting up with another girl next week as she messaged me after the event and expressed how the night gave her so much clarity in the midst of her struggles. This is God at work.

I was reminded that night that when God places passions on your heart that He is going to show up. He will never leave you stranded and alone. When you life in inlined with His plan, he places passion in your life and He will be with you as you pursue those passions.

I was lucky enough to hear about the way God was at work that night. But not always do we see the results. At times when is seems like God isn't working, remember that He is always doing so much more that we think He is.

Who defines you?

Our days are filled with many emotions. Feeling of extreme joy, utter frustration, insecurities, successes and failures. These feeling we have come from the different situations that we find ourself in each day. And often these situations are out of our control. So why do we let the out of control situations define us as people? I have come to realize that you are far too beautiful, too precious, too extraordinary and too loved to define yourself by any unstable situation. No bad test score, poor performance, inability to measure up or destructive words will ever define who YOU are. These things are inconsistent and do not define you. 

God, on the other hand, is the one constant in our lives. The one thing that cannot change. And this is what God say. 

He says you are chosen and faultless in His eyes (Eph. 1:4).

He calls you His Child (John 1:12). 

You are redeemed and forgiven through the grace of Christ (Eph. 1:7). 

He loves and chooses you (1 Thes. 1:4). 

Instead of letting this world define who you are, let your Father define you. 

xo Jolayne

16 letters of love

I feel very blessed right now. Extremely blessed actually. I just received 16 letters from a girl in my dorm named Megan. For anyone who doesn't know Megan you are missing out on being constantly encouraged and built up. She is truly a gem. She constantly strives to love people just as Christ does. I came into my room at 12:47 am and saw a present on my desk. I soon realized that Megan wrote a letter to me for each week of this semester. What a beautiful surprise. Over the past week I have been feeling very convicted about making God number one in my life. Over the Christmas break I had neglected some of my time spent with Him. I started back into my bible reading yesterday and was in need of some encouragement. I opened my letter for this week and it read.

"But seek first the kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you a well."-Matthew 6:33

"Give Jo strength to put you first and foremost in everything"

It is so crazy how God uses people to speak to us. I am feeling blessed. I am feeling encouraged. I am feeling love. I am feeling joy.

you are.

I found this quote. And I just think it is the cutest thing ever. Plus I think it is very true. Everyone has a little weirdness in them, that is what keep us unique. And if you want to try and argue that you are not weird...well thats just weird to argue about...therefore you are weird. So accept it. Embrace it. We are a all just a little weird.

“We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” -Dr.Seuss

passing moments

We are all on a journey. Writing our own novel. Traveling along our own path. We grow with each day as the days grow with us. I find that I am in constant battle with the capacity of my brain. I want to remember everything. Each moment. Each feeling. Each individual word that was spoken to me. Each instance of laughter. I want to remember it all. Take the moments that come and cherish them dearly.  We often grasp the tangible, and loose grip of the genuine emotions that pass with the day. Hold tightly not only to the tangible but to the emotions and passions that keep our journey alive. We are living our journey. Writing our novels. And traveling along our own path.

A thank-you.

What a surprise to come back and find a beautiful message written to my from my wonderful friend MJ. She is such a gem, and for anyone who doesn't know her you are missing out. I feel so blessed to be empowered each day by such incredible people that God has specifically placed in my life.

The run to Fort Langley and back 

To my dearest Jo, 

I am writing this on your blog because 1) I do not have my own blog and 2) I wanted to let you know that you're my simple joy. 

You are extremely an amazing women! You are cute, funny and very strong. You have challenged me in other ways than academics. I am so used to academically challenging myself these days, that I simply forget that there are several ways to challenge yourself and to develop one's character. I learnt so much from you in just two days; the first day was when we went back to your room from open mic and we just talked and got to know each other by talking about life and what we were currently feeling. We talked for hours and I kept telling you and asking you if you were reading off something because everything thing you said to me that night was so unreal. What shocked me the most was that you went through a totally different experience but yet we felt the same way about certain situations that we overcame or are overcoming. To talk to you about faith and God's plan and His purpose for our lives really rattled and quite frankly broke me because I had an epiphany that opened my eyes to see that we are so broken and that regardless of making mistakes and unwise decisions he is always there to help and support us. 

The second day was our lovely run to Fort Langley--I was so excite that I woke up an hour earlier than the schedule time we plan to meet because I was super stoked. However, I seriously thought we would reschedule the run because it was raining super hard but yet you persisted that we were for sure going to run. Realization soon hit my body and my mind soon filled up with negativity. There was no way that I would be able to run yet alone to Fort Langley but you assured me that it would be fine. Throughout the run you motivated me, walked with me and supported me. You opened my eyes and shown me your capabilities and strengths. I can never forget what you said to me when I was going to give up and just pass out on the side of the road, you said "you have a little more to give," just those 7 words and 8 syllable spoke into me like electrolytes entering my body after drinking a bottle of Gatorade; giving me enough energy to push on forward and work harder. We finished that run with a sprint back and I never felt so strong in my life. I was beaten and tried yet I still had a little more to give. 

Jo, you are a blessing from heaven! I am so glad to have had the privilege to have met you and that your part of our dorm. You inspire me beyond the means of school work and trying to pursue higher education and a secular future. 
I would like to leave you with this thought and that is that you are very strong, I see you with this burning desire to reach out to people to run with passion and just to give your very best. Just keep on striving to do your best because in the end it is for His glory. Please continue to pursue and work hard and give a little more because I know that you know that you have it in you to be the best and yet be extremely humble at the same time!

Adore you from earth and to the future in Heaven.
God bless you everyday,
I love you to pieces!

M.J. 

silence.

I learnt something valuable today from my sister. That is the power of silence. All around us is constant communication. We are programmed to always have something to say. Something to fill the silence. We feel the need to find the right words, and say them at the right times. I realized today that we don't always have the right words. We don't always know what to say in order to make a situation better. Instead of filling the silence with empty words sometimes its ok to let silence speak for you. Sitting in silence while someone pours out all their emotions and being there to hold them for hours as they cry. Because we don't always have the right words to say and there is comfort in knowing that is ok. Let silence speak the words that we don't have. 

“Silence is pure and holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking.” -Nicholas Sparks

it matters.

I have a new quote that I cannot seem to stop thinking about.

"What you do matter"

Its simple. Yes very simple, but sometimes simple is best. We don't always need thousands of drawn out sentences to make a point. "What you do matter". Everything you do matters. This is literally running through my head at all hours of the day. It matters that you stopped to say good morning to the cafeteria lady instead of just walking by. It matters that you treated your parents with love and grace even when they were being unreasonable. It matters that you spent time helping a friend with homework even when you had hours of work to do. It matters that you thanked your professor after class even though it was a little boring. What you do matter. Everything you do matter. Knowing that would you change the way you act? Act in a way knowing that what you do matter. 

a night of blessings

I am seriously overwhelmed with love and the feeling of being complete blessed. I feel that God is so present right now and it seems crazy to feel so much love from Him. I find that I often see God through people. Tonight God used my friends to show me love. I was having a little bit of a frustrating day with exams and what not. I sometimes find it hard to express any feeling other than happiness to people, but Mel and Ty are two people I am completely transparent with. I told them today that all I wanted to do was cry because I just felt incapable of doing well on my exam. Later tonight I come back and they told me they had a surprise for me. I walk into Mel’s room and Ty is holding something bundled up in towel. I unwrap it to find a pillow pet!! I felt like crying. First of just because of the fact that I have always ways wanted a pillow pet and they had gave me the exact one I had wanted. But I sat there completely unable to express my joy and complete feeling of thankfulness. They saw it as just giving me a gift, but I saw their kindness, love, generosity and spirit of blessing thought the giving of this wonderful gift. I feel blessed and undeserving of such wonderful friends in my life. 

Tonight I planned on going to bed at 11, but what I love is how God sometimes has different plans for me. Megan and I started talking and ended up chatting for 1.5 hours. This is a girl in my life that I completely look up to. Her love and passion for Christ is so beautiful. I feel lucky to know her and to have opportunities to get into deep conversations with her. God is working in her life and He is speaking to me though her. I am blessed. I am blessed. I am just so very blessed. God has placed people in my life that continually push me closer to Him. Megan is one of these people. Thank-you God for creating such a beautiful heart in Megan and giving her the love to share her heart with me.