You Have Me

Out on the farthest edgeThere in the silenceYou were there

My faith was torn to shredsHeart in the balanceAnd You were there

Always faithful, always goodYou still have meYou still have my heart

I thought I had seen the endEverything brokenBut You were there

I've wandered at heaven's gatesI've made my bed in hellYou were there still

Always faithful, always goodYou still have meYou still have my heartYou have me, You have meYou have my heart completely


Refreshed


Have you ever had those days and even weeks where you just feel so far away from God? Where you feel weighed down and overwhelmed by the world? Where the closeness of God and his peace are the last things that you feel? But then when I'm at my lowest point where I want to cry and can't go on anymore, when God points me back to himself and gives me the boost that I need. God never ceases to amaze me and show up. Today was no exception. God placed a friend in my life who noticed that I wasn't doing well and took the time to take me on a walk and she just listened as I poured out my heart and struggles to her.  Then later at night we had an impromptu Jesus talk and ended up walking to a lake and it was dark and foggy, but it was gorgeous with the lights beaming through the fog and the trees and we just stood there and admired God’s glory and majesty and I could just feel his peace overwhelming me and his presence was just so tangible I could feel it. We just stood out there admiring God and his beauty and singing songs and praise and worship to our creator. It was simply amazing! One of the best nights that I have ever had at college by far, just being able to let everything go and focus solely on God and take time just to sit in his presence and be encouraged it was so refreshing and amazing. I love it and I am so grateful for the amazing friends that God has placed in my life and for all the ways that they encourage me and point me back to my savior. I just want more of God and more of his greatness and love and presence in my life. I want to be filled with him, and I don’t just want it to be a Jesus high moment, I want it to be a way of life where I am constantly living passionately and in reckless abandon for my savior and loving him and feeling his presence. God knew exactly what I needed tonight and he showed me his love and care for me in a very tangible way through all the amazing friends he has brought into my life. My heart is full of gratitude and full of contentment and happiness as I sit in his presence and remember how awesome my God truly is! He is all I need! 

 "Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth. Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the LORD Himself is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the LORD is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations."
Psalm 100:1-5

It's November, which means that it's gratefulness month! 
Today i'm super grateful for my Jazzers! 
My crazy little drool monster!
This little guy makes my day everyday! 
Love seeing his smile and big eyes! 
Can't wait to snuggle with him in 2 weeks!  





3 months later....

Soo...no one in the world probably still even looks at this blog, and for a good reason it's been months since i've even posted on here, but that's okay this blog isn't about other people it's really for me.



To document my life and watch the ways that God is working in and through me.
To remember the simple, little details that bring me joy
To see how things change and yet how they are the same all at once
To watch myself grow, mature and become the person God created me to be
To watch my dreams unfold before my eyes
To capture the moments of my life that make me smile, cry and laugh
To remember my family and friends
To freeze moments of my life

So for now here's a little update on my life :)

I have been a college student for 8 weeks now, and it has been a crazy 8 weeks! I LOVE it here, the amount of friends I've made here is ridiculous and it's overwhelming how much they love and care about me. Classes are crazy, but so good at the same time. I learn so much everyday, there are always new things to wrap my mind around and of course boatloads of homework to do every night, and as much as I hate it, it's soo worth it! I love that I get the opportunity to tutor kids and help them to succeed, that Thursdays are tator tot day! best day of the week. How beautiful the campus is in the fall. The peaceful fountains. Walking to classes and being able to say "hi" to half the people I walk by. Having the opportunity to meet new people everyday and spend time with your friends 24/7. Learning to schedule and organize and keep yourself on track. Having fun being apart of dance, LSO, RHA and especially CRU. Yesss these first 8 weeks have seriously flown by! I cannot believe that my first semester of college is almost over, and as much as I complain about the workload, the late nights, little sleep, gross cafeteria food, long lines, annoying professors etc.....I wouldn't trade it for the world. The good far outweighs the bad and tonight I'm just grateful that I get to have such a wonderful oppertunity and experience and that I get to spend the next 4 years of my life with my CapFamily at Capital University.

Desires of your Heart


"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of  your heart." Psalm 37:4

I used to think that this verse meant that if I was a "good girl" and followed God and obeyed his commandments and spent time with him, then he would give me everything that I wanted.
He would give me my hopes and dreams and desires, and allow them to become a reality.
But you know what? I've come to realize that I was wrong. I've realized that it's not about
God making my dreams come true, but instead it is about God changing my heart and
turning my dreams into HIS dreams for my life. & that makes me so excited!
I'm excited for God to take my heart and desires and turn them into his and to make
my heart completely his.....it's not going to happen over night. It's going to be
a lifelong process of learning to seek and follow God and watching him transform
my dreams & heart, but I simply cannot wait, because God's plans are always WAY better
than mine!    :)  


Quick Post

Sometimes life gets busy....and posting gets shoved to the back of the to-do list. So for now here's a quote that I've been loving lately!

""What gives me the most hope every day is God’s grace; knowing that his grace is going to give me the strength for whatever I face, knowing that nothing is a surprise to God."




& we got to spend the past weekend watching our friends 4 little kids!   Me & my Oliver :) Isn't he such a cutie?

God in the Everyday

Recently I've been learning to see God in the everyday moments of my life, because he's there, but too often I miss him! However, the other day God really blessed and provided for me in a small, but meaningful way. I broke my iPod touch  (dropped it on the driveway and the screen cracked). So i obviously needed a new one unless I wanted to be constantly cutting my finger on glass, but with getting ready for college I don't really have the money to buy a new i-pod....so i was looking at used ones online and I found a couple that I liked, they are still a little expensive, but I had enough extra graduation money to make it work. But then I noticed that people were selling iPods with cracked screens as well! I thought hmm....maybe i'll sell my old iPod so that I can get a new iPod. So I put mine up for sale and within 4hours it had SOLD! It was crazy! I got almost enough money from my broken iPod to buy a new one! :) AND on top of that, the same night I was able to buy a new iPod and it was even in the color that I had wanted (the new white iPod touch)! It was so neat to see how God provided for me in such a little way. To see how he cares about the little cares and desires of our hearts and how he seeks to bless us! I want to learn to continue to see God in little moments like these and be grateful and amazed and I watch him provide for and bless me! God is so good and too often I neglect to see how he is working in my life! So grateful for a God who not only cares about the big important things of my life, but also the little insignificant ones like an iPod.


Importance of Christ's Life


“For by the on man’s disobedience the many were made sinners. So by one man’s obedience…many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:19
Christ’s perfect life and obedience was important. His obedience included a life in which he obeyed God’s law in all things at all times. Every day was perfect. Our savior lived in perfect alignment with God’s will and law.
Jerry Bridges says it well:
“For the most part Jesus’s life of perfect obedience has
been seen only as a necessary precondition to his death.
The truth is, however, Jesus not only died for us, He also lived for us.
 That is, all that Christ did both in his life and death,
He did in our place as our substitute.”
We as humans have double guilt. We have the inherited guilt from Adam and then on top of that our own guilt and debt to condemn us. Jesus came and took care of the problem of the debt that we owed.
Even the absence of sin is not a ticket to an audience with God. We need more than a removal of guilt we need a savior who can give us the perfection that we can never attain. An absence of sin seems impressive compared to the dirt in our hearts, but God requires much more than a blank slate, he requires righteousness and perfection.
The death of Christ is what removed our debt and returned us to a balance of zero, while Christ’s obedience is what put unimaginable wealth in our bank account; it is because of Christ’s life and perfect obedience that we are granted perfect righteousness before God
Justification by faith alone means that we’re justified by the works of Christ alone.
So yes we should be very grateful for Christ’s death on the cross, but we need to be just as grateful for his obedient life as well! 

Don't replace God's word

"Absalam stole the hearts of the people of Israel."  2 Samuel 15:6

We need to be careful to guard our hearts and make sure that God is the only one who owns our hearts. It is easy to slowly let other people and books become as important to us as God and the Bible. There are so many amazing christian leaders like John Piper, Francis Chan, Singclair Furgeson, CJ Mahaney, John Piper, Beth Moore, Mark Driscoll etc... the list goes on. These people are a gift from God, and a means of grace, but as awesome as they are we must be careful never to confuse their teachings, doctrines and books with God and his words. I love John Piper and I listen to his messages often and have read many of his books and as helpful and packed full of truth as they are I know that Piper would never want me to confuse his words with God's. We must not let the words of christian leaders become our truth, God's words is the sole basis of truth. These leaders are meant to be catalysts in helping you to think and teaching you, but ultimately they should be pointing you back to God's word and drawing you into the Bible, NEVER replacing it, because once we hold someone's words with the same weight as God's and see them as just as valuable than it is a slippery slope. Listening to God following his word should be of primary importance, not listening to a theologian or learning about their new revelation.Soon that person maybe be the one who is leading your heart instead of God.  just like what happened to the Israelites when Absalom led them astray.


Weekend Quote

"the role of the beauty of the gospel is: to be the object our affections, the purpose of our identity, the reality of our existence, and the joy of our salvation. It draws us in like a beautiful sunset, puts God’s glory on display, and challenges us to realign everything. In discipleship, we are simply pointing people to its beauty, asking them to find happiness there."
Jason Garwood

Lyrics....

Worship music is an amazing gift from God to be able to praise him and enjoying listening to the beauty
of the music as the truth penetrates your heart, but we need to be wary of the lyrics. Just because they are "christian" and the song is being played on a Christian radio station doesn't mean that everything in the song is right. I have a habit of just singing along to songs and not even realizing what I'm saying and then all of sudden I stop and am like "whoa is that really what this song is saying?"

That happened to me the other day except this time it was a Christian song and as the chorus was playing it says "I want to believe, Jesus help me believe that I am someone worth dying for."



I was getting all into the song and then I thought about it for a minute and was like wait a minute! This isn't right. Because you see, I'm not someone worth dying for. I am a wrethced sinner who despised and rejected God and rebelled against him. No matter how hard I try even my best deeds are like filthy fags! I'm selfish and prideful, I want everything to be about me and I want to be the ruler of my life. Does this sound like someone worth dying for? You know what? I'm even way worse then I could even imagine (that's pretty bad). The Bible says that we don't even know the sinfulness of our own hearts. that's how bad it is. If that's the case, I am not even close to being someone "worth dying for"! In fact it's the opposite, I should die!

None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” Romans 3:9-12


But you see this is the whole beauty of the gospel. Because we are so sinful and wicked yet Christ still loved us enough to come and save us. You see if I was "good" and Christ saved me, then it wouldn't be so amazing now would it? Because I would have in a sense deserved Christ's sacrifice. and I would have felt like I had earned it through my "goodness", but because we didn't deserve Christ's sacrafice for us in the least bit that's what makes it so astounding! That is what shows you the depth of his love for you, so no you may not have been worth dying for, but that didn't stop God from lavishing his amazing love and undeserved grace on you! Revel in the beauty of the cross today!

Romans 5:7-8 - For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Grateful for my Life :)

I am blessed beyond measure! I seriously LOVE my life! God is soo good and blesses me in so many ways! This past weekend was such an awesome reminder of this! :)

First off I got to come up and see my favoritest Bekah and be there to celebrate her 18th Birthday! I love this girl so much and am so glad I was able to be there for her special day!



Then I got to meet my roommate! She is simply the bestest! I love her already and can't believe how similar we are it's crazy, we could totally be twins haha! Can't wait to live with you Haley and have tons of adventures with you! :) So grateful God matched us up together, crazy how well it worked out!

Then I got to be with my amazing Amsterz! This girl is simply amazing and I love and appreciate her friendship more then she will ever know! Thanks for keeping in touch with me even though we live so far away from eachother! I love you and I thank God for you! :)  
I also got to see some of my awesome OB girls! Caroline, Emma and Amanda yep
I love you girls & i'm glad that we played cards like old ladies haha :P

Breakfast with the Amsterz and our Katita! 3 hours of amazingness


Last but not least I had the wonderful oppertunity of helping with a artshow to raise money for 
TWLOHA which is an awesome organization that helps teens who struggle with depress, addiction
self-injury and suicide. & I got to meet these awesome people from Amy's church
(UA Grace)

Yes soo this past week was one of lots of laughs, memories and fun! I am so grateful to God for the amazing friendships that he has placed in my life and for allowing me to spend time with some of my favorite people int the world! God is so good to me! He had blessed me beyond measure and I have so much
to be grateful for! 

So that's what I've been up to lately :)

"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and his court with praise.
Be thankful to him and bless his name. For the Lord is good;
his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations."
Psalm 100:4-5

The "Unforgivable" Sin

Do you want your tombstone to say that you were a "good moral human in society?" Or do you want it to say that your life was hard, it was messy, but you spent it loving God and serving others?"


You know the power is out when...

This weekend my family was part of the 2million who lost power due to the crazy storm!

You know you have no power when....

-The basement was full of sleeping supplies (as that was the only place cool enough to be able to sleep in)
-The floor in our living room is covered in cords & plugs as everyone took turns to try and charge their phones, and get some relief with a couple of fans
-You walk out the front door and instead of hearing the sound of birds chirping and kids playing you hear the
rumbling and roaring of generators running
-Everyone goes to bed early since there's not much you can do in the dark
-You have a pile of 30 dead batteries from all the lanterns and flashlights
-everyone crowds around a laptop to watch a movie
-watching the news is exciting to everyone
-getting in the car feels amazing because it actually has AC
-it actually feels better outside because of the breeze then in your house
-you have a bowl of dry cereal for breakfast, because you can't open the fridge to get the milk
-you actually want to take a freezing cold shower, to cool down for even a few minutes
-a minute after you get out of the shower you're already starting to sweat again
-you stop turning light switches on when you go into rooms
-candles & flashlights are your best friends
-you have unexpected family time & get to chill at your brothers house (that's the good part)!

Passing the time by playing a game of monopoly
 Everyone crowded around watching a movie on the laptop
and trying to get some breeze from the fan

But as fun as this weekend's adventure was...I'm VERY grateful that we now have our power back!
Including our wonderful AC! :)))

Wholly


I'm reading through the Bible front-to-back with this awesome 90 day reading plan! So right now I've been reading through the Old Testament, and one of the things that I've noticed while reading was that God didn't just care about whether the people we're following his commands and laws that he gave them, but he cared about how they were obeying. The following verses are an example of this:  






"You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake." Deuteronomy 15:10 


"Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt shall see the land...because they have not wholly followed me." Numbers 32:11


"I will give him this land...because he has wholly followed the Lord." Deuteronomy 1:38


"...you shall be careful to obey them with all your heart and with all your soul." Deuteronomy 26:14


"Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the LORD our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day.” 1 kings 8:61 


God wants us to wholly follow him with our lives.  


Wholly means: 


1. : to the full or entire extent : completely <a wholly owned subsidiary>

2
: to the exclusion of other things : solely <a book dealingwholly with herbs>  (m-w dictionary)

So that means we are to follow God completely and solely. We are not to follow anything in this world, we are simply to run hard after God and fully follow him!  God doesn't want grudging obedience, he wants our hearts  ("obey them with all your heart and your soul). He wants you to let go of the things in this world and to cling to Him! To trust him completely! God wants all of us! He wants us to surrender to him and to joyfully follow him with our lives, because he is worthy of our obedience and honor! 
Lord take my life and let it be, only always for you! I give you all of me, holding nothing back, all my dreams, hopes and desires are all yours! Help me to wholly follow you with my life! I surrender all to you! 



Father's day....

This past weekend was father's day, a time to honor your dads and show them how much you appreciate them! I know lots of girls don't get to be as lucky as me, their dads aren't around or they aren't a loving father to them, but I am so blessed to have been given such an awesome dad who is a daily reminder of my Heavenly Father's unconditional love, and care for me! Who points me back to Christ and who is an example to me of what a godly man should look like! I pray that one day my children will be blessed with a daddy as amazing as mine! 




to learn that when he says it will be okay soon, it will.
who will make sacrifices so she will not have to sacrifice.
to teach her that her value as a person is more than the way she looks.
who will laugh at her at the right times.
who will always have time to give her hugs and kisses.
who does not mind when she steps on his shoes while dancing.
who will always make sure she has a place to come home to.
who will never think she is too old to need him.
to make the family whole and complete.
who will not punish her for her mistakes, but help her learn from them.
to teach her to believe that she deserves to be treated well.
to teach her to accept the differences in others.
to teach her to weigh the consequences of her actions and make decisions accordingly.
so she will know what it is like to be somebody's favorite.
to tell her truthfully that she is the most beautiful of all.
to protect her from scary nighttime creatures.
to answer the questions that keep her awake at night.
to make the complex simple and the painful bearable.
to protect her from thunder and lightning.
to teach her that family is more important than work.
to be the safe spot she can always turn to.
to show her how it feels to be loved unselfishly.
to be the standard against which she will judge all men.
who will influence her life, even when he isn't with her.
to tell her that all is not hopeless, even when she feels it is.
to join her journey when she is too afraid to walk alone.
to make the tough decisions for her until she is able to make them for herself.
so that she will have at least one hero who will not let her down.
to tuck her in at night.
to help her take risks that will build her confidence.
who will let her know that while she may not be the center of someone else's world,
she is the center of his.
to learn what she should expect from her husband.
to teach her what it means to always be there.
to teach her that a man's strength is not the force of his hand or his voice,
but the kindness of his heart.
to teach her to be honest in all her dealings.
to help her try again whenever she fails.
to remind her of what she may not remember.
so that when no one else is there for her, she can close her eyes and see him.
to think highly of her when no one else will.
to hold her as she cries.
to carry her just because she wants to be carried.
who teaches her she is important by stopping what he is doing to watch her.
to remind her of the comfort of being held near and feeling secure.
to teach her to stand up for herself.
who gives her refuge in a home secured with faith.
to show her that true love is unconditional.
to teach her not to let pride get in the way of discovering new things.
to show her all the boys are not like the one who hurt her.
to stand with her on the day she marries the man she hopes will be just like her father.

He is faithful

This morning in my devotions I came across this lovely verse: 

"God is not man, that he should lie,
    or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
    Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?"
                 -Numbers 23:19  

What sweet encouraging words! Think about what this verse is saying...it doesn't just say that God WILL not lie, it says that God CANNOT lie! If God makes a promise he will be faithful to it, he will always keep his word. God never changes his mind or has second thoughts like humans do, when God says something he really truly means it. 

This is a hard concept to grasp when people throw out words so nonchalantly and make promises that they never in tend to keep. They say words simply to gain what they want, without regard for being honest and other people's feelings they completely disregarding the significance of their words. But God is not a human. We need to realize that he is completely different than us, so he does not have any of these faults, he is completely holy. 

God is faithful! He will do what he says, he will follow through with his promises! & you know something else? God's faithfulness can never change! God is unchanging! This verse declares God's immutability: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." 
-Hebrews 13:8

Which means God will always be faithful to you and he will always keep his promises! The truth of this keeps getting better when you take it a step farther and realize that not only is God faithful, but he has the power to keep every single word that he says because he is all-powerful! He not only has the intentions of keeping his words and doing what he says, but he has the ability to as well!

So why would you not trust God, the creator of the universe who has always been faithful and has kept every single one of this promises? God will not lie or change his mind, when he speaks he will fulfill it. When he declares, he will act.

Encouragement

God never ceases to amaze me with the way that he does simply little things to encourage me!

One of the gifts that God has given me is encouragement, he's just really given me a heart that sees the growth in people and the good in them and so it's been awesome to use verses that God lays on my heart to write people encouragement notes! It's one of my favorite things to do! :)

"We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement;"  Romans 12:6-7


But even though I love to encourage and lift-up other people especially when I know they are struggling, going through a hard time or when it's completely out of the blue, sometimes i get discouraged by it. Because you see when you give someone an encouragement letter you don't get to see the effect that it has one others or how it lifted their spirits. You don't get to see the results of it.....so sometimes I forget what an impact taking the time to write out a quick note can have.

But yesterday, a parent of one of my friends was talking to me at my party and just thanking me for the note that I wrote their son and just telling me what an impact that had on him and how he was so encouraged by it! Just hearing that comment made my day, because it reminded me of why I love writing notes to people so much! It was the boost I needed to continue seeking to grow and be a good steward of the gift that God has given me.There is nothing better then encouraging other's in their walk with God and helping to remind them of truth! So grateful that God continues to use me in this way!

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.  1 Thessalonians 5:11


My crazy life!

So the reason that I haven't posted recently is because last weekend was graduation for me full of
senior breakfast, baccalaureate service, tons of graduation parties, senior class get togethers and then finally
on Monday GRADUATION! Ahh simply crazy! Senior year really flew by, can't believe that's it's over! Really going to miss my class, but I'm excited for the future!

That takes me to the next part of my week, I had summer orientation on Wednesday at my college! I'll admit I was a little nervous, but once I got there it was great! We got to meet tons of awesome people and I had the best group (#1) and got to make friends with some of the awesome people who are going to be my classmates at Capital! I also got to meet my roommate for the first time too! Yay! :)


All this to say life has been moving at a pretty fast pace lately! I'm glad I get to slow down (at least for a little bit) to enjoy a couple weeks of summer before the craziness begins again, but I honestly wouldn't have it any other way! I love my life and I am one blessed girl!

Meekness

So at my high school awards ceremony I received the Outstanding Character Award and part of the definition for it is "showing meekness before God" I read that and I was like what in the world does meekness mean? So I figured since my school feels like i'm "meek" I should find out what that means. 


Soo I went to my favorite dictionary  m-w.com and this is the definition that I received: 
 enduring injury with patience and without resentment : mild  deficient in spirit and courage : submissive not violent or strong : moderate 

I'll admit when I first read the word meekness and looked at the definition I wasn't sure what to think, but I didn't feel like being called meek was a compliment, I felt like it was saying that I was weak. 

Then I realized, meekness is a fruit of the spirit so it must be a good thing that God wants us to cultivate. God also says "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. (matthew 5:5)" so obviously it's a good thing and something that I should strive to be.  SO what does it really mean to be meek? What does it look like to live that out in your life? These are the questions that I've been pondering and digging into God's word to try and figure out. I don't have it all together, but here are the thoughts that I have read and come up with:

-Prautes, according to Aristotle, is the middle standing between two extremes, getting angry without reason, and not getting angry at all. Therefore, prautes is getting angry at the right time, in the right measure, and for the right reason. . . . [I]t is a condition of mind and heart which demonstrates gentleness, not in weakness, but in power. It is a balance born in strength of character. 

-A meek person has a tender conscious with a godly sorrow for their rebellion against God 

- resistance to evil in defense of God yet they react with patience, kindness and gentleness when others attack him.

-A willingness to bend their will to God's 

-Opposed to pride and arrogance 

- A willingness to put himself in second place and submit himself to achieve what is good for others.

Examples of Meekness in the Bible: 

A. Abraham. 
1. He was God’s chosen to be the father of the Jewish nation. Through him the Messiah would come. But he was also meek.
2. Instead of demanding his own rights, Abraham sought to keep the peace between his herdsmen and Lot’s. 

B. David.
1. He was God’s chosen to replace King Saul, whom God had rejected because of disobedience. He was a mighty warrior and a great leader. But David was also meek.
2. Look at how he mourned the death of Saul, who had sought repeatedly to kill him

 Meekness may appear to men as weak, but in spiritual reality it has great strength. 

Okay this blog post has kind of been all over the place, but that's because I'm still trying to wrap my mind around what it means to be truly meek I still have so much to learn.  But I'll end with this really good quote by A.W. Tozer that was really helpful to me!

"The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God's estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything. That is his motto."


Senior 2012



I'm Offically finished with high school! Ahh! Soo crazzy!

It's definitely a bittersweet thing, but I know that God has some
awesome things in store for my future and I am so excited
to see what they are! I'm definitely gonna miss my school and
all of my amazing classmates though, you guys have given me so
many amazing memories thanks for helping me to get through 
high school and for all of the laughter, encouragement and fun!
You all are the best and I'm gonna miss you New Life class of 2012! 

High school is now behind me, and a new chapter of my life is 
opening up. It's time to begin writing the pages of this new story. 
Except I'm gonna hand the pen over to God this time, because I want him
to be the author of my life and the one who leads me on this unknown
adventure. Cause he knows whats best for me, and he's the one who
 is going to give me the strength and grace to accomplish the good
 works that he has planned for me!

Everyday Moments

Sunday afternoon we came home from church and the whole family was home (a rare occurance with our crazy schedules). We simply hung out, snacked on our favorite afternoon snack  chips & salsa, talked, joked around had fun making up plans for our futures, watched basketball and simply enjoyed eachothers company and being together. I made delicious strawberry banana smoothies for everyone and we fellowshiped and lingered around the kitchen counter. These are the little everyday moments that I don't want to take for granted and I don't want to forget. I have such an amazing family and such an awesome life! I am one blessed girl and I don't ever want to take these simple moments for granted! I love spending time with my family and as I think about the fact that I will be leaving soon to go off to college it makes these afternoons even more dear to my heart! Real, Simple, Spontaneous moments of life yes those are my favorite! Thanking God for precious moments and memories and for my amazing family!

Insanity Turned into Peace

Soo these past two weeks have been complete chaos!
Literally I've been treading water trying to stay on top of everything and trying to keep a good attitude throught it all, and I'm not gonna lie it was hard! It was hard to smile and be joyful when all I felt was pressure, stress and burdens.
To not complain when it seemed like everyday the teachers just kept pilling even more homework onto my already unreasonable load.
To put God first above everything even when I felt like I had no time to spare for God, there was too much to do and i was gonna have to stay up half the night just to get it all done.
To stop to enjoy my friendships & the beautiful moments of life even when my head was swirling. (it was hard not to ignore my friends when my to-do list was ten feet long)
To trust God that he would give me the strength to complete everything
To see that the end was near and there was light at the tunnel.

Yes all of these things were VERY hard to do! When you in the middle of a trial or overwhelming situation it's hard to look up, out! It's so easy to get caught up in yourself, and to start to throw yourself a little pity party. To sit there and sulk, to complain about all the homework, to complain to your friends about how much you have to do and how unreasonable people are being, to get frustrated with people who are not doing what you want! and quiet frankly its easiest to simply give up and despair.

But that was my problem, I was getting so self-absorbed. I was completely self-focused and ONLY thinking about me! I started to ignore my friends, to push God to the side, and only care about myself!

As much as I hate to admit messing up like that, that's how I learned and how God taught me.

He showed me that it's not all about me (shocking I know)! That my friends were in the same boat as me and instead of tearing them down and tempting them to join in my complaining/selfish/pityparty I needed to look to see how I could encourage and help them instead! To uplift them and help to brighten their day and show them God's love when they needed it!

I also realized that even the most mundane task like taking a quiz is something that God has given me to do, and everything he has given me to do is important. I need to work hard and pursue excellence and do everything for God's glory, to do my best to bring him honor and praise!

I also learned that God pours out so much grace and strength on us! Seeing all that God has allowed me to accomplish and get done even when I was freaking out about it all, is so amazing and I know it is only because of his strength, because on my own I couldn't have done it! This verse has really come alive to me!

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weakness, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ then I am content with insult, hardship, persecutions, calamities, for when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Sometimes this mess in life is the gift that God uses to bring me closer to him. He is enough for me and during these crazy days it is God alone who carries me, and because he carries me alone, only he can receive he glory and all my praise and thankfulness! Today I know deep down that the hard seasons don't minimize God, but they magnify His goodness. Here is where I learn to know Him more.

Crazy Life

The posting on here will be slow for a while, this next week in a half is complete insanity for me! So much stuff to do for graduation, AP exams to study for and a 10 page research paper to research and write! Not to mention soccer, youthgroup, work and prom! needless to say I won't have a life so things will be kind of slow on the blog for a while.....

Gotta finish my senior year strong! Colossians 3:23

and now i'm back to researching
pic.twitter.com/Mrkt9SuB

Guatemala

Guatemala....I've been thinking about this post for a while and I just haven't been able to sit down and write it, because there is just so much in my head! So I decided to try and give you a peak into my missions trip with a summary of what we did.

We went to the mission Hope of Life in Llano Verde Guatemala. Immediately I fell in love with their ministry that they have there and all the amazing ways in which they are serving the people in need! All of the staff was amazing they welcomed us with open arms and made us feel at home, the food there was DELICIOUS! We looked forward to the meals everyday because it was just so yummy and the fresh juice was amazing! :) My favorite part was all of the hammocks that they had everywhere made for a great way to relax and perfect place to spend time with God! While being down there it was so awesome to be able to speak in Spanish and interact with the people there. So glad that God helped me to recall my Spanish (I guess those 4 years of classes really did pay off).





The mission has an orphanage where they care for many children, a nutrition center, elderly home, and a school. While we were there we were able to help with building the hospital there, which was hard work, but it was so neat to be apart of such an awesome project that is going to help save so many lives!




There were so many awesome experiences we had, one day we got to go to the dump (which was literally a dump as you'll see below) and we got to do a feeding their and just share God's love with people living in complete destitute. It was definitely a rude awakening to realize how blessed I am and how much I take for granted. I was complaining about a few burns on my hand (that I got from the soup we were distributing) and then it hit me, why am I complaining about such a tiny thing, when these people have nothing and yet they are still full of joy. Made me want to stop focusing on myself and start looking outward. Somehow these people have hope in the midst of awful circumstances and it's an amazing thing.




We also got the privilege of going to a new village called Oasis, Hope of Life had never been there before so we got to be the first to go there and bring bags of food for all the families and it was amazing to see how grateful they were for the little that we were doing and to see how such a small thing like a bag of food could bring them so much hope! I was able to have a conversation with the leader of the village, it was a little choppy since it was in Spanish, but it was so neat to hear his gratitude as he explained to me details about the village and to share with him the joy that God has given me!
                          

Okkay well those were the main things that we did :)  Stay tuned for my next Guatemala post where I will talk about my two favorite parts of the trip  the Spanish Church and Nutrition Center! Thanks for all your prayers and support!

I'm back!

I am back from Guatemala safe and sound! :)

Although it's bittersweet, because I wish I was back there! I loved every minute of it!

This is a quick post, because I'm crazy busy catching up on stuff right now, but I can't wait to post about all the amazing things that God did while I was gone!

GUATEMALA!

This blog will be quite for a while, because in about 4 hours I will be heading to Guatemala!
AHHH sooo exciting!

I have the great oppertunity to go with many other seniors from my school and work with the Hope of Life ministry down in Llana Verde :)

I'm so excited to see a new, culture and be able to serve God and share the love of Jesus! I cannot wait to see all of the amazingly awesome things that God is going to do while we are down there! I am ready for him to blow me away and I can't wait to see what he's going to teach me and them mighty ways that he is going to work in!

Please be praying for me and my team! :) If you want to follow my trip here's our blog

www.seniorsinguatemala2012.blogspot.com

See you in 9 days :) Adios!

Memories


Memories--Recollection, recalling events and moments, remembrance

Memories are such an interesting thing. Remembering joyful memories of the past makes me happy , thinking about funny moments make me laugh, recalling God work in amazing ways strengthens my faith, remembering the moments of tears makes me sad.

It is amazing how many emotions can be brought about by simply remembering the past. I believe God has given us memories for many reasons


-God wants us to remember where we have come from and to see how far God has brought us.To encourage us by seeing the growth and change that has happened.
-He wants us to see that he delights to bring us blessings and joy through friendships and fun times. To remember the laughter in the days of saddness.

-God wants to show us his faithfulness and how he has provided for us in the past, to increase our faith for the future by seeing how God has answered us in the past. Remember his faithfulness to us, gives us faith for the future.

-Memories also keep us humble, increase our faith and encourage our hearts, bring smiles to our faces, give hope for the future and help to teach us lessons and reveal more of God's amazing character to us.


*Genesis 9:16-- remember God's promise
*1 Chronicles 16:5-- remember God's wonders
*Ecclesiastes 12:1-- remember your Creator
*Luke 22:19--communion is for us to remember what Christ has done
*Psalm 105:1-2-- recount God's wonderful deeds

Memories are important to God (he's the one who created them in the first place), he wants us to remember and to tell others of the great deeds that he has done! So that not only will your memories give you hope and faith, they will help others to trust God and see more of his amazing greatness as well! :) So treasure your memories they are a gift from God!

My Random Easter Thoughts




Easter has never been a huge holiday for us.
Besides wearing the cute easter outfits and doing the Resurrection Eggs when we were little it, it just was never something that was a big deal for us.

If I'm honest I've never really been that excited about Easter. I never a huge easter bunny or chocolate fan and I've grown up in a christian home my whole life and have been hearing the story ever since I was a baby! I'm most definitely not proud about that fact, but it's the truth.

Around the holidays I usually look at all of the blogs that I follow seeing if anyone has posted a twist on the current holiday, or if they have any cool new insight or perspective to share....as much as I love seeing new perspectives and such, I was thinking about the Easter story last night and I realized how simply, yet amazing it is!

The story is so powerful and deep in and of itself that there is no need to find a new way of saying it, because we will never fully comprehend or get to the depths of it. It is such an amazing story that is is impossible to wrap your head around it.

Why would a Holy and perfect God come down and go through all of that for ME? A sinner who despised and rejected him...It's true love, nothing else would have driven him to give his life for us! how many of us are willing to go die for someone that we know? Who would go die for a criminal? Yet that is what Jesus Christ did for us!

It's so crazy because you feel so worthless, but yet you are worth more than you could ever know, so undeserving, but so loved and cherished at the same time!

When you realize your sinfulness, how you hated God and were enemies with him, that YOU were the reason that he had to come and die, and go through such suffering and pain....it breaks me! Why me? I am so undeserving! I just can't understand, it shows me how real and true and deep his love really is! If Christ was willing to give up his own life as a sacrifice for me, how can I ever doubt his love for me? This love drives me to give my life for him, it's the reason that I want to live my life to glorify my God and to give him all that I have to bring him praise & to serve him only!


So when thinking about the Easter story this weekend think about this quote:

"Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something

done by us."

Think about your sinfulness and how much you grieve God in just one day! How you were were

the cause for his death. When you make this story personal to your own life it brings it to a new

level and your really begin to become grateful and realize what a huge gift it is, and what a great

price it cost!



Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. ~ 1 Peter 1:3

Easter means that this life on earth is not all there is. Jesus went “to prepare a place for us” in His Father’s heavenly mansions for all eternity. Jesus died for our sins, paying our penalty, so that we could be forgiven. He was resurrected, to prove that death has no hold on those who repent and accept Him as Savior. This life on earth is a prelude to eternal joy with our Lord. Easter is a celebration
of our eternal destiny.
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