Imagine the prettiest sunrise you’ve ever seen. You can picture it in your mind because it was so beautiful. A sunrise like that lights up the whole sky, and makes it almost every color of the rainbow. You never thought that the sky could be that beautiful color of pink, orange, or even purple. I saw one of these the other day and looking at it made me thank God for how beautiful it was. I mean how many of those do you see in a lifetime? If we actually took the time to stop and pay attention the number would probably escalate drastically. It’s hard to just stop your life and pay attention to the little things. The things that we should be thanking Him for every day.

Canvas Church, the church I attend, has just ended a two week fast, and I feel so much closer to God because of it. I think one of the many things that I was supposed to look at during this fast was how much closer I have become with Him during the last year. I am such a different person than I was. Better, happier, NEW. “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”      (2 Cor 5:17)

It’s amazing how things work out. I am starting this new chapter in my life, and now I get to work for a house on top of it! I cannot stop attesting to how incredible the Habitat for Humanity organization is. I started working construction a few Saturdays ago. It just warms my heart knowing that I am helping someone else reach their goal while I am working on mine. I am volunteering to work on my sweat equity hours, but at the same time I am helping put other people’s houses together. And these people will be my neighbors eventually. Can you imagine what kind of community that builds? To know that the people living next to you helped build your house with their own two hands.

And the volunteers are wonderful too. A lot of them are retired, and have been for years. They either help nearly every week, or every time they are doing a project (such as siding.) The hours of work they do just to help are astonishing. They make all of this possible, and I could not possibly thank them enough. I love asking them a lot of questions so I can find out how they started volunteering for Habitat, and other things like what occupation they retired from.

The most emotional thing I have seen yet has to be the two home dedications that I attended yesterday. I loved being able to see two families receive their beautiful homes. It also made the experience very real. That is going to be me one day soon! The two families were just so thankful and happy. And it all goes back to starting a new life. As the executive director Shauna said during the dedications, this is a new life for both of these families. A new sunrise in their lives.