Creating Beauty

Have you ever been afraid? Sometimes, I get afraid - of being hurt - of being abandoned - of losing people close to me - of not ever getting married or having a family of my own. These are all things that easily made me afraid when I did not confront them with my trust in God. Eventually fear would start to affect the way I lived and the choices I made. After seeing the difference between letting fear control certain areas of my life, and giving God full control… there is no question in my mind that all I want is God’s will for me. Nothing else has brought me life or created any beauty. Just Him. :)

“Faith is a light which, however faint, can brighten the darkest of lives where it exists and can darken the brightest of lives where it does not.” Abhimanyu Rathore

I’ve seen how powerful fear is in my life, and in others. One thing fear does is blind us to truth and can steal from us the clarity of mind that God desires us to have. Fear impacts how much we will trust God with our relationships. 

I have been down a long, painful, and unnecessary road because of not trusting God with my desire for a husband. I struggled to feel peace. My desire is to put God first in everything, but I had to honestly acknowledge that this area is also very difficult. What I discovered was that my fearful responses could not create life or a healthy relationship. The only way to create life and develop a healthy relationship is to break the power of fear… putting my desire for a husband into God’s hands and trusting God’s love of me. Trusting Him for my future always brings me back to a place of peace. I find I need to do this each time fear knocks on my door. 

Trusting in God’s love keeps me free of fear. Abiding in His love guards my heart from the fear that can tempt me. Abiding in His love keeps my mind clear. 

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

Remaining in God’s love gives me hope regarding His plans for my future. He knows what He is doing. :) 

(via brigitha-xx)

Growing up is amazing. It’s exciting. It’s adventurous. It’s a blessing. But it can also be scary… not knowing what will happen. It can be hard becoming independent. I have learned a lot while growing up so far and I’ve also been faced with a lot of challenges and very hard choices. I have to admit that I haven’t always made the best choices. In fact, I feel like I have failed a lot. But God looks down with compassion, love, and mercy to enter our failures. He loves us so much that He still gives us opportunities to make the situations beautiful. I feel so overwhelmed sometimes when I think about how much mercy and love He has shown me. Thank you Lord. 

 He not only loves us when we mess up, but He also continues to bless us. He wants to pour out blessings constantly. He wants to provide for us. He wants to take care of us. He wants to take away our pain, sorrow, worry, anxiety, fear. We just need to let Him. 

I have seen so many miraculous situations where God has truly worked His miracles for my family and for others. It’s wonderful being able to look back and remember those times. It’s beautiful. I have grown up with such an amazing family who serve the Lord with all they have. My parents have shown me such beautiful examples of what it looks like to live in faith. Whenever they are struggling financially I have rarely seen them anxious or worried… in fact, whenever they get those feeling they give away more so that they remember that what they have isn’t theirs but the Lords. That has blown me away and I want to live just like that! God has provided for us in ways that are so incredible, words cannot even come close to describing.

Living in faith is hard… even when you know nothing else. I am very thankful that my parents have shown me such faith, because it does make it easier, now that I am becoming independent and an adult, to walk in faith as well. God knows what we need and He promises that He will provide if we follow Him. I have seen that my whole life. Now that I am 19 and working, spending time with friends, babysitting, and going all over the place…. :P I still continue to see the Lord bless my life.

When we moved here about 10 months ago, I started babysitting and was praying that God would show me what He wanted me to do in this season of my life. He showed me and also did some amazing things in the process.

I had been praying for a car because I needed one. Whenever I would go babysit or meet a friend or go out, I would take my family’s car. They would always let me if they didn’t have plans, but it was difficult because I needed the car a lot. So I kept praying, knowing that the Lord would provide in His perfect timing. It’s definitely hard being patient though… often our thoughts of “perfect timing” rarely match the Lord’s. :P I just needed to remind myself of all the times He has provided and how perfect His timing really is. 

   After just a short time I met an amazing friend and felt very strongly that the Lord had big plans for that friendship…. He did. Her mom called and asked if I would consider working and helping their family a couple times a week with driving her children to different places they needed to be. I was so excited! Not only would I be able to help and work more, but it would also give me many opportunities to be with my beautiful friend every week! But then I realized that I didn’t have a car I could use… I couldn’t really take my family’s car because then they wouldn’t be able to have it for long periods of time during the week. I let her mom know the car situation and she asked if we could sit together and talk about it. We got together and she said that they have a car that hardly ever gets used and I could use it every week and even take it home. UMMMM…. WHAT?! I could hardly believe it! I almost wanted to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming. God did it. He provided. In one day He provided a job, a car, and lots of time to be with my friend. I was literally speechless. Driving home that night I was overjoyed!! I was crying I was so happy and felt so blessed. Seeing the Lord’s beauty, blessings, and love. Gosh…. it’s the most beautiful thing in the world. I called my parents and could hardly talk I was so excited and happy. He did it. Even though He always provides, it never gets old. :) GOD IS GOOD! 

“And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, He will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?”Luke 12:28

  “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from His glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19

Wow. It seems like it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged. Well, it has. :P I was on a missions trip and then my parents were gone for a while, so I haven’t had much “sit down” time. :)

These past couple of weeks have definitely been a blessing though. They have been wonderful and have had some very special moments. Last month I had the privilege of helping chaperone on a missions trip. A very special friend of mine asked me to go with her and her senior high school choir from her school. I loved that she asked me to go!! It gave me more time with her and I was so excited to see what God had planned. 

The missions trip was 8 days and with an organization called “Mission Waco.” Waco is one of the poorest cities in Texas… so that specific organization helps a lot with the homeless. Its incredible what they do and how they reach out to these people. We had a lot of special experiences! While we were there the school choir got to sing at homeless shelters, nursing homes, a Methodist school, some parks, the Church Under the Bridge, etc. That gave us the opportunity to talk with the people/kids afterwards. Some of them weren’t interested in talking, but there were also many that were so open and kind. I loved getting the chance to hear about their lives!  It really blessed me and I feel like God did something in my heart through each one. Though there was one man that greatly impacted me. His name is Kenneth and he is in his late-forties. I met him while we were at the homeless shelter. He used to work in the army and is one very intelligent man…. and it’s still hard for me to understand how he doesn’t have a job. He isn’t married and has two sons that have rarely seen him and hardly ever keep in contact with him. He, very often, wakes up at 4:30 A.M. and has to walk miles to be able to apply for jobs. In fact; he has to walk everywhere because he doesn’t have a car. Now I don’t know his whole story, but already what I do know doesn’t sound like a life people would be happy with if they had it. I’m sure some people would hear his circumstance and think that he has nothing. Well one of the amazing things about Kenneth is that he would say the opposite. He would say that he has all he needs and more. Not only that, but he is so thankful. It’s crazy to think that he would say that he has all he needs… and MORE…. but also that he is thankful? Now that’s the beauty of the Lord. Kenneth loves the Lord with all his heart and I got the privilege of having such an incredible conversation with him about God and how God always works for the good of those who serve Him… even when times seem hard. Kenneth trusts the Lord and completely submits his life to Him. He sees his life and instead of looking at all the bad things (which he could very easily do), he sees how God has kept him healthy, blessed him, and saved him from even more bad that could have happened. He is such an inspiring man and at the end of our conversation I was blessed to be able to pray with him. The time went by so fast while I was talking with him! In fact, I had to hurry out because everyone had left before me and I didn’t even notice. :P Thankfully, I got to see him again at church on Sunday. We went to The Church Under the Bridge and he walks there every time he can go to church. He came right up to me and offered me some of his food. A man that has no home of his own, no job, and hardly enough money… offered me, someone who definitely doesn’t need anything, his food. My heart broke. God used Kenneth to open my eyes to many things and areas in my life that I need to work on. Kenneth is a hero. The more I thought about what Kenneth said and all that he did…  and the more I thought about my life…. the more convicted I became. I am so enormously blessed with all that I have. I have more than enough and yet there are times where I find myself wanting to complain, forgetting to be thankful, having to wrestle with giving things away, worrying about financial things, etc. That is so wrong. There is a lie that some of us can believe that says that the more we have, the happier we are. Obviously that isn’t the truth. Kenneth is filled with freedom and the greatest joy this world could ever know, and basically all he has is the Lord. I want that. 

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18

“Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and everything you put your hand to.” Deuteronomy 15:10

“And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Colossians 3:1o

I started being intentional on giving thanks to the Lord in every area of my life. For things that have been given to me, beautiful experiences I have, times that may be difficult… but still knowing that the Lord will get me through it and that it will be used in His plans for my life…., for the people in my life, for the sun, for so many other things that we could easily take for granted. And not only to be thankful… but to be happy with what I have. Not to complain about what I might want or what I would like instead. 

 I also started thinking more and more about how important it is not to hold on to “things.” Kenneth was an amazing example of that. God has blessed us with so much. it is so selfish to hold onto it and not to give anything away. Especially because all we have is the Lord’s. The more we hold on to in our life, the more we become slaves to our things. Kenneth gave all he had to the Lord and his heart is free. He doesn’t worry about whether or not he will get what he needs. He KNOWS that because he is following the Lord and hoping in Him, that all of his needs will be met. What an incredible man of God. I hope to be, even just a little bit, like him. :) 

We are back from Australia and still trying to readjust to the 15 hour time difference. You would think that after traveling so much it would make it a little bit easier to do that…. it doesn’t. :P Though all the exhaustion is definitely worth being able to go to Thom and Misty’s wedding. It was an incredible trip! When I look back I can see so many ways God blessed us and worked in my heart.

One of those ways was after a family meeting we had. My dad was talking about judgement and how important it was not to judge others or to join in when others are being judgmental. I don’t think we realize how much we judge on a regular basis… even if it’s not our heart’s desire to be mean. At least I didn’t realize it until I started thinking about it. Even walking in the mall and seeing some really scary shoes that someone was wearing, or some crazy hair, a weird outfit, or how someone was acting…. and then commenting about it in a “playful” way. Hm. After thinking about it I saw how even that was a judgment about that person. I started to be able to name different ways I judged without fully realizing it. I also realized ways that I would judge my family because of my own insecurity or pain. Isn’t it sad how the people we usually judge the most can be our family or those we love the most? My family are the ones I need to love on the most. I don’t want my siblings remembering times when I acted in my pain or insecurity.  So, I knew I needed to repent. I started praying that God would help my heart break when I heard judgement or when I would think about saying something judgmental.

“Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?” James 4:11-12

“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.” Matthew 7:1-2

The next night I asked everyone to come in so I could talk with them. I told them about my thought process and the ways I saw that I could have been hurting them and how it broke my heart. I also wanted to make sure that they each knew that what I did wasn’t because of them, but because of my own pain. That it wasn’t because I didn’t love them, but because I was dealing with some things in my heart and instead of working through it in a way that God wants me to, I would act in my pain. I asked for forgiveness and because of how amazing and incredible they are they forgave me instantly…. with hugs and kisses. :) I admit, its hard to come to a place of humility. It takes a lot of strength to push down our flesh and humanly nature to be selfish and obey the Lord. But once I prayed and asked God into that place, it was beautiful and it brought my heart joy to be able to make things right and be obedient.

After that day there have been many times when I have heard people judge another and it almost starts to make my stomach hurt. God answered my prayer. He is starting to break my heart when I hear judgement. He is also encouraging me to replace those judgmental thoughts with beautiful ones about that person. It’s amazing how powerful our thoughts are…. I want to start practicing thinking only beautiful things…. for only then, will beauty be created. :)

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” Mother Teresa

Where to begin? Well, we are in Perth, Australia and are having such an amazing time! Thom and Misty got married, we have been able to meet the greatest people, we held baby kangaroos, have seen the most beautiful beaches, spent time with incredible friends, been getting tan (well as tan as someone as white as me can get), and have seen parts of Western Australia. Its been a blessing. God has been doing so much through each one of us and also together as a family. 

While we have been here I have been praying about what God is wanting to show me or do in my heart. He has been opening up my eyes to so many beautiful things. One of those things He has been teaching and showing me is the power and importance of prayer. I know that as a child it would seem a little silly when my parents would stop us and have us pray for so many different things. I didn’t really understand. I knew it was important to pray and talk with God, but I didn’t really understand the power of it; especially if God’s plan was to already do what we were praying for. So if He was going to do it already, why did we need to pray? 

Well, we have been doing a lot of traveling which means there has been a lot of time for me to read. I love reading Christian Fiction! I always feel like I get so much out of it… sometimes even more than sermons at church. :) During our trip I started reading a book called “Lucifer’s Flood.” It is a fictional story that deals with the space between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. It provides a fictional story of the war between Lucifer and God and the destruction of the earth before God repopulated it through Adam and Eve. It was very interesting to read; especially when it started talking about the power of prayer. In that part of the book they were going through the story of when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah but kept Lot and his daughters alive. Lucifer and the demons didn’t understand why God would do that if they were just as sinful as all the others. But then one of the demons remembered the prayer that Abraham had prayed, interceding for his family and wanting to save them. God honored Abraham’s prayer and  they were saved. God desires for His will to be accomplished on earth, but He has brought us to participate in the fulfilling of His will. We do that by partnering with His will through prayer. 

A wonderful woman named Melissa Homakie is ministering in Haiti. She has been caring for a terminally ill woman named Natilia. Natilia told Melissa that she had a dream this week. That an evil spirit came to her and said, “I see you have many friends helping you and praying for you that are preventing me from doing what I want.” 

Prayer is a weapon against the works of the enemy.

Another wonderful woman from my church came up to me one Sunday after the service with such excitement. She shared with me that during the alter call God had told her to pray over the people that weren’t going up, but that needed to. After a short while a man got up and went to the alter. God spoke to my friend and said that if she hadn’t obeyed and prayed over the people… that man wouldn’t have gone up. 

Again we see that prayer matters.

I loved reading and hearing all of this. It has been really neat putting prayer into a different perspective and seeing how important it is. We need to stand with those we love in prayer. We can practice this daily. 

One place we can all practice together is for the nation of Japan. Pray for people to be found. Pray for people to be reconnected with family. Pray for their spirits to be open to the comfort of Jesus. Pray for supplies to get through to the needy. Pray for beauty to rise up out of the ashes. Pray for divine intervention. Pray for dreams of Jesus being Savior. Pray for miracles. 

Lets stand together as followers of Christ and love the people of Japan through our prayers. 

“Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.” 1 Corinthians 10:15

 We have heard, read, and maybe even talked about this with others before. But do our hearts truly grasp its meaning? What is idolatry? Better yet, what is God’s meaning of idolatry? As a child, the first thing that came to mind were those big Buddha statues… that was my thought of an idol. Is that what God is talking about? That we only need to flee from statue idols? Hm… after thinking through it for a while, I felt like God was saying so much more.

My pastor at the church we go to shared an amazing message about this last Sunday. He said things that made it very clear and easy to understand. I love when things become more understandable. :) Well, when we are trying to figure out a meaning of a certain word it never hurts to look in the dictionary. 

Idolatry: Excessive or blind devotion. 

Excessive: Going beyond the usual, necessary, or proper limit or degree.

Devotion: Profound dedication.

Idol: An image of a deity other than God.

Now we know the meaning of idolatry. It’s basically being overly and unnecessarily dedicated to something other than God. But why would that necessarily be a bad thing if we are still serving the Lord and obeying Him? Well first I needed to look at my own life and see if there was a place that held a higher importance in my life than God would like. I needed to ask myself some questions. What is my greatest accomplishments in life? Greatest affections? Greatest desire? Greatest joy? Greatest comfort? Am I completely sold out to His calling in my life? After thinking through it I found something. Working out. After so many years of dancing and working out for hours and hours a day it’s almost as if I am “addicted” to it. Its hard for me to go one day without doing some sort of exercise. Its as if I need it. But exercising isn’t bad? We all need to keep our bodies healthy? Yes. But what if God was calling me to some place that didn’t have a gym? Or it wouldn’t be possible for me to work out? That could maybe make me rethink going to certain places. Well, that isn’t good. Because it has become something that takes such a high priority in my life, it could possibly hinder my ability to focus on what the Lord wants me to do. We are supposed to be able to be flexible in our lives so that we can obey the Lord… whatever He may have us do. Seeing this weakness in my life I realized I needed to change some things. I didn’t need to stop going to the gym, but I needed to refocus my mind and thoughts. I needed to stop it from being a “need” and just having it be something I do to stay healthy. I don’t want anything to keep me from obeying the Lord. But sadly there are so many things that can become idols in our lives. Our appearance, our job, our car, our house, our friendships or relationships, and so many more things. We need to be so careful in our lives to not let these things take higher priority than they should and become idols. God should always have highest priority. :)

My pastor said during his sermon last Sunday, “Everything is either a device or a deity.” It’s not bad to want to look nice, own a nice car or house or things, have special friendships or relationships, or even to have a wonderful job… But those things will either be a device for worshipping the Lord, or actually become our “gods.” We always need to search our heart and make sure that we are using these things as ways to serve the Lord instead of them becoming the very thing we serve.

“The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” 1 Corinthians 10:13

One of the many countless things that I absolutely LOVE about the Lord is that He always promises to never leave us and always promises to provide a way out for us when we struggle with temptation. In that verse He says that we are all being tempted by the same things… but yet it is never more than we can handle. Amazing how loving the Lord is, isn’t it? Yes temptation is not easy, but with the Lord we can flee from it. It’s NEVER too much for us to handle. We need to continue to flee from the temptation of idolatry. Is this hard? Yes. Can we do it? With the Lord’s help and strength, yes! :) And in order to be the true men and women God created us to be it is so important that we have our priorities straight. God should always be our number one priority. :) Because in the end all these things will die, but God doesn’t. Why cling to things that won’t last? I would much rather live my life focusing on the Lord and a life time of eternity ahead of me than using all my time on things that will never last. We need to be reminded of this daily. To every day check our hearts and make sure we always have the most important priority first and to invite the Lord in to help us stand up to the temptations that we will face continually. Thank you Lord for your love over us. With Your help we will stand up to temptation, confront it, and overcome it by Your strength through us! :)

“Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!” Hebrews 12:1-3 The Message Bible

It’s normal for kids to like superheroes, look up to them, and want to be like them. Well one of my heros is Micah Benjamin Howard. Yes. My 11 year old brother. I just love him with all of my heart! He encourages me and inspires me so much. He has such a compassionate and loving, yet very strong heart. I have never met an 11 year old boy that longs to know the Lord and obey Him like sweet Micah B.

The other day he went to help me babysit three small boys and I just loved it! He will literally help with anything and he always does it with a smile. Some of my favorite times are the car rides there and back. :) We have some very deep conversations about the Lord and I am always so shocked that he is so young and already has such a huge understanding for all of that. On one of those car rides home from babysitting we started to talk about his youth group and how much he has been loving it there. I love to see him smile when he talks about it!

Thank You Lord for answering our prayers for such an amazing church. Micah definitely loves it and has made so many wonderful friends. He started talking about a trip that his group was going on this weekend and how he wasn’t able to go. He said he was a bit sad that he couldn’t go and how he hoped he could go next time. After hearing how he was a little disappointed I reminded him that God has beautiful plans for him and that God had something else planned for him that weekend. But that no matter what, he was going to be blessed for his obedience to the Lord and how he wasn’t letting his disappointment take over and affect his actions and words. Micah didn’t hesitate to reply and he had a huge smile on his face! “Yes! When you lose something, you gain something.”  He also started talking about how sometimes he allows his discouragement to take over, but that he wants to do better and he wants to obey God better. Wow! Did my little 11 year old brother just say that?

My heart filled with joy after hearing such wisdom come from my little brother. He encouraged me greatly! And it didn’t stop there. He started telling me how every night he always talks with God before he goes to bed and one of the things he does is ask for forgiveness. My heart just sunk with conviction. My little brother taught me so much that night. He always does. I looked at him with a big smile and told him that even though he was only 11, he was still such an encouragement to all people… even ones older than him… including me. I told him how much he encouraged me and that because of him and because what he said was so inspiring…. I was encouraged to not go to bed until I talked with the Lord and prayed. I also told him how mature he was with his relationship with the Lord and what a blessing he is to everyone because of his obedience to Christ and because he allows the Lord to work in his heart. His sweet face just lit up! That night I was blessed beyond words to see my little brother… sweet Micah’s heart, so excited to be able to encourage people and love people. 

 “So, you are going to talk to God tonight right?” Micah said, so excited that he inspired me.

 “Yes! And its all because you helped encourage me.” 

 I have been talking with God every night now. Thank you Micah! I want to be just like you. :) I love you.

Last week was definitely an interesting week. One of those weeks I wouldn’t ever want to replay. :P Strep, fevers, horrible coughs, stuffy noses, mono, the flu… we are still struggling through some of that. All of us “sick kids” have been getting lots of quality time together in the girl’s bedroom. That room of ours needs to be disinfected, fast! I have increased my Pokemon skills, learned that it’s not good to drink water after cough syrup, and used more hand sanitizer and toilet paper (for my nose of course;) in the last  2 weeks than I have in my whole life. But, other than Pokemon, I have had some other things on my mind as well… Thankfully. :)

I was able to finish the book of James and I just love it! Its a very short book in the Bible, but it has some wonderful things that can be easily put into daily life. I encourage you to read it. While going through the last chapter, God put something on my heart.

“My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back,  remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.” James 5:19-20

The first thought that came to mind was, “Do I understand how important it is to tell others about Christ?” It is one of the greatest things we are called to do as Christians isn’t it? I think that we can tend to be so caught up in our normal busy and hectic lives, that we can forget how little time we have on earth. The older I get the more I realize this. This is the only life and chance we get to tell others about Christ… Time seems to go by more and more quickly. Do we take for granted the time God gives us? Do we use it selfishly? These are questions I am asking myself. I don’t want to look back on my life and see that I could have used my time more for the Lord but instead used it in a selfish way. There are so many people in this world that are lost and don’t have the Lord in their lives. We have many opportunities to tell others about Christ. People we know that aren’t saved, strangers that God put in our lives at different moments, or even friends of ours that are Christians but are starting to stray from the truth. Everyday we have a chance to encourage and love those people in our lives. I don’t want my life to get “too busy” that I can’t take the time to talk with these amazing people that God puts in my life. It might be the only opportunity we get to tell someone about the Lord… but if we don’t choose to obey, we can also effect that person. It can be easy for us to be afraid to stand up and tell others about Christ. But we don’t need to be afraid. :) Whenever we feel fear, we just need to invite the Lord in and ask Him to give us strength to obey Him. It’s Him who gives us strength to walk out of our comfort zones… it’s not easy… but we can do it. :)

And how amazing would it be to be able to play a part in bringing others to Christ? This life is going to be gone… we won’t live here forever. That is why it is so important to use this little time we have and not waste it. It is wonderful that we will go to Heaven and be with our Father. But we also want everyone else to be saved and not be lost forever. Its important as Christians to see the importance in this. :) We are saved… now its time we share this joy and beauty we have in our hearts with others. God is huge and should not be contained! So… what are we waiting for? ;)

‘Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, “Life is not pleasant anymore.”’ Ecclesiastes 12:1

I love Sundays! I always look forward to the weekend so I can go to church on Sunday… We have a wonderful church here and Im so thankful. Last Sunday it ended up being just me, my dad, Micah, and Esther going to church. Micah and Esther went to their own classes and my dad and I went to the service. Our church started going through the book of 1 Corinthians and its been a lot about marriage so far. Who better to go to a service on marriage with than your dad? It’s a teen girls dream. Not! As long as we didn’t hold hands and make people think we were married, I was ok. :P

So, even though I am not married I knew there was something I could get from the message that could be applied to my life right now. It was an amazing message and one thing really caught my attention. The pastor spoke about things that could really hurt a marriage… one of them was to “settle.” What he meant by that was, “settling” is becoming complacent in your daily life with the one you love. I saw this clearly as well and found a way to apply it to my single life. It’s also important to not “settle” in any friendships you have. Why is it that we can fight so hard to love someone in the beginning of the friendship, but then after some time it can start to fade? We don’t try as hard to spend time with them or serve them… or love them. Not that we don’t love them… we just don’t work to keep loving better.

I John 4:11 “God’s love for us gives us the capacity to love others. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another.”’

Isn’t God constantly amazing us with how great His love is for us? Everyday I realize more and more how endless His love is for us. He is constantly surprising me with how much he loves me. So, if we are called to love as God has loved us, then to “settle” would be sad and rob us of more life and joy that we could have if we pressed forward to love well. God calls us to press forward and to love, serve, be patient, be kind… surrender ourselves to the Lord in every situation and let His love run through us. We should never stop trying to love more. God definitely doesn’t. :)

“I pray that you will understand the words of Jesus, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Ask yourself “How has he loved me? Do I really love others in the same way?” Unless this love is among us, we can kill ourselves with work and it will only be work, not love. Work without love is slavery.” Mother Teresa

How has God loved you? Are you loving others the same way? Always striving to do better and taking the time to bless others and letting them know that they are important and loved? There is so much we could do to keep encouraging our friends and others. Even in a busy and hectic life God wants to pour His love out through you. It doesn’t take a long time to send a quick text message to encourage someone, to pray for them, to call them… to let them know they are special and loved. Remind them who God created them to be. We can all use those reminders. :)