Jesus time...

Time with God has become onw of my favorite things to do...even though I don't spend nearly enough time with my savior as I should!

((warning this is kind of long))

Right now I am studying the book of Ezekiel! I know it seems like such a random book of the Bible to go through, but I wanted to start studying books that I don't know very much about and well Ezekiel seemed like a good place to start! ;)

In case you were wondering Let me tell you it's a pretty awesome book! On the surface it may not seem to be I mean the whole first part is about how God is going to judge and destroy Jerusalum, but you know what? Through the 17 chapters that I have read so far God has taught me so much and it has been so neat to see! I get so excited to read more, because I just can't wait to see what God is going to reveal to me next!

Just read Ch. 16...God is talking about the Faithless Bride.

"When I passed you I saw you in your blood 'Live' I said to you in your blood, 'Live' I made you flourish like a plant of the field and you grew up and became tall." (v.6)
-God has given us everything and has saved our life

"I clothed you...I adorned you...and your beauty was perfected through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord....but you trusted in your beauty"
-we dishonor him and don't follow him like we should

As I was reading through I couldn't help but realize that that's me! I was completely dead in my trespasses, in utter despair and without hope, until God saw me and said 'Live' He saved me and gave me a new life, one full of joy and peace! He brought me from death into life! Yet how often do I forsake my savior? How often do I trust in myself and try to do things on my own instead of clinging to God and seeking His strength and help? I go my own way, I wander and I don't give God the glory and honor that he deserves! I seek man's approval above the Holy God. I don't praise him for all that he has done for me, instead I seek my own glory and honor and try to steal his throne.

It brings me to tears to realize how often I rob God of glory that rightfully belongs to him! Thankfully I serve a gracious, loving, forgiving and merciful God! No matter what I do he still loves me just the same! I mess up....and I'm going to keep making mistakes, but there is hope and forgiveness and he is always there to gently lead and guide me back to himself! So although I may not always love, serve and honor my savior, creator and father like I should....he is full of grace always ready and willing to forgive me and help me! What an amazing God!

"You may think that God is no better than you. In other words, you couldn’t imagine forgiving someone seventy times seven, so you can’t believe that God would. If this is the way you are thinking, then you are believing a lie. God is not like us. His forgiveness is not like ours. Don’t use your own weakness as the standard by which you understand God’s greatness! Just listen as He reveals Himself in His Word."

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:4-7

Grateful...

There is so much that I take for granted and so much that I complain about. But honestly when I really take a look at my life I have SO much to be grateful for and VERY little to complain about. God has blessed me more than I can imagine! So I want to start being more appreciative and thankful for EVERYTHING!

Tonight I am freshly amazed and the friendships that God has given me! God has given me so many amazing friends who love me, encourage me, are crazy with me, make me laugh and most importantly help me grow more like my savior! I cannot express how much I love you all or how grateful I am for the blessing of your friendship. No matter if you live close by or are 400miles away, or whether I see you everyday or we haven't hung out for months, you mean so much to me and I love you and am so grateful for you! God knew exactly what he was doing when he placed each of you in my life! <3 The unity we have in christ simply amazes me!







So grateful for the gift of friendship tonight!

"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!"
Psalm 118:29

Christmas with Unbelievers

Awesome Excerpt from desiringgod.org on sharing the gospel with your family this Christmas:

Christmas with Family Who Don't Know Jesus

"David Mathis recently extracted some practical ideas from the book in connection to all the family gatherings accustomed to the holidays. Here are those ten points again, or in his words, "a few thoughts from a fellow bungler to help us think ahead and pray about how we might grow in being proxies for the gospel, in word and deed, among our families."

1) Pray ahead

Begin praying for your part in gospel advance among extended family several days before gathering. And let’s not just pray for changes in them, but also pray for the needed heart changes in us — whether it’s for love or courage or patience or kindness or fresh hope, or all of the above.

2) Listen and ask questions

Listen, listen, listen. Perhaps more good evangelism than we realize starts not with speaking but with good listening. Getting to know someone well, and specifically applying the gospel to them, is huge in witness. Relationship matters.

Ask questions to draw them out. People like to talk about themselves — and we should capitalize on this. And most people only enjoy talking about themselves for so long. At some point, they’ll ask us questions. And that’s our golden chance to speak, upon request.

One of the best times to tell the gospel with clarity and particularity is when someone has just asked us a question. They want to hear from us. So let’s share ourselves, and Jesus in us. Not artificially, but in genuine answer to their asking about our lives. And remember it’s a conversation. Be careful not to rabbit on for too long, but try to keep a sense of equilibrium in the dialogue.

3) Raise the gospel flag early

Let’s not wait to get to know them “well enough” to start clearly identifying with Jesus. Depending on how extended our family is, or how long it’s been since we married in, they may already plainly know that we are Christians. But if they don’t know that, or don’t know how important Jesus is to our everyday lives, we should realize now that there isn’t any good strategy in being coy about such vital information. It will backfire. Even if we don’t put on the evangelistic full-court press right away (which is not typically advised), wisdom is to identify with Jesus early and often, and articulate the gospel with clarity (and kindness) as soon as possible.

No one’s impressed to discover years into a relationship that we’ve withheld from them the most important things in our lives.

4) Take the long view and cultivate patience

With family especially, we should consider the long arc. Randy Newman is not afraid to say to Christians in general, “You need a longer-term perspective when it comes to family.” Chances are we do. And so he challenges us to think in terms of an alphabet chart, seeing our family members positioned at some point from letters A to Z. These 26 steps/letters along the way from distant unbelief (A) to great nearness to Jesus (Z) and fledgling faith help us remember that evangelism is usually a process, and often a long one.

It is helpful to recognize that not everyone is near the end of the alphabet waiting for our pointed gospel pitch to tip them into the kingdom. Frequently there is much spadework to be done. Without losing the sense of urgency, let’s consider how we can move them a letter, or two or three, at a time and not jerk them toward Z in a way that may actually make them regress.

5) Beware the self-righteous older brother in you

For those who grew up in nonbelieving or in shallow or nominal Christian families, it can be too easy to slide into playing the role of the self-righteous older brother when we return to be around our families. Let’s ask God that he would enable us to speak with humility and patience and grace. Let’s remember that we’re sinners daily in need of his grace, and not gallop through the family gathering on our high horse as if we’ve arrived or just came back from the third heaven. Newman’s advice: “use the pronouns ‘we’ and ‘us’ far more than ‘you’” (65).

6) Tell it slant

Some extended family contexts may be so far from spiritual that we need to till the soil of conversation before making many direct spiritual claims. It’s not that the statements aren’t true or desperately needed, but that our audience may not yet be ready to hear it. The gospel may seem so foreign that wisdom would have us take another approach. One strategy is to “tell it slant,” to borrow from the poem of the same name — to get at the gospel from an angle.

“If your family has a long history of negativity and sarcasm,” writes Newman, “the intermediate step of speaking positively about a good meal or a great film may pave the way for ‘blinding’ talk of God’s grace and mercy” (67). Don’t “blind” them by rushing to say loads more than they’re ready for. As Emily Dickinson says, “The truth must dazzle gradually / Or every man be blind.”

7) Be real about the gospel

As we dialogue with family about the gospel, let’s not default to quoting Bible verses that don’t really answer the questions being asked. Let’s take up the gospel in its accompanying worldview and engage their questions as much as possible in the terms in which they asked them. Newman says, “We need to find ways to articulate the internally consistent logic of the gospel’s claims and not resort to anti-intellectual punch lines like, ‘The Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it.’”

Yes, let’s do quote Bible when appropriate — we are Christians owing ultimately to revelation, not to reason. But let’s not make the Bible into an excuse for not really engaging with their queries in all their difficulty. (And let’s not be afraid to say we don’t know when we don’t!)

8) Consider the conversational context

Context matters. It doesn’t have to be face to face across the table to be significant. “Many people told me their best conversations occurred in a car — where both people faced forward, rather than toward each other,” says Newman. “Perhaps the indirect eye contact posed less of a threat” (91). Maybe even sofas and recliners during a Thanksgiving Day football game, if the volume’s not ridiculous. Be mindful of the context, and seek to make yourself available for conversation while at family gatherings, rather than retreating always into activities or situations that are not conducive to substantive talk.

9) Know your particular family situation.

In some families, the gospel has been spoken time and again in the past to hard hearts, perhaps there has been a lack of grace in the speaking, and what is most needed is some unexpected relational rebuilding. Or maybe you’ve built and built and built the relationship and have never (or only rarely) clearly spoken the message of the gospel.

Let’s think and pray ahead of time as to what the need of hour is in our family, and as the gathering approaches pray toward what little steps we might take. And then let’s trust Jesus to give us the grace our hearts need, whether it’s grace for humbling ourselves enough to connect relationally or whether it’s courage enough to speak with grace and clarity.

10) Be hopeful

God loves to convert the people we think are the least likely. Jesus is able to melt the hardest of hearts. Some who finished their lives among the greatest saints started as the worst of sinners.

Realistically, there could have been some cousin of the apostle Paul sitting around some prayer meeting centuries ago telling his fellow believers, “Hey, would you guys pray for my cousin Saul? I can’t think of anyone more lost. He hunts down followers of The Way and arrests them. Just last week, he was the guy who stood guard over the clothes of the people who killed our brother Stephen.” (53)

With God, all things are possible. Jesus has a history of conquering those most hostile to him. We have great reason to have great hope about gospel advance in our families, despite how dire and dark it may seem.

When We Fail

And when we fail — not if, but when — the place to return is Calvary’s tree. Our solace in failing to adequately share the gospel is the very gospel we seek to share. It is good to ache over our failures to love our families in gospel word and deed. But let’s not miss that as we reflect on our failures, we have all the more reason to marvel at God’s love for us.

Be astonished that his love is so lavish that he does not fail to love us, like we fail to love him and our families, and that he does so despite our recurrent flops in representing him well to our kin."

Quote of the Week....

"realize anew that, just as we must learn to obey God one choice at a time,

we must also learn to trust God one circumstance at a time.

Trusting God is not a matter of my feelings but of my will.

I never feel like trusting God when adversity strikes,

but I can choose to do so even when I don't feel like it. That act of the will, though,

must be based on belief, and belief must be based on truth."

-Jerry Bridges

Thoughts from last night....

God is so amazing! Sometimes I forget that...sometimes I am stupid and try to do things on my own. But why? Last night I was feeling really stressed out and overwhelmed by the amount of things that I needed to get done! When I get like that I usually just need to take a break, so I decided to just go to bed & spend a little time with God (Always a good idea)!

I laid in bed and just spent half an hour praying to God and giving everything over to him and I could just feel the huge burden lifting off of me! I was no longer stressed out, instead I felt relief in trusting God and knowing that he would give me the strength I needed!

Then today was amazing! Don't get me wrong it was still an absolutely CRAZY day, but I wasn't overwhelmed! Somehow I felt peace in the midst of the chaos, something that obviously was a gift from God. He is so faithful he always comes through! why don't I trust my Heavenly Father more readily? Why do I still insist on trying to do everything myself?

I need to learn to surrender to God and give ALL my burdens to Him!

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” [Matthew 11:28-30]

Psalm 103

As Christians we all pray at some time or other....whether its just when we are about to eat, or when there is a crisis, or whether we spend consistent daily prayer time with God, at some point we pray.

Now I'm not going to talk about how we should pray more, because I know we ALL could be in more constant communion with God. However, let me ask you this question. When was the last time you prayed and ONLY praised and thanked God for who he is? When I heard this question I honestly couldn't think of a time. I mean when I pray I usually thank God, but then I also will ask him for things and pray for help and strength etc. Now none of those are bad things and don't get me wrong we should certainly bring those desires and needs to God and seek his help! He wants us to do that. However I feel like often times that's all we do. We pray we want God to do something or when we need help. But our God is also great and GREATLY to be praised! He is holy and majestic and faithful and loving and forgiving! He is so amazing that when we think about God's character we should be in awe and our response should be to praise and thank him for who he his! David does this in Psalm 103

"Bless the Lord O, my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives

all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit,

who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that

your youth is renewed like eagle's. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all

who are oppressed. He made known his ways to moses and his acts to the people

of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding

in steadfast love. He will not always chide , nor will he keep his anger forever.

He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repays us according to our

iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above earth so great is his steadfast love

towards those who fear him. as far as the east is from the west so far does he remove

our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his child, so the

Lord shows compassion to those who fear him." (v.1-13)

As you can see the whole Psalm is dedicated to praising God for who he is. His character and nature. We shouldn't need God to do anything or give us things in order to praise him, instead God's character should simply be enough to make your heart want to praise him! I want to start praising and thanking God more for his absolutely amazing character and nature!

Adventure day

I don't get to spend a lot of time with my little siblings, just cause life is crazy and school and everything keeps me busy, so every once and a while I like to take them on "adventures"

Since it's thanksgiving break and my parents are away I figured this was a good week to plan an adventure day with the kids :)

This adventure started with a gourmet lunch at Boo's favorite place: McDonalds then a dollar store errand, stopping at the mall to visit their favorite stores Claires and Game stop, and of course a mini-photoshoot on our way home and not to mention a crazy dance party in the car! I love them so much! They make me laugh and I love taking a break from the craziness to catch up with my little siblings (who by the way are growing up wayyyy too fast!) :)

They're a little crazy :P

The power of $1

A dollar bill is the smallest piece of paper money, for many of us a dollar isn't worth very much and if someone gave you a dollar for a gift, you'd probably wouldn't be too thrilled

The other day I was out with my younger siblings and we saw a homeless man walking along the side of the road, my heart immediately sank...I hate seeing people who are poor, homeless and helpless, but I obviously can't stop in the middle of the road so I kept driving, but then the light turned red. After I stopped I saw the man in the rear view mirror and I got excited I rummaged through my purse until I found a crumpled up dollar....my brother excitedly rolled down the window and started calling for him. I passed my dollar back to him and he gave it to the man and then my youngest brother reached into his pocket and said "Wait wait! I have a dollar for him too!" my heart lept with joy!

The genuine smile on the old mans face as he looked me in the eye and said "thank you, thank you so much! God bless!" was worth any dollar! I know some people don't like giving homeless people money for a variety of reasons, some being that they may not really be homeless or they may just be using the money for drugs or alcohol. But how can you judge the motives of others? I feel like it's not my place to judge whether they really are needy or will use the money on the right things, I pray and hope that they will! However, my job is simply to show them Christ's love!

In the Bible Jesus healed, loved and cared for all sorts of people even those who were deceitful and evil and hated by the world. I feel like Jesus wouldn't discriminate between drug addicts, liars etc. but would still love them all, even if he knew they'd take advantage of his blessings! :)

But besides that, the fact that my little brother was so eager to give of the little money that he has is so precious to me (a dollar is a lot for a little boy)! I pray I can learn to have his generous compassionate heart!

Proverbs 11:24-25 "One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed."

Rain....

For the past 3 days it has been raining here in Maryland!

Most people are complaining about the damp, cold dreary weather, and all the traffic that it causes and how it coops everyone up indoors....but you know what? I may be weird, but I love the rain!

I like to look out the window and

see the raindrops falling from the sky

I like fun colored umbrellas

dancing in the raindrops and splashing in puddles

falling asleep to the sound of raindrops hitting my window

the rainbows that sometimes peek out through the clouds.

Today as I was sitting in Starbucks with my cup of coffee I was thinking about the rain as I looked through the window and it reminded me of God's blessings. When it rains I think of how God is providing for us. Without the rain the plants could not grow, we wouldn't have water or colorful flowers and grass. It reminds me of how God always provides for us even in the little details of life!

‎"And my God WILL supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen."
[Philippians 4:19-20]

But it got me to thinking....just like some people don't always appreciate, enjoy, or see the beauty in the rain drops, could it be that often times we don't enjoy God's blessings? Maybe he answers our prayers, but not in the way that we wanted, so we don't see His hand at work, or we forget to thank him for ALL of the amazing little blessings that he gives to each one of us every day, because there is something that we want, but haven't received yet, or we simply let his blessings be overshadowed by cares of life.

I don’t know about you, but I want to work on being more grateful for God’s blessings and seeking to enjoy all the ways that he provides for me and answers my prayers (Even if it’s not in the way that I wanted).

“Thou hast given so much to me, Give one thing more, -a grateful heart;

Not thankful when it pleaseth me, As if Thy blessings had spare days,

But such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise."

-George Herbert

November :)

WOW it's almost been a month since I last posted!
I've been doing such a bad job at keeping up with this blog!

(hopefully I'll start getting better)

Since I've last posted I've been busy with school, finishing my last volleyball season :(, drama, babysitting, youthgroup, college applications and visits and the highlight of the month my ministry team reunion!

Senior night!

youthgroup pumpkin carving

college-first acceptance letter!

some of the most amazing girls ever!

That's a snapshot into my life....stay tuned for what God's been so graciously teaching me :)

Besties :)

Soo I took senior pictures for this beautiful girl the other week (you can see some of them here: www.capture-beautyphotography.blogspot.com ) This was a special session for me though, because it was of my bestie (one of my closest friends). I'm SO grateful to God for you Becs! You're such a blessing to me! Thanks for always being there for me, for being crazy with me, encouraging me, praying for me, loving me, giving me massages and doing my nails and going on crazy adventures! & having the same name as me! Let's stay friends for a long, long time okay? I hope you like your pictures and that you have an awesome senior year!

Sunrise

The Heavens declare the glory of God, and the Sky above proclaims his handiwork. Psalm 19:1

"He made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding. Jeremiah 51:15

Praise God for his beautiful creation!

It only happens once a year!

(ignore the bad quality)
I am one very blessed girl! Today is my birthday here's a list of things that made my birthday extra happy! :)

1) i woke up at 12:03 to a birthday text from my big brother!

2) got to spend extra time with God

3) started the morning with a text from my favoritest snaps

4) was greeted at school with a big birthday hug from my sarahbearah

5) opened my locker to find a sweet b-day card

6)tons of birthday texts and wall posts

7) all of my classes were extra short today :P

8) picture day

9) amazing chapel!

10) I got a hug from my sister

11) writing with my favorite pen

12) my mom brought me lunch to school

13) got the bestest balloon

14) only got 1 wrong on my AP U.S chapter

15) got to clean my room

16) family time

17) my marine is home

18) wearing my favorite dress

19) dinner at Unos

20) no math homework

21) it rained ( i love the rain)

God has truly blessed me! I do not deserve it! Today reminded me just how many people love and care for me! I love all of you so much and I have the bestest friends and family! & all the undeserving grace God has poured out on me! God has given me the best birthday present by showing me more of himself. I can't wait to follow God's plan and see what he has in store for me this year! :) Let's get started!

God First!

Wow sorry for the lack of posting! But life has been crazzzy!

Anyways I just wanted to start off by saying that God is SO good and he knows just what we need!

In case any of you didn't know spending time with God is the most important thing you can do in a day, and should be your top priority. However, with so many things crammed into our schedule (school, volleyball, drama, youth group etc), it can be hard to keep it a priority and set aside time to read God's word and pray. These past two weeks have been quite a challenge for me in having my devotions, I would get home at 8pm have lots AND lots of homework to do and then by the time I finish it all I'm exhausted & go to bed. Then I get up, get ready and go to school and the cycle continues. But last night was different, I still got home around 8pm and started my homework & I said that I was going to go upstairs and have my devotions once I finished up all my homework, but then at 11pm I was tired and I still had to study for my AP test...I sat there a minute and I realized what was happening I have been putting my school before God and that is not okay. I decided to go spend time with God instead of studying and then I just reviewed a little in the morning. Spending time with God was exactly what I needed that night and it helped me SO much! I had been so stressed out because I hadn't been relying on God. But the story doesn't end there? Do you know what happened? I took my AP US test at school and I ended up getting the SAME grade on it as I did my last test that I spent an hour studying for! Do you realize how awesome that is? God was showing me that he will bless me when I put him above everything else and that he is really ALL that I need! Now I'm not saying to ignore your homework and spend all night reading the bible (although that would be nice). But God should always be put first and is always more important than school. It's something that I still struggle with, but I think it is awesome how God has such perfect timing and knows exactly what we need to be encouraged and reminded of!

Sorry for the long story, but hopefully it encouraged you! :)

hopefully more posts will be coming soon & pictures too!

random thoughts

Sometimes I sit here and wonder...

Why is it so hard to do the things that are most important? Why is it so hard to do something that I love so much?

I love God's word and digging into it and seeing the new things that he teaches me & the way that it feeds my soul...but why is it so hard for me to find time to read God's word? To just stop in the business of life and seek God and his word! To be in constant communion with my savior.

Why is it that I love God and say that I trust Him above all else...yet when troubles come why is he not the first person that I run to? And why is he not the first person that I praise and thank?

These are questions that I wonder about!

Dear Jesus! Please help me to put you above all else

and to make you the most important thing in my life!

Quote of the Week....

"All who call on God in true faith,
earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard,
and will receive what they have asked and desired,
although not in the hour or in the measure,
or the very thing which they ask.
Yet they WILL obtain something greater
and MORE glorious than they had dared to ask.”

-martin luther

God may not answer us in the exact way that we want...but instead he will answer in a way that is far better than we could

have ever imagined and greater than we could ever comprehend! :) How encouraging is that?

I'm a Senior!

I always love back-to-school shopping! Getting all your notebooks and supplies, color coordinating, getting fun pens & pencils, everything is fresh and new and then you get to organize it all! I just love it, but this year it is different, because this year it is....

The beginning of the End....

Tomorrow marks the first day of school for me, I will be a senior!

This will be my last first day of school!

It's bittersweet, I'm so excited to reach the end of what I've worked so hard for since I was 5yr to graduate high school, but at the same time it's sad knowing that I will be leaving behind so many friends and memories and all that I've known! The fact that next year I will be starting something completely different and this chapter of my life will be over, is so weird to think about . I don't think I can grasp it quite yet. I'm growing up and life is changing. I'm excited for what the future holds, to go out into the world, meet new people and try new things, but I have this one last year here where God has placed me! One last year in my school, one last year with these fellow high school students, one last year to make a difference and leave a lasting impact! Will I waste this year simply longing to graduate and move on? Or will I push hard this year and invest in where God has placed me, looking to love and serve others and share my passion for God with my classmates?

I don't want to spend this year straining to look at what's ahead and longing to move on, instead I want to be content exactly where I am. I want to seek to take every opportunity that God has given me, and glorify him in all that I do!

This is my senior year and by the grace of God I am going to give it everything that I have!

my new verse(s)

Soo the other day I was reading 1 chronicles...and I stumbled upon this little vers:

"Seek the Lord and His Strength.

Seek His presence continually."

-1 Chronicles 16:11

I love this verse cause it sums up, what I need to be doing everyday!

Then I was reading in Psalms a couple weeks later and look what I found:

"Seek the Lord and his strenght.

Seek His presence continually."

-Psalm 105:4

Do you see why I'm so excited? It's the SAME verse :)))) I couldn't believe it! When I found it again that's when I knew I had picked the right verse for this school year! & I like to think that it's extra spiritual since it's in the Bible twice hehe (just kidding) :P but yep...I just thought that it was really neat and really shows how the Bible is so connected! Sometimes I just get so excited about God's word! I love it every time I open God's word i find something new!

Psalm 40

"None can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them yet they are more than can be told...I have told the glad news..I have not restrained my lips..I have not hidden your deliverance with my heart, I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your faithfulness from the congregation." (psalm 40:5,9,10)

I need to live more like David did. Too often I do not proclaim or tell others of the amazing things that GOd is doing in my life. I hide the truth of the gospel and instead of rejoicing and telling others of God's amazing love I hide it and keep it to myself. Why do I not go around praising God, proclaiming his wondrous deeds and telling others about the amazing gift of the gospel? I am so selfish. I am more concerned with what others will think of me and of my own comfort, then I am about sharing the amazing gift that I have and helping others to receive it! My hands are full of the wonderful things that the Lord has done for me and I will share it with the world!

My Father

God is MY father! That fact never ceases to amaze me, and out of all of the many amazing characteristics of God, this is most definitely one of my favorites.

The God of the universe cares for, loves, leads, protects, provides and comforts me! Just stop and think about that for a minute! The one who made the heavens and the earth from dust, cares about a little unimportant person like me! Wow!

As I was lying in bed last night trying to fall asleep, I was snuggling with my stuffed animal (yes I do still sleep with stuffed animals), and then I began to think about the fact that while I am lying in my bed God my heavenly father is holding me in His arms. He is holding me tight and close to himself and he will NEVER ever let me go! He is wrapping me in his peace and comfort...I laid there in my father's arms talking to my daddy and whispering into His ears the things of my heart. Oh what a comforting and amazing way to fall asleep, being held and comforted by my Heavenly Father as he holds me in his arms and as I pour out my heart to Him.

"You will be safe in his arms

you will be safe in his arms

the hands that hold the world

are holding your heart

when everything is falling apart

you will be safe in his arms"

It's all in the name

So last week I decided that I wanted to make a blog to write down stories from my life, random thoughts and mediations, things God has been teaching me and pictures from my adventures...just a place where I could put down and record both the crazy and the simply everyday things of my life...and how God is working through it all. Sounds like a great idea right? well my dilemma was what to name my blog...

I honestly couldn't think of anything...

I didn't just want a cute little name I wanted something that actually had a meaning.

So I thought about my life and words that describe it and I came to the words

Strive--to make strenuous efforts toward any goal, to exhort oneself vigorously

Steadfast-- firm in purpose, resolution, faith, attachment; unwavering, steadily directed

I thought these two words together were perfect, because for the rest of my life I want to be striving towards becoming more like christ, being steadfast in my faith and trusting God completely in everything, without wavering! I will never stop needing to strive, because here on this earth I will never completely reach my goal...

So that my friends is the story of how this blog got the name: Striving to be Steadfast

So come join me on this adventure of mine where I strive to glorify God in this crazy thing called life!