Time for a coffee break.

Take your coffee with a side of good reading, why don’t you? In these random coffee break blogs you’ll find some quotes, links to other blogs, or Q&As with other people, starting with this one.

Meet My Best Friend

World, meet Haley. She is my other half, the one with whom I share everything (including a love of writing, Gilmore Girls, Jane Austen, British period films, traveling and queso), and my fellow over-thinker.

Also, today is her 23rd birthday. Eeee! *throws confetti*

Is it possible for someone to be your exact opposite but your identical at the same time? Because that’s our friendship to a T.

Haley is a learner, a dreamer, and a doer. She is intelligent and giving and hilarious and wonderful and so worth knowing. Get to know her more in the following Q&A.

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What’s your story of coming to Christ/how has God changed your life?

I came to Christ when I was very young and confirmed in the Methodist church when I was 11. It was there that my faith began to grow, but it didn’t become real to me until my junior year of high school when I was involved in a bus accident with my church’s youth group. Faith became so clear to me; for the first time in my life I relied entirely on the Lord to help me through PTSD and eventually helped me get behind the wheel. Throughout college, I kept a surface level understanding and relationship with Jesus. It wasn’t until my first year of graduate school that the Lord rocked my world and exposed me to my sin and love for people. From that, God’s given me a passion for women and their ministry, college students, and the cities of Chicago and Lexington. Do I have any idea how all of those things are going to work together? Nope!

 

If you could tell the world one thing, what would you say?

Wow, this is a good question. I guess I would tell them the Good News that saves us and that is the Good News of Jesus Christ. I’d probably also tell them I love them.

 

What’s God burning on your heart right now?

This changes from day to day. I’d say the most consistent is a love for college students and women in the church. I’m excited about what God’s doing in and around my city (Lexington, Kentucky) with these two groups. I also have a deep passion for those who have been sold into sex and human slavery. These are crimes against humanity that should not exist in a 2015 world.

 

 

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

When I was younger, my mom always told me one thing: stay true to yourself. That translated across so many issues and situations. I was raised a Christian, so remaining true to myself meant to eventually look at to Whom I belonged. When faced with a difficult situation still today, I remember this and try and filter my decisions through that lens.

 

Who do you look up to and why?

Oh my word, so many people.

• My mom for her love for (literally) everyone and her general joy.
• My dad for his strength and hard work.
• Both of my grandmothers, who are both strong, hard working women of faith.
• My late grandfather who taught me so much about the Lord in his time on earth.
• Both of my sisters, one for her strong will and stubbornness to create good around her, the other for feeling things so deeply and her heart for her peers.
• My best friend Sophie, for her gift of affirmation and encouragement and her love for everyone to ever live, even when I want to punch her for loving me by waking me up at 6 a.m.

 

 

What impact do you hope to have on the world?

I want my work here to be work that matters. I suppose the ultimate impact I would want to have is on people. Relationships are the only things that last in this world after we’ve gone to meet Jesus. I want my impact to be on people, living life with them and loving them the best I can.

 

Describe yourself in one word.

Emotional.

 

Do you have a life verse or quote?

I don’t think I have a life verse or quote, but I pray Psalm 67 almost every week.

 

 

If you could tell Christian males one thing, what would it be?

Be open with us ladies! Also, thanks for always smelling good.

 

If you could tell Christian females one thing, what would it be?

Your identity lies squarely in Jesus Christ and nowhere else. Please don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Your identity doesn’t lie in your dress size, the price of your car, what your peers or family says to you, the way that boy talks to you. Your identity lies in Jesus Christ; when the Lord looks at you, He sees perfection, because He sees His Son. Rest in this. You are valuable and worthy of love.

 

 

Favorite memory with Sophie?

My favorite memory with Sophie. My, how will I decide? My first memory with Sophie was in the newsroom at our campus’s paper where we both worked. Our conversation escalated from caramel apple suckers to High School Musical Ryan and Sharpay vocal warm ups. That will forever be a memory I treasure. Another favorite is a weekend we spent in Paducah, watching movies and writing. Also, one time with an Ale 8 and driving on the highway.

 

Top five favorite books?

Pride and Prejudice
Esther
For the Love
Still Alice
All of the Harry Potter series

 

Top three favorite blogs?

Sophie McDonald’s (I’m not just sucking up!)
Anything Jen Wilkin ever writes
I also read a lot of TGC

 

 

Your top three go-to movies?

Far from the Madding Crowd
Pride and Prejudice
Any rom-com, really.

 

All-time favorite song?

How Great Thou Art and really anything Top 40 (Jen Hatmaker and I share this. We’re basically best friends)

 

Current favorite song?

Adele’s Hello and Ben Rector’s entire Brand New album

 

Favorite sound?

My parents and sisters all talking at once over dinner.

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Keep following this gem on her beautiful and thought-provoking (and sometimes hilarious) blog.