So today is a very special day indeed. It is opening day for baseball, but more importantly it is my 21st birthday. I don't plan on doing anything extremely special except hang out with my awesome friends. Today however I would like to take the time to reflect on my life, your life, everyone's life in the scheme of God. Not that we are worthless for we are truly worthy as Christ is worthy to receive our praise.
It is crazy to think that twenty one years ago today my mom suffered in child labor to give me a chance to praise God the rest of my days. For see I was already alive in my mothers womb. Now I can fulfill the purpose of that life that I was granted. Yesterday, after my post I was reading one of the most inspirational books that is in existence today. That book is the Bible. The specific place in the Bible I was reading was the book of Job. I have been reading it in my quiet times lately and learning that God is big and proud, and loves to boast about His creation as it is His right He did create it. That reminds me of a Shirley Temple commercial I saw. In this commercial she is talking to a lady and says, "My duck is special!" to which the lady replies, "What's so special about your duck?" Temple replies, "My duck can lay an egg, can you lay an egg?" Okay sorry went on a rabbit trail there. However it is true that God created period. In Job, Job is speaking and sharing that wisdom is hidden from everyone who doesn't seek it. He says that people who seek it tend to look in the wrong places. He explains that wisdom can't be measured by riches or jewels. God holds wisdom in His hands and only those who seek it there will find it. That got me to thinking of how small and insignificant my complaints, my accomplishments, my life is to how big and holy and honorable God is.
See its my birthday the day that God chose to let me see the outside of my mothers womb so as to fulfill the purpose He has for my life. It is my special New Year. This year I plan to live for God no matter what the world, Satan, and Satan's demons are allowed to throw at me. Yes, I said allowed. God allows things to happen to us not only to prove that we need to trust Him only, but to bring others to an understanding of who God is and how He loves them. So Happy Birthday to me for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. And Happy Birthday to everyone on there birthday for it truly is happy for God chose you for a reason and that reason is to bring only Him glory.
That's all for today have a wonderful day and I and God love you.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Gratitude Wednesday or Day 3
Happy Wednesday everyone. Well that's what one of my friends says for everyday of the week. So, today has also proven to be a tough day to find something really deep and meaningful to be grateful for. However, today is going to be about friendship.
I have some of the best friends in the world. Or at least I think so. Yes sometimes I feel like they don't appreciate me, or that I don't have any at all. Usually during these times I see how special my friends truly are. Some friends more than others, yet all the same they have great meaning in my life. I take my friends for granted sometimes and sometimes I forget who they are completely.
Looking at this part of my life I can think of a handful of friends that I regard higher than the others. Over the years I have had friends come and go. One that has stuck with me through a lot of the rough stuff is my best friend from Troy, Alabama. Since college I have had several friends that know who I am and keep me motivated to search for the truths God has provided for us to know who He is. I honestly don't know what I would do without them. They remind me daily that without God I can do nothing, but with Him I can do all things. The first is a guy that I met my first year in college. We quickly became friends and now are accountability partners. The other I met this year she is grounded firmly in her faith and makes me want to search for God more and more everyday. We too are accountability partners. While both of these friends are completely different they build me up in so many ways.
So today I am grateful for God loving friends that build me up and never tear me down.
That's all for today. I look forward to telling you about what I am grateful tomorrow. It might be about life but I don't know yet.
I have some of the best friends in the world. Or at least I think so. Yes sometimes I feel like they don't appreciate me, or that I don't have any at all. Usually during these times I see how special my friends truly are. Some friends more than others, yet all the same they have great meaning in my life. I take my friends for granted sometimes and sometimes I forget who they are completely.
Looking at this part of my life I can think of a handful of friends that I regard higher than the others. Over the years I have had friends come and go. One that has stuck with me through a lot of the rough stuff is my best friend from Troy, Alabama. Since college I have had several friends that know who I am and keep me motivated to search for the truths God has provided for us to know who He is. I honestly don't know what I would do without them. They remind me daily that without God I can do nothing, but with Him I can do all things. The first is a guy that I met my first year in college. We quickly became friends and now are accountability partners. The other I met this year she is grounded firmly in her faith and makes me want to search for God more and more everyday. We too are accountability partners. While both of these friends are completely different they build me up in so many ways.
So today I am grateful for God loving friends that build me up and never tear me down.
That's all for today. I look forward to telling you about what I am grateful tomorrow. It might be about life but I don't know yet.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Gratitude day # Two
Today will mark the second day of this my gratitude challenge. While yesterdays was very meaningful and heavy with emotional value, today is just an acknowledgment of how truly blessed I am.
Today I am grateful to have a job. My usual work days are Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I realized today that the job I currently have the opportunity to posses I have had for an entire year. To some that isn't that big of a deal, but to me it is a major achievement. Since I moved to Montgomery about three years ago I have had little odd and end jobs until this wonderful one. In the past three years I have worked as a silver polisher, as a kennel worker, a loader for UPS, and what I call and ice specialist at Nancy's Italian Ice. Since working there I have loved every minute of it. I started not knowing anyone I worked with to now I am having new employees shadow me.
This opportunity has been the best one I have had since high school. That wasn't as glamorous but it was my job. I ran a paper route in the mornings for my uncle who was off in Iraq. I thank God everyday for my job at Nancy's for without it I would still live at home and have to commute everyday to go to school.
That's all I have today check back tomorrow for day three
Today I am grateful to have a job. My usual work days are Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I realized today that the job I currently have the opportunity to posses I have had for an entire year. To some that isn't that big of a deal, but to me it is a major achievement. Since I moved to Montgomery about three years ago I have had little odd and end jobs until this wonderful one. In the past three years I have worked as a silver polisher, as a kennel worker, a loader for UPS, and what I call and ice specialist at Nancy's Italian Ice. Since working there I have loved every minute of it. I started not knowing anyone I worked with to now I am having new employees shadow me.
This opportunity has been the best one I have had since high school. That wasn't as glamorous but it was my job. I ran a paper route in the mornings for my uncle who was off in Iraq. I thank God everyday for my job at Nancy's for without it I would still live at home and have to commute everyday to go to school.
That's all I have today check back tomorrow for day three
Monday, March 28, 2011
Gratitude day #1
So, since my last post I have had a lot of things happening in my life. Yeah in like three days a lot can change. This past Saturday night and all day Sunday I spent reflecting on my life, my relationships, and my relationship with my ABBA Father.
First, have you ever been completely broken in spirit and emotion. That's what happened to me. See last Monday night at Resonate (the local praise and worship service the AUM BCM holds) I was confronted with some ideas. The speaker quoted one of my favorite Christian authors, John Piper, he states, "God is not an ambulance drive, God is a surgeon." This concept is very true. God doesn't get there when life has left you broken and torn so he can fix the problem. God is the one who brakes you. He is the one that goes into your life and cuts out the bad and puts good in. So all week God began to do surgery on my life. By Saturday night He had gotten to the root of my problem. I am struggling with the problem of not loving myself at all. I had lost my first love with Christ and my second love of myself so that I can love others as I love myself. My life lately has become a treacherous storm that is seeming to hard to bare. Yet, I know that I have a father in Heaven that loves me anyway. I have friends that will stand by me through this storm no matter what the cost. I have a family that will be there to help me pick up the pieces after all of the damage is done.
In the past six to nine months I have changed the college I am attending. I have been in and out of a seemingly healthy relationship. I have kept the job I have for a year. I have learned that I don't love myself. I have learned that I can be loved even when I don't show it. I have realized that I have been wearing a mask so long that I don't know who the real me is and what is the mask anymore.
I have a friend that loves me no matter what I do to make her feel bad or complain about how big the storm is. When she simply tells me the age old saying, "Don't tell God how big the storm is. Tell the storm how big God is." She introduced me to the gratitude challenge. I believe that this will help me find myself and learn to love it. I am amazingly blessed I have been to stupid to see it though. So for the next Twenty or so days I hope to tell you at least one thing I am grateful for.
So today I am grateful for God, Yahweh, Abba, ex. Without Him I can do nothing. Without Him life would be a moot point. Without Him life wouldn't even exist. Without Him there would be nothing. Thank you God, Father, for sending your only Son to this wretched world to save it from total destruction.
That's all for today
First, have you ever been completely broken in spirit and emotion. That's what happened to me. See last Monday night at Resonate (the local praise and worship service the AUM BCM holds) I was confronted with some ideas. The speaker quoted one of my favorite Christian authors, John Piper, he states, "God is not an ambulance drive, God is a surgeon." This concept is very true. God doesn't get there when life has left you broken and torn so he can fix the problem. God is the one who brakes you. He is the one that goes into your life and cuts out the bad and puts good in. So all week God began to do surgery on my life. By Saturday night He had gotten to the root of my problem. I am struggling with the problem of not loving myself at all. I had lost my first love with Christ and my second love of myself so that I can love others as I love myself. My life lately has become a treacherous storm that is seeming to hard to bare. Yet, I know that I have a father in Heaven that loves me anyway. I have friends that will stand by me through this storm no matter what the cost. I have a family that will be there to help me pick up the pieces after all of the damage is done.
In the past six to nine months I have changed the college I am attending. I have been in and out of a seemingly healthy relationship. I have kept the job I have for a year. I have learned that I don't love myself. I have learned that I can be loved even when I don't show it. I have realized that I have been wearing a mask so long that I don't know who the real me is and what is the mask anymore.
I have a friend that loves me no matter what I do to make her feel bad or complain about how big the storm is. When she simply tells me the age old saying, "Don't tell God how big the storm is. Tell the storm how big God is." She introduced me to the gratitude challenge. I believe that this will help me find myself and learn to love it. I am amazingly blessed I have been to stupid to see it though. So for the next Twenty or so days I hope to tell you at least one thing I am grateful for.
So today I am grateful for God, Yahweh, Abba, ex. Without Him I can do nothing. Without Him life would be a moot point. Without Him life wouldn't even exist. Without Him there would be nothing. Thank you God, Father, for sending your only Son to this wretched world to save it from total destruction.
That's all for today
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Found Reason While Freezin'
So, I took a trip over Spring break to America Last Frontier. To most of you that is Alaska. Before going I had doubts on if I should go, or if that is what God has for my life at this time. Boy was I shocked to find out that it was the one place that God would reveal Himself to me.
My life has been a roller coaster the past few months. I have experienced things that everyone experiences. However, for me it happened all at the same time or so it seemed. The biggest thing was learning to love myself before I can open myself up completely to others to show them love. In Matthew 22:37-39 is probably one of the most known sections of scripture. It state," Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love thy neighbor as yourself.'" This is one of the hardest things for me. I am not comfortable with who I am. Since Alaska I am finding who I am and how to love God first and myself and others second.
Alaska is one of the most beautiful places in North America. Everyday I would wake up and step outside the church where the team I was working with stayed and would exclaim WOW. This wasn't completely because I was taken aback because of the beauty. It was mostly because I saw how HUGE God is and how small I am. Several years ago I read a book about this very fact. It opened my eyes then but I didn't grasp the magnitude of that simple fact.
More times than once I was working on the daily project, walking around the neighborhood, or walking in the wilderness I found that God was telling me, "Love yourself, Obey Me, Love yourself." It wasn't until I returned that I found that I was not obeying God.
Now that you have the basis of why and what I experienced let me tell you the fun stuff. On the first official day there the team was given the opportunity to do something completely unique from anyone. We were able to go dog mushing. The same type as done in the Iditarod dogsled race. The feeling of being pulled by a team that is solely working toward one goal is exhilarating. I really believe it set up the way the rest of the trip turned. out. While we were not on the sled at the same time our team without noticing it learned the true meaning of team work. See the days following the team was faced with baking, inserting information into a computer, painting, cleaning buildings, and being split for a night. Yes, there were times we grumbled amongst ourselves and grumbling about the work. We bonded as a team that could accomplish anything. The last day of actual work we were assigned to paint a youth room some interesting colors. We accomplished the task in way under the time that the church thought that we would. That day we worked more as a team than any other day.
In conclusion, God did amazing things not only in my life but in the life of a team that is stronger now than when we first jumped on a plane in Atlanta and flew to Anchorage, Alaska. I am learning to love myself so that the love I have inside myself will flow out to others around me. God is amazing and his grace is greater than anything we can fathom. Know that I love all of you whoever you are reading this and I know that God will do great things in your life.
My life has been a roller coaster the past few months. I have experienced things that everyone experiences. However, for me it happened all at the same time or so it seemed. The biggest thing was learning to love myself before I can open myself up completely to others to show them love. In Matthew 22:37-39 is probably one of the most known sections of scripture. It state," Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love thy neighbor as yourself.'" This is one of the hardest things for me. I am not comfortable with who I am. Since Alaska I am finding who I am and how to love God first and myself and others second.
Alaska is one of the most beautiful places in North America. Everyday I would wake up and step outside the church where the team I was working with stayed and would exclaim WOW. This wasn't completely because I was taken aback because of the beauty. It was mostly because I saw how HUGE God is and how small I am. Several years ago I read a book about this very fact. It opened my eyes then but I didn't grasp the magnitude of that simple fact.
More times than once I was working on the daily project, walking around the neighborhood, or walking in the wilderness I found that God was telling me, "Love yourself, Obey Me, Love yourself." It wasn't until I returned that I found that I was not obeying God.
Now that you have the basis of why and what I experienced let me tell you the fun stuff. On the first official day there the team was given the opportunity to do something completely unique from anyone. We were able to go dog mushing. The same type as done in the Iditarod dogsled race. The feeling of being pulled by a team that is solely working toward one goal is exhilarating. I really believe it set up the way the rest of the trip turned. out. While we were not on the sled at the same time our team without noticing it learned the true meaning of team work. See the days following the team was faced with baking, inserting information into a computer, painting, cleaning buildings, and being split for a night. Yes, there were times we grumbled amongst ourselves and grumbling about the work. We bonded as a team that could accomplish anything. The last day of actual work we were assigned to paint a youth room some interesting colors. We accomplished the task in way under the time that the church thought that we would. That day we worked more as a team than any other day.
In conclusion, God did amazing things not only in my life but in the life of a team that is stronger now than when we first jumped on a plane in Atlanta and flew to Anchorage, Alaska. I am learning to love myself so that the love I have inside myself will flow out to others around me. God is amazing and his grace is greater than anything we can fathom. Know that I love all of you whoever you are reading this and I know that God will do great things in your life.
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