Let me tell ya bout work crew...

Hello blog readers! It's been quite some time since I've posted on here (as it usually is between posts) but I am back and am particularly excited to write this post about an experience near and dear to my heart: the three weeks I spent on Work Crew for a YoungLife camp called Crooked Creek. I would have liked to have written this sooner, seeing as I've been back from work crew for three weeks now but with starting college and trying to spend time with my loved ones since getting back home, this is the first time I've gotten to sit down and write it. I know it might seem like this post would only be interesting to somebody who was at Crooked Creek or has done work crew or YoungLife, but I assure you that anyone who enjoys hearing about how great our God is will wanna read this! Trying to write this without getting too emotional is going to be difficult, but I'll give it a shot.

I really don't even know where to begin so I guess I will just go chronologically. I'm going to be honest, the first few days sucked. Not gonna sugar coat it or anything...they were tough. My job was called a "tawashie" which meant that every day starting from 8:30am until about 4pm I was scrubbing showers and toilets (yes, that includes urinals), cleaning cabins, pulling hair out of drains, wiping down windows, mirrors, and counters, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, restocking toilet paper and paper towels, pulling gum out of the carpets, taking out the trash, and whatever else needed to be cleaned on the camp grounds. I don't say all those things for you to feel bad for me because it was so worth it and I actually ended up getting satisfaction out of doing all those jobs...I just want to paint a picture to you of why it was so difficult for me the first few days. Besides all the hard work there were multiple other reasons why I struggled so much at first, but God taught me so much through each obstacle and that's what I want to share with y'all...

1. I honestly didn't go into it with the right mind set. All I thought about before work crew was what I could get out of it myself, not what I could do for God and for the campers. I wanted my relationship with God to grow, I wanted to do tons of fun things, I wanted to make lots of friends, and I wanted to have cool stories I could go back and tell people. All of those things definitely happened but they were not the reason God brought me there. He brought me there to serve Him and help His kingdom grow. The campers who come to YoungLife camp are supposed to experience what Heaven could be like one day. Our job as a work crew is to serve them wholeheartedly and proclaim the Gospel through our daily jobs. Those campers' clean cabins and bathrooms might not have been the direct reason they accepted Christ, but it played a role in giving them the best week possible and making sure there was nothing to distract them during their cabin time (which is where they had in depth conversations about their relationships with God with their YoungLife leaders.)

2. I was super homesick because I'm so attached to my family and had never been away from them for more than a week. It was hard knowing they were having fun on vacation without me while I was working my butt off. However, my time away from them taught me to be more thankful for them and appreciative of the time I spend with them. It also taught me that God alone can bring me comfort and is my Heavenly Father who will always protect me and provide for me. As much as I love my family, I can't look to them instead of Jesus for love and comfort.

3. I had never had a job or done chores before. I know I sound super spoiled saying that but it's just that my parents are so awesome and have always provided for me so that I could focus on my school work and activities. I didn't realize how much I took that for granted until I had to do things for myself. I also have a lot more respect for people who do have jobs and do chores all the time and realized that I should start doing those things instead of relying on my parents to do and pay for everything for me.

4. I had a lot of trouble making friends and opening up to people at first so I felt kind of lonely. I was jealous of and intimidated by the girls who were so outgoing and funny right off the bat because I wish I was that way. I was letting my insecurities stop me from making true friendships and leaning on the community around me to lift me up but once I trusted God and began to be myself those same girls that I was jealous of became my best friends. I couldn't have gotten through the long, tough days without the joy and laughter and encouragement the friends I made brought me. They taught me what true community is and what I wanted to find when I went off to college.

5. I was believing the lie that I don't have much to offer God and that since I wasn't doing so great at my job from the start, I was a failure and shouldn't have signed up to be there. Silly me forgot that when God calls us to do something, He will sustain us and equip us to do it. Luckily my work crew bosses showed me a lot of grace when I would mess up and showed me that they believed in me. I realized that by myself, I could not have done a good job at all and honestly was a pretty sucky tawashie but the Holy Spirit within me gave me the strength and energy I needed to work hard and have a good attitude and do the best job I could. At the end of the session my boss told me she was so proud of me and that I improved so much but I knew it had nothing to do with myself and everything to do with God who was working through me.

Like I said, the first few days were tough but they soon got so much better. Once I realized that I was there to serve God and that He picked me to be there and play a part in His plan to bring hundreds of campers to Christ, I was incredibly humbled and my outlook totally changed. I began to be excited to wake up every morning and serve Him with people I loved so much. It was thrilling to be out of my comfort zone of Lubbock, Texas and be in a beautiful place with so many great people who had so many different stories. I loved getting to be myself with them and laugh and dance and cry and work and worship (sometimes terribly because a lot of us including myself were tone deaf) and break rules and just share our hearts with each other. I never experienced anything more beautiful or incredible in my life.

But just as things were going great, I called home one night after the first week had passed and found out that my sweet dog passed away. It was the most unexpected thing considering that she was only 5 years old and was happy and healthy when I left for work crew. Anyone who knows me knows how attached I was to Janet and how special she was to me, but it was hard because the people I was with on work crew didn't understand that and didn't even know her. I spent the whole next day feeling sorry for myself and being so angry that it had to happen while I was at camp; I really just wanted to go home and cry in my mom's arms (pathetic, I know). But of course, God had a plan and drew me closer to Him in that difficult time. While I was vacuuming the next day considering going home to where people understood my pain, I heard God speak to me. He said "MC, you cannot just love me whenever it's easy. I understand your pain more than anyone and want to comfort you." I immediately realized that I shouldn't have been so mad at Him and shouldn't have considered abandoning His plan for me. Now I'm so thankful I was there when it happened so my work and all the joyful people around me could take my mind off the pain and make the grieving process so much easier.

There's so much more I'd love to share but those are the main things God taught me while I was there. I hope you enjoyed reading about my experience but if you got nothing out of this post please get this: nothing will ever make you feel more alive than living a life serving God because that is why you and me and everyone else in the world was created. No matter what hardships or tragedies come your way or no matter how great life is, living for yourself just isn't as awesome as living for God could be! He is the best Father and companion you could find and will always take care of you and bless you if you just surrender yourself to Him. Thanks for reading peeps, love and blessings to each of you. :)

My work crew family

My sweet friend Jade. Her heart for Jesus and ability to make others laugh is so admirable.

My fellow tawashies and laundry girls

My tawashie boss, Cassidy. She was a HUGE blessing.

The housekeeping intern, Jordan. Also a huge blessing.

Some more of my pretty best friends

Gettin down on western night

THE Patrick Burrus. He's pretty neat.

My sweet dog, Janet.

the joyful life

What's up people? Hope everyone is doing great! I'm glad to be back here on my little corner of the internet...days I get to write blog posts are the best days! I'm currently laying in my hammock enjoying a cloudy yet beautiful day and I can't wait to share with y'all! Today's post isn't heavy or super convicting like a lot of my other ones...it's just light and meant to make you feel pumped about life!

I know I've told y'all this before but I have always struggled with having a consistent quiet time. I easily forget how important it is and I'm not reminded of just how crucial it is in my life until I start actually doing it again. Well ever since summer started I have had a consistent quiet time almost every morning and man, has it been incredible!! My life hasn't changed drastically since, but there's been so many little changes in my attitude, my outlook on life, and the way I live out each day that all add up and make me feel so stupid for the times I am too stubborn to have a quiet time. Simply giving The Lord 15 minutes or 30 minutes or an hour out of my day is nothing compared to the way He blesses me in return. All this being said, I just want to take this blog post and share with y'all how He's worked in me since I stopped being a baby about sacrificing time for Him.

First off, the fact that I have been motivated to get out of bed every morning at 9 (not even that early) and take my journal and bible out on my patio for a quiet time has nothin to do with me! Before school ended I realized how bad I had gotten at having quiet times and prayed that God would discipline me to start doing it and would increase my desire to grow in my relationship with Him. Low and behold, He was faithful as He always is in answering my prayer and so yeah that's awesome. 

Anyway, the biggest difference having a quiet time has made in my everyday life has to do with how joyful I am. There's this quote that I've seen a million times that says "We have to choose joy and keep choosing it." While that might be true for some people, I learned that for me it's not that I have to choose joy...it's that I have to choose God. I have to choose Him over looking at my iphone for an hour when I wake up in the morning. I have to choose Him over getting a little more sleep. I have to choose Him over my own sinful desires every single day. And when I do this, joy comes naturally to me. Sure some days are harder than others to be joyful, but when I begin each day with God and devote my day to Him, it really isn't that hard to be joyful. It's so much easier to appreciate the blessings in my life when I have God on my mind and it's also easier to look at problems as a way to grow closer to Him. Before summer started, there was a long period where I barely ever had quiet time and when I did it wasn't very genuine or meaningful. I didn't appreciate my life or enjoy the people around me, but instead I was irritable, worrisome, and negative. I have found that it's hard to be that way when you have the God of all things beautiful and joyful as your best friend. 

I'm glad God answered my prayer and pushed me to start spending time with Him, because ever since I've been living what I call "the joyful life." The joyful life to me is a life where days aren't wasted. Even if a day is spent being lazy, you're thankful that you have time to rest. Or when a day is spent working, you invest yourself into your work and seek out opportunities to glorify God. If a day goes poorly, you end it knowing that tomorrow is a clean slate and that through everything God is still good. If a day goes great, you know who to thank. Every day, good or bad, has little blessings throughout it and you recognize those blessings. You hug those you love tighter and shoot more smiles to strangers. You don't complain about petty things like the weather or the long wait at the Chick Fil A drive-thru. You recognize other people's beauty instead of their flaws and accept the fact that people are different than you. You know that your home is in Heaven and that worrying about worldly things is a waste of time. You don't get caught up on your mistakes but instead soak up God's grace and grow closer to Him in your weakness. When you live knowing how important spending time with God is, you live the joyful life. It isn't going to be perfect but it's the best kind of life you can live.

Thanks for reading! My prayer for you is that you devote time to God everyday and begin to see your life become the joyful life! :)

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

Appropriate Fault in Our Stars quote because the movie rocked.

No sweeter name. No sweeter love.

Hello everyone! Hope all is well with y'all :) This is probably about to be one of my favorite blog posts I have ever written because of the things God has led me to write about so I really hope y'all enjoy it too.

For the past few weeks I have been dwelling on who God really is to me. I've known that I love Him and He loves me and that giving my life to Him was the best decision I ever made but when I was asked a few weekends ago who God really is to me, it was really difficult to put it into words. Since then I've been trying to search for an answer and I've realized that there really isn't a simple answer to that question. God is unlike any person I've met on this earth and His love is unlike any other love I have experienced that I couldn't just say, "He is my father" or "He is my friend."

So here's a little side story that might seem like it has nothing to do with this post but hang in there because I promise it does...kinda. Yesterday was a beautiful day so I decided to take my (morbidly obese) pug on a walk. The first half went great but the second was a nightmare. Every single yard we passed she would stop and lay in the green grass and just would not move. I'd pull on her leash and she would finally get up and walk a little bit but would lay right back down on the next yard. I ended up having to carry this 30 pound dog in my wimpy arms all the way back to my house. Anyway, the reason I bring this up now is that when she would lay down in every patch of green she saw, I was reminded of the Psalms 23:1-3. "The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake."

I wasn't near as gracious to my poor lazy dog as The Lord is to us but I am glad that I was led to this scripture. I'd heard it before but for some reason it really meant something to me this time. God is our master and we are meant to serve Him but when we need rest and when we need to just stop and lie down...He lets us. This made me just stop and think about how beautiful and unique The Lord's love for us is. It's different than what we expect it to be because it is completely different than how the world acts. Here's what I mean by that...

He is my master, but also my friend.

He is my judge, but He loves me regardless of my guilt.

He is my father, but He is also intimately in love with me.

He is my guide, but He lets my mind think on its own.

He is my creator, but He lets me decide what kind of person I want to be.

How beautiful is that? I've experienced love from my parents, my friends, my siblings, the leaders/mentors in my life, boyfriends, my grandparents and so many other different people but none of it compares to the love of Christ. His love is like all the different types of love we experience from the world all mixed up and multiplied by infinity. I will never be able to fathom just how great the Lord's love is for me, but the day I understood that He really did love me unconditionally was the day that everything changed for me. As the moody girl I am, I need different types of love at different times and that's why God never fails me. Because He knows exactly what I need when I need it and when I just turn to Him, I get to experience that most beautiful type of love there is.

I hope that y'all understand just how incredible it is to be loved by a God so complex and beautiful and that you fall in love with who He is. Nothing else compares to experiencing it.

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38, 39

to serve > to be served.

Hello there! I hope everyone is doing well and isn't as sick as I am. Despite my atrocious sounding cough, I've actually enjoyed relaxing the past few days. I've been incredibly busy lately and getting sick was probably the only thing that could make me slow down and take some time to reflect on life. I would like to share with y'all what God has spoken to me during this time of reflection!

Man y'all, I'm selfish. Everyone's selfish, I know, but I can just be so dang selfish sometimes it's sad. Like I said I've been SO busy lately, considering it's spring of my senior year. I get in maybe two quiet times a week and even then they haven't been whole-hearted or genuine. The past few weeks I've just been so wrapped up in all the hype of this world that I was too selfish to take time out of my schedule for the One who gave me life. But as I was laying in bed the other night unable to sleep because of my coughing fits, I realized how empty I felt. I've been packing my days full of all kinds of junk that didn't include Jesus that I hadn't even realized until I was completely still and up way later than the rest of the world that I haven't been happy. I've just been, well busy. 

I started to think about how I've been living and how I've been treating people. I can always tell that I've drifted from God when I start to act how I did before I gave my heart to Him. I realized I've been extremely moody and irritable and getting upset about the most petty things. I had forgotten how beautiful and bountiful the life He has given me is and only focused on what was wrong with my life. I started to pray a simple but earnest prayer. I said, "Lord reveal to me where I've gone wrong. I have trouble sometimes tuning out the world and hearing your voice but Father, I'm begging you to speak to me now." This is what I felt like I heard from Him in response: 

"In order to truly be happy in this life, you have to serve and stop expecting to be served."

I realized that I had stopped looking for ways to serve other people and to serve God and instead just expected everybody else to serve me and cater to my needs and wants. This was the root of my bitterness and emptiness. My selfishness got the best of me because I had stopped spending time with the One who humbles me and drives me to want to serve. And of course I was acting this way right before Easter, a time when we celebrate the fact that a king came into this world as a servant, did nothing His whole life but serve God and serve people, and died a criminal's death for us. Gosh I'm so ungrateful.

I am thankful that I got sick and that God humbled me through it. I am thankful for what He did for us thousands of years ago and I am thankful that my selfish, prideful, sinful self has the chance to spend eternity with the One who serves me daily. My prayer is that I would joyfully serve Him and would let go of my desire to be served.

At the last supper Jesus told His disciples this....

"Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves."

Luke 22:27

"For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:28

He was the greatest among us and did nothing but serve us. Our lives are meant to be spent serving Him right back. Happy Easter everyone!! :)

Your image isn't your mission

Hellllllooo blog reader friends! It has been quite a while since I've been on here but I am glad to be back with something important to say!

So up until a few days ago I felt like I just couldn't stay focused on God. I wasn't very motivated to spend time with Him and kept using my busy schedule as an excuse as to why I was neglecting my quiet time. Every time this happens and when I finally break the routine, I remember how precious and important that time spent in prayer and in the word is! I also realized something that always happens whenever my eyes are not fixed on Him.

When we give our hearts and our lives over to God, our entire purpose in life changes. Before, we are focused on what will make us happy and how we can make life better for us but once the truth of the Gospel is clear to us and we accept it, life is about something totally different. It isn't about us at all anymore. We know that our home is in Heaven and one day we will get to start our eternity there, so not much on earth really matters anymore. Our mission is simple...serve God and serve people. "Me, myself, and I" are nowhere in this equation. Life is about bringing glory to God in all we do and devoting ourselves to whatever He calls us to do. This is awesome to me and I love being reminded of it, because living life this way is so much better. It's actually kind of ironic, when we spend all of our time trying to please ourselves and make things better for us, we end up feeling empty. There is no greater way to live life than to live for something bigger than ourselves and to get to play a part in this incredible, intricate, mysterious, beautiful plan God has for the world.

What sucks are the times when I forget this and start to live for myself. A lot of the time, however, I'm not even really doing what will make me happy...I'm doing what I think will make the people around me happy because in turn, I think that'll make me happy. I am a HUGE people pleaser which is more of a curse than a blessing a lot of the time. When my eyes drift away from my sweet savior and my best friend, I get obsessively preoccupied with my image and the way that I appear to other people.

Sometimes, this means I am very critical about the way I look. When somebody around me calls somebody else pretty, I get upset that I don't look that way. When other girls talk about how "eyebrows can make or break you" I get obsessed with my eyebrows and get upset that they don't look the way ideal eyebrows look. I could go on and on, but the point is I get upset over something as silly and unimportant as eyebrows.

Other times, the image I work so hard to build for myself has to do with my personality and beliefs. Sometimes I get so caught up in looking like a Godly woman from the outside that I don't even think about what that really means and how I should really be acting. Sometimes I think people see me as ditzy and naïve but I just get comfortable with that image and don't want to break character. There are times when people are shocked to hear me voice my opinion because I'm a "shy girl" so I get scared to speak up. Again, I could go on and on.

Images are important to this world, and when I get caught up in things of this world, my image becomes important to me. I think part of it is because I care so much about what the people around me think of me and if they're pleased with me; it'll get to the point where I create several different images for myself and only portray the one that I think the people I'm currently with will want to see. It's easy to be comfortable in an image, even if it isn't necessarily that good. Just feeling like I know who I am and where I belong makes me feel secure and safe.

But I am not called to be secure and safe...I am not called to be gorgeous or to appear to be a Godly woman or a shy girl. Because of what Jesus did for me, I can call myself God's Daughter and I don't have to pretend! That is exactly who I am...God's broken, flawed, beautiful creation and THAT is something to celebrate. It still isn't my mission to feel great about who I am...obviously, that just comes from embracing God's love for me but His love for me isn't just supposed to make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. It should drive me to live everyday in pursuit of Him and His calling for me. His love for me should inspire me to love others that way and to sacrifice my time to serve them. It should push me to try new things and enjoy life on earth because I won't be here long. My mission is not to have the perfect image, it's to serve my perfect God!!

My prayer for myself and all of you is that we will lay down our desire to have the right image and the right appearance. In addition, that we lay down our views of everyone else's image around us. I don't want to be scared to show love to "the Christian-loathing atheist" and I don't wanna feel like I can't have a conversation with the "judgmental hipster." People might not be the way the appear on the surface, which is something we will never learn if we keep putting so much value in our image.

Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Love, Mary Catherine

 

Painting I did for someone that was fitting with this post :)

 

 

Daniel Fast

I've been wanting for the longest time to connect with God in new ways and to learn more about Him and who I am in Him. But the silliest thing that I didn't understand was that in order for new things to happen, I needed to do something I hadn't done before! There's no way anything would change if I kept the same habits and kept living the same way.

A little over three weeks ago, my church challenged it's members to participate in the "Daniel Fast," a 21-day fast modeled after the way Daniel fasted in the bible. After being stubborn and selfish for a little bit, I accepted the fact that fasting was the next step I needed to take in my relationship with God and I am SO glad I did.  The only reason I even want to share with you guys about it is not because I am proud of myself for doing the fast or want you to be proud of me; it was by His power and goodness alone that I was able to do it! There is just no way I could not share with y'all the things God did for me and through me during this time. The most important thing that this experience showed me was how awesome life is when I simply depend on God rather than myself. It's still hard and the problems I have don't just magically go away, but it's so much better to know I can trust Him with everything and that He will take care of me. Learning to depend on Him was the main thing I learned, but each day He taught me something new either through scripture, someone else's words, or a personal experience. I wrote down the main thing I learned each day in my journal and thought I would share! (p.s. I am aware that some of them are very similar...God knows how forgetful I can be but thankfully He makes sure to remind me of things He once taught me when my actions don't show that I remember it)

1. A fast (or any spiritual discipline) isn't meant to make Him fall more in love with you, but to make you fall more in love with Him. Don't be in this to try to make up for recent or past sins.

2. Spending time with the ones God gave you is one of the most fulfilling things; don't take that time for granted (or spend it on your phone).

3. Self-control is vital to living a fulfilling life. What we want in the moment isn't always best for us in the long run.

4. Don't be discouraged by weakness. Let your weakness highlight God's mighty power within you!

5. Complaining or having a negative attitude does no good for you or the people around you. Joyfully submit to the Lord and express that joy to others.

6. Don't spend so much time dwelling on the days ahead of you. You are not promised another day so put all your energy and effort into making the most of the present.

7. Don't turn to worldly things when you feel weak. Christ is the only thing that will give you the strength you need.

8. It isn't silly to say that Jesus Christ is your best friend. He isn't just some larger than life, all-knowing judge. He's someone who can make you smile after long day, someone you can count on, someone who would do anything for you, and someone who accepts you exactly how you are...what more could you want in a best friend?

9. When you want something to change in your life, you have to be willing to do something you have never done before.

10. Forgiving yourself is just as important as forgiving others. God doesn't want you to live in guilt and self-pity.

11. Don't take the opportunity God has giving you to have an intimate relationship with Him for grants. It is the most beautiful gift you could ever receive.

12. Being honest with the Godly people in your life about what you're dealing with is vital. We need those people to encourage us and hold us accountable. but we will never get that if we try hide our struggles and our feelings.

13. Don't act based on your ever-changing emotions, act based on the un-changing, solid Truth you know about Jesus.

14. Loving people is the single most important thing we must do on this earth. Simple as that.

!5. Don't start to love the things God can give you more than you love Him. He alone is worthy of all of our praise and He is the only thing that remains the same.

16. Any day has the power to be extraordinary and waking up giving praise to the Lord and surrendering your day to Him is the best way to ensure that it is.

17. The more you read and discover about Jesus, the more you're going to want to live like Him.

18. One of the best ways to be a light is simply to be positive. When people are used to being surrounded by negativity, they'll want to know what it is that makes you so joyful.

19. Most of the time what the world tells us and what God's word tells us are total opposites. Following the patterns of the world does nothing to further His kingdom, which is the only reason we are even here.

20. Always ask yourself the question, "Who am I living for and what am I chasing after?" If the answer is anyone but Jesus and anything but being His servant, you have lost sight of your purpose.

21. God's got your back. You're silly for thinking He'd call you to do something and not provide for you.

Thanks for reading y'all! I hope some of the things God taught me made an impact on you. Have a great weekend!

 

 



a bird's eye view

Hellllooo blog readers! What do ya know? 2013 is coming to an end. Already? It feels like just yesterday I was telling you guys what my New Year's resolutions were and expressing my excitement for the new year to come. Well, here I am to do it again!

I just love New Year's Eve. Not because of the parties and TV extravaganzas...in fact, I'm spending my night eating hot cheetos and writing this post. I love it because it is a time to reflect on all the good and bad times that made up the past year and to set goals and get excited for the year to come. I have always been a fan of making resolutions, but I've also learned that it's foolish to make an ideal plan for how you want your year to turn out. You never know what life could throw at you, in fact you don't even know if you are promised another day! A resolution shouldn't have to do with what events you want to happen in the coming year but instead the kind of person you want to be and the way you want to react to the things that might happen throughout the year. I've already thought of tons of little resolutions for myself but I wanted something solid, something I could ooze into every little crack and corner of all the different aspects of my life. Earlier today while I was looking out an airplane window, it hit me. I decided that my general, most important resolution that I want to remember every single day of 2014 is to look at life from a bird's eye view.

What exactly does that mean? I haven't quite figured out yet. Honestly I just liked the sound of it! I was leaving California after an incredible week-long trip and I decided instead of reading or sleeping, I would enjoy the view and reflect on my year. I'm glad I did because I love looking at the world from that perspective. It makes life seem more manageable. Then I got to thinkin'...what if we could look at life from a bird's eye view? I mean obviously we can't actually ever do that, it's God's job to see the map of our entire life. And I don't want to literally see what my entire life will look like, I just want to look at things from the view that there is a bigger picture. Whether I have 5 more minutes to live or 80 more years to live, my life is not just some random series of events that make me feel all different kinds of emotions. Each thing that happens has the potential to further my relationship with God and essentially the potential to further His Kingdom. But only if I let it. A friend told me the other day that it's crazy how God is dependent on us and that all we have to do is run to Him, let Him know that He can have control over a situation and He will do wonders with it. It doesn't mean that He will make it all better and make life easy again, but He will weave the situation into His master plan for your life. He'll teach you from it, help you grow stronger and wiser, reveal to you something new about Himself, or simply just comfort you. So back to the bird's eye thing. Instead of looking at failures as, well, failures and instead of living in a cloud of self-pity when something bad happens look at it from a different perspective. Life is so much more than a rough day or a breakup or a rejection letter from a school. The things we think are a big deal when they happen are really just like a little pond or hill in the big map of life. They're important and add excitement to what would be an otherwise flat, easy life...but they aren't worth obsessing over.

So that's what I've decided I want to do in 2014...look at life from a vertical perspective rather than horizontal. Instead of worry and stress over little things, I want to surrender every situation up to God and just enjoy living life with Him. He's crazy about me (and you) and wants us to have fun in our life! He doesn't want us to feel guilty or hurt or disappointed or anything. But in our time here on earth, all of that is going to happen. So the best thing to do is just hand it over to Him, let Him take care of you because that's what He does best! He takes care of the whole earth, every little person in every city...just look out an airplane window and try to wrap you brain around that. It's mind blowing how powerful and incredible He is. So why not take advantage of the fact that a God that awesome would wanna walk through life with you? I promise you that nothing is better...I just need to remember that myself when I'm worrying about the silliest little things.

Just for fun and because I love making resolutions, I'll share some more of my little ones...
1. Take more risks! Again with the idea that I want to simply treasure and enjoy life more, I think taking more risks will be an important part of that. I can get scared and shy and worry about every possible thing that could go wrong but I don't want to let that hold me back from experiencing some awesome things that this world has to offer!
2. Respect Myself. I get so caught up in pleasing other people sometimes or finding a quick fix to a problem that I lose sight of what is best for me. I don't want to become more selfish by any means..in fact I could definitely shed some selfishness in 2014. But I also don't want to live for other people or for anything other than God. He took precious time and effort to create me and I should respect & love myself enough to do only what pleases Him and if it lines up with what He wants, what pleases me, even if it isn't always what the people around me want me to do.
3. Less technology, more living. I've said this in my posts many times before, but I'll say it again. I love technology and social media and all that as much as anyone in this generation, heck I'm spending New Years Eve typing a blog post! But it has had some very negative effects on me before and in 2014 I want to be able to limit how attached I am to all my gadgets. Too much social networking has caused me to compare, to obsess, to envy, and simply get distracted or detached from the beautiful things around me. I have a love/hate relationship with it but in 2014 I would like to limit it enough so that it's only a love relationship and I don't let it negatively affect me!
4. Embrace my dorkiness. Yes, that's really one of my resolutions...a friend helped me think of it after a dorky conversation we had about how much we love vocabulary and words and stuff. :) But seriously, it's so easy for a shy girl like me to get embarrassed about things and to hide parts of my personality...especially in high school where there is so much pressure to be cool. Not that I'd get bullied for expressing my love for English or something but I still do feel the need to suppress my quirkier personality traits. But where's the fun in that? In 2014 as I finish high school and enter college, I want to show my true self to everyone I meet, because the people that want to be around me when I'm actually being me are the people who make life the best anyway!

Well I hope you all had a fabulous NYE and more importantly, an incredible 2014! Thank you for reading and again, thanks for you support. This blog has been one of my favorite parts of 2013!

Happy New Years!

"No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us." Philippians 3:13, 14

"In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps." Proverbs 16:9

“But forget all that— it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland." Isaiah 43:18, 19

Beautiful view from the airplane. I love how you can see the mountains, beach, and city all in one shot. 

 

My sister and me in Cali

 

My cute parents ringing in the New Year!