Dreams Really Do Come True!!

This weekend one of my dreams came true. I got to watch JOE PATERNO walk the sidelines and coach in Bryant Denny Stadium. The dream was to see Joe Pa all the rest was an added bonus. I had been thinking about things that I would love to do and already have done. Even more importantly I have been thinking WHAT WILL PEOPLE REMEMBER ME FOR?

So I have decided to make a combined list of things I want to do and things already accomplished. I am also going to check off-put a star by the things that I have already been blessed to do. One day I hope to look back on this and see that I really did help change peoples lives for the better.

1. Personally lead someone through the prayer of Salvation *
2. Go on a Mission Trip
3. Visit every SEC football stadium (hopefully watch a game at all)
*Bryant Denny Stadium (of course)
*Jordan Hare Stadium
*Common Wealth Stadium (just seen it)
*Tiger Stadium (BEST BALL GAME OF MY LIFE)
*Vaught-Hemingway Stadium
*Davis Wade Stadium
*Neyland Stadium (Hope I NEVER EVER have to go back...horrible is not the word)
That is all I can think of right now..

5. Go to a National Championship***** Ahhhh we won and I was there ROLL TIDE
6. Go to a Super Bowl
7. Give a scholarship to someone from Patrician Academy every year to attend Alabama
8. Change a troubled teen or college girls view on life and how they see it
9. Be A Role Model for someone
10. See a football legend play (Brett Farve)*
11. Have a husband who loves the Lord far more than he does me!
12. Be a Mom
13. Still go to BAMA games with Paige, Abby, and Amy when we are 50
14. Visit Chicago
15. Work for The University of Alabama
16. Meet Tim Tebow (I don't care if he went to Florida) *
17. Change the world one smile at a time.
18. Spread the love of Jesus Christ by simply loving on people.
19. Make my mamma and daddy proud.
20. Adopt a baby from Russia (or a troubled child in general)
21. Help find a cure for Autism
22. Get Jesus back in out schools because not all children have an opportunity to go to Church and they need to hear about HIM from their leaders
23. Be proposed to somehow with an ALABAMA flare. ROLL TIDE
24. Believe in a child lke Melynda Cowan believed in me!
25. Stay as involved in my community as possible no matter where I end up.
26. Serve the Lord until the day I die no matter how hard life may be.

There are many more and I am sure I have left out something. However, this is a start for me. A list that I hope to check off.

FAITH over Football

Friday the 13th I am sitting at work and my phone starts blowing up. I sit at my desk thinking what in the world could be going on but I could not answer because we were super busy. I then check my voicemail to hear my friend Abby's frantic message "Glen has quit football it is all over twitter, find out what is going on and call me back."
A pit enters my stomach thinking is he ok? I was not shocked for one minute over his decision however, it just happened way sooner than expected.

You see a few years ago I bumped into a man walking down the halls of the Mal Moore athletic complex with ipod in his ears, head down toward the ground, and hardly a word ever came out of his mouth.



Fast forward a couple of years later the same man came walking into a college ministry called UnAshamed at the University of Alabama. I was greeting people at the door and stopped and talked to him. Same guy, different attitude. He was still quiet and stand offish however, something was different about him this time. JESUS had started working in his heart and he was to NEVER be the same again.





After several seasons of adversity he began making yard after yard, touchdown after touchdown until he became one of the BEST football players The University of Alabama had ever seen. Never one time did he take the credit for it because he knew it was not him but the ONE who gave him this very ability. People started taking notice in what this man had to offer on the football field....not me. I started to notice that is was FINALLY all making sense to him that if he GAVE EVERYTHING to the ONE WHO GAVE IT ALL TO HIM then he would be BLESSED far more than he ever deserved. All those yards meant NOTHING at the end of this earthly life if he did not have the RELATIONSHIP with his HEAVENLY FATHER.

GLEN COFFEE as of Friday the 13th gave up every football players dream job to SERVE his HEAVENLY FATHER. Worldly people don't understand it, athletes don't understand it, and not even the common human understands it. GLEN UNDERSTANDS IT. He realized that no amount of money can make you happy, no town, no person, or no thing can give you the satisfaction that you want in life EXCEPT to SERVE and LIVE your life for the ONE WHO GAVE US OURS!!





I am beyond proud of Glen. I have admired him since I saw him that day in the Athletic Complex. That day I admired him because he was an ALABAMA FOOTBALL player. Today I admire him because he is one of the bravest men I know to give up the world to LIVE HIS LIFE FOR CHRIST. I am thankful to have been a part of this journey seeing him grow in his relationship with Christ and develop a life long friendship.



I read in a blog today one of the best ways to sum it up so I am going to borrow it.

"I suspect Coffee will live to tell a great testimony of God’s blessings on his life. Not necessarily the worldly kind, but the heavenly kind, the kind that come from walking with God. For this man was willing to lay down everything to be obedient in following Christ. Talk about leaving it all on the field. Coffee did just that"

“If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” –Luke 9:23

Thank You Glen for inspiring me to give up he worldly desires I have in my life and just simply live my life for CHRIST. You may have just stirred up the world with your decision but I PROMISE you are stirring up some HEARTS for the KINGDOM...and that's what it is all about!!

Glen Coffee chose FAITH over FOOTBALL. WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO GIVE UP FOR CHRIST?
HE GAVE EVERYTHING FOR YOU

He Will Never Leave Me Nor Forsake Me

We live in a world where it seems like Perfect is what people expect. Well I am not crazy enough to believe that anyone is perfect nor will I ever be. Even though I know this I am still struggling with letting go of trying to be that way. Don't get me wrong I will always try my hardest to be MY personal best. More than anything I will try to be perfect according to God's way. However, I am currently struggling with the "Why Am I Not Good Enough" syndrome. It ranges from why can't I do this right, why is this not enough, and what am I not doing right? As I have shed some tears over the issue today, I still came up with no answers. I know it is Satan trying to attack and he is using my insecurities to get me. When I got home tonight I turned on my itunes and the first song that played was one that starts out with this line " So I'm Going To Believe HIM When He Tells Me That I'll Never Stop Loving You" There it is my answer....He will ALWAYS LOVE ME...He will always think I am enough, He will always SHOW ME the right way, and he will let me know when I am not doing things the way HE had intended for me to do them. With all this said I am going to pray that Satan stop attacking me with insecurities that MY FATHER has already defeated him and taken away from me. What an AMAZING feeling...He WILL NEVER STOP LOVING ME!!

Blessed

I could title every blog BLESSED because I am, far more than I deserve. However, there are little moments that make all of us realize more and more just how BLESSED we are. Last night was the last night of our Bible Study. I debated even going because work has been killing me but I knew if I did not go I would be so disappointed with myself. We ended up eating dinner and just sitting around an Olive Garden table talking. I love my Bible Study girls and I am so thankful to have been a part of such a great group of ladies. The one thing from the whole night that stuck out to me was my friendship with Amy.

As many of you know Amy and I met in the dorm our Freshman year at BAMA. We have remained friends and have lived together going on 3 years now. We are really hoping our future husbands come along soon so we are still not living together when we are 30 ...however at this point its not looking so bright haha!

Amy is my Best Friend from college and I am once again so BLESSED to have her as a part of my life. Some of my BEST and Worst days have been spent with her. She knows all of my flaws and still some how loves me. Better than that she cleans up after me and can some how still love me ...ITS GREAT!

The past 2 nights we went out for dinner. Night one was to Wintzell's and I knew before we even sat down that she was going to get 1 of 2 things. The JO Platter her favorite or the Choose 2 and of those 2 options her favorite thing on there are the crab claws and the stuffed crab.

Well the told her they were no longer doing the stuffed crab until things get better in the Gulf. Night two we went to Olive Garden for the Bible Study. I knew she would order "The Tour" as she calls it. (Have ya'll noticed that she is the size of my big toe and orders the BIGGEST thing on every menu...I know gross right) Well what she orders is beside the point. The fact that we know each other that well is what I consider the BIGGEST BLESSING in our friendship.

When someone can know what you are thinking before you say it, when they can order for you if you are in desperate need of running to the bathroom, when they can simultaniously vomit with you, when they know that on the worst day at work all you want in a ICE DREAM CONE from Chick-fil-a to make it all better, when you can go to them and know that they will always have you in their prayer list, but most of all when they can see you at your worst and still think of you at your best ...well thats a BLESSING.

So AMY BYRD.....I think your pretty awesome. I really like that you clean up after me, touch my dirty dishes, you love JESUS with me, I can talk to you about anything, you have learned to stalk amazingly(if that is even a word), you love OPI as much as I do, you have a MN twin, and most of all you let me turn on the AC even though you freeze! Yep your the BEST roommate and friend I could ever ask for.....but most of all you are one of the BIGGEST BLESSINGS the Lord could have ever put in my life! PS the WOODPECKER is HILARIOUS...even if it does drive me crazy!

Love You Leslie

Matters of the Heart

As I mentioned in the last blog I am part of an amazing small group that meets once a week. Well tonight was the night and it was great! My eyes are opened more and more as the weeks go by as to how BLESSED I am to be a part of such an amazing group of women. Being able to pour into each other's lives is such a great feeling. Leaving the ladies tonight my heart was just aching for some of the situations we are all going through. I will never mention the situations but my heart is just hurting for some of these women.

More than anything this group has helped me realize that we need to look at our brothers and sisters in Christ and encourage them. We sometimes just assume everything is going great for everyone. Just because we have on a happy face does not mean that our lives are happy. We need to take time to check on one another and show each other love. Just because we go to Church together does not mean that everything is perfect. PRAYER is the key. God works in mysterious ways and we never know what our prayers could be doing for the people around us.

I also have another situation going on around me that I am really not sure how to handle. This is a FIRST for me because I usually have some sort of a plan for everything. Even if I don't have a plan I can always come up with some words to say. Well right now I have nothing. I have some guys that I KNOW without a doubt God brought into my life through my job. This is one of the many reason that I KNOW God placed me where he did. He knew that he could use me in any area where I can talk to people. Back to the story.....these young men won me over from the start and I knew a great friendship was in the making. Through getting to know them I have found our some things that are very disturbing to me. I obviously told them what I thought about the issue...you all know that, that is how I am. I don't want to push them away but at the same time I am HEARTBROKEN over some of the issues and I feel they need to be addressed.

The whole thing shows me just how much we INFLUENCE others. It makes me think about all the people God has placed in my life and if I did what I was supposed to, to influence them in the best way possible. We are held accountable for those that come in and out of our lives. That is CRAZY when you think about it that God depends on us that much! Just be praying that God guide me in helping these young men find their way back to HIM. Let them be seeing the Lord through me in some way, shape, or form, and not in a way that pushes them away.

I have work in the morning so I need to be going. I also have PINK EYE...pray for that too!