That Time Of The Year Again

It is the season that most of us look forward to, the season when spending money can be justified as "its for a gift," the season when families come together to spend time with each other, and the season were its okay to over eat... How else will we stay warm?

So I just got back to school from a long weekend with the family for Thanksgiving, and man! is it not a great time for family!? This year my mom's whole side of the family was in MD because my cousin Michael got married, congrats Mike and Laura!

 

Weddings are such a great time to get together with those that you have not seen in a long time and take in the time spent with them. 

However, before the wedding festivities began, Thanksgiving was not over.... BLACK FRIDAY happened. Probably not the brightest day ever created but it is sure hilarious and exciting to go. This year we woke up at 3:30 am and went to target... only to find out that 1. the line was way way way way way way beyond the stores front doors and 2. they were sold out of TVs before even opening. Just those two reasons right there was enough to go home and go back to bed. Ha not us! We went to walmart. Not crowded at all, and worth the length of time spent there too. We ended up with 3 tickets for 40 inch tvs and lots of dvds in hand. That store was worth getting up that early (we did, however, give away the other two tv tickets).  That is something to be THANKFUL for... dvds at 1.96 a piece and a nice 40 inch tv to watch them on!

So following the 3:30 wake and shopping till 11:00 am. I ended up with 6 or 7 dvds, new headphones, a new snowboard, a gift registry to REI, and great bonding time with my brother and dad!   

But this year I am truly reminded of how thankful I am for.... MY LIFE! For my devotion today I was lead to Psalm 92. The fourth verse is really what gets to me... "You thrill me, Lord, with all you have done for me!" This verse is absolutely true, without a doubt. The Lord has done so much in my life, He is still working and doing even better things everyday. What is there not to be thankful for? Are you not awake today? <---- Right there is a great reason to thank the Lord for all that He has done, but you are alive today! 

I hope that everyone had an amazing time with family this year. I pray that you would be thankful for the greatest gift you have... LIFE! 

Love God, Love People

Confusing Our Desires with the Will of God.....

I attended a new church this past weekend, it was called Summit Church! Very good service, if you have not heard of it... look it up. They could be coming to a city near you!
Anyway.....

Our service was about how David had lived his life and when he was being brought down by Saul. David was hiding in the cave waiting to attack Saul, but never did because he felt compelled by God to spare his life. Here are a few AMAZING points that we hit on during service:

1 Samuel 24:1-12
A king- something that offers stability to your life (i.e. ideology)

David's life should be an example to us on how we should 1. an example of how walk with God and 2. how we should learn to have a relationship with God.

The challenging question that is presented is "What do you do when the path you're on takes you in a direction you didn't think it would?"
There are two ways to handle this question, that each one of us usually processes while figuring this out.
1. Take matters into our own hands. (this has four subpoints that reveal if we are doing this)

1. revenge- do we settle the score?
2. stole pleasure- finding ways to escape the problems without dealing with them.
3. compromise- settling for what we know if not the plans of God for our lives. 
4. getting ahead of God- self promotion.

Or do we...

2. Trust God and WAIT- This all goes to God's timing in our lives. 

• We need to be tuned in to God and be PATIENT, but when God's timing happens we must be ready to go and fulfill His plans. 

There is a resources to a patient heart and the main one is in Psalm 57.

A patient heart contains: 

1. sovereignty (v.2)
2. steadfast love (v.3)- Everything is working towards God's purpose
3. selflessness- pray for God to be exalted even during the worst situations.
4. satisfaction- God will bring comfort, God will be the supplier of satisfaction.

"The backbone of obedience is confidence in the steadfast love of God"

When you take matters into your own hands, you're failing in one the 4 areas of a patient heart. 

But do not fret, EVERYONE LAPSE IN FAITH, this is why we have the church and sense of community!

This sermon really spoke to me in so many areas. God has so much planned for our lives and is looking to have a relationship with us! He LOVES us, so abundantly its crazy to try and wrap my mind around it! I hope that you have gotten something from this! I so much to work on since this, but I love trying to figure this all out! It brings me so much closer to God. 

So until next time.... Love God and Love people! 

First Of Many

This is my first post on this new blog. I've never done this before but I feel like this could be a very exciting  adventure. I'll never know if anyone is reading this, but that is okay with me; because I am doing this for myself. As I grow older I've always wanted to keep a journal and I have never been very good about staying with it, I hope that I can keep up with this. There are two real reason I have created this blog, and here they are:

1. Through this blog, I want to be able to share with everyone my thoughts about what I am experiencing through life. God is doing a lot in my life, and I feel like I need to share all that He is teaching me because someone else may be able to benefit from it too! God is so GOOD and His word is REAL!

2. The second reason that I created this blog is because now that I am growing up I want to travel so much! My feet are getting really itchy to just go. There are so many places that I have been and even more that I want to go to.  There are people that are not able to travel, so I hope that they can benefit from this blog by seeing where I am and hopefully feel like they were there too!

So until next time.... May God bless you, and I love you all!