I am so unworthy.
I really am. I've been faltering in my time with God, and I have no right to. "Too busy" is such a sorry excuse to use for many reasons. I'm too busy to thank God that I have yet another day to live? I'm too busy to thank Him for all the many, many blessings He's given me? I'm too busy to just stop and stand in awe of His greatness? Never should I be "too busy" for God.
It's because of Him that I've had so much going on in my life lately. He is the One who has allowed me to meet and have some amazing people in my life. It's because of Him that I live such a blessed life. He takes the time to bless me and to care for me. It's only fair that I should take the time to properly thank and worship Him.
Dear God, thank you. Thank you for all that You do for not just me, but every single one of us. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you for guiding me. Thank you loving me. Lord, I thank you for putting such precious people in my life. Each of them as helped to shape me into who I am today. Thank you Lord for my amazing family, my friends, and for Ryan. Thank you for all that You do. You are so worthy of praise, and I pray that You will continue helping me to grow closer to You. In Your name I pray, Amen.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Just a small thing...
As some of you may have noticed, I have a random Bible verse thing on my blog page. Well, I read the one it showed before I refreshed the page and it got me to thinking. Here's the verse.
These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.~Matthew 15:8
Wow. How true is that for most of us? This is what they're talking about when they say someone is only "lukewarm". If we want to properly serve God and make Him truly happy, we have to be willing to surrender our hearts to Him. In other words; Don't just talk the talk, but walk the walk as well!
Sorry this is such a short post! The next one I plan on writing later today will be much longer.
♥, A.
These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.~Matthew 15:8
Wow. How true is that for most of us? This is what they're talking about when they say someone is only "lukewarm". If we want to properly serve God and make Him truly happy, we have to be willing to surrender our hearts to Him. In other words; Don't just talk the talk, but walk the walk as well!
Sorry this is such a short post! The next one I plan on writing later today will be much longer.
♥, A.
Monday, November 8, 2010
My Church
I've just realized that I made my church sound pretty lousy in This Is My Story.
It's not a lousy church in the least, and neither are the people there! It's sort of hard to explain without sounding like I'm just a brainwashed groupie, but I'm going to try anyways.
The church I go to is one that is thoroughly enjoyed by those who attend it. They preach good messages, the music is great, everyone is always willing to help one another, and the fellowship has gotten MUCH better since I've started going. I absolutely ADORE our youth leader(who also happens to be the pastor's wife). She is one of my favorite adults to talk to. She loves each and every teenager in the youth group, and she's constantly thinking up things we can do together. Not only that, she also teaches us so much about God's Word and seems to know exactly what needs to be talked about.
The youth group is amazing. We're all friends(though maybe not all of the time. we're still human), and we've all got our roles we play in the youth group. We've got the quiet kids, the obnoxious kid, the know it all, the peace makers, the outgoing group, the one who's always there for you, and we have the visitors. Together, we make up a pretty great youth group, and I'm glad to be part of it.
I think the youth group has gotten more open to new comers over the years. Before, it was just a very small handful of kids going, but now we have around 16 to 20 teens who attend regularly. With so many new people coming and going all the time("going" mostly meaning "leaving for colleges"), we try to make the most of what time we have with each other. Whenever we have anyone new come, there's always a group of us ready to welcome them.
Now, I know I said earlier that I had felt tricked into salvation by one of the guys in the youth group. Well, I did, but I still thank my friend greatly for inviting us to that hayride, because that night started a series of events that has led me to where I am today. I don't think he thought of it as trickery; He was simply trying to help a friend.
While I do think we could try to do more for other people and I don't always agree with what is said there, I still believe it's a really good church with some really good people.
Just thought I'd clear that up a bit!
♥, A.
It's not a lousy church in the least, and neither are the people there! It's sort of hard to explain without sounding like I'm just a brainwashed groupie, but I'm going to try anyways.
The church I go to is one that is thoroughly enjoyed by those who attend it. They preach good messages, the music is great, everyone is always willing to help one another, and the fellowship has gotten MUCH better since I've started going. I absolutely ADORE our youth leader(who also happens to be the pastor's wife). She is one of my favorite adults to talk to. She loves each and every teenager in the youth group, and she's constantly thinking up things we can do together. Not only that, she also teaches us so much about God's Word and seems to know exactly what needs to be talked about.
The youth group is amazing. We're all friends(though maybe not all of the time. we're still human), and we've all got our roles we play in the youth group. We've got the quiet kids, the obnoxious kid, the know it all, the peace makers, the outgoing group, the one who's always there for you, and we have the visitors. Together, we make up a pretty great youth group, and I'm glad to be part of it.
I think the youth group has gotten more open to new comers over the years. Before, it was just a very small handful of kids going, but now we have around 16 to 20 teens who attend regularly. With so many new people coming and going all the time("going" mostly meaning "leaving for colleges"), we try to make the most of what time we have with each other. Whenever we have anyone new come, there's always a group of us ready to welcome them.
Now, I know I said earlier that I had felt tricked into salvation by one of the guys in the youth group. Well, I did, but I still thank my friend greatly for inviting us to that hayride, because that night started a series of events that has led me to where I am today. I don't think he thought of it as trickery; He was simply trying to help a friend.
While I do think we could try to do more for other people and I don't always agree with what is said there, I still believe it's a really good church with some really good people.
Just thought I'd clear that up a bit!
♥, A.
Life Purposes
Recently, my youth group has started studying about our life purposes and what God means for us to do. It's been REALLY great so far. I've always been curious as to what my purpose in life could be. Our youth leader gives us a list of questions, which we are supposed to take home and answer. She doesn't want us to just write whatever, though; She really wants us to think hard about them.
So far we've had 2 rounds of questions. The first round was fairly simple and didn't take that much time to do. They were deep, but not too intimidating. They didn't answer my question, either. It wasn't until we got the 2nd batch of questions that I was starting to get seriously amazed.
I had been praying to God to reveal to me what my purpose in life could be. I prayed that I wouldn't miss it if He showed me. I was so scared that I wouldn't have a purpose. I'm the sort of person who NEEDS to be needed. I knew that God has a reason for everyone, but I was still having my doubts.
Anyways, one night after we got these new questions, I was sitting in bed, with my notebook and the questions laid out in front of me. Before I began to write, I bowed my head and I prayed to God. I asked Him to show me what my purpose is, and I asked Him to help me to answer those questions. I put my pencil to the paper, and the words just began to flow out. I couldn't stop writing. Everything seemed to clear and obvious to me. I began to notice that I was using the words "helping" and "inspiring" a lot. I also had wrote down that my friends say that I'm very caring, comforting, and uplifting.
It was then that it just sort of hit me; God wants me to help and inspire people. He wants me to help people emotionally, physically mentally, and maybe even spiritually someday. He wants me to make those in need and/or suffering feel loved, understood, needed, wanted, better, and safe. It made so much sense! I've already been through enough of those type of situations to know that I could handle them. I knew that I could help people, but I had never considered that to be a purpose in life.
I'll still keep my eyes and heart open, and listen for Him to speak again, but I really believe that God told me my purpose(or at least hinted at what it could be) that night.
Please keep me and my youth group in your prayers as we continue our study!
♥, A.
So far we've had 2 rounds of questions. The first round was fairly simple and didn't take that much time to do. They were deep, but not too intimidating. They didn't answer my question, either. It wasn't until we got the 2nd batch of questions that I was starting to get seriously amazed.
I had been praying to God to reveal to me what my purpose in life could be. I prayed that I wouldn't miss it if He showed me. I was so scared that I wouldn't have a purpose. I'm the sort of person who NEEDS to be needed. I knew that God has a reason for everyone, but I was still having my doubts.
Anyways, one night after we got these new questions, I was sitting in bed, with my notebook and the questions laid out in front of me. Before I began to write, I bowed my head and I prayed to God. I asked Him to show me what my purpose is, and I asked Him to help me to answer those questions. I put my pencil to the paper, and the words just began to flow out. I couldn't stop writing. Everything seemed to clear and obvious to me. I began to notice that I was using the words "helping" and "inspiring" a lot. I also had wrote down that my friends say that I'm very caring, comforting, and uplifting.
It was then that it just sort of hit me; God wants me to help and inspire people. He wants me to help people emotionally, physically mentally, and maybe even spiritually someday. He wants me to make those in need and/or suffering feel loved, understood, needed, wanted, better, and safe. It made so much sense! I've already been through enough of those type of situations to know that I could handle them. I knew that I could help people, but I had never considered that to be a purpose in life.
I'll still keep my eyes and heart open, and listen for Him to speak again, but I really believe that God told me my purpose(or at least hinted at what it could be) that night.
Please keep me and my youth group in your prayers as we continue our study!
♥, A.
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