Having an emotional past and how God restores us

Each and everyone of us has had some sort of event or something that we have gone through that has not only shaped us into who we are today but has also been hard and emotional. 

My story: 

I have gone through hard times the past little while. In this year alone, my dog died  just before I left for Africa. One of my friends/sisters at the time completely lost my trust in every way possible. She hurt me in many ways including emotionally and spiritually. I felt abandoned, scared and I was full of hate. Night after night I couldn't sleep. All this happened a week before my trip including things with my job, things weren't going well. When I got back from Uganda, I hated being back in Alberta because I didn't want to deal with all of this hurt again. Satan was pretty much in my way and I was so full of hate! I thought I had also lost my job. I was an emotional wreck, almost punched the wall a few times. I was literally going through the lowest valley that I have ever gone through. I struggled with a lot of things  and I was so blind because i didn't see or feel God at all. In about May I really started to find and search who God has made me to be. Since then my relationship with myself has been really good and most importantly my relationship with God has been amazing. He has shown me the love that he has for me and how I am a woman of God! I want to be that woman that when wakes up, satan says "crap, she's up." There are still days where all of a sudden I'll start thinking of the past but I know that God loves me and is taking care of me. We all go through hard times but please remember this....

-God loves you so much and will NEVER love you less but instead he will love you more! 

-if God brings you to it, he will bring you through it! 

-God turns the broken into beautiful. 

1 Peter 5:10- And the God of grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 

Psalms 147:3- He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds. 

Exodus 14:14- The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.

Psalms 30:11- You turned my mourning into dancing, you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy! 

Waiting on God's timing!

Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years have gone by and I am still waiting. Waiting for Christmas to come, waiting to go back to Uganda, waiting to get married and waiting to see what God is going to do. I almost am finding myself impatient and anxious because I'm waiting for all of these events to happen and not being patient and trusting God and having faith that this will all happen. 

Lamentations 3:25 says "  The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him." 

Psalms 130:5-6 “I wait for the LORD,  my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.”

We have all heard that saying "Good things come to those who wait." But do we actually wait patiently and trust God and knowing that everything is going to be okay? I don't most of the time but I try! 

I have this countdown app on my iPod which counts down to all the special events like when I'll be able to see Grant again,  Africa and our Wedding but I kept checking that app every 5 minutes and wondering why time is going by so slow. I just want it to hurry up. I then deleted the app because I was tired of waiting and feeling like I was stuck in this machine that made everything stop and that time was going nowhere. 

As I look back on my life, time has sure flown but when I look into the future, time isn't moving fast enough. In just over 2 month, I will be going to Uganda for the third time. In just 8 months, I will be married to the love of my life! It seems like it's an eternity away and everybody keeps telling me that time is going to fly by but then why do I feel like this; feeling like I'm stuck in space or in a slow motion machine? 

I have to live everyday knowing that these special times are coming and I have to make these days count that I'm in right now! Make friendships, work and earn money and enjoy what God has given me right now! 

I am also just waiting to see what God is going to do in my life because I also feel like I'm at a standstill with God. Just waiting for that moment where somebody asks me how God is working in my life or waiting for that opportunity to just feel the Holy Spirit working! I work at a place where I try and talk about my faith but people try and quickly change the subject! Deep down it hurts because I want to live my life for God but things always pop in the way. During this season of life, I'm waiting to see what God is going to do! 

One of my new favorite sayings is "Until God opens the next door, praise him in the hallway." 

Even though I can't really talk about my faith at work, I try and be that Godly example of saying hi to everyone, smiling (I love smiling) and not getting mad. Being that radiant light where God just shines! 

I make sure I pray lots everyday, and even read a verse everyday! I love going to church every Sunday because it's like a charger, I need to be filled up again in order to start a new week full of energy and laughter! 

I have noticed some little blessings everyday that God has given me to just show how much he loves me BUT I am still waiting to see what the next door God is going to open! 

I want to end with a few verses from one of my favorite songs "While I'm waiting" by John Waller. 

"While I'm waiting, I will serve you,

While I'm waiting, I will worship,

While I'm waiting, I will not faint. I will run in the race even while I wait." 

Our Story!!!!!

Hey everyone!!!

So on July 10th 2014, Grant asked me to marry him and I said yes!!!!!! That was such a great day, and after I said yes..my brain literally just shut off and I couldn't think! I was so excited!!! Anyways, lets back it up three years. This is how our story began......

On July 7th 2011, our camp..."Camp Harmattan" was hit with a storm which included a few tornado's that surrounded the camp and so we were all put into the bathrooms because they were concrete. After a few hours when the storm calmed down, we either had to be in our cabins or in the dining hall and my friend (at the time) and I decided to go in the dining hall and I saw this guy sitting at a table by himself, so her and I decided to sit down at the table and talk about life and how camp is going so far. After we had talked and ate supper together, I knew he was the one that I was going to spend the rest of my life with! . I instantly fell in love with him! During chapel that night, my friend and I had argued over who liked him and GUESS WHAT?1? I won! Haha!!! That night our camp put on a talent show and I sang, "Blessings" by Laura Story and Grant gave me a standing ovation afterwards which was pretty cool. After I was done singing, Grant and I talked and we laughed alot haha! When it was time to go back to our cabins, Grant stopped me halfway and asked for my cell number but I didn't have a cellphone at the time so I gave him my email. That night, I couldn't sleep and I was so excited!!! The next day came and we had to go home, Grant and I at least said "goodbye" 20 times haha!

A few weeks later, I told my friend 'Jasmine" that I met and liked this guy named Grant and I told her that I was going to tell him during Family Camp that I liked him. Family Camp came and I couldn't get the guts to tell him!! We ran into eachother twice while I was there visiting for a day but I was so nervous! Since we didn't really talk that day, I couldn't tell him :(

In August, I was at a Family reunion in Barrhead and afterwards we went to Calgary and stayed at a hotel and I finally got his number from a friend and so I texted him and I told him that I had something tell him and I finally told him that I liked him...ALOT! He responded with saying that he really liked me too and he was trying to tell me during Family Camp but we really didn't get the chance to talk. I was gleaming and again I felt like he was the one!


On September 8th 2011, he asked me if we could..I guess go steady haha, that wasn't the word but we weren't aloud to date until we were 16 but we still kind of became a couple...we were at that really awkward stage haha! Anyways, in November of 2011 we hung out for the first time since we told eachother we liked eachother and let me just tell you...I was sooooooooooo nervous, I almost threw up. We met up that day at West Edmonton Mall and I met his parents for the first time and that day I couldn't look at him, hug him or do anything because it was really awkward and I didn't know what to do haha! After that day was over, we started texting alot and we actually started talking about getting married one day. When we started talking about marriage we were both 15 years old...yes we were 15!! CrAzY!

The next year in 2012, because we were both 16 finally my dad met Grant for the first time! I stayed at Family Camp for the full week and during that week, we had our first kiss and our close camp friends started calling us Granala and they even made a dance for us haha! My dad and brothers came out and met Grant for the first time and I was waaaaaay more nervous than Grant was and so I hid behind the ice cream shack for quite a while until they were done talking. We officially started dating August 16th 2012!!! Great day:) Again, from then till about last year we were in that awkward stage where I wouldn't hold his hand or cuddle with him or even kiss him infront of family. As we began to start dating we only saw eachother maybe once a month and if we were lucky, twice a month.

In 2013, for my 17th birthday, Grant gave me a promise ring and that was just so amazing because our dream started becoming more real. Over the past year, we really started talking about getting married and the jobs and ambitions we both have. God has blessed us with the gift of serving and missions which has been a HUGE blessing. We have also gotten really close spiritually and we are at that point in our relationship where we can't even be three days without seeing eachother but in reality we can't see eachother everyday due to being in a long distance relationship and him being in college now and as I am working alot it just doesn't work to well, but it is very hard not being with eachother all the time. It gets pretty emotional.

During the early spring of 2014, I wondered when Grant was going to propose and I asked him and he said the latest I would have to wait would be the end of summer and I knew that it was going to be in July because being a girl, we figure things out and we try and plan how things are going to go aswell as we are very suspitious! Grant and I were at Harmattan cabin leading for the grade 3-4 from July 6-9 and on the last day of camp, we hung out with our friends and went to BP's at 10:30 at night which was so much fun and because it was late, Grant stayed at our house for the night and he kept texting and he wouldn't stop texting the next day either and I really didn't think much of it until he asked my if we could go to the lake around 1:30 pm and I said sure so we left for the lake and while we were sitting at the lake, he wouldn't stop talking! While we were sitting at the lake I wondered if he was going to propose but I didn't want to suspect it because what happens if he didn't do it. While we were sitting and talking about our future and how God is working in our life, he looked at me and he said that he had an important question to ask and then he said these words.."Mikayla Andrushko, will you marry me?" I said yes and then I kissed him but it didn't click until he asked me again saying.."Mikayla Breann Andrushko, will you marry me?" I said yes again and I was going crazy because he just proposed!! I was sooo happy! We went to DQ afterwards and we couldn't stop smiling and once we got back to my place, we prayed and committed out engagement to God, and we started calling our family and friends and it was so awesome hearing our friends and families reaction!

As I look back on when we first met till now, we have really grown in so many ways and I wish once we started dating, we would have given our relationship to God but I know that he was taking care of us and we have grown so much closer to God which is an amazing blessing because I don't know where we would be without God in our relationship/engagement. Grant and I want to make sure that we give our wedding day and marriage to God because what is a better way to start our marriage off then by giving it to God? Nothing can start our marriage off better than our amazing and loving God who gave us eachother to do his will together!

I love Grant so much!!!! God has really given me a huge blessing which is Grant and I can't wait to say "I do!"

Mikayla......soon to be Mrs.Sawyer!!

Here are a few pics from out relationship! The first picture was our first picture together!

For everything there is a season!

"The is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace." Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

For everything there is a season!  Many of you are going through grief of loosing a loved one and you will always remember your loved one but through the time of grief and mourning, God is comforting you and when you go through that season of loss, you will go through a time of dancing and just thanking God that he is there with you.

Life is full of hardships and hard decisions but we have to thank God for the good times such as laughing, dancing, and when we are in those moments of wondering what's going to happen next, just take a moment to thank God for what he has already done in your life.

We (Canadians) just had our Thanksgiving and that day is so special because it's dedicated to being thankful, we should be thankful everyday; don't get me wrong but thanksgiving is a time to be thankful, for everything you have and being thankful for the friends and family that you got to spend thanksgiving with.

God said that he has made everything beautiful in it's time. I'm still in the season of trying to find who God has made me to be and I will be entering into a whole new season.....Marriage! I am so excited and I can't believe it's happening and even though it's going to be an adjustment to not ony Grant and I but our families aswell, but during this season we have to remember to thank God for all his many and incredible blessings.  

When I was on my first trip to Uganda in 2013, I did devotions one morning on this verse and this is what it said: "For everything there is a season. We could have come here for just a few days  but God has perfect timing, he knew when we were supposed to come and arrive here. He has set so many outstanding events here. This was our time to come and to help the needy. If you feel the urge to pray or help someone,  don't wait for tomorrow to come but do it in the moment because God is doing work not only in your life but in theirs as well!

For everything there is a season!! Here are a few pics of all my different seasons of life! 

Looking through the snowflake

Good morning, as I write this post, I am sitting in my living room listening to Christmas music...that's right, I am listening to Christmas music and looking out the window at winter wonderland in the middle of September.

Through all of the business with my brothers going back to school, and I am working 32 hours a week and still trying to wedding plan, I am glad and blessed that I get a time to sit down this morning to enjoy the snow.

I used to hate winter but God spoke to me last winter saying that I need to be glad that we have snow because what happens if we got no rain during the summer and the only moist we had was from all of that snow we got? I took winter to a whole new level and it's my favorite season not only because of the snow but because Jesus was born.

When I woke up to snow the other day, I was the most happiest person on earth because God had answered my prayer. I prayed everyday that it would snow! I wish I could set my tree up now!

We can't look at everything black and white, we have to look deeper and find the color because maybe God is telling us in a way where we have to look harder.

I challenge you to enjoy every part of winter...maybe not the driving aspect but everything else. Watch every snowflake fall and remember that every snowflake is unique and different just like you! God has placed every snowflake on the ground to make it look beautiful just like how God put all of us together on this earth to do God's will.


Have a good day everyone,

Blessings,

Mikayla

How to be a Godly girlfriend/fiance

Being a Godly girlfriend/fiancé

In the beginning of our relationship, I didn't know what it meant to be a Godly girlfriend. I was so new to it, and I didn't know what to do but through these past few years of dating my handsome man, I found an app called "pinterest" and pinterest is awesome! Anyways I was scrolling through one day and I found "how to be a girlfriend/wife (Bloggers below) and I absolutely loved it and I reflected on our relationship and I started to pray and I asked God to help me be a Godly girlfriend. Grant and I both grew up in a christian home but we were so new to this dating business that we didn't know how to start a Godly relationship. About a year in our relationship we started to pray about everything and we gave our relationship to God. Once we did that, we felt closer to each other because we put God at the head of our relationship. I have really learned to be a submissive and Godly girlfriend and honestly God has blessed our relationship abundantly. We are now engaged and getting married! Being an engaged woman is amazing but through all the planning, I've made sure that I have spent time everyday to thank God for blessing me with an amazing Godly man and that he will give Grant and I patience during our engagement while we plan and that we won't forget the meaning of love and why we are getting married. The closer Grant and I get to God and the more we love God, the more Grant and I will love each other. Being a Godly girlfriend/fiancé comes with a lot of things like purity and modesty. As Christians we should be praying about purity and that we will remember to guard our heart and stay pure and wait agreeing to Gods plan. 

Modesty is a huge thing for being a Godly girlfriend/fiancé because being modest glorifies God and that helps having a pure relationship. 

 ~Colossians 3:14 "And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."

 ~1 Peter 4:8 "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins."

 Pray for him!

 
-Prayer is so important, and he needs prayer too, so remember to always thank God for him even if he is driving you crazy but pray pray pray! Through prayer amazing things happen!  Through prayer comes blessing and joy! Now as Grant and I are engaged, we are continuing to put God first and thanking him for giving us each other and allowing us to enjoy life together through God. We can't wait to get married and to see all the blessings that are in store! 
Once I am a wife, I will make a post about how to be a Godly wife! 

Encourage him!

 Encouraging him and always tell him how good he is doing at work and encourage him to do things, like going to biblestudy or making some new friends! Encourage him to love and follow God more! 

Bloggers are: http://www.hudsonandemily.com/

http://www.butlerpartyof3.com/

Please check them out!!

Blessings, 

Mikayla

Update on life

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't posted anything in awhile. I have been crazy busy but I think things are starting to slow done for now. In this post, I will be writing about what's been going in my life this summer.

In the beginning of July, I had an interview at Mark's Work Wearhouse and I didn't get the job but I thanked God and I praised him that I didn't get that job because I know that he has something else out there for me!


July 6-9th I cabin lead for the grades 3-4 at Harmattan and that was so awesome. Those kids are so stoked on life and it's so cool to hear them talk about their future. On July 7th, I met Grant three years ago in the Dining Hall at Harmattan. We were very blessed to be together on that day.

July 9th, Grant and I went with all of the other staff to Boston Pizza and hung out till about 11:30pm and Grant and I drove back to Sylvan and the next day (July 10th) I was asked a very important question at the lake. Grant asked me to marry him and I said yes!!!!!! That day was an amazing day because we were now engaged and we phoned all of our family and we have been blessed by all of the support from all of our family and friends. Grant and I were and still on cloud 9 and it is starting to sink in now as we are going wedding planning crazy.

July 17th-18th, I worked at the fair in Red Deer with 90.5 Shine Fm which was a blast, I got deep fried cookie dough and deep fried oreos which were sooo good!

On July 20th, Grant picked me up and we headed to camp again for the Grade 7-9 camp and Layla (cabin leader I lead with) and I were so blessed to have 9 amazing Godly girls in our cabin. I will never forget that week. The week was filled with so much fun activities, prayer and chapel. On Thursday July 24th, I turned 18. I had such a great birthday and I got to spend it with an amazing camp! Friday came along and it was a sad day because the kids had to go home. When it was time for the kids to go home, our cabin was in tears. We were connected emotionally and I have never had so many hugs in my life in one day than I did that day.

That night Grant and I drove to Kananaskis and went camping with his family and some friends of ours and we had such a blast hiking and enjoying God's beauty. I got back on Monday and I had a huge surprise waiting in my room....I opened my door and my room was full of balloons, streamers and pink wallpaper! That was so exciting! :D

I had an interview at Wal-Mart this afternoon and I think I got the job but I will know next week for sure!! I am super excited to do some more wedding planning and I am excited to see what God is going to do this next year!!!


I am so excited to start blogging again! Love you guys :)

Mikayla