Joy Comes in the Morning

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Since this winter there has been one promise from the Bible that has stuck with me and come to mind more than any other:  "...pain may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning."  Psalm 30:5

 God has sent it to me during many personal situations, as well as in times when I should share it with others who are struggling.  It fills me with hope that I do not have to stay down in the dumps.  When I put my faith in His promises that there is good to come, it never fails.  Then when I have been through the battle, I have a testimony that I can use to encourage others when they are down.  I hate the trials when they happen, but I am so thankful for the lessons they teach me, strength I gain from overcoming, and opportuinities to share with others that they give me.

 

add lyrics by Newsboys in Your Love Never Fails

Sometimes joy comes in the most unexpected or simple ways.  This picture, for example, was taken one morning before school when I had had a really rough morning at home.  I was starting the day off in a really bad mood!  As I pulled into my neighborhood friend's driveway to pick her up for Bible Study, my heart was lifted at this beautiful sight.  It was just a blessing to see these cute little cows grazing behind her house as the sun was rising.  It may sound silly, but at that moment, it made my day.

This was during the region 3200 race that I won for the second year in a row.  This spring was a rough one for me because of school stress and so much more, but the joy of the Lord always kept me going!  Even when I would have a bad race or practice, I could always find strength to keep on trucking.

Two different years, two different uniforms, two different locations, one goal and One God.

If you want to hear a little more about these two pictures from region this year, let your mouse take a detour for a minute.

There is this awesome social media account that I've mentioned before called Daily Bible Verses that you should check out on instagram and Twitter!  I have found so much encouragement from the verses and quotes shared on there and I am sure you will find something that speaks to you, too.  I also think it is great to have positive things like this included in your news feed so that it helps keep your mind fresh while you also look at the other things you follow.

***As a matter of fact, this is just one awesome and totally current example of how God is always working in our lives!  I love to experiece these moments, and love sharing about them, too!  As I was typing this post, I went to the DBV instagram page so that I could copy and paste the hyperlink, and look what the most recent picture was:

Is that crazy or what?!  God never ceases to amaze me.

This one was posted by DVB a while back.

klove's instagram page also posts lots of similar quotes and verses of enocouragement.

 

There is also a song that gets stuck in my head whenever I think of this verse.  It is so upbeat and makes me want to dance!  It's called Your Love Never Fails by the Newsboys.

Here's just a sample of the lyrics:

 

I know I still make mistakes
You have new mercy for me everyday
'Cause Your love never fails

You stay the same through the ages
Your love never changes
There may be pain in the night
But joy comes in the morning

...

And when the oceans rage
I don't have to be afraid
Because I know that You love me
Your love never fails

You make all things work together for my good

 

Back in the spring when I found this picture, it inspired this post.  It also gave me the idea to make my own version of this picture, because I love my morning coffee!   Earlier this week, I decided that now was the time.  I was going to stop putting it off for "another day" and was determined that I was going to get it done!

Here is my homemade morning joy:

Jesus

coffee

vanilla bean espresso almond butter pancake

 

No matter how restless a night may be, painful or discouraging a day you've had, daunting the tasks behind or ahead, each day is a new one, and God promises that He will uplift and renew your spirits if you simply surrender your mind to His peace.

 

Pancake Party Tradition

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 I'm choosing this one as the next post to update from my drafts because I am pumped about having three friends over tomorrow for breakfast!  We are changing things up, though, having waffles instead of pancakes!  I just got a waffle iron this morning, so we are going to put it to use right away!

Chantal, Cherie, Katlyn, and I have made it a tradition that we have a pancake breakfast together sometime while we are out of school during the winter.  This was our New Year's celebration!  Last year, we did the same day, too, so it was an anniversary!  However, that day we ran first, but this time we all did our own thing as we were all on a cross training time instead.

Another tradition of eating at my house is taking an action shot.  Behold our food-in-the-mouth photo!

If you don't know about the fancy cupcakes that the twins make, you will someday.  They will have a cupcakery, bakery, catering business or something!  As a best friend and almost-neighbor, I get the special privilege of taste-testing all their creations!  This one has a new peanut butter butter cream icing with mini dark chocolate chips!

Katlyn felt like she had been slacking on her core, so we decided that we would all work together to get stronger while we waited on our pancakes to cook!  Katlyn led us in some pushups then squats.

You know they are your true friends when you aren't embarassed to do pushups in front of them.  Let's be honest; there are few people who have a pretty pushup.

The next day I took some of that amazing icing and added it to my pancake topping!

October, aka the Busiest Month of the Year

So as you can see, I am very behind on sharing things.  Life is crazy!

At least I can say that I never really get bored.  October begins all the holiday festivites, leading into my favortie three months of the whole year.  There are three major holidays, super smells and foods, cross country season is really getting down to the good stuff, and there is just so much to do.  It's also the month of my birthday!  Here's some stuff that filled my October.

Our cross country team always has a Halloween party with a dress-up theme and games.  This year's theme was old people, and we had some great participation!

Here at my dinner table, we made old granny faces as our pose for this photo!  We love this party for the fun costumes, but also for the food!  We do chili and soup buffet, which are my favorite!  We were all so excited for what everyone would bring to eat.

Old folks cause trouble, too.

Katlyn, one of my funniest friends, just by her natural self, made a big saggy butt!

One of my life long best friends parents own our TCBY, and they just opened up a new store, that is fancy and includes self serve.  The night before it opened, they had an exclusive "party" and we got all the free frozen yogurt we wanted!  My friend Britt and I were super pumped.  I am glad I found someone almost as excited about frozen yogurt as I am.  We just kept going back to refill our cups!

The day before the region meet, we had a shorter run, so Cherie took her phone and we took some goofy selfies.  This was my favorite!

As I say, there are a few comics that relate to my life so well!  Mutts is one of them, and this is one of their days that was "Johnny on the spot!"  (As my mom likes to say)  I eat pumpkin all the time, in many ways.

The region meet comes with tradition.  Our race is around 1:40 each year, so we get to miss school.  Coach Farmer takes us to a nearby park, and we have a picnic lunch and hang out for a little while before heading to the race.

One of my teammates, who knows my love for Peanuts and obviously running sent me this that day!

At the region meet, our boys team wanted to qualify for state so badly, but came up short. It has been a long time since they have qualified, but this year they were really set on that goal, and I am still very proud of how they came together like brothers for support through thick and thin this year.

This girl is just a freshman, but I believe that she will be a top runner in our state very soon!  She really looked up to me at meets this season, and she wanted a picture together this day. She qualified for state, and I enjoyed getting to talk to her and answer her questions and give her some advice. 

Adam is just a beast. I'm glad we've gotten to be champs at several meets these past couple years.  We have done lots of record setting, including this day! He has recently committed to run for Georgetown!  I'm blessed to know several of the country's top runners came out of East Tennessee. 

So I like purple and this outfit. Now, earrings, bracelt, shorts, shirt letters, socks...purple. 

I was the only one in the parking lot at the park before practice one nasty rainy day, so I sent mom and dad this picture saying that "I'm ready to run with all my friends."

October 14th is one of my close friend and teammate's birthday, Emily, but also the birthday of my favorite professional runner, Ryan Hall!  I tweeted him and was surprised to get a favorite from him!

During homecoming week at school, we had book character day. Can you guess who I am?  Junie B. Jones the party animal!  Matching the book cover perfectly!

Pancakes...ah my favorite breakfast food when I need a hearty one. This was after a super long run one Saturday morning. Almond butter banana with almond butter banana honey glaze. Pumpkin seeds add a nice touch, too. 

New drink!  I had heard that pomegranate is good for muscle recovery, but I had only eaten one in my life. After I found this at the grocery stairs, I decided to save it for after a race, and I drank it down after region. Yum!

Stuff I've Been Up To Lately

It has been a while since I've had any time to be on my laptop since school has started back!  So here are some things that I've wanted to share that I saved as drafts until I had a chance to tell all about it.

This was our first day back to school.  We had a 2 hour delay, so I ran with Dad before cleaning up and getting ready for school!  It was about 27 degrees at 5:45 when we started.

I've been loving some Pieces candies lately!  I got my mom some York Pieces for Christmas, and I've been eating them, too!  York, Heath, and Reeses Pieces make fantastic pancakes!

One Friday after school my friend Katlyn came home with me, and we went for a run from my house and back.  Then we each made our own half of a pizza and baked it! 

Yum, yum, and fun, fun

The next day, Saturday, I went over to the country club to help decorate for the Sub-Deb hosted formal.  It looked like Christmas in there!

AP Psychology is one of the two AP classes I am in this semester.  I think it is going to be very interesting!

Dad takes me to Cataloochee almost every weekend during the winter so we can get the use out of our snow ski season passes.  The town of Maggie Valley is small, but cute!  I love little areas like that.  They have a shopping strip down the main road that has almost every store having ice cream.  I spotted one with a Blue Bell Ice Cream sign next to its own sign, so I got Dad to take me on our way home one Sunday afternoon.  This store had all kinds of treats and goodies, and of course the ice cream.  It was also next to a coffee shop I hope to go into one day!

This picture is a little blurry, but in person, it looked amazing!  From my driveway Friday morning, you could see the moon through the trees so pretty.

Tonight on BET the movie Glory Road was just on.  I love that movie; it is such a great true story.  I thought this was a fantastic quote from the coach of the Texas Western Championship team.

There's also my Twitter if anyone wants to follow!

@makenzie_jones

 

At 9:00 tonight on ABC Family another fantastic movie is coming on-The Blind Side!

 

"The old has gone; the new has come!" 2 Cor 5:17

"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has gone; the new has come!"

  2 Corinthians 5:17

Although I'm not big on changing a whole bunch just for New Years (because any moment is a God-given opportunity to change), I thought this would be a great verse for the new year!  When you accept Christ into your heart, He makes you completely new.

This has been the best Christmas break I have ever had, and New Years also lived up to the standard!  On December 31st, I got to do something I have been wanting to do for over a year; I had a pancake party!  I texted 3 of my best running friends the day before to ask if they wanted to go for a run then have pancakes, so they headed over!  (Katlyn was getting over a cold, so she didn't run, but she met us for breakfast.)  Chantal, Cherie (who live within walking distance), and I ran down the highway towards town and back for around 7.6 miles.

Here we all are in our new shoes!  (and black tights.  We didn't even plan that.)

Mine are on the left, Chantal on top, Cherie right, Katlyn bottom.  Part of my shoe actually glows in the dark, but I haven't gotten to try it out yet.

My new griddle!  This is one of my Christmas gifts.  I made us each 2 big pancakes.  Chantal, Cherie, and I had Recees Pieces pancakes topped with peanut butter (I also had honey and sugar free syrup), and Katlyn chose York Pieces pancakes.  I love this griddle, because it is big, fast, and easy to clean.

Here we are about to dig in!

I am so blessed to have these girls.  Every time we get together, we have so many laughs, encouragement, and uplifting feelings!  These are girls that I can trust, and we can help each other grow in our faith.  When I'm with them, I have no worries or bad feelings about what I'm doing.  It is so important to have friends like this in your life to help keep you on track!

At my house, it has become "tradition" in a way over the past few years that when the cross country girls meet for food at my house (for example, my birthday), in our pictures for making memories, we always do a silly one with food in our mouths!

On New Years Eve, my friends the Wolfenbargers always invite us to party with them.  The party is either at their house or another house in their neighborhood, the Paxton's (which is where it was this year).  Daniel Paxton, the man of that house, is one funny man!  This is one of my long-time best friends, Noah.

This game, The Game of Things, is what we spent most of our time between our late eating "dinnerish" and desserts and the ball drop doing.  It is similar to Apples to Apples in that their is a reader who announces the category, then the everyone submits a corresponding response.  However, this game gets funnier, because the responses aren't already provided, but you write in your own!  We got many laughs out of this for sure!

After being up until around 1:30 the night before, on New Years Day I slept until 11:00, when Sophie came in and wanted to cuddle (more for her satisfaction than mine, obviously from all her purrrring).  Once I finally got up and did some core workouts, Dad and I went to the park for a run.  Dad doesn't usually like to run there because of the uneven surface and falling and ankle-spraining hazard, so it is a special occasion when he goes with me, even though he unfortunately can't keep up anymore since I have been in high school.

It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and not too cold either, especially in the sun!  I got in a nice, long run, while Dad's was a bit shorter.  It was fun getting back out to the park since I have been out of the habit since cross country ended.

By the time I got home, stretched, and ready to eat "breakfast," it was after 2:00!  I had some pumpkin and cream cheese-topped waffles and an apple then got to work.  I am still celebrating Christmas, so I watched Christmas Vacation while I worked on putting everything onto my new 2014 calendar!  

Since last year, I have gotten the Peanuts "Love is..." calendar.  This is another one of my Christmas presents!  It has a sweet saying and picture for each month, and it also comes with stickers to correspond with various events throughout the year.  This is the January picture!