My Latest Devastation

Everyone has something they are passionate about. Something that means a lot to them. This varies for every person. This can be things like Sports, Sewing, collecting things, photography, having the latest trends, etc. Well, I am about to let you in on a secret that not many of you may know. I am very passionate about....
..My Hair.


You see, When I was a little girl, I had long beautiful hair all the way down to my lowest back bone. 


Then, I wanted something different, so at age 12, I cut my hair all the way up to my chin! :0 
   

Short, huh!

Well, of course, right after that, I wanted it long again, so I decided to never cut it again.

This probably wasn't the best idea because I hear your hair grows better if trimmed occasionally. Well, I was always scared that the hair dressers would cut my hair to short when trimming it. Therefore I have trimmed my hair since I was 12 (with maybe 3 times having my cousin do it).

Well, I am now 18 and my hair has finally started getting Long again. 

My hair grows so slow. :(

So, Here is is...

Isn't it getting so long? :) (it's so great)

Well, Most recently I went to get some red highlights put in my hair (looks awesome, btw) But, the hair dresser asked if I wanted a trim. I did something stupid. 

I said "sure".

While emphasizing the point that she couldn't cut off very much because I had been growing it out.

Well, this ended very bad. Sharp scissors and 4 inches later, what had been done was done. 

My whole family and all my friends have heard me complain about this far to much.

I was/am pretty much devastated.

So, here is my 'New' and hated 'Trim' :(

Isn't that super sad? Look how short it is!!!

All this to share with you how sad I am. and, to ask you, What are some things that meant a lot to you?

A Silly Leading?

Have you ever been praying for God to lead you in a certain area of your life or you have you merely just ask him something, and what he lead you to do seemed absolutely silly? I know I have. That is for sure. It has taken a great deal of faith to act on a lot of things sometimes. 

  Well, while doing my bible reading, I was reading through Joshua. Now when people hear of Joshua, most generally the first thing thought about is 'Joshua, Jericho and the walls falling down'. Now this is a story that I am sure many have heard in Sunday school class. I know I did in class, Our teacher had us all yell at once to pretend a wall was falling down. If you lead a class of some sort and are teaching them this book, I wouldn't recommend doing that. :0 anyways, While reading I just have to put myself in Joshua's shoes and try to think just what he was thinking. 

Vs. 3 "march around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for 6 days. Vs4...on the 7th day, march around the city 7 times with the priest blowing their horns, When they give a loud blast, have all the people give a loud shout, and the walls will collapse and fall down.

That seems pretty crazy and intense to me. I wonder what the people inside the city must have been thinking while listening and watching that happen. However the true fact of it all is, Joshua had faith through it and did exactly as the Lord said, resulting in the Lords promise being fulfilled. 

Listening to the Lord and acting upon his lead no only helps us, but honors him. 

I write all this, knowing that this is probably not new to many that will read it, but merely to encourage you in the fact that if you ask God something, Regardless if it sounds silly in our little noncomprehending minds or not, We need to Follow through with what he says. 

Sometimes in situations we will have to have faith in our Lord to jump in totally blind, knowing that HE WILL catch you.

30 Days of Seeking (and Finding)

What Kind of Faith are We Living Out?

Today, Wednesday, was such a crazy and lovely day. I woke up at an hour that is to late for my good and went about my morning business of preparing for another day/blessing from the Lord. You see, I had the day off from work. Because my boss was so gracious to give me my Sunday free every week for Church, I don't get many of these days off during the week, so it is rare to have other days off as well. So, I took advantage of this rareness. I wanted to make today different. So, I did one of my favorite things, I went to the gym. Right after that I went to a book store for 4 1/2 hours to begin a challenge I have given myself. 

Lately God has been working at my heart, I have been wrestling with what to do with my life. You see, I have talents the Lord has blessed me with and so many things I want to do, but, I don't know how to use them and God hasn't led me to anything yet. I recently read the book 'Radical' (I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to live a radial, different life for the Lord.) Anyways, At the end of this book they gave 5 challenges to change your life. One of these challenges was to read the bible in a year. You see, I am ashamed to say I am 18 years old and have never read through the entire bible. Also, Recently While I was reading a book, a friend challenged me, he said " You take time to read other, very large books, in a week or two, but you haven't read through the whole bible through your whole time being yet?" So, I decided to do something, I set a challenge in front of myself. You see, I like challenges and I LOVE pushing myself, So, I decided I was going to read the bible in a month. I did all these calculations, That leaves 40 chapters a day. Now, People can look down on this and say I will get nothing out of it, But, I will be going through and will outline and journal everything I read. It is going to be a hardcore month of study, not a month of reading. However, some can try and praise one for this saying "Wow, how great a thing to strive after the Lord like that. Great Job." NO! No one say that, because this will only happen by Gods grace, It sure won't be easy. All credit is due to the Lord.

Now, all of that to say, today was day 1 of the challenge. I went over to my local 'Barnes and Nobles', bought a coffee (which was silly because I don't like coffee), opened my bible and a notebook and began reading. This was hard at first because I had just finished reading through Genesis and Exodus the month before, BUT, I definitely was challenged with putting what I read into perspective and I learned so much. So, down below I wanted to share with you what I learned and was challenged with.

I am beginning to realize that this will be a long post. :0

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen." Now, that isn't the exact wording of that verse, It is from memory, But as it says, faith is believing in the things unseen. Merely, as we all know, Anyone who is a Christian has faith. What kind of faith do we have? Do we have enough faith to "move a mountain?" While reading through Genesis and coming upon chapter 22, I was extremely challenged. 

In this chapter it talks about How God told Abraham to sacrifice his son. Now, many thoughts had to be going through Abraham's head. Thoughts like "Your crazy", "He is my only son, what about the promised nations", "How do I tell Isaac?"  I know I can not imagine God asking me to do that to anyone, Yet alone my own son. I don't know if I could do that yet SHOW FAITH in doing that? This challenged me in 2 areas. 1. I lacked Faith in my savior, and 2. I definitely don't think I could submit to Gods authority if he asked me to do something like that. Two big areas I needed to change there. 

Also in this passage, I was challenged by Isaac. He willingly submitted to his father, had faith in his dad, and wanted to please the Lord. I know If I were him I would have questioned my dad over and over, I wouldn't be willing to climb on that alter and I definitely wouldn't have kept my cool. 

Such faith demonstrated in those two men. 

Later in Genesis, Chapter 24, Rebekah comes into the story. Rebekah was to be Issac's wife, But she didn't know this. Basically, this chapter makes me laugh when I try to picture myself as Rebekah. Picture this with me,  "I am out by a well, I see a man praying, I approach him, He starts praising God and tells me I am related to him. I take him back to my home with me and he tells me and my family that We are all related and He prayed to God these exact things to happen from the girl he was to find and I acted those all out and Now I am to go back with him and marry a man of whom I do not know." THAT IS CRAZY! How much faith she must have had in her Lord to believe all that and to act upon it. :0 Insane.

Then, For an epic ending of the book of Genesis, Joseph. Josephs life was a mess, He was sold at a young age, and every time things started to look up for him they went down hill. Through his whole life tho, God blessed everything he did (because of his faith) and in the End, God used everything that happened to him for his Glory. So many times Joseph could have gotten discouraged and not seen his purpose in Life, But he stayed faithful, Sought the Lord and was used in a mighty way. 

All of this challenges me in so many ways. First, We need to see if we ONLY have faith in the Son of God and what he did, Or if we have a faith that will really change the way we live our lives. Second, God is in control of my life and will use me to bring him the most glory. A friend was once challenging me and He said "God looks at your life as a red carpet, He looks at the beginning and the end and the middle will work out to fulfill the end in whatever way he sees fit." Just like Joesph, He could have felt like he wasn't being used, but God was using him.

 

If you haven't realized by now from this post, and my others, I am struggling with finding my purpose, Living a radical life, Knowing what to do next, BUT (the big word that changes everything) I have been realizing more and more that in his time, his perfect, holy time,

 HE WILL USE ME. 

How Insignificant I Was

I have something Silly to share. Something that seems rather silly in fact, But, It gives you the best picture of how worthless we once were.


The other day I was hiking around my woods and I came across an ant hill. This ant hill and all the action around it quickly grabbed my attention. So, I sat and watched all of the little ants make their army work lines and carry food in and out of the hole. As I sat there, it started sprinkling, The smell of a heavy rain was in the air. So, I decided to sit there for only a few more minutes before heading back to my house, after all, it is always a delightful, adventurous thing to get caught in the rain. Well, while sitting and watching these ants, I started to realized a little stream of water coming down the hill behind me and hitting the 'ant hill'. I soon realized that these ants were going to be destroyed by the rain that was to come from the storm. So, I started telling them they needed to move or they would be destroyed. (Not sure what I was thinking, Due to the fact they can't understand me.) I then started yelling, but they still couldn't hear or understand me. Then, the craziest idea EVER crossed my mind, What if I could turn into an ant and then merely tell them they needed to move before they would be destroyed. Me, turn into something as worthless as an ant, just to save them? Seemed kind of silly. Well, the rain started to pick up and I had no choice, So, I started wishing and wishing and wishing as hard as I could to turn into an Ant. When I opened my eyes, I was black, and small, and jacked and I had several legs. I then ran to the ant hole as fast as those short little legs would take me. I started telling them that they needed to move because they would be destroyed if they didn't. They considered me an impostor and literally killed me for it. When they merely should have been praising me for giving up my Amazing life to help them.
The worth I had once had, took the form of worthlessness to try and save them and they killed me. 




Does this remind you of how wretched we are? 
OR Does this remind you of how insignificant we once were? Then Christ came and game us a purpose. (Amen) 


This was my little siblings bed time story the other night. . . Got them thinking as well.