God gives me what I don't deserve

God has made me realize something today, and for you to truly understand it I'm going to create a scenario for you.

Imagine that you and one of your very best friends have recently grown apart from each other. They are too busy for you. They have better, more important things to do than hang out with you. The two of you still talk occasionally, but it's always about them, their problems, their life.

They ask you to do a big favor for them, something that will relieve them and take a lot of weight off of their shoulders. You, being the good friend you are, do the favor for them anyway even though you all aren't as close.

You do the favor and they feel a lot better. You were glad to help them out. However, they still rarely communicate with you. In fact, they don't even thank you for doing the favor. How do you feel about this? Disappointed.

I'm positive God has felt this toward me the past couple weeks. If you didn't catch along, God is the good friend in this story, and  I'm the friend who asks for the favor. And does nothing in return.

During the past month or so, I have experienced mass amounts of stress. I have been crazy busy. And somewhere along the way, I started pushing God to the side. I wasn't spending time with Him, and when I prayed, it was usually begging for help. Crying out to relieve my stress. Asking for some peace in my life.

Of course God, being the awesome god He is, answered my prayer. I'm sure he wasn't happy that I was putting other things in my busy life above Him, yet He loves me so much He still gave me what I needed.

Today, after being stress free for a few days, I just realized it was God that brought me through that struggling time. I was nearly overwhelmed to the point of tears on a daily basis. Every day I would wake up in a bad mood. I didn't want to feel like that. It was too much to handle. So God pulled me out of that.

I haven't been giving God the attention and time He deserves. I haven't been thanking Him enough for everything He's done for me. Now that I've come to my senses, I'm going to change that. For real this time.

I serve an amazing God that will help me through any storm that may come up in my life. Therefore,  I'm going to do my best to make Him the center of my life, and my first priority.

Thank you God, for loving me and protecting me even when I am straying away from you and don't deserve everything you give me. Thank you for pulling me aside and letting me know I need to get some things straight. Thank you for being my best friend.

<3

Day by day

I'm 16 now. It's about time. I've felt old enough to be 16 for quite sometime.

Turning 16 isn't as great as people make it out to be, but it definitely has been one of my favorite birthdays.

I got a lovely car, [well I got it a couple weeks before but it was still a huge gift!]  and now I can drive it because somehow I actually passed my permit test! And I love driving, just saying:)

Several of my friends surprised with some neat stuff including breakfast, giant cards, brownies, cupcakes, etc.

Our boys basketball team had a big game that night and won, a great ending to a great birthday.

But now it's all over, and I'm trying to figure out what I have to look forward to. Spring break? Summer? Vacations? Getting my license? Golf season?

And.. What is coming up that I'm dreading?

Honestly though, I should probably look at it this way. Each day is special. I can make it anything I want it to be. Just because it's not a holiday or something exciting isn't going on that day, doesn't mean it can't be a super awesome day!

Besides, if I keep anticipating what will happen in the future, I may miss what could be some of the best days of my life.

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself." Matthew 6:34

Each day is a gift. Embrace it first, and worry about tomorrow when it arrives.
:)

Never Say Never

Conformity. It's something many of us are afraid of. We don't desire to be like everyone else. We strive to be different. Unique. Original. We wish to stand out, and not to be just another person in the crowd.

As you read the title of this post, you may have inferred what I'm going to write about. Or, maybe not. But if you did, you might just be one of the many who obsesses over Justin Bieber, a person I swore I'd never be.

"All girls are in love with him; I'm not gonna be like every other girl." Those were my thoughts.

But I began to listen to his music, and I just returned home from watching his movie.. And look where we are now. I'm a belieber.

Am I going to scream and cry over Justin Bieber? Heck to the no. But do I think he is beautiful and has an amazing voice? Most definitely. He worked really hard to get where he is today, and I think he truly appreciates the support he gets from his friends, fans, family, and crew. His story is inspiring; I feel that it has shown many people that dreams really can come true, if you put lots of effort toward your goal.

Whether you like him or not, at least respect him and what he does. You never know, that could be you one day. Never Say Never.

:)

What my life has come to

Dear Teachers,

I have a life.

I do not wish to spend it doing your pointless projects, homework assignments, and essays.

Dear fellow students,

I have a life.

I do not wish to spend it corrupted by your foul actions and language.

Dear friends,

I have a life.

I do not wish to spend it worrying that I may not be able to trust you.

Dear God,

I have a life.

Please, take control of it, I can't handle it on my own.

I don't want it to be consumed by other things.

I need you.

Count your blessings

It's late. And this is going to be really short. But I wanted to blog while I am in this super good mood.

I just want to share how God has blessed me here lately. It seems as if I have been very overwhelmed and maybe just a little drepressed about life. But just when I really could use something to lift my spirits, God shows me His great love and allows me to forget about all my worries. And from this point forward, I am choosing to give those over to Him completely for I know he will take care of it. He has put so many amazing people in my life and I am so blessed, so how could I complain?

I just want to remind everyone to cherish those moments where you are so happy you can't describe it, and don't take them for granted. They are precious gifts from God, and you will often find them when you need them the most.

:)

People: Accept them. Tolerate them.

'

There are two things I feel like a lot of people lack, including myself sometimes. Acceptance and Tolerance.

Imagine that you're walking down the halls at school, and think about all the people that pass by. How often do you see someone, and the first thought that goes through your head is one of the following: "She's such a slut", "I hate him","That girl is so weird", "He's a jerk".

Everyone does this. And usually you can't control your thoughts. But the thing I don't understand is why people have to be so judgemental and hateful. I don't understand why people can't accept people for who they are, or at least tolerate the people they don't particularly like.

Neither one of these is that hard. Tolerance can be as simple as turning the other way when you see someone that you don't get along with, instead of staring them down and giving them a nasty look. Acceptance can be as simple as showing the new kid where their next class is, even if they seem quite different from you.

I know this sounds cliche and corny, but everyone is beautiful and special in their own unquie way. God made everyone exactly as he planned for them to be. Plus, in the bible it says God created man in the image of Himself. Therefore if you are critizing how another man [or woman] looks or acts, you are critizing God.

Of course, people don't always act as God wants them to, but that would be a whole different blog topic. All I'm trying to say is we should try to accept people despite their flaws, because we all have many and we don't want ot,hers to judge us because of our flaws.

Making fun of people and putting them down because they have a quality about them that you don't like isn't going to make them change. The only thing it's going to do is hurt their feelings and make them hate you. Which brings me to my next point.

I'm not trying to say you have to like everyone and be friends with everyone. That is nearly impossible for most people. But you can at least tolerate people. When you come in contact with someone you can't stand, you don't necessarily have to start going off on them and treating them like garbage. All you have to do is put your hatred aside for a few moments until they are gone.

I have friends that practically hate each other and they show it by treating each other wrongly and it kills me inside. Why can't they just just get along, or at least be semi nice to each other?

I can't solve the world's problems or change the people of this world. But I can ask who ever is reading this to accept and tolerate people that are different from you. Show a little love,  and maybe we can slowly turn this world into a better place.. <3

I'll be by your side..

Well, life has thrown a lot of crazy stuff at me lately. "Stressed", "overwhelmed" and "busy" have become very common words in my vocabulary. In fact, I've had so much to do lately, the only time I've found to blog has been right now, in English class at school. I'm supposed to be researching.. Ha yea right. Researching will just be another thing I add to my list of things I've procrastinated on that I will do later.

I have realized I pretty much set myself up for half of the things I'm stressed about. I really need to get my priorities straight. I keep digging myself in a deeper hole and eventually, it's going to get so deep it will take great measures to pull me out. So many problems, weakness, and decisions are taking over my thoughts and I'm not able to focus on the important things. I wish my life wasn't like this, but what's there to do about it?

Luckily, today the biggest decision I've had to make has been whether to have a taco or pizza for lunch. But that's only because I'm putting other more difficult decisions off until later. There's that procrastination again.

I want to get away, I want to move, or take a vacation or something to make me feel carefree. The only time I've have experienced this lately, has been when I'm in the presence of God and worshiping him. Whether it has been Chyrsalis or at FCA, God seems to take me over and I feel surrounded by his love. This is one of the best feelings I have come to know. I don't have to worry about anything because God is there. But the truth is, everywhere I'm at, God is with me. I don't have to be at church to feel the presence of God because His spirit is living inside of me.

I guess what I'm trying to figure out is why I can't get that same feeling of comfort and love when I'm at home, school, or anywhere else that I'm not directly in "God's house". I want to feel like that all the time, and I should. I know I can trust God and he will be by my side every step of the way, no matter where I'm going, no matter what I'm doing, no matter what difficulties I'm having.

I understand this, but I can't seem to apply it to real life. But I'm at least going to try, because I'm in desperate need of some help. I can't do this alone. I've got to let go, and let God.

<3