Beauty

God made a BEAUTIFUL day today in Virginia Beach! I nanny and right now Im walking down the street with the stroller in amazement of what a beautiful day it turned out to be! When I got up and went to class today it was FREEZING but what a complete 180 it has made! Ya know when you walk outside you usually hear a couple lawn mowers and just all that background noise of work being done? It's silent today, all I can hear is the swaying trees with the light wind and my footsteps on the road! How peaceful right? It's a gift, I wouldn't think twice not to call it that! Whether it lasts just a few minutes or a couple of hours, I will cherish it! "Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar." (4Isaiah 33:17 NIV) That verse in my opinion explains this day. I can see our Gods greatness in viewing the creation of lands in which he has made.

God,
Let us stop and enjoy your beauty today! You have created an amazing world for us, give us the opportunity to fully appreciate it!
In Your Sons Awesome Name!
Amen

Have a spectacular day (:

PRAYse be to God!

So I am continuing to be amazed by God. I truly don't know if there is anything better than getting confirmation from the Lord about something you have been continually praying about. He's so good and shocks me with the plans He has. I have learned recently how much I absolutely love to pray! It is so cool that we have a way of communicating with our creator! Anytime I get the chance I just love to sit (preferably by the water) and just talk to God, pray about struggles, ask for advice and just praise Him for His presence in my life! It's blows my mind how He responds! For anyone who says prayer doesn't work, I beg to differ! (: Praise be to God today for He is awesome!

Set a fire in my heart!

Those six words can sum up how amazing last night and today have been. I've been at Acquire the Fire with my church youth group, but I've been able to experience it from the "adult" perspective! Being able to watch the younger girls and guys just worship with all they have has been simply incredible. I have also met some incredible people, whom God has so smoothly put into my life. How wonderful are Gods plans to intertwine all of us into each others paths. This weekend has been also very spiritually renewing to me, and in a few different ways! Worshipping with my full heart just putting away everything around me and completely focusing on God. I've had this feeling in the pit of my stomach all day long (holy spirit!) that's just been making me SO happy. I've talked to a couple people who have just been encouraging me with what I have been facing lately and I'm so thankful God provided those people to advise me! Lastly the messages in which are being spoken to the whole group are incredibly perfect timing for me! And the neatest thing is hearing how those messages were perfect for someone else and me at the same thing referring to two different things! I know that God so purposely planned for me to be put on this trip after not thinking I would be able to because of conflict of work or not being able to afford it, but God provided and I feel so blessed to be here this weekend! Romans 5:8 says "but God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." That sums up this weekend, just experiencing the grace of Jesus Christ.

Why worry?

Why on Earth do we worry so much? Truthfully it's an insult to God because we're so obsessed with controlling our own lives! We have got to get it through our heads that God has COMPLETE CONTROL, no matter what we do our way, Gods WILL will always beat it! This verse always makes me stop and think STOP WORRYING! ..."Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6:34 NIV) God says it straight up... today already has too much trouble, so why add any?? Instead of worrying, push all of it on God and LEAN on Him, He will scoop up your worries and comfort you, heal you, guide you, speak to you. Whatever it is, God will come through! Yes, much more simple said than done! But I challenge us to turn to God when we catch ourselves starting to worry, this week. See where God takes you.

Countless People Who Care

As I have been freaking out studying this last week about my first anatomy and physiology quiz, God has showed me so much. My best friend Rachel, gave me a new bible study devotional to do that she did, and through doing it the last couple of days, I have seen God showing me exactly what I have been learning. The theme is leaving everything behind and simply leaning on God but the book started out with a lesson in Philippians talking about having strong faith and knowing that God has put people in your life that are praying for you and care so much about your journey with the Him. And I have to tell you in these last couple of days through my worries about my quiz, God has showed me many people who are praying for me and care dearly for me. And i even got a text from my best friends mom this morning that had 2 Timothy 1:3 in it, which says, "I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers." Coincidence? I don't think so. And then my friend sent his daily bible verse to me today and it said, "Consider it PURE JOY, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the TESTING of your FAITH develops PERSEVERANCE." James 1:2-3 That was no coincidental verse to be sent to me either. Studying for this quiz has been quite a "trial" for me and I sure have felt my faith tested. I thank Gid so much for being present in my life!

Inspiration

Do you ever get an inspiration to do something and want to immediately do it? It's happened to me so much recently, and I think God's using it to teach me to pray! Instead of just jumping on it, I've been learning how important it is to spend time In prayer asking the Lord of it is His will first! It's so important to make sure you are doing something because it's pleasing to God and not do it just because you want to and it pleases you! Think about that, and what a difference we would make in our lives if we took everything to God first. Matthew 7:8 says, "For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." From now on join me in seeking God when we have inspiration, talk to Him, ask Him to talk to you and guide you! He will.

Judgement

Wow, have I been struggling with that nine letter word. Judgement, according to dictionary.com means: a decision as in a court of law. How many times do you look at someone and judge them right of the back each day? I can tell you I do, countlessly!! It's sad, but it's just one of the infinite things we can thank Jesus for forgiving when He died for us! I am obsessed with stumble upon, for those of you who don't know, it's a wacky website that takes you to random web pages. Well today when I was stumbling, I came across this quote from C.S. Lewis, "It is not for us to say who, in the deepest sense, is or is not close to the spirit of Christ. We do not see into men's hearts. We cannot judge, and indeed are forbidden to judge. It would be wicked arrogance for us to say any man is, or is not, a Christian in this refined sense." That literally hit me in the face and made me think about what exactly I'm doing when I judge someone. I challenge you to read these verses today, or as soon as you can; I'm not going to type the verse out because I want you to be able to read them and challenge yourself for the day not to judge people! Just try, ask God for His help in having you do so! The verses are: John 7:24, John 8:15. Please email me if you can find any good verses pertaining to judgement as well, this is something really going to take seriously about challenging myself with!

Where's your heart?

The message today in my email devotional was about pushing or pulling someone. If you are pushing someone to do something that you are doing because YOU want them to do it, then where does that put their motive to do it? They're simply doing it because you want them to and not because they truly want to do it. If you continue to do it and just exemplify it, then if that person is interested they will make it their motive to do it. I've noticed this myself in a situation recently. If I push my bible study girls to memorize a verse because I think they should know it, what good does that do them if it doesn't mean a thing to them? Instead I will exemplify how a certain verse helped me in a certain way in my life and they will be drawn to it by their own motivation. I believe the same goes for a parent who pushes and pushes their child to go to a certain school they want them to go to rather than encourage their own interests for something different. My simple point to all of this is that we all should stop and ask ourselves where our heart is when WE do something, or when we push SOMEONE else to do something. Is it what is really right?... Or is it what we think is right?
Jeremiah 29:13 says "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Seek God with ALL of your heart and trust what He tells you and guides you to do! Do things with the right heart and truly believe it is what God wants you to do!

Lord, let us be true to You. Let us trust You and do things with the right heart and a heart for you. We thank You so much for listening to us when we seek You. We love You.
In Your Sons Name,
Amen!