Learning to Live THE Life

It's been a while since I have written any new blogs with the hectic pressures of school this year, but we've had a week and a half of snow days now, and I am full of things to share!  God has just been teaching me so much lately, and my heart is just busting to let others know of these beautiful things, too.  I am so thankful for all this time that we have had away from school; it has done wonders for my soul.  I've taken time to relax, clean, organize, cook, create, run for fun, study, try to catch up on school work, and actually do some things that I want to do.  Did I mention relax a little?  That was previously a foreign word not in my vocabulary.

 

Last night after my little Bible study in Galatians, I wrote down that my goal for today was to share some of these things that God has shown to me.
"Anyone who receives instruction in The Word must share all good things..."  Galatians 6:6
I mean, really, what good is all this if I keep it to myself?  I love having things, material and otherwise, to enjoy, but I also think of the quote I have kept in mind ever since I heard Mark Hall say it at a Casting Crowns concert last spring.  "We're not blessed so we can have, we're blessed so we can give."
  I'm not sure where to start, so I'll start with something broad...life.  That could go anywhere!

 

LIFE

Something we all strive for.  Obviously we all have life.  We're here.  Not dead.  But not just any life.  We want a good life, full, satisfying, exciting, joyful life.  We may work and work every day to do everything to make life all that we want it to be, but is it really working? 
There is this cycle that I get a picture of from Psalm 37:4
"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."

The more I make it a point to find joy in pleasing the Lord, the more joyful I become.  Then I want to do more for Him.  The more time I spend in His Word, the more I want to read and learn from it. 
LIFE is one of those things that is a deep desire of my heart.  I just want to enjoy my life!  I love it!  This led me to use the little directory thingy in the back of my Bible to look up verses about life.  I found some really encouraging verses that motivated me to change the focus of my life and to just uplift my heart in general.  After going through all those, I chose my favorites to redecorate my dry erase board in my room.

Aside from these, here are some other things that the Bible says about life:

 

-If you want to love life and have a lot of good times, what should you do? >>>Watch your mouth.  Turn from evil, but not only turn from it, but instead turn to good and go after peace. (Psalm 34:12-14)

 

-Think time goes by fast?  God will show you that it does.  Our lives are passing so quickly each day. (Psalm 39:4-5)  This reminds me to consider what I put my time into.

 

-In this dark and doomed world, is there hope to find the right things to do?  >>YES.  The Word lights up the darkness and shows us how to correct our wrongs and live a right life. (Proverbs 6:23)

 

-For a long time, I have always loved the part of the Sermon on the Mount about not worrying.  I am a worry-wart, that's why.  I usually go to the passage in Matthew 6, but this time I studied the account in Luke 12.  I could write an entire book just on this passage and how it has related to and changed my life at different points throughout my years.  I won't make you read through all that!  (Think to yourself, "Shew, thank goodness")  Originally, I had just noted verse 22 "I tell you, do not worry about your life..."  but when you find a good verse, it is usually a good idea to read around it, and you may find words even better than what you first saw!  One thing that messes me , up is that I think too much.  I want to have things "under control" but that is dumb.  Thinking of myself too much takes away from God's plans.  I get too set on my own plans and can't see what He has placed right in front of me!  If God daily makes the earth, sun, night and day, repeat perfectly to let all the earth work and animals thrive, why do I worry about myself getting a living?  If He takes so much care into these things we so often overlook, why do I doubt that my own life, the life of His dear child (1 John 3:1), would come full circle?  Jesus specifically says "DO NOT WORRY ABOUT YOUR LIFE."  My mental effort should be put toward the things that He is working for His glory.  (Philippians 4:8)  Not only is that pleasing to Him, but it refreshes my mind as well.  You can also infer from this passage that the less you set your heart and mind on material things, the less likely you are to be disappointed.  Things in the world can be taken away, but heavenly treasures will never disappear.  That's what eternal means.  If we are living in worry and chasing after our own pleasures, we are living the exact same way as those who do not know God at all.  Worry and worldly pursuits don't set an example for unbelievers. 

 

-Are you letting Satan win in your life?>>>You may think, "No!  What a terrible thing!  Of course I'm not letting Satan win in my life!" but you may want to reconsider.  Do you ever feel depressed, unmotivated, pessimistic, stressed, torn down, hateful, vengeful, angry, and just disgusted with life or a situation, or anything similar to this?  That's Satan.  God doesn't want us to feel that way.  Satan wants these negative emotions in our lives to produce negative actions.  God has come so that we can make every moment, no matter what the circumstances, a moment of opportunity.  (John 10:10)

 

-This is one of the verses from my board, but it just makes my heart happy. "...a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life." (1 Timothy 6:17-19) This is something that can't really be explained.  True life and feelings that come from God are indescribable.  That's how He works.  But when you experience it, you know.  This passage addresses "the rich in this present world," but I believe that it doesn't just mean wealthy as in money.  We can all be rich in our own rights.  Whether that be talent, family, friends, a job, awards, creativity, intelligence, beauty, peace, or anything really, we can't put our hope in these riches.  Only God's riches are the ones that can sustain us through until we meet Him in heaven.  By being rich in the things of Christ, we will be prepared for whatever the world throws at us.  We will have what we need stored up in our hearts so that we can have this true life at all times.

 

God has given us so much in this world that we can use for His glory, so many things that He gives for our enjoyment!  All it takes is our dedication to having this attitude.

Putting my Birthday Presents to Good Use

Coming back from my birthday weekend, I made great uses of some of my new birthday gifts!  I wore one of the outfits my mom got me, too.

My friends know me so well!  It's such a blessing to get to spend time with my favorite girls so often.  It's a good thing we love each other because we see each other multiple times a day on average 6 days a week.

Azalia got me the Starbucks coffee mug, which I am in love with.  It has a removable outer covering so I can decorate it any way I want.  So now I can have a coffee cup for any and every situation!  I have already come up with endless ideas that I can't wait to get going on!  This week, I put a verse on one side that says:  "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."  Psalm 37:4.  Around the other sides and back I put a Build-a-Bear jack-o-lantern sticker along with some Peanuts Halloween stickers, a Snoopy and Charlie Thanksgiving picture, and a Life is Good Moose.

The Clif Bar is from one of my most thoughtful friends ever, Katlyn.  She pays so much attention to what people truly love.  She knows I love anything and everything pumpkin, so she got me a Spiced Pumpkin Pie Clif Bar.  This thing was fantastic!  I also have inside my coffee mug another gift from Katlyn:  Pumpkin Spice coffee!  Katlyn also has chickens, so she brings me eggs.  I had one of those with my breakfast!

Katlyn was the one to introduce me to this cute little grocery store called The Fresh Market.  It is kind of a fancy store, but I just love the atmosphere.  They have a huge area of all kinds of foods that you can portion out for yourself.  These items include candy, chocolate, nuts, grains, trail mixes, and bookoos of coffee flavors, just to name a few.  We have one of these stores in Knoxville.

Here, above and below are a couple pictures of the seasonal greatness that Clif Bar has produced.

Sleepless Morning=Blessing in Disguise

I was discouraged when I woke up this morning from a great night's sleep despite the fact that I was in a tent, because I still had 3 hours before we had to be awake.

It is the Sunday morning of Camp Your Face Off, my church's fall youth retreat.  I didn't get there until around 6:00 Saturday evening because of a cross country meet in Bristol.  I was upset because I had to miss all the fun on Friday night and then the service on Saturday morning, so laying there with all kinds of thoughts was not good.  I now feel bad for taking the service the night before for granted, but after being awake for an hour, it hit me.  God convicted me big time.  I was being so selfish right then.  I felt like I was wasting my time.  All these scriptures and notes I looked back at opened my eyes to see the sin I had inside me at that very moment.  To be honest, I felt so stupid.  God humbled me this morning.  On a beautiful morning, I had some time to myself to be humbled before anyone was awake.  Almost in tears, I pulled out my Bible and my notes from the previous night.  The speaker, Jay, read from Galations 5:1, 16-25.  I was feeling that war that he spoke of inside me like crazy.  Those conflicting thoughts are evidence of Christ in me.  "For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.  They are in conflict with one another, so that you do not do what you want." (vs 17)  I then found a verse falling out of a page I had written on a notesheet.  It was 1 John 2:15-17, "Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For everything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."  Holy cow, that's no coincidence.  This is exactly what I was doing.  I was upset for one thing because one of my guy friends didn't ask me about how the cross country meet went.  The reason I wanted him to ask was so he could hear how "great" I did.  Selfish.  I also wanted to do the fun things at CYFO that I wanted to do.  It's not about me!  It's about fellowship and learning about and praising God!  I just had the best day and was planning on the weekend just getting better, and there I was miserable.  I needed a renewed spirit.  God woke me up this morning to open my eyes to things I needed to change.  This weekend was still a blessing, and He had things for me to learn. After some praying and reading in Galatians where we had been this weekend, Hebrews where we were in our regular study, and looking up verses I still want to look into, I found a new light to the day.  Next week's chapter in Hebrews was titled A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God.  Again...whoa.  God's word never fails.