I was getting ready to write a blog post about this season of preparation before this mission trip, and I wanted to base it on scripture. So I asked God to lead me to a verse, and I randomly opened my Bible to 1 Kings 5. At first, I almost wanted to keep flipping through the pages, I wondered why God had led me there. But as I was reading and following along with a commentary, something in verse 17 stood out. 

Solomon was building a temple for the Lord, and he commanded that the foundation of the temple be built with quality, costly stones. He could have used stones of a lesser cost, that would be just enough to hold the temple up. He could have chosen to save that money for the rest of the temple, the parts that people would see, but he chose to give God his best in every aspect of it. It reminded me of 1 Samuel 16:7 "man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." God sees each stone laid in the foundation of our hearts, even if people don't. 

This is such a small detail in this scripture, but God used it to reveal the way I should be preparing in this season. God calls me to prepare my heart, to intentionally build that foundation upon His word, and seek Him. This season of preparation isn't just about fundraising or figuring out what I'm going to pack, but preparing my heart to go on mission for Him. Because on the outside, I could write the most beautiful posts and say all the right things to lead people to donate, but if I'm not genuinely and earnestly seeking Him, it all means nothing. My heart needs to be set on the Lord.

In this season of preparation, I'm seeking to glorify God and grow in intimacy with Him. I'm allowing Him to expose all of the things in my life that take His place on the throne of my heart and working on choosing Him above it all. I'm choosing to trust Him with all the unknowns and leaning into total reliance on Him. Trusting that His plans will prevail, and that His plans are so much better than my own desires :)