It's a little late so if it doesn't make sense, work with me a little bit and cut me some slack. ;)

Leaving for Chatanooga in a few days to be a CIT for the 5th & 6th grade trip!!! VERY excited! =D
At KidzCamp this summer, (very last minute) Sarah, Kamryn and I decided to do Devos for our girls. It was AWESOME!!!!!! Like, the older ones especially really got into it but it was SO cool to see these 2nd and 3rd graders get so into what I was saying and I wasn't even saying much! I just kind of went over what my favorite Chapter in the Bible was (Psalm 139!!!) and it brought on a TON of discussion. So I guess you can't even call it devotioanls...just amazing discussion. It was so incredibly awesome though to see kids get into it like that though, and it was really inspiring to me!

"If these 9-11 year olds read their Bible enough to have AMAZING discusssion then why can't I? I'm at least 5 if not more years older, and I hardly read my Bible! Just enough to kind o generally know the 'famous' Bible stories..."

Anyway, I decided to at least try to do devotions on this trip for my girls. (I did say try...I don't know what their attention span is. lol! It may just be a time to review the day and pray before bed...who knows!)
I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to say though... I definitely want to do something with Romans 12:1-2

So here’s what I want you to do,  Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.2 Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (The Message)

It's really a funny story how I found this verse. I honestly have NO idea if I just remembered it self-conciously or if it's a total God-Thing you know? It very well could be something I'm recalling from Sunday school or Saturdaynight service...Lol! Or it could be something God wants me to talk to the girls about. Crazy right?

But Idk what else I want to do, or even how to start out talking to the girls. At Kidz Camp it was a matter of saying "do it...like now, and then we're going to bed afterwards." (JK!!!! that sounds mean. I'm not that mean of a couselor!!! I promise! LOL) I have a feeling this might be a litle harder to gain their attention. Plus, I don't want to ramble or be boring. I want to find a way to relate it to their lives. That's why I pay attention so much at my youth stuff. Sunday school and even SaturdayNight service, I can relate to the things b/c they're about things I can relate to in my lie. It's harder for me to concentrate in "Big Church" sometimes...

Now that i think more about it, I'm really not THAT much older than they are... if I can sit there and say to myself "What is God teaching Me through these verses?" I could probably find a way to talk to the girls about what God is teaching them...does that make sense? It totally makes sense in my head but it's almost midnight and I'm very tired.
This might be one of those posts I go back and edit....ALOT tomorrow morning when I'm thinking clearly.

It's definitely something to pray about and think about more.  I need to really read that part of the Bible and REALLY think about what it's saying in my life so I can understand it more.

That's one of the things we talked about last Saturday Night: THINK THINK THINK!!!!! Alot of times I just won't read my Bible or certain parts of the Bible b/c I'm too lazy and tired to THINK.

I hope this post wasn't just a bunch of gibberish...=) It's late though. So I'll just post and re read tomorrow morning. Night!!!!

Here In Your Presence....

Found in Your hands, fullness of joy
Every fear suddenly wiped away here in Your presence
All of my gains now fade away
Every crown no longer on display, here in Your presence
Heaven is trembling in awe of Your wonders
The kings and their kingdom are standing amazed

Chorus:
Here in Your presence, we are undone
Here in Your presence, Heaven and Earth become one
Here in Your presence, all things are new
Here in Your presence, everything bows before You

Bridge:
Wonderful, beautiful, glorious, matchless in every way
Wonderful, beautiful, glorious, matchless in every way

Here in Your Presence New Life Worship

I literally sat here for 20 minutes typing and deleting and re-typing and re-deleting to try and explain how this song made me feel. I couldn't explain it. I really can't! Just look it up and listen to it because it's one of the most amazing songs I've ever heard.

 

A Picture is worth a thousand words...

It's midnight, and I'm really not sleepy. Lol. I need to get some sleep soon, so I'm hoping that maybe by writing I'll get tired...

Anyway, here's what I've been doing today:

• We're watching "Facing The Giants" in Spanish. It's really really good!!!
• I have STRAIGHT As!!!!! SOOOOO Excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Had a pizza party in Yearbook!
• Witnessed a fight between two people less than five feet away from me in Keyboarding. (Usually nothing ever happens in Keyboarding...it's a very boring class.)
• Aced a quiz in English
• Came home and deep cleaned my room. ( I couldn't believe it either...)
• Had family over for Granddaddy's birthday dinner!
• Worked for a couple of hours on a power point for something on Sunday
• and began to blog.

Not a super interesting day! Grant called earlier and asked if I wanted to put together a bunch of pictures of the Youth for him to show at a ministry showcase in Bartlett tomorrow.
(If I haven't mentioned it before, taking pictures is one of my favorite hobbies! lol)
I have a TON of pictures from different youth things so I'm collaging them all together on...*drum roll please* POWERPOINT!!!! I've never used it before, and am SUPER excited about getting to use it. Haha!

I think this feeling I have right now is one of the reasons I love to take pictures, and write so much. I love the fact that you can take a picture of something and it can last forever. That you can save the pictures for a lifetime, and you can take one look at a picture and have a thousand memories come back to you at once. I love that you can edit them and color them the way you want, and I love to look at people smile! I like how a picture can literally say a thousand words! I love how you can express how you feel (artistic, happy, sad, angry, lonely, hyper, etc.) when you take a picture. Don't believe me? Check it out:

This kind of picture makes me happy! (Just a random one off the internet) It's a happy picture of two happy people. It made me smile just a little bit when I saw it.

I love that pictures make us feel different things. I love the fact that the only thing people in the future can remember us by is by what we leave them. Whether it be writing or pictures, or both. They're really important. =)

I'm probably just rambling...I'm actually pretty tired now. =) Good Night!

Back packs, Apples, and Middle Schoolers...

So I went with my mom to Bartlett this week to help make copies while Michael was at Breakout. Well, the toner in the copy machine was wayy low so I ended up going into the room with middle schoolers ( i was feeling brave...jk jk) and listened to the lesson.
One point (The point that stuck out to me the most) was the following exapmle my youth minister, Grant, said:

"When I was in school it was 'cool' to carry your backpack in a way where you would release the straps and carry them as loose as possible. One day we realized that this was NOT the way to carry them. It killed your backs. Having our bags like this was an extra burden."

I don't remember what he said word for word about this next part, but here it is in a nutshell:

When we worry about stuff, it's like extra baggage on our hearts. We spend so much time worrying about things and about how we're going to fix it, we don't let God take control of our situations. These worries, or even our sins, come between us and God.

I find it funny that when I first walked in I was like "Guess I'm going to hang out with some 7th and 8th graders...." Haha, I'm glad I did! I was reminded of something important. Plus, I learned about apples...don't ask. It's a looooong story.

Little piece of something I was recently reminded of. =)

Poetry

For my project in English I learned that some poetry (Take Lewis Carroll for example) can be totally pointless. They don't HAVE to be about Love or Hate, they can be fun and quirky. They don't even have to rhyme all of the time! They can be dark and scary or light and happy! I chose to do a "gibberish" poem. Which is a fun, completely pointless, and quirky poem (I literally made it up off the top of my head 5 minutes ago...hahaha!) Tell me how silly you think it is, and how you would change it.

Here's what I've decided. I can't write poetry.
I can't make words rhyme and sound the same!
I don't know how to make words look fancy or cute
I just ramble on and on.
I can't make the words look like a picture,
Or make the picture out of words
I'm not creative enough, so it's just not going to happen. Sorry.
I can't spend hours talking about Old Tom Turkey
or about poor Jack and Jill
I tend to kill these silly stories by telling them wrong anyway.
Haven't you figured it out yet? I can't write poems I swear!
I can't write poetry. I should put an end mark there, but here's something I
might as well say, so
Hey! Lend me your ear!
I can make special words sound the same but only every now and again,
They say men are better at this but I'd say they'd have better luck milking a cow.
"A cow?" You say?
Well yes sweet dear a cow.
Have you ever seen a man trying to milk a cow?
It's quite entertaining if you ask me...
I'm losing my train of thought!
It left the station half past three...
Oh yes...As I was saying, there is no hope for me!
I can't write poems so I'm calling it a day...
Well, that's all I got. See ya!

Little piece of the creative part of me!!!!

5 doors

I think it's safe to say we all feel completely unworthy sometimes. "Who Am I? That the Lord of all the Earth, would care to know my name...would care to feel my hurt?" These amazing lyrics pretty much sum it up...
We don't have to "Win God's affections." I understand that. But we do not want to displease God or do anything sinful either right? So we should honor God in all we do.

I sometimes wonder though "What if I do something in life that God doesn't want me to do in life?" That probably doesn't make much sense, so here's an example: I've grown up my whole life and have wanted to be a teacher. Now, I'm not so sure. How do I know that's what God wants me to do in life? The truth is that I don't have a clue as to what God's plan for me is. He's God. He's got this. =) I just have to go with what He wants me to do. Does that make sense?

I talked to someone about it and here's what he said: If there are five doors, and three of them lead to sin, which ones will you not open? If you're following God you won't open any of those three doors. Now you just have two doors to choose. One will lead to the place you definitely need to be, and the other won't lead you somewhere displeasing to God but it will probably take you to a place God doesn't necessarily want you to be. It's cool  because sometimes in order to figure out "where God wants you to be" you have to figure out "Where God doesn't want you to be."

It made sense to me! lol. =)

         

Little piece of something I learned

It gives you something to think about...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaGfNBM8o7I