Relationship.

I've come to realize, that it's got to be really hard to have a relationship with anyone if a person does not know Jesus. Since God desires to be made the center of all our relationships, how can one truly have one without God in it?

This blows my mind.

It also makes me realize how fortunate I am, because the relationships I strive to build are ones that not only will last me a life time, but I will live them to outlast this life. My forever friends are truly forever friends. We will partayyyy in heaven forever, and it will be awesome.

Another reason I've been thinking on this lately is because I've been striving so so hard to build relationships with the people around me, and love everyone I come in contact with. The more I do this, the more I see that it's hard, and you get stuck sometimes, trying to become intimately close with people who don't know Christ. You want them to get there, so you keep loving them. I have to keep loving them. Which I am, but I'm understanding the magnitude of God's love now that I'm trying to show it. It's crazy how that works!

My final conclusion: The status and health and stability of all earthly relationships are in direct correlation with the status and health and stability of your relationship with God. When we are right with Him, He makes things right for us -- gives us the desires of our hearts (which is awesome, because when we seek God's heart, our desires become those that He has given us, so essentially we get everything we want because we want what God wants for us! Hollerrrrr!).

Man. God is awesome. Tonight is going to be a great night worshipping Him with the people I love. <3

Made to Praise. 

Praise the LORD.

   Praise God in his sanctuary; 

praise him in his mighty heavens. 

Praise him for his acts of power; 

praise him for his surpassing greatness.

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, 

praise him with the harp and lyre, 

praise him with timbrel and dancing, 

praise him with the strings and pipe, 

praise him with the clash of cymbals, 

praise him with resounding cymbals.

 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

   Praise the LORD!

God's Strength

Tonight our Bible study went through the first half of Colossians 1. I like it. Verse 11 was my favorite. 

"strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy,"

I've been through times in my life where I've had to see past my sadness and the darkness that seemed to be holding me back and CHOOSE joy. CHOOSE the hope I have in Jesus Christ. It's my faith that gets me through, and the Joy that God promises us in Him if we follow Him. But most of it seems to have been pretty, well, easy. I mean, it hasn't been by any means, but I see other people go through things that just look so much worse than what I've had to endure, and I think to myself "there's no way I would be able to find joy in that!" Then I remember that God only allows us to be tempted with what we can bear. All with Him as our strength of course. 

Only now, it's as if I'm praying for God to test me in such a way that maybe my heart breaks, maybe I fall apart, but that strengthens my faith and relationship with Him. He promises us trials, and I want some so I can practice having joy in the midst of struggles! 

That's weird. I don't want to pray for bad things to happen. 

I am asking God for patience and long suffering because it will MAKE me stronger in Christ. 

So I guess it's kinda like this: I look at life from a positive point of view. Why not always have joy? I want more. I want to grow. I want to be pruned. I want to grow in the Word and learn as much as I can, so that I can be given great challenges and overcome them all - with the strength of God and by His mighty power. 

Blah, that was confusing. Basically, I don't personally believe that we should seek trials out - we should always be seeking to be patient and find joy in every bad aspect of life, but not create something bad out of something that's actually pretty darn good! 

My prayer for myself, and for all of you, and for the wonderful ladies in my Family Group, is that we seek God's face in our times of struggle and recognize and embrace the joy that exists in ALL OF IT! 

Yay! I have been so encouraged tonight; so inspired. I love it! I feel God doing wonderful things amidst my anxiety and hectic life. To God be the glory! 

Make Kony Famous

#Kony2012
#MakeKonyFamous
#InvisibleChildren

WATCH THIS VIDEO. If you don't have 30 minutes, MAKE 30 MINUTES.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

Twitter, Facebook, anything - let the world know that slaves still exist, and that we want to do something about it.

John Piper - from "Don't Waste Your Life"

"He has made me wary of chronological snobbery. That is, he showed me that newness is no virtue and oldness is no vice. Truth and beauty and goodness are not determined by when they exist. Nothing is inferior for being old, and nothing is valuable for being modern. This has freed me from the tyranny of novelty and opened for me the wisdom of the ages."

*stolen from my friend, Chelsea

BAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

God does really awesome things.

I really just need to take a minute and praise Him all up in here!
1. He is stronger than caffeine
2. He helped me become a leader at the BCM by...
3. He put people in my life this past term who have changed it forever, and are continuing to do so.
4. He has shown me the true meaning of forgiveness.
5. He writes His love on our hearts over and over every day even when we fall away from Him. It's pretty freaking sweet.
6. He is the only One I need to have faith in - like real time, big girl faith.
7. Some crazy stuff is about to happen in my life, and He is going to provide like no other!
8. He gave me a good brain.
9. He gave me a love for people that I have a really hard time ignoring.
10. He's allowing me to work alongside one of my close friends and mentors for the next term - I'm basically freaking pumped.
11. He keeps me strong when I get all frail and weak and jank.
12. He tests me so that I grow and gain patience.
13. He's perfect - basically sums up His awesomeness. Boom

I'm just really thankful for a lot of things right now. And I see it only fitting to give God all the glory, since it's all coming from Him anyway. He does all the work, I'm just the tool. (:

Matt Maher - Heaven Help Me :D