God is Good

In all honesty, I don't have really anything to update you all on. I just kind of wanted to take a moment to tell you about a small story and little lesson a good friend of mine helped me realize today. Today started off roughly because of difficult news I found out from back home. While I was skyping my mom and dad back home, a friend of mine kind of overheard and just saw that something was going on so he asked me about it. After sharing it with him he took the time to pray over my family and I and then he promptly gave a book and took me to a specific chapter that literally talked about the exact situation I had just shared with him. I carried the book around with me all day and never really had enough time to read it. I wound up having a good day despite some of the hard emotions I was having but during lunch this friend of mine still just hugged me pretty much until the tears started to actually happen. He didn't even say anything but the sentiment of how much he cared impacted me a lot. Anyway! Later this evening I was sitting outside the cafe here on base waiting for it to open and decided to read that chapter my friend gave me. The chapter was amazing and it encouraged me so much. After reading it I immediately sent the info about it to my mother to read when my friend (his name is Kane btw) walked up right then. So I told him I finally read it and I thanked him for it because of how encouraging it was. And while I thought that would be the end of the conversation, it wasn't. He kept talking to me and then I started asking questions... Little side-note and background info, he is an actor and has been in the industry and his perspective on acting and everything he has experienced since he got saved has been such an inspiration to me since the first day I met him. And he knows i want to be an actress. Back to the story. So while we are talking about all the stuff that my family has gone through and is now going through I was telling him how hard it is for me to bring it God because I have never gotten answers from Him about the reasons for why hard things keep happening. And I was telling him about how the most difficult thing for me about being here in Australia so far is not being able to be at home for my family. Especially when things like this happen. I am so grateful for my friend because he immediately brought truth into my life that no one has ever made clear to me before. And it made sense! He told me that Christian's so often get caught up in the "there's a reason for everything" and they neglect the fact that God didn't make these things happen. He allows them to happen and He then takes the hard things that end up happening and He turns them into good things eventually. Why? Because God is Good. And the fact of the matter is, I need to let go of my family and I need to allow myself to fully and truly trust that God IS taking care of my family. And He is and always will do a MUCH better job then I could ever even attempt to do. After all this I was feeling very emotional because I knew Kane was right and it was hard to accept but I was always grateful for his honesty and his encouraging words but I was trying to hold in my tears. And that brings me to the other lesson I learned tonight. Actors cannot allow their emotions to control them. In order to be successful, we have to accept our emotions and allow ourselves to vulnerable because they are the most believable actions an actor could do. And allowing yourself to cry, or be angry, or be happy, or be sad is also the best way we as humans can cope. So long as in the end we give everything back to God. So tonight I have learned, there isn't a "reason" for everything, but in the end it will be good because God is good; God is the one who takes care of my family, not me; As an actor, I have to allow myself to have emotions even in the times I don't want them. SO! That is my story. I am so grateful for God's love and provision and I am so grateful for the people He keeps placing in my life. I feel like I have a new older brother who i can easily go to when I need encouragement. So! The truth of the day?! GOD IS GOOD!