True love isn't easy, but its safe.

We fail God everyday. A day doesn't go by where we don't sin in some way. Why does God continue to love and care for us. Why does he stick around? He sticks around because even with all our failures and shortcomings, we are his children. We are sons and daughters of God, and he will never let us go. He cares too much; he's put so much into us. We could never in our wildest dreams, ever come close to loving and caring as only he does. Jesus died on that cross, he was beaten and bruised for US, because he loves us, because he wants to be with us. Jesus came to the Earth as a man. He knows the struggles and temptations out there. But he never sinned, he never gave in, he kept his eyes on his Father, kept his heart pure. That's the key, to keep our eyes and hearts on our father in Heaven. That will help us focus not on our sinful nature but on Gods ever-present love and forgiveness. We are meant to be with God in Heaven, that's his plan but we have to keep our eyes on him and him alone.

If we ever tried to love like God does, I have a feeling our hearts would pop. We aren't physically able to love to that amount. But spiritually, through God with the help of the Holy Spirit we are able to love as He does. We are able to show Jesus to other people, to be a light. Jesus didn’t say it would be easy, actually he said it would be difficult, it says in Luke 9:23,”Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Taking up our cross isn’t easy, that isn’t something that Jesus would tell us just to make our lives easier. But it isn’t about making our lives easier; it’s about living for God to the fullest that we can. God hasn’t promised us an easy journey in life but he did promise to provide us with a safe journey. Having struggles are part of the package, we gain character by them and turn into true sons and daughters of God. God doesn’t want to leave us, but I think he also doesn’t want to baby us. That’s why he gave Adam and Eve a choice in the Garden of Eden, he wants us to choose to love him, choose to live life with him. He’s still with us every step of the way, but he also gives us the choice. And if we choose to love him, and love him completely the struggles in our lives won’t seem as hard as they did before.

“God never promises to remove us from our struggles. He does promise, however, to change the way we look at them.” -Max Lucado

God Bless <3 <3

Never Alone

I have always thought that walking with someone is so much better then walking alone. You have someone to talk to, someone to laugh with, and someone to just share the silence with. It’s one of those things that just changes the way you see a walk. Have you ever walked alone? The silence seems so much louder; all you can hear is the crunch of your shoes against the pavement. Have you ever looked up to the sky in those moments, seen the birds flying, clouds moving, and sun making patterns across the blue sky. The other day I was walking and yes, I was alone. But then I thought, I choose to be alone. God is right beside me, it’s my choice to let the silence take over, to let my selfish thoughts consume me. God is always there, why don’t we always let him in?

God wants a relationship with us. He yearns to get near us. However, it seems more often than not, we’d rather figure things out by ourselves. We want to show that we can be strong. Walking with God, talking with him is essential with our journey with him. Without having that relationship, we’ll not get anywhere. We’ll just move around and around, instead of moving towards him. And if we keep moving around and around, we’ll lose sight of God and begin to backslide. Max Lucado said, “Your walk with God is essential. His heart is not seen in an occasional chat or weekly visit. We learn his will as we take up residence in his house every single day.” Talking to God, spending time with him, just when you feel like it just isn’t enough. That’s not going to give a good base for your relationship with him. He wants us to devout our time to him, talk with him all the time. What’s amazing is that he’ll talk back, because he wants to spend time with us. He wants to give us wisdom and knowledge and he wants to help us in our everyday life.

Sometime, I think we don’t get the importance of relationships. Because of our world today, relationships are taken so lightly, the amounts of separations, divorces, and break ups are huge. However, God will never separate himself from us, he will never “break up” with us; God is forever. Hebrews 13:5 says, “(…) God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” You know the saying, “never say never”, well God says never. And he promises us that that he will never leave us. So next time you’re out walking and you’re alone, think about this, God is walking right beside you. He wants you to spend time with him, to talk with him. So next time you’re out walking, you’ll never be alone. Yes, I said it…I said never. :)

God Bless <3 <3

Father, I am clay in your hands.

"Father God, I am clay in your hands,
Help me to stay that way through all life's demands,
Cause they chip and they nag and they pull at me,
And every little thing I make up my mind to be."

We are Gods creation, created in his image. He molds us and shows us the way to go. He wants people to see Jesus through us, for us to be an image of him! And we need to stay like that throughout all life’s demands, no matter what. He is taking care of us, no matter what. He has got us in his arms. People will come and they will try to pull us away, pull us to things that seem better, or more "fun". They will try to change us, and try to show us things and yes, might look better but in reality are death. They will pull at everything we are, everything we want to be. Try to change us, try to change Jesus in us.

"I don't want to gain the whole world, and lose my soul"

If we gain the whole world and everything in it, riches, fame, good looks, all the materialistic things in life, they still won’t satisfy. They won’t give you what we are looking for, they won’t satisfy the hunger. Why does it seem so tempting to us, when we lose our soul through it? Taking a bite from the worlds feast, isn’t going to help with our walk, it will make it worse. God wants us to be different, to step out, and to be him in this world. It’s a hard thing to do, but you see when we've got Jesus on our side and in us, it’s easier to portray him. Gods not there to hold us back, not there to not let us have fun. It says in John 1:10, "He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him." We are not supposed to be OF this world, yes we are IN it, but we are set apart. We are Gods children; we are the outsiders, showing Jesus through us. We are clay in our Fathers hands, and we rely on him to give us strength to close our eyes to the evil in this world, for we are supposed to be IN this world, not OF it. God loves us, he won’t let us fail.

" Lord forgive us when we get consumed by the things of this world,
That fight for our love, and our passion."
God should be the only one consumed by our love and passion. He's worth it!

God Bless ♥♥
Toby Mac "Lose My Soul"

God is life.

"Just going to stand there and watch me cry, but that’s alright because i like the way you lie, like the way you lie.”
Sin is fun. For a season, like c’mon you can do anything you want with no guilt at that moment. It feels good, fun, and enjoyable, kind of like you’re free. We don’t see the harm, the guilt that will arrive, as we are sinning. The devil loves sin, “sin all you want, but when you’re sick of it, I wont be helping you get out of it.” I’m sure that’s one of his sayings, because he loves to give us situations or places that we can sin in, and then not help us out at all, he traps us. And he will stand there and watch us cry, suffer, and call out for help. Also, in a way we like the way he lies to us. Because he makes it look good and inviting. He butters it up nicely, making it look fun. He lies through his teeth and we don’t see it, because in that time, we are having fun. It’s kind of like putting loads of dressing on veggies; veggies are healthy and then you put dressing on it and it suddenly becomes fattening and loaded with carbs. But, oh man does it not taste good? However the aftermath isn’t so sweet, we find ourselves wishing we had taken just the plain, healthy veggies, rather then the veggies that just “taste” good.

God is the opposite of the devil, just like the good guys are opposite of the bad guys, duh. He takes stuff that is good and makes it better. He adds better stuff to it, and it is still good. And the aftermath is just as good and rewarding. Sometimes the going might get tough and it will take discipline to keep on track but the end result is magnificent. God doesn’t want to destroy us, he wants to revive us. And it is a pleasure for him to do so. He loves to pick us up and dust us off and help us continue on the path he has chosen. When the going gets tough, he doesn’t just watch us cry, he comes in and wipes away our tears, gives us a hug and whispers to us how much he loves us. And God does not lie; he is honest with us, telling us what we need to hear, firmly but lovingly. And although it might be tough he does it with love; always ready to support us and stop the devil from trying to destroy us with his buttered up lies, because God wants us to prosper and to live and love. He has given us life but he doesn’t just leave us to walk it on our own, he is beside us every step of the way, never leaving us in the midst of trouble but sticking with us. When we are at the end of our rope, God is right there to catch us and help us persevere. The devil on the other hand, will just look, laugh and walk away, he could care less if we fall. If we believe his false lies, it’s our loss because he sure isn’t going to help in any way to make it better. God is our helper and will pick us up and be our strength. It’s not hard to choose, do we want life or death? Pick God, for He is our comfort, our strength, our guide, our father, and He is life.
“Just going to stand with you and comfort you. Its alright, I’ll wipe away your tears, wipe away your tears.”

God Bless♥♥

Trusting God in everything!

We all know what it looks like when a child is being led by his mother or farther and he does not want to go where they are going! He either doesn’t want to go where they are going or he doesn’t like the look of things up ahead, or he is just being plain stubborn and refuses to move. They will dig their heels in and not move, just stick where ever they are, even if the place ahead is actually good for them, or a fun place. OR they will wander; they will wander away from the place they are supposed to go. They can’t stay in one place, they have to move. They don’t trust their parents enough just to follow and obey. We are sometimes like that with our heavenly father, unable to trust. Stubborn and strong willed, thinking we know best for ourselves.

God has chosen a path for us. It says on Psalm 16 that he has made known the path of life for us. He doesn’t keep it hidden, and unable to find it. No, he loves us and wants us to walk the path of life. But are we digging our heels in? Do we trust him to know what’s best for us? He has the perfect plan, he knows what’s ahead, and he knows every part of that path. He just wants us to take his hand and follow it, to follow him. There's a song that’s says "You make all things come together for my good." God has plans for us that are for our good, not to harm us. He's not leading us into a trap that we won’t be able to get out of. He's leading us into the path of life, yes, the path may be hard but God has it all worked out. And he won’t leave us to fend for ourselves; he is right beside us the whole way through, guiding us, leading us, and loving us.

God Bless♥♥

His plan is perfect...No contest.

At the beginning of all our lives, we have a blank canvas. Nothing is written, or drawn on it yet. But as we get older, things start to appear, beautiful artwork, beautiful poems... our life on a canvas.

God is the artist. He thinks of and does all the work that goes onto that canvas. He creates it, molds it, paints it, and designs it. And the great thing is... he's already done the canvas in his mind, for each of us. He has the perfect plan for everyone, but he's painting it on slowly, so that we may see the true beauty of it. He paints very line, every detail in love. And he never tires of it; he enjoys forming our lives with unique design. And sometimes we might mess up, we might slip in his plan… but his hand never strays, he is always there and always will be. Jeremiah 29: 11 says “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.” He knows every part of our lives and takes great delight in it. He loves every part of us, every mistake, every mess up, and every good thing we do. He will never give up loving us, because he wants us with him. He wants to see us succeed, we wants to see that canvas filled; for our lives fulfilled. “The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” - Zephaniah 3:17

God Bless♥♥

It's who you ARE, not what you HAVE.

Some people feel like they have to be defined by what they have or what they are getting. Or maybe what they look like... They feel like to go anywhere in life that has to be the sole purpose...its all about what you HAVE! What did Jesus have? Did he have nice clothes, have all the latest fashions, was he was part of the "in" group, and was he incredibly popular?? No, not really... it says in the bible that he hung out with sinners?? He went out of his way to hang out with them... in those days that is not what "popular" people did. Jesus didn't care one bit about what he had; he cared about what he did. Romans 8:29 says "For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters."(NLT) We are supposed to be like Jesus, so caring so much about what we have isn't getting us anywhere...

When I go to the mall, I'm constantly looking at people, and what they are wearing etc... Then I either go, "Wow, I like that look." or "Nope, not working for me." And then if I like the clothes or the style, I will probably end up buying it... Or at least wishing I had it! It's not a good mindset to have because I’m always wanting more... But sadly that’s a human mindset, always wanting what that person has, or being jealous of that person because they have it. And it’s a hard habit to break. Jesus never had that problem, ya maybe he got tempted, but he never acted on it. He was more concerned about the heart, then the body. He didn't want people to see him for what he had, but how he acted. Jesus is the perfect example of that! Sometimes we don't think we are special because we don't have the things everyone else has but we are special just the way we are. Because that’s the whole point, it's who we ARE, not what we HAVE! And that's what God is concerned about, our souls, our hearts... not how we look or what we own! And I for one am very glad of the fact! :)

God Bless! ♥♥

Stick with God, He's the best!

Bet you've heard the saying "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"?? Well, sometimes I feel like taking those lemons and making the sourest lemonade I can possibly make. And then give it to someone. And I realize these thoughts are a lot like attitudes... Sometimes we feel like when we're grumpy, or feel crappy; the people around us should know about and share our pain. People should feel and experience what you are feeling. It’s in our make-up as humans, to not only want what everyone else has but to want other people to feel what you are feeling as well... If you are happy, you would want people around you to be happy; if you’re sad, people should feel sad...

Why is it that we want to be the same as everyone else? We just want to blend in, and want other people to blend in with us. We would much rather blend in with the crowd then stand out. Sometimes we try to blend in so hard we forget about Jesus. We want to blend in and try to be someone else that sometimes we might forget about God. Sometimes we care about the world’s opinion above Gods. Matthew 10:32 says, ”Stand up for me against world opinion and I'll stand up for you before my Father in heaven. If you turn tail and run, do you think I'll cover for you?” If we turn away and just be who the world wants us to be, and not who God wants us to be God will turn from us. And that is not a life that we want. Jesus says that he is the way, the truth and the life. Anyone who comes to him will have eternal life. That’s the life we want. Who cares what everyone thinks or sees us as. All we should be thinking about is what God think of us, and how we can follow him in a better way. And at the end of it all, we will have eternal life with him in heaven. That is an amazing truth! So when I sometimes feel like making that super sour lemonade and then giving it to someone, maybe I’ll put some sugar in it... it will probably go better for everyone. :)

God Bless♥♥

God leads... We rest!

Sometimes I get down...I feel like with God running my life, everything seems to go wrong, or he lets me down or I, just plain and simple...don't like not having complete control over my life. I want to be the one making the shots, running the show…but you see, whenever I get into that mind set, something happens... my life suddenly feels worse then before, and I feel like crap...

Why?? That's the big question! Why do I feel this way? Why does God let this happen?? Why do all the struggles in my life feel that much worse when I'm not leaning on God?? Well, the answers in the question...I'm not leaning on God. My youth pastor, Norm, is a very wise man, and just the other day, I was talking to him about this... And he said something that stuck like glue on your hair. He was talking about Joshua and the Israelites’, and the promise land. Now the Israelites’ had to got through a lot of struggles to even get to the promise land and when they got there, the struggles didn't just stop. They had demons among them and those didn't go away either... they stayed too. Why… because God wanted to train the next generation how to fight. So God let those struggles stick with them, so the next generation could learn how to fight. In my case, I'm the next generation and I'm getting trained. We all know physical training is hard...push ups, sit ups, curl ups...all that good stuff. It can be painful, long and exhausting. It’s the same with Spiritual training. It can be painful, long and exhausting. But the end result in both is joy, pride, a sense of accomplishment, and yearning for more. I'm still in the training process and ya, its long but at the end of each day I know who my coach is and he never gives up on me! :) Not even when I feel like I want control over my life, when I want to be the one making the plans.

Now the next part will make more sense if I tell you this...In Venice, Italy, there's gondoliers. They're the guys who steer the boats and they usually are singing as they do it. They’re the ones that lead the boat along the water streets of Venice. Okay so, I was reading this book the other day and part of it impacted me... The main character is Leah. Now at the beginning of the book, she feels like she needs top be in control...with relationships, family, and her life. But things change. At the end of the book God speaks to her and what he spoke, also spoke to me too. It starts with the verse from Zephaniah 3:17: "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Then Leah said "I'm not the one supposed to sing." It’s like in her life she’s been the one in control, the one steering, even if she doesn't know which road to go down sometimes... But then she said "I'm not the one supposed to be singing, Jesus is." He's like the Gondoliers... He wants us to just rest in his pocket of grace. He will do all the steering and singing! We don't have to do anything to prove ourselves to him, we just rest and let him take the wheel and steer. He leads; we rest in his pocket of grace! It’s just amazing, we don't do the singing, and he’s the one singing over us!

So when I feel like I want to run my life and call the shots...I need to stop and let Jesus do the singing, I just have to rest. It’s the same with all of us, that’s the most amazing thing! His pocket of grace is never too small; it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Let God do the singing and he will lead you to things you could never imagine!

God Bless! ♥♥

Faith in Little Things.

I have always thought that faith is believing that God will do something huge! And like change your world! Well, that can be the case, but what about the small things; don't they require any faith as well??

It says in Matthew 17:20, He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." And, yes, that's saying that faith can move big things but I don't think Jesus said that to just lessen the faith for smaller things. What I think of that verse is that; with just a little bit of faith...we can do the impossible. And sometimes it seems like that impossible is moving the little things. I love how I can go to God and be like...take this burden, I give it to you, I have faith and trust in you!, and he will take it and help us! God is the God of the impossible and whatever is impossible for man, is possible with God. But that requires just a little faith! Sometimes we can let doubt creep in, and that doubt can slowly squish our faith. Because that doubt is not from God, and faith is from God...and we can't have something from God and something from the devil; and think that everything will work out...

I've had my fair share of faith...but also my fair share of doubt. And I know for a fact that that doubt won't improve your faith at all. But it’s starting with the little things, the things that may not seem important. In Luke 15:8-9 it says, "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin." A coin, a little coin, not $100, not a miraculous healing, not even 2 coins... 1 coin! God cares about the small things; he cares about that woman finding her coin, or finding 1 lost soul, one forgotten son/daughter. In Matthew 18:13-14 (Parable of the lost sheep), "What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost." The man left the ninety nine other sheep to find that little lost sheep. The little ones, the forgotten ones; God cares!

1 coin, 1 sheep, God helped those people find them. They had faith, and God worked on it! They didn't need mountains and mountains of faith, just a small, little bit and God moved! Prayer requires faith as well, not heaps and heaps, but faith. I've been praying for a healing in my family since I could talk... and even though all my prayers had just a little bit of faith in each one, when you add them all up, I have mountains of faith! God moves on those little bits, and all those little bits add up... to great wonders, done for His glory and his glory alone!

God Bless♥♥

Sometimes being a little scared can lead you to do greater things!

Do you ever get those butterflies in your stomach? When you're nervous or scared? I used to be in Manta Swim club, a competitive swimming club. And before every swimming race, I would get those annoying butterflies! Then as I got onto the stand, they would get even worse, and then as I dived in...They would all go away! I would be in the water and everything would be fine. And then I would get out and get nervous again, about how I did, and if I got a good time, etc...

Is it ever that way with God? We’re a little nervous, a little scared, have big butterflies flying around in our stomachs. And then we dive into Jesus and his perfect plan for us and we feel safe, we feel secure, we feel God. Sometimes it might look like what’s set before us is huge, so huge we might feel like we can't handle it. Those stupid butterflies won't go away! And then we feel helpless, insecure, and afraid. But God's plan for us is not to be afraid, it is for us to be strong and faithful and willing. God's plan for us is perfect and sure we might feel scared and nervous but sometimes that makes us stronger! James 1:25 says "But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does." So I put this scripture in my own words and I thought of this... if you look into God's perfect plan for you, the plan that gives freedom and strength, and do not stop in doing this...Also not forgetting what you have been taught but putting that into action- you will be rewarded and blessed in what you put yourself into and dedicate yourself too.

Do we ever think God's plan is better then ours? Or do we think our plan is better then his? I'm sorry to break it to you, but God's plan is WAYY better then ours ever could be! Because He is perfect, his plan for you will be also! Isn't that an amazing truth? When we feel like our world is falling apart, we can trust in God's plan to pull us through! It may not always be easy or carefree, it may be tough and hard but believe it or not it will be perfect and we can hold God to that truth! It’s hard to believe that a "tough" and "hard" road would be perfect but because its Gods plan and God's plan is perfect, we can believe it! I've probably said it half a million times but I think we all need it drilled into our brain, God's plan is absolutely, completely perfect and nothing can never ever change that!

God Bless! ♥♥

Forgive, Forget, Be Free!

Okay, here's the deal... When we forgive, we forget, right? It’s like the old saying "Forgive and Forget." Sadly, in this world that's not the case. Forgiving means forgiving someone for the thing they did wrong...but is that going to stop you from forgetting it?? Is it going to stop you from not holding a grudge? When someone says "sorry", I bet they are sometimes thinking, "It’s not going to stop me from doing it again..." or "I don't really mean it." And then when someone says "I forgive you" back, do you think they mean it? Or are they just saying it to get out of the situation and get it "over" with...

I remember a time when I was told to forgive my sister for saying something to me. She said "sorry" and I said "I forgive you"... classic "sorry" and "forgive" line. But after I said that, I went into my room and muttered away to myself about how mean she is, and how I will NEVER forget what she said to me! The "forgetting" part wasn't really happening at that point...Even though I had technically "forgiven" her and the issue was closed, I thought that someday a time would come when I could use that against her...to get HER in trouble. The time never came, well maybe it did, but I forgot what she said to me. SEE! Whether I liked it or not I had forgotten, I had probably forgotten way back when I was muttering to myself in my room. But I was convinced I would never forget...but I naturally did. Our human way of forgiving is kind of confusing...but it doesn't have to be, if only we do it God's way!

When we pray to God and say "sorry, please forgive me, I was wrong for...” He completely forgives you and then forgets on top of that! When I was little, I thought "riiight, how can God COMPLETELY forget what I did, it was absolutely horrible!" But he can, and he will! He actually doesn't even have to think through it, he just forgives and forgets. And through that YOU can be free! It’s that easy! God doesn't think there's this long process you have to go through to be forgiven, in fact you don't really have to do anything! He did it all for you! YOU didn't have to die on a cross, HE DID! YOU didn't need to carry the world's sins on your back, HE DID! And he did it ALL for you! Because he wants you to be free! He wants you to be forgiven; he doesn't want you to worry... He's got your back, all the way. He will forgive your sins and then he will forget them forever! I kind of have a theory on why it's so hard for us to forgive and forget without making a fuss. Mark 2:7 says "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" God is the ONLY one who can forgive us completely and then forget about it completely! It washes away; it’s like throwing ashes into a stream. You are never going to get those ashes back, no matter how hard you try! It’s like that with our sins, like ashes in a stream or in the wind, gone forever! Maybe instead of "Forgive, Forget, Be Free", it could be "Forgive, Forget, Forever Free!

God Bless♥♥

Same heart, Same God; different testimony!

This is just for fun, but I found this and I thought it amazing how innocent I was, and how...oh I don't know, not so much touched by the world! Well, here it is!

"Hi! My name is Amy Elizabeth Peters. I am almost 10! I got saved when I was 3 1/2 years old! My mum was preparing her Discovery lesson about being best friends with God and I said that I wanted to be best friends with God. And so we prayed and I confessed my sins. Then my mum prayed that I would get to know Jesus more and more and I said "and more and more and more!" Jesus is my best friend! I pray to him every day and night. He is my Savior and a helper to me. He helps me in hard times, like when I sometimes feel like following the crowd. Then Jesus reminds me of what is right! And I love him so, so much. I want to get baptized because I want to get to know Jesus more and more and I want to be more like him. I want to obey him because baptism is a command in the bible. I also want Jesus to help me obey my mum and my dad! I LOVE JESUS!!!! Thank you."

Wow, my life was so...so...innocent. And every time I read it I'm hit with the fact that I'm not that same girl. Like yes, I'm still Amy Elizabeth Peters. But I'm changed because I've experienced way, way more in the sense of the world. And some of that I regret and some I'm thankful for. God has taught me to be a stronger woman of God, he's taught me to be a fearless woman of God, and He’s taught me to love differently. He's changed my life and yes, that testimony is still in a way how I want to live my life but at the same time; I want to bring my more mature sense of God into it. I love God with all my heart, and I'm not going to change that...but my life is changed because I’m seeing it through different eyes...not those 9 and 1/2 eyes but 15 year old eyes. It’s a different world and even a different way I see God…but it’s the same God and that’s not going to change!!

God doesn't want us to stay the same, to have the same mindset and the exact way of living. He wants us to change and see him through different experiences and our faith grows through that! Our faith is founded on God and it can mature us to be stronger men and women in God. He will help us and guide us through our lives and whether our testimony is small and innocent and free of trouble or whether it is full of tests and struggles and times where God intervened...those different testimonies’s still represent the same person but just through different eyes, different times, different choices...but thankfully the exact same God! :D

God Bless♥♥

Being Free, the next best thing!

Do you ever feel kind of lost? Kind of like you don't belong?..? Kind of like life doesn't hold in store for you, what it seems to hold for everyone else? You feel: set apart, lost, an outsider...you feel like a Christian.

Now that might seem a bit harsh, a bit unfair towards Christians, but it’s true. We’re not meant to "blend" in, to just be "part of the crowd"...though that’s might be what we want! I remember feeling like that...lost, don't belong; an outsider...and I blamed it all on God. That he was the one making me feel like this, making me struggle. But in a way he was, he knew what would come from it, what would come from that struggle. Freedom would come...!

Maybe you feel the same, tired of being a Christian, having to hold your head high, and do the right things. Maybe you just want to give up and go the "easy" way... maybe you just want God to smooth the road out before you get there. But you see, God knows that the "hard" road will make you stronger, will make you love more, will make you trust more. He doesn't like to see you struggle, he hates it...but He and He alone knows the outcome, He knows what will come from the struggle and the struggles to follow, because struggles will follow. But he will ALWAYS be there with a steady, ready hand to help you up and give you a gentle push in the right direction! He loves you with every inch of his body, with every bit of his heart...and he's NOT going to let you go just because you struggle, when you struggle, he's going to hold tighter!

It’s a hard life out there, full of tempting things, and desirable things. Sometimes we desire, and are led towards things of the world. And to tell the truth, that’s normal for humans...Adam and Eve made sure of that. :P But with Gods strength and help, we as Christians can pull through and go the other way. Now that doesn't mean that we can't live in the world and use the things that it holds for us. The thing is we should live IN the world but not OF the world. If you don't know what that means, we can live here and enjoy what it has for us, but we can't live OF it, which is like not obsessing over malls and things like that, and totally being pulled in for what the world holds for us.

I'll give you a personal example: A while ago, i was pretty obsessed over what I looked like and how I presented myself to other people, especially boys. So, when I would go to the mall, I would obsess over the clothes and the shoes, and say, I NEED TO HAVE THAT! It was crazy; I was totally acting like I was OF the world, PART of the world. But that changed, sure I still like clothes and shoes and don't like to look like a frump, but I make sure that I don't live like that any more, because it was a pretty dangerous way of living. I find myself much happier living IN the world and not OF the world...I find myself enjoying being and outsider, being a Christian... being free!

A random note! ♥

"Forget about guns and forget ammunition//
Cause I’m killing them all on my own little mission//
Now I’m not a saint but I’m not a sinner//
Now everything's cool as long as I’m gettin thinner" (Lily Allen-The Fear)

That's our world, that's what some teenage girls believe..sad right? Everything is fine, as long as I'm thin, and the right height, and have the right kind of hair... Its just sad.... But God makes can make you feel beautiful no matter how you look, because YOU ARE beautiful! God loves YOU!!! I just felt like God wanted me to put that out to all the girls out there, including me! God LOVES you, JUST the way you are!

Let it all Go!

Sometimes we carry things in us that we got to let go. Boys, movie stars, things, food, etc... And want to hold on to those things/people as tight as we can. Well what if God wants us to hold on to him and let those things/people go??? What do we do? Well, sometimes we do, but usually we hold on tighter to those things! We like them, they make us happy! Well, God will always make us happy, we will always be content with God. Like can we get close to the "things" we like/love?? Well to a certain extent but they could break or leave us or get lost.. But guess what?? We can get as close to God as we want and he will never leave us, never break, never get lost, he'll always be there! Wow! So what makes us want to hold on to those things so much? Maybe because we can feel them, touch them, see them, and we can't really feel, touch, or see God. So we just keep them close but still have God there in case we need him...right?

Well, God wants us to develop such a love for him that it might seem like we can see him and touch him! And we can defintiely hear him! We just have to ask. God wants us to fill ours hearts full of him! Of course we can have things we like and enjoy but God doesn't want those things to consume us. He want to consume us and if we don't let him, he gets jealous! God is like a protective father or even kinda like a protective boyfriend. Have you ever had a boy get mad because you gave some attention to another guy? He gets mad, jealous. Our dads get jealous because some other guy is taking away his little girls heart and the father gets protective. Well, God is like that. He wants to be the only one! He doesn't want competition! He just wants YOU!

So, why do we fight it? Isn't there enough evedience that God wants us and loves us?? Like he died on the cross, he got whipped, beaten, spit on, mocked...all for us! For me personally that really makes me think, makes me realize that the things i'm holding on too aren't as important. So next time you dont want to let go of something/someone, give it to God and let him take care of it. God want to hold you, to love you, to let you know that your special! And let me tell you, no one or no thing on Earth can tell you that! Only God will make you feel truly special and loved! ♥♥

God Bless! ♥

Is it a Need or a Want??

We can't have everything we want but usually we can have everything we need! I seem to have had a sudden need for a ipod touch.... hmmmm.... Isn't weird how we think that way?? We have like everything compared to kids in Africa and we still want more! God wants us to be happy with what we have and not be always asking for more stuff we don’t really need!! Maybe next time I’m in need of a coffee, I’ll stop and think about what I can do w/ that money to help others?? But doing that doesn’t always make us happy; we’re just doing what we’re supposed to do because the Bible says it! Well, we are human so we do think like that but really we don’t always have to! God can put a yearning in our hearts to share, to give, and really we never know what could come out of that!

Do we like ever go to the mall and when we want something; do we sit down and pray? Do we ask God to tell us if we should by that? Usually we don’t…. we just go ahead with our gut feeling and either buy it or not. But I know from personal experience that buying something you just want, can lead to disappointment and feeling like you’ve wasted your money on a piece of junk…. So next time you not sure, stop and think, pray and you never know what could come out of that!


God Bless! ♥♥♥♥

Crazy Love ♥

God's love for us is crazy. We can't always imagine how crazy it really is...God's love is so crazy he is willing to die for us! Willing to hang on a cross; willing to get beaten and mocked, willing to do ALL that for us! Isn't that amazing!!! Do we ever thank him for that love? Do we ever notice how wonderful it is? Sometimes, we do but mostly just take it for granted...

Have you ever watched Spiderman? Well, in Spiderman, at one point he loses his powers. He loses his web, his sticky hands, he loses his confidence. So he "retires" from being Spiderman for a while. The people of the city are so used to see him swinging in and saving them, and then when he leaves they realize how much they really do need him. I'm not saying Spiderman and Jesus are anything alike but we do sometimes "forget" he is there for us, and then when he isn't moving as much in us and doing things with us, we realize how much we REALLY do need him living in us. God is everything to us and we really do need him! We need to continue to worship and praise Him for what he's doing and will do.

Is our love for Jesus "crazy" love?? Or do we just say "oh we love Him, and would so anything for Him!"...would you die on a cross for Jesus? If you didn't know Him personally, if you didn't know his life story, or anything...would you still die for Him?? Just because you love him? God knew we were sinners, he knew that technically WE should die for our sins. But that didn't stop Him from sending His only son to the cross for us! I personally find that so, amazingly crazy!! What I also find crazy is that the same people that Jesus healed their sick, gave sight to their blind men, raised their dead up from the dead...spit and laughed at Him on his way to the cross! We all put Him on the cross, we're all to blame...it was OUR sin! But that still didn't stop Him from spilling his blood for us, so that..we...may...LIVE!! ♥♥

Love...God's Way!

Do girls realize how to love?? The world is strange in its views. When a boy tells a girl he loves her, it makes her feel accepted, it fills the "void". We all have a empty spot in out heart; some people call it a void. We try to fill that space with a sorts of thing...a lot of girls fill it with love. God wants you to fill it with Him and only him. Sure its okay to have other things in your heart but nothing should be more important then God! God's love will always satisfy, it will never fail. Some boys love will most likely fail you unless its the man God picks out to be your husband!

I've made the decision to wait for the "one" guy, the perfect guy! I encourage you to do the same! Sure, you might get teased, laughed at; but wasn't God laughed at, teased and at a much bigger reason. We might be like 'oh, i don't want to be an outsider and wait for the perfect guy", but being a Christian means being an outsider, a freak. (Call it what you will)

Love isn't always nice and kind and gentle... it can be harsh! Sometimes loving can mean turning on your best friends because they you can't help them, only God can or leaving a family member who's not a christian at the cross and letting God take over. Those things can be hard but sometimes there needed to be done! God loved us enough to die on the cross and take all the pain! And that was done because of LOVE! God loves us so much that he turned his back on his son and let him die a cruel death, when he could have stopped it all in the snap of his fingers! Amazing huh? And we're afraid of what people will think or what they will say. God doesn't care heck bout those things, he cares about the soul! He cares about YOU!

So when we're having a hard time loving and loving God's way then just think about what God did for us and how much he cares about us! Filling the "void" with God is the best thing you can do! Let God hold your heart!