exam finito!

So, today I finished my last exam - a very happy lady! Exams this year have taught me a lot. For starters, I am usually very frantic and panicky around exam time and generally spend as much time second guessing myself as actually being productive. add that to the fact I was trying to finalise wedding plans and quite frankly I was expecting to be a mess!

Whenever I have exams, I ask my friends and family to pray for me - only I don't like those prayers that basically pray you ace the exam (whether you put the work in or not). My family tend to pray that God will give me peace and confidence and that I will have a clarity of mind etc. and I really appreciate this. So, peace and confidence it is! Running up to my first exam, I felt strangely calmer than usual. Me, being me, decided that I haven't put enough effort in and calm must equal some state of laziness where I don't care enough! After taking my exam, which again I was completely calm for, it hit me: this has got to be the peace of God. 'Aaahh, so this is what it feels like'.

And, as the exam period has gone on I have to thank my God and everyone who prayed for me - peace like I have never felt has been on me - in a way that sometimes I didn't even realise or recognise. I'm starting to learn what it truly means to live in God's peace and I have to tell you, it's awesome. So, I would encourage you - rest in God and His peace :)

Better than life

Just for some good uplifting music that reminds me of truth...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZzHYx7wKa0

Bloggy blog blog

After much inspiration from my blogging friends, I decided to give it a go. I didn't think it would be so hard to set up though - seems the whole world is blogging as pretty much every url I tried failed miserably - "unavailable". So, with 2 weeks and 1 day to go til our wedding, I type: "jesscordy". The computer replied: "available"! So, two weeks premature, here I am!

The other day at our church meeting the speaker, Cedric, was mentioning how people can have 'yes' or 'no' faces: saying Jesus was approachable and a 'yes' face, whilst so many of today's Christians have a 'no' face, and we can often put the world off. At the time I chuckled at the unique example but didn't think much of it.

A few days later, I was walking through town and there were lots of sellers, charity workers etc in the streets: I did my usual 'walking with purpose - please don't stop me' stance and as per usual it worked! The second I got past the guy it hit me - he didn't even try to stop me: I was a 'no' face.

Throughout the week this idea of yes and no faces kept coming back to me: randomly people were telling me I was approachable, always smiling, etc. A 'yes' face.

I'm pretty glad to say that I reckon my natural disposition is more of a yes face, I had to 'put on' my no face to avoid the sellers - but should I have? Are we going to be an open, approachable people that display Jesus or do we manipulate the way we act for the outcome we want - a quick trip through town?

I would encourage us to live 100% as a 'yes' people, even at our inconvenience. I'm not saying stop for every street seller, I was just thinking that for me, I want to be a consistent person. Shining a light 24/7 not denying it for a moment or two when it suits.

So, my first blog. Hope to be consistent enough to be back soon!