Something Daring!

Today my friend Andrea and I will do something... But not just any something... Something...DARING! That's right, we are going to get our ears pierced for a second time! This is something that I've always secretly wanted to do but never had the guts or the real motivation to. But now that Andrea is with me, I think I am finally ready :) We are just going to let people notice the change, there's no need to tell anyone what we've done...haha I feel like a rebel, against what or who? I'm not sure... :)

Christmas!

It's Christmas day and things have been very busy. Started off the day right reading the Christmas story from the Bible and then opening gifts with my family at 8am. Followed with some frantic turkey preparation to get it into the oven by 10am so that we could make it to church for 11am. I've got to say that worshipping the Lord at church today was absolutely wonderful :) I am truly filled with joy! After church came some more frantic food prep and because Grandma was not able to join us for Christmas, it was up to me to make her cabbage rolls, which turned out pretty good if I do say so myself :). I'm looking forward to spending some more quality time with the family watching Lord of the Rings extended edition and just chillaxin before another week of work at Canadian Tire. Praise the Lord for His love and Jesus Christ for His sacrifice :) I am truly blessed!

If You Want To Walk On Water

A book that I just finished reading called, "If You Want To Walk On Water, You've Got To Get Out Of The Boat" had a really good quote "...in the real issues of life, we are not just waiting around--we are waiting on God. Therefore we can trust his wisdom and timing. We can wait with confidence. Because waiting reminds us that we are waiting for someone, the single most important activity in waiting is prayer. Prayer allows us to wait without worry." I am always waiting for something in life and patience is hard to come by so this quote really gave me a positive new perspective on waiting.

Stress or Trust?

This week has been absolute chaos for me, but by the grace of God, I had peace. Earlier in the week it seemed like I would not have time for anything or anyone because there was simply so much to do. Classes, baking over 1000 cookies, planning a Christmas party, writing two papers. Yeah, I was definitely on the verge of being stressed for sure. Then, in my devotions before this chaotic week began, God reminded me of His faithfulness. Philippians 4:6-7 "do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." God always keeps His promises and when I came before Him in prayer, trusting Him with my upcoming chaotic week, He delivered me from my anxiety and everything worked out great! Philippians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice."

Sustained

I went out with four friends and we watched Captain America (good movie by the way) and after the movie we decided that we would go out in minus 30 degrees celcius, snow and all, and build a campfire to enjoy. Well, it took awhile, but we got the fire started and by then most of our hands and feet were freezing. It was then that I discovered that I could unfreeze my hands and feet by running around. Unfortunately, the problem with this method of warming up is that you have to continue running in order to stay warm and I know for a fact that I cannot run forever. This reminded me of a spiritual lesson that I have been learning when it comes to my daily life, God sustains me and keeps me alive and I need to rely on Him because there are so many things that I am finding I cannot possibly do on my own. I am reminded of Isaiah 40:30-31, "Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; bu they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." Thank you LORD!

What's a Girl To Do?

Something that I've always wondered as a Christian woman is, what do I do when I get feelings for a guy? Technically if we really understand our roles as women, pursuit of dating relationships is not part of them. Now the problem with feelings is that regardless of whether or not we want to show the guy that we are interested, our actions will reflect it anyways, it's just an unfortunate part of life, or fortunate depending on your situation. After just recently dealing with some feelings that God has graciously taken from me after I surrendered them to Him. I wondered, well if this happens again, what am I supposed to do about it? A Christian website called boundless.org has lots of good and helpful advice thankfully and I want to share it with you. The first question when I get feelings for someone is naturally, does he like me back? The answer makes sense, if we have to ask this question, he probably doesn't because like girls, guys tend to show their affection naturally, we can't help it, it's virtually impossible to avoid. So what do we do with our new found feelings? Well first of all, we as women have a responsibility to protect our hearts and be wise with them. "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life" - Proverbs 4:23 If we have feelings for someone who is not pursuing us, it would be unwise for us to indulge in those feelings. Song of Songs puts it this way, "Do not awaken love before it so desires." As a generation of women drunk on chick flicks, we want romance to happen so badly we allow ourselves to fantasize about relationships that have no founding. So my solution? Personally, it's a mixture of the information above, being wise with my heart and surrendering my feelings to God. I've discovered that if I really desire God above all else, I will choose to not let silly distractions like feelings get between us. Besides, if we do act upon our feelings, we are likely to be left broken-hearted. Patience in this season of life must be something that we as women must learn. Yes, we will make mistakes but God always works despite them so I will put my trust in Him alone. :)

Blessed...Again!

Having just got back from family vacation and freaking out because I thought that I was not going to have enough money from school, God surprises me again and reminds me that He is in control and is watching out for me. First, my employer allows me to work some extra hours no problem, then I get an unexpected paycheck, then my employer pours out some compliments about my work ethic and my day was brightened. I feel encouraged to know that people do see my hard work and recognize my personality because they are seeing my efforts for Christ and I definitely am going to have more than enough money for school! Just another time for God to remind me not to worry! Thank you Lord!

Blind To The Blessings

Lately I have found my attitude towards certain parts of life to be quite negative. Being very good at hiding my feelings inside, I don't show this negativity to many people. Discontentment has snuck into my life once again and it feels like it's here to stay for awhile. I know that God expects us to be content with what we have because He has provided everything I need and more but this world constantly nags me to want the next best thing and I become blind to how blessed I already am to have all that I have. It's really disappointing but it's something for me to focus on now and hopefully overcome soon. Thank you Lord for your many blessings, which include wisdom and encouragement from your Word. Philippians 4:11-13

Working With A Higher Purpose

So I am currently working at Canadian Tire in the hardware department and sometimes it is the hardest place to spend my time in because it is simply boring. I find myself really discouraged by this and that makes the days even longer. I was reading a book today called "The Practice of Godliness" by Jerry Bridges and I realized that if my desire is to become a more godly woman, I need to be working diligently, being aware of the people around me and do my best to help develop the fruit of the Spirit in my daily life. The first step of improvement for me is to be focusing on constantly maintaining a positive attitude and seeking to follow the example of Christ in my conduct. This is by no means an easy task but by the grace of God I know that I can lean on Him to be my strength to get it through the hardest work days as He has consistently been doing. Thank you Lord!

Hangin' With Jess!

So today I got to hang out with one of my best friends and her name is Jessica (yes, we have the same name! It's totally cool!) and we went a few places today but I'm going to tell you about the best part only. Ok so we went to Home Outfitters to smell candles and we made some amazing discoveries! So the ones that smell like freshly cleaned laundry are the nice, subtle smells that make you feel at peace (we liked those ones the best). The candles that smell like food (vanilla cupcake, strawberry buttercream, cinnamon and sugar... etc.) are the ones that we need to stay away from because they just make us hungry because they smell sooo good! There was one candle in particular called midsummer's night that smelled (no lie) like man. Like it was truly a man candle, and it was black in colour. So before we left the store, Jess and I decided that we should probably actually buy a candle because we spent like an hour smelling them all and we decided on one called pink sands, and we both recommend it highly. It is now going to be my morning devotional time scented candle and I am going to love it!

Highest Call Tour!

Wow, I can't believe that school is already over! I got back about two weeks ago from tour with a band called Highest Call from school. I can only say that God has blessed me tremendously through that opportunity and I am so thankful for what He has done. Each of the band members has impacted me in their own way and all have been great (you guys are awesome if you ever end up reading this :) ) influences on me. If there was any conflict in the band, I never saw it or it was dealt with very well and we all supported and encouraged each other faithfully throughout the year. Being the youngest on the team (I'm the only one not in their twenties) I felt kind of like I didn't really belong at first but as the year went on I felt more comfortable and it was all because of the band and the way that they treated and valued me. Anyways to give some tour details, we played pretty much the same set every night for the two weeks of tour and the most challenging thing for me was to really focus my heart on worshipping God and not just going through the motions each night. A great blessing on tour was the billets, (thank you all if you ever read this, we were truly blessed by you!) although it was hard to get to know them for one night and then leave the next morning, it was really awesome to see how caring all these wonderful people were, they really provided well for us (I don't think I've ever eaten as much food in two weeks as I did on tour!). Now I am settling back into home life for the Summer and looking forward to going back to PRBI in the Fall :) . Praise the Lord!!

Back to Bible College

Yes, Christmas break has been long and restful but it's almost time to go back to College for the second semester. The first semester was great, I met lots of awesome people and got lots of great opportunities to grow in my relationship with God. There were also some challenges that I faced but God has faithfully carried me through. I am not sure how I feel about going back because I know that I will definitely miss home, especially my church family. But God has a plan and He will continue to lead me to where He desires me to go. It is when I wake up each morning that I know that God is not finished with me and His plans are far greater than anything that I can ever imagine...I am so excited for life!