God teaches me a lot of things through my experiences, so I've learned to treat everything as a learning opportunity. Over the last couple of weeks/months, I've realized that He can use almost anything to get through to me. The particular lesson we are working on now has to do with building a house. Yep, a house. When I think of a house, I imagine a secure place in which I am surrounded my the people I love. In this house, I am free to do all the things that make me happy and nothing can ever harm me. What I don't consider is the foundation of this house. All the security in the world could be given to me by my friends and hobbies, but all of that could come crashing down at any time if the floor of my house crumbles. The house is only as strong as the foundation that it's built on. I've lived life thinking that if I cling to one person or one idea then I'll be ok. So far, that hasn't worked. People come and go, ideas change, and plans don't work out. In the past, my house (or my life) was not built on a strong foundation. Instead of building my life around God's word, I built my life around society. I thought I was in a secure environment until my world would fall apart, leaving me homeless, scrambling to pick up any leftover pieces. Now I have a new house where the old one stood. This house is different, because God is helping me build it as I go along. We started with a foundation. We invested a lot of time into it's construction, and now I'm finally ready to put up the walls. Slowly I am starting to feel secure on a foundation that is NOT made of worldly possessions or ideas. I know that no matter how strong the storm, my house will not crumble. People will still come and go, ideas will still change, and plans will still fall through, but one thing is different. My home, my security, will remain. Knowing that God is holding my world in the palm of his mighty hand is all the peace I will ever need. Because I know I can't fail, I am willing to try almost anything. I am finally staring the world in the face, and it's the greatest feeling I've ever experienced.

"Because of God's grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have--Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 3:10-11