Verse of the Day: Proverbs

The Verse of the Day: Matthew 6:22

The man that found my Cinderella Shoe

"Wow, your settings are really narrow and you only have 8 matches with your search criteria. You could totally triple your matches if you expand your search." "But I don't want more matches that aren't what I'm looking for, I'm only looking for one man." The woman across the table from me stared at me incredulous from behind a camera.  I was sitting in the headquarters for Christian Mingle, one of the more serious online dating websites.

Two years ago when I moved to LA, I had such hope for finding the love of my life. I figured I was moving from small town USA to a sea of at least 5 million men. I mean, even if you're a one-in-a-million kinda guy, there are five others out there just like you. I did what most single girls do: hit the dating scene. I tried online dating, speed dating, and blind dating. You name it, I tried it. And it was exhausting. Finding guys for first dates was not a problem, but finding a quality guy for a second date was definitely a challenge. The stories I have will either make you laugh our guts out or cry from pity....or both. After a year and a half of disappointing online dating experiences, (ask me some time about the guy that didn't bring his wallet on our date or the one that literally followed me to another country) I swore off dating. I had just about lost hope that the man of my dreams could be a reality.

2015 seemed like a year of possibilities and dreams. On Valentine's Day of this year, I went with a group of my closest single girlfriends to a beach in Malibu at sunrise to pray for our future husbands. We are all successful, beautiful, intelligent women with a strong desire to be married but no men in sight. We declared as a group that God did have men for us and we committed to praying for them. After reading the book of Ruth, we each took a shoe as a prophetic declaration that we wanted to have dedicated, godly marriages in Los Angeles and we wouldn't settle for mediocre lives or dating relationships.  My hope was starting to be restored. I started dreaming again of the possibility of that my prince charming was out there.

In March, after almost a year of being off online dating, I decided to give it one more shot. I subscribed to Christian Mingle, because apparently that's the site that God uses to make heavenly matches. I told God I would get on for one month and if I didn't meet anyone spectacular, I would give up online dating and wait patiently for the right man to come to church, or step into the line behind me at the grocery store, or approach me at the gym or something old fashioned like that. I told Jesus that if he wanted me to stay online, though, He would have to pay for my subscription.

About a week into my new subscription, a pop up survey came onto my screen while surfing profiles. Basically it said if I filled out the survey and they interviewed me, Christian Mingle would give me a six month free subscription. Cool. I filled it out and wouldn't you know two days later they called me. They asked if I would come into their corporate headquarters on the westside of Los Angeles and go through a 90 minute interview and after the interview they would give me 6 more months on the website for free. Sure! I'm always up for a good story. Hence the beginning of this blog. When I was interviewed, the woman was shocked at how specific I was in my search. But I knew what I was looking for. I had decided to be very intentional with what was in my heart. For too long I had been willing to settle on things like height, education, and life goals. I was done with that. How many of us girls do that? Thinking we will never meet the gold standard of our hearts. Nope. I want the highest and best for my life. No more compromise. Plus, Jesus just paid for a six month subscription, so I knew the dating scene was looking up. There had to be a promise in there!!

Next came my birthday in April. In continuing with the shoe theme, my friends took me to see the Broadway version of Cinderella. It was a day all about the shoes. We wore little black dresses and wore high heeled shoes. Mine were a sparkly pair of 4 inch, silver and gold stilettos. Yes, 4 inches of glorious lift. The best part of the show was that the whole cast sings a song about the prince. And get this, he has about 15 names and his last name is HERMAN! It was like God was saying, "See? I have a prince for you and I know him by name already." After the show, I again took my shoe off and took a picture: "Who will find my shoe?"

April was a monumental month not only because it was my birthday month. I decided to fly back to Costa Rica for one last hurrah with Rodney and Cindy before they moved home to the states. Their home was my home for two years of my life, and the community is still my family. It was so good to be back even for a small visit. On the plane ride down I had a heart to heart with God. Why haven't I met my prince yet? I know there has to be some one out there for me. It is the greatest desire of my heart. God, you said delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. OK, God, I have delighted in You for YEARS. Where is he? But God, if it's not your love story for me, I don't want it. I have hope that there is a right guy out there. I won't settle for less, so if he's not from You, no thank you. I would rather be single and do missions and life alone than be with the wrong man. God restore my hope that there is an amazing man out there who will love me for who I am and compliment me in the dreams and goals I know you have placed in my heart.

About a week before I had left for The Rica, I decided to expand my search criteria on Christian Mingle. The lady was right, I could have more matches if I wasn't so specific, but when you know what you want...A tall, Jesus-loving, fun-filled, adventurous, world traveling, missions-going, thrill-seeking musician who loved LA but also felt called to the world who lived within 25 miles of me. Is that really too much to ask? Right? I didn't think so, either. So for one day I decided to go all wild and crazy and change my search. To include men up to 50 miles from me. I know, right? Of all the standards to lower I figured that was the safest one. Well, up popped 1 new match. A Mr. Surfilms, whose profile eerily read almost identical to mine. He claimed he was also a missionary in Costa Rica for two years, that he loved fun and adventure and was looking for a traveling buddy to go on missions with around the world within 25 miles of where he lived. Hmmmm....I had to know more. I sent an email asking about his time on the mission field. While I was in Costa Rica, I actually got a message back from Mr. Surfilms, also known as "Dave". And come to find out he actually lived right across town from me at the same time that I lived in Costa Rica. We even had several mutual friends from the mission field. Of course get this, we both were involved in different ministries (I was in the church Vineyard church plant in Los Anonos while he was in YWAM) but we both went TO THE SAME VINEYARD CHURCH IN ESCAZU when we had the chance to be away from our respective communities. Creepy. Yet the creepiest has to be when after we had been dating about a month, we were looking through facebook pictures together, talking about different places we had been to and adventures we had gone on. We were scrolling through Dave's facebook page when all of a sudden I yelled, "WAIT!! STOP!!! That's ME??" There was actually a picture on me on Dave's facebook wall from three years ago at a skateboarding competition in the national park in the center of downtown San Jose. I had been translating for the skateboarders and Dave was volunteering for the event. I was the dead center of his picture.

This picture of me was taken by Dave three years before we met.

When I got back to the states in May, he asked me out and to be honest it was love at first sight. There are so many details I would love to share, but it would fill way too many pages. I do have another blog post in mind that I need to write for all the women out there who have lost hope that they will find the right man for them. See, I had lost hope at the end of 2014 that there was a man out there that would fit what I was looking for. Someone to compliment me in my journey and someone I could encourage in his journey. God had many lessons he needed to teach me about hope and faith, but I'll save that for the next post.

On a really big fast forward, Dave and I have been dating for several months now, and last weekend he proposed. Of course I said YES! We are set to get married later this year :) I will say this before I go. It is worth it to say YES to God first. It is worth it to delight yourself in the Lord, because the desires in your heart are from Him. And the desires that He has for you are so much better and fuller and more wonderful than you could ever even begin to hope or imagine. And it is worth it to dream and have hope again. Because you may have to wait patiently (or not so patiently) for those desires to be fulfilled, but it is so worth it.

Essential Recipes for a Healthy Lifestyle

It's finally here!! I stopped posting recipes even though they were really popular because I wanted to put them all into one place. After several months of work, the compilation of all of my recipes are all in one place!! This October I am traveling with the New Life Church of Gahanna, Ohio to Uganda, Africa. I decided for a fundraiser I would finally get my cookbook written. If you ever came on a short term trip to Los Anonos, Costa Rica, you were the beneficiary of many of these recipes. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have!! You can buy the cookbook here:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/julie-herrmann/essential-recipes-for-a-healthy-lifestyle/paperback/product-21791208.html

 

 

Wait, I thought we only had 5 senses....

We all know that we have 5 senses: taste, touch, smell, vision, and hearing. And some people have to claim a 6th sense, which is usually something ridiculous like knowing when something is about to happen or about the weather or if some one is a decent human being or not. That's really not a sense, that's more like discernment and wisdom. BUT I just learned something new at a recent therapy conference I went to.....
 

 

So I am working at a child development center where we see a ton of different, unique kids with a multitude of skills and abilities. One of the challenges we are seeing more kids dealing with is called sensory integration disorders. Basically, their bodies and brains get easily overloaded with all the sensory input that the world around them is constantly trying to hit them with. Have you ever been in a candle shop that started to make you nauseous from the over powering smell? Or been at a rock concert where the volume was a little too loud and you just wanted to close your ears? Tried to try tapioca pudding but just couldn't get over the frog-egg texture? Shopped in Walmart?  These are just teeny, tiny examples of what a child with a  sensory integration disorder deals with 24/7. In order to help therapists understand what it's like to be one of these kids, several of my co-workers taught a mini conference on it this fall. It was a blast. Basically we put fully grown, neurologically "typical" adults into sensory overload and then gave them various strategies to cope and regulate their brains and bodies. Ever wonder why you chew copious amounts of gum when you're trying to focus on that difficult task? Why listening to classical music takes you to that happy place? Why that lavender bubble bath is just so darn relaxing? It's a way of using your sensory system to bring yourself back to "normal".


Here's the kicker, though. We don't have 5 senses. We have SEVEN. Yup. There are two other sensory systems that are integral in being a human being. Number six is called proprioception. It's the one that tells your brain where your body is in space, what your limbs are doing and where they are at any given time as well as the amount of strength and force you need to move your muscles to do what you want to do. Know some one who is super klutzy and trips over invisible rocks on the sidewalk? They probably don't have the best sense of proprioception. They're always bumping into things and not too coordinated. The lucky sense number seven is related to the vestibular system, which contributes to balance and your sense of spatial orientation to gravity as well as movement and balance. This sense tells us which way is up and helps keep us on our feet. If you've ever been swept away in a ginormous wave in the ocean and found yourself swimming endlessly looking for air but you just can't seem to locate the surface, this sense has just been messed with.


In the therapeutic world, this information helps us work with children by focusing on the systems that may be interfering with learning. In the spiritual world, this has huge implications. The Bible tells use that we are made up of three parts: the body, soul, and spirit. Our bodies are obvious, that's our physical, living, breathing, organic matter. Our souls are our thoughts and emotions. Our spirits are what separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom and connect us to the Kingdom through the Holy Spirit. (That is a basic explanation, maybe one day I'll write a whole blog on that, but for now if you have questions let me know). How else are we supposed to wear the armor mentioned in Ephesians? Anyway, long story short, not only do our physical bodies have 7 senses in the natural, but we also have 7 senses in our spiritual bodies. Think about it. Jesus uses this language all the time. Not only was he constantly "seeing" what the Father was doing, but he was telling us to as well. He was perpetually telling the Pharisees that whoever had eyes should see and ears should hear. He wasn't suggesting they were all blind mutes. The other senses are referenced throughout the Bible, too. Psalm 38 says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." And we are to eat the body and drink the blood of Jesus.  There are plenty of references to the typical 5 senses. But what if we had all 7 senses in the spirit as well? A proprioception to know where we are in relation to the rest of the Body, where our spiritual "muscles" are, and how they're flexed. A vestibular system that tells us where we are in relation to the Holy Spirit (who is our center), our movement in the spirit, which direction we need to go, and whether or not we are in balance. Ponder it for a while. Makes sense.

The landfill

I think this is such a perfect picture for our lives in Christ. He takes the trash from the landfill in our hearts and turns it into a beautiful instrument that we can use for praise and worship. We have a choice to join in to the beautiful thing God is creating in our lives in the midst of sorrow, poverty, and pain.

Our words have power

I've heard about studies like this. There was once one done by a scientist where he took a batch of white rice and split it into two containers. Over one container he spoke only words of love and affirmation. Over the other container he spoke hateful, spiteful words. Within even a few days the difference was noticeable. The rice over which he spoke love was still as white and clean as the day it was put in the container, but the rice that had hateful words spoken over it was molding and had black spots on it. To check it out, google some combination of experiment with rice and words. A ton of people have copied it and it seems to hold pretty true. Or try it yourself.

This is not a new concept. It's a very old one, actually. The Bible says in Proverbs 18:21 that "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit." This experiment is just the proof of it.

So here's what I was thinking. How often do I speak negatively over myself? I hate my thighs. I wish I wasn't so giraffe-like tall. I wish I had an amazing voice. How much is my words actually impacting how I am? OK, so I can't change my height by speaking it over myself, but I could change how I stand in my height, or how I view myself because of my height. How often do I speak negatively over my situation? I'm tired of being single. I hate living alone. LA traffic sucks. What if I started speaking out positively over myself and the world around me? Would it have the same effect as on the rice? Would the world actually be less moldy? I'm gonna give it a try. Here's your challenge, all you readers out there, will you try it too? Pick one feature that you have never liked about yourself. Look at it either in the mirror or on your body and every day for a whole week speak only loving, encouraging words about it. I dare you. See what happens. Pick a situation in your life that has you down. Speak  only positive message about it. Out loud. Note the change. Let me know how it goes!!

Love Languages

A few months ago when I was at the Vineyard Church National Conference, I attended a worship workshop lead by Dan Wilt. He is a phenomenal musician and worship leader. To start off the session, he had us campfire style the room, i.e., get in a big round circle. There were about 150-200 worship leaders in the room from all over the country. It was a bit awkward with all the chairs set up for a lecture, but we made it work. Then Dan stood in the middle and lead us in a very old, very simple worship song. The kind of song that EVERYBODY knows, with really simple words and a basic melody. And then it happened. Everyone started singing in harmony. Everyone started singing in unity. And Everyone could feel a shift in the atmosphere. Like Heaven was not only listening but joining in. It was the kind of moment where all the little hairs on the back of your head stand on end and there's a vibrant electricity in the room that makes you want to cry and pause time so that it lasts forever. 

It was in that moment that I heard the Lord speak. Do you know what the love languages are? I felt him nudge. Yes. Of course. As most of you have probably heard of them, there are 5 "love languages", or ways that we receive and give love. Quality time, acts of service, gifts, words of affirmation, and physical touch. while we as humans typically like to give and receive love through 1 or 2 of the 5 love languages, God "speaks" all 5 languages all the time. When we as true worshipers gather to worship in spirit and in truth, that type of worship actually represents all 5 languages at once. We give Him the words of affirmation He deserves through the lyrics we chose to sing. They tell of his attributes and remind him of what he's done for us. We are spending the best quality time with Him. We set aside all other tasks and chores to just gather together and focus our hearts and our minds on him. We are having the act of service of the sacrifice of praise. We give Him the gift of ourselves, completely and totally, our minds, bodies, souls, and spirits. And by its very nature, worship at its roots means to kiss, so our worship itself acts to physically touch God in the most intimate of ways.

So the next time you're in worship at church and you feel your mind start to wander about the list of things to do later, just remember that what you're doing is speaking directly to all of God's love languages. 

A Picture is worth 1000 words!!

I love art. I love finding new art. I think it is a fascinating express and creative outlet for us. I also think it is a great testimony to being like our Heavenly Father, the first amazing Creator. While we can never create anything as spectacular as an orchid or paint any masterpiece as phenomenal as a sunset, we can honor Him by creating as well. He created us in His own image...therefore since He is creator, we can also create as a demonstration of who He is and how He has made us. Here are a few of my current favorite art works by random artists in a variety of mediums. Enjoy!