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It feels like forever since I've posted anything. This is definitely one of the busiest times of the year for the Jennings' family! It's absolutely one of my favorites though!
I've been going to the high school girl's Wed. night focus groups for a while now. It's awesome! We're currently reading this book by Francis Chan called "CrazyLove" It's insanely amazing!!!! I could sit here all day and type all of the stuff I've learned from that book, but I'll save it for another day. =)
Last night was our Christmas party! Each one of us picked a name and bought that person pajama pants! I got the most comfy pj pants EVER!!!! And they're blue!!!! =D Lol
We ate Milano's pizza, had cookies, played a few games, listened to the adorable baby Maks "talk" and just goofed off and had alot of fun. <3

10 days until Christmas!!! I'm so excited!!!!

Sounds like fun to me!

Visit The Gingerbread Shoppe on December 12th, 2:00-8:00 p.m.! 
http://angelanixon.blogspot.com/2010/11/gingerbread-shoppe_29.html

What am I thankful for?

(You will learn that I use the words "awesome" "incredible" "amazing" and "thankful" quite a lot in this post. Ha ha sorry!)

My amazing Savior Jesus Christ!

• I wouldn't be who I am today without the grace of God. He has blessed me in so many ways and I am so incredibly thankful! I'm thankful for him sending His one and only son to the cross to die for me. Have you ever stopped to think about that? I didn't until recently. We hear it all the time, but Jesus DIED for ME! Jesus DIED for YOU! Isn't it amazing?!? He loves us sooooo much!

My parents and my brother!

• I'm so blessed with an amazing family! Don't know what I'd do without them! My mom is INCREDIBLE!!! I hope I grow up to be like her one day. =)

My friends!

• I definitely couldn't go a day without them! I have the kind of friends who are always there for me, and I'm SO thankful for every one of them! I'm thankful for all the times we've sat around laughing about absolutely nothing, hanging out, crying, dancing around and being goofy, singing obnoxiously in the car, and just being together!

My CHURCH!

• Christ Church is absolutely awesome! I'm incredibly thankful that God put the people of Christ Church in my life! It's become one of my most favorite places to be at! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE my church family!Which brings me to...

My Youth Minister, Sunday School teachers, and youth group!!!!!

• Grant, Angela, Mike, Ashley, Rhett, and Lauren changed my life! I'm so so so so so so so thankful God put them in my life! I really do not know where I'd be without them! I'm thankful for my AMAZING youth group! I've met some totally awesome people from both the Arlington and Bartlett campus and am so thankful for these friends! I'm thankful for the trips we've taken over the years to Destin, San Antonio, and Ocoee! I'm thankful for my girls only (plus the adorable baby Maksim!) Wednesday night study at Ana's beautiful house! I'm thankful for our youth building across the street from church! I'm thankful for the various events we've done the past couple of years! From REVERB to White Elephant gift exchanges! I'm thankful for the opportunities to hang out with my friends!

Saturday Night Service!

• I really don't know what else to say! It's AWESOME! I absolutely love it! I look forward to it every week!!! The band is AMAZING!!! Grant is a great speaker!!!! I love being able to meet new people and go out to eat afterwards every now and then! =)

"My kids"

• As silly as it may be I might as well call them that! I am soooooooooooooooooooo SO thankful for the opportunity to serve God through the Kidz Ministry! I'm thankful for the relationships I've developed with the kids at my church! I love all of them to death!!! I'm thankful that I can be extremely silly when I'm with them! I'm thankful I can put my hair in pigtails, dress in my pajamas, and have a cotton ball "snowball" fight! I'm thankful for the fact that I learn SO much from kids! I'm thankful for the kids from the nursery to the 6th graders! I love love love them! I'm thankful for the trips I've been able to take with them! I've been a CIT for the 2-4 grade kidz camp and for the 5th and 6th grade trip! I'm thankful for Jericho Junction! I'm thankful for being able to help out with the kindergarten kids every other week with the awesome Stelka family! =D

My education!

• I definitely do not always enjoy getting up at the crack of dawn to go to school. However, Arlington offers some amazing opportunities to "expand my education" lol I'm thankful for such a nice school, with some pretty cool teachers this year!

Photography and Writing!

• I've mentioned it before, but I love taking pictures and writing! I'm thankful for pictures and software to edit them! I'm thankful for pens and paper and white out! I'm thankful for Microsoft Word! I'm thankful for books to read! I'm thankful for an imagination that can make words on a page seem real! I'm thankful for cameras! I'm thankful for the little sliver of creativeness I got from my mom! =D

Yearbook!

• I'm one of four sophomores on the Arlington Yearbook Staff! I'm thankful for a two hour class that always brightens my day! I'm thankful I finally found something that let's me combine my love for photography and writing! I'm thankful for the amazing people in that class! I'm thankful for the microwave that allows me to grab a "frozen dinner" and stuff it in my lunch box on the days I'm running late for school! I'm thankful for the new friends I've made, and the laughs I've shared!

Music!

• Pretty much any kind! I could try to list all of the songs and artists I've grown to love, but that would take FOREVER! I have 1,894 songs in my iTunes! I'm thankful for my iPod! Without it I doubt I'd ever get anything done! I'm thankful that I can read music (not very well, but I can. lol) I'm thankful my little brother can play the guitar. (Even though he plays it ALL the time! It'll be nice to have at least one musically inclined person in the family) I'm thankful for amazing christian artists! I'm thankful for Keith Urban! Ha ha I'm definitely thankful for music!

Disney!

• What can I say? I am a major Disney Dork! I love watching old Disney movies! I'm thankful they've begun to release them all on DVD so I can watch them more often! I'm thankful ABC Family shows old Disney movies that I haven't watched in forever! (I watched Aladdin yesterday!!!!) I'm thankful for Mickey Mouse and the years of entertainment he has provided everyone with!

Dandelions!

• It's incredibly silly, but I LOVE these little weeds! I love the idea of making a wish and hoping it comes true! I love the memories as a little kid picking a big "bouquet" of dandelions and giving it to mom! I just love dandelions!

Sunflowers!

• That's my favorite flower! They're usually kind of expensive, but I LOVE how cheerful they look!

The Five senses!

• My sight, the ability to taste things, the ability to hear things, the ability to smell things, and the ability to feel things with all ten of my fingers!

My LIFE!!!

• Everyday is a gift from God! I'm thankful to be alive, and I am sooo blessed!!!!

I'm very thankful for everything I have! This is the most wonderful time of the year! I love the leaves falling off the trees (even if it means I have to sweep it all off my porch and rake it up!) I'm thankful for the anticipation of snow! I'm thankful that the school year is halfway over! I'm thankful for fires in the fireplace, putting up Christmas decorations, and being to gether with my family!

Just a little piece of things I'm thankful for!!!

I'm not a stalker...I'm an observant reader. ;)

For whatEVER reason I love reading blogs. Don't ask me why, I have no clue. I get excited when someone updates theirs. I just do... ANYWAY, someone recently posted something and it's awesome!!!

Peace with God Through Faith

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-- 8 but God shows his love for us in thatwhile we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Romans 5

I LOVE this passage! (Angela...I copied this directly off of yours, and then posted onto mine. You can make fun of me later if you want to. Lol)

Anyway, I really do like this passage!!! I especially like v. 1-2 "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.Through him we have also obtained access by faith into his grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God"

I REALLY like The Message interpretation.

"By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of Jesus.2 And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise"

In case the highlighting and underlining weren't a big enough deal, I REALLY like that part of v. 2! It's like saying that God has totally been there for us WITH us, and I just think it's a really amazing verse. Lol It's 12:30 and I got up at 5:00 this morning. =) I hope I made sense. Nighty-Night!
A Little piece of something I liked and was able to learn from!

Oh How He Loves Us....

"He is jealous for me. Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, bending beneath the weight of His wind a mercy..." -How He Loves (David Crowder Band)

"If someone handed you a gift you would use it right?" "Well, yeah..." "You wouldn't say 'I am so sorry for using the gift!' You'd just use it and tell them how thankful you are for it." "Sounds right..." "So when God has given you this gift of being surrounded by so many people who love you and care about you and you say 'Sorry for annoying you but I have this question...' don't you think that's like telling God your sorry for using his gift?" "Whoa...mind is re-setting...."-Conversation between Sarah and I

Wow. I have never looked at it like that before... I have a lot of questions, I won't lie. Lol! Mostly generic "well, what does that mean?" Kind of stuff....
I don't like using Google, because so many websites are "unreliable" and I don't want to misread something or walk away more confused than I already was. (Been there. Done that.) I feel like I bother the crap out of people if I ask someone, so I try not to bother anyone by just keeping quiet. When I do ask someone, I usually start out with the phrase "I'm sorry..." or "I'm super annoying but..."
When I explained to my amazing friend Sarah why I do this (because I feel bad for bothering people) we had the conversation listed above.
Isn't it amazing how much God loves us? There's a verse (Heb. 4:16) that says "...we can approach the throne of God with confidence..." That's probably one of my favorite verses I think. It just further shows how insanely AMAZING God's love is. The fact that He WANTS our questions, and as a believer no matter what I can go to Him with anything. It's incredibly awesome.

This all being said, I forget it quite often. I am very thankful to be surrounded by so many people who are such an amazing encouragement to me! I don't know where I'd be without the totally amazingly incredibly awesome people God has brought into my life.

Anyway, that's just a little piece of something I was reminded of today. It's been a pretty long day of cleaning and such so I'm kind of tired. Hopefully this made sense and wasn't just me rambling. lol  =) <3

A Little Piece of something that blows my mind

Random thoughts I think I should share...

• I haven't been able to log into my blog account since the day I posted my last post. Not a big deal because I don't post everyday. It's a big deal because I couldn't see my dashboard and if anyone else had posted anything...so yeah. 
• I get to see MercyMe and Phil Wickham this Friday night!!!!! =D
• I'll HOPEFULLY get to see The Wiz (school play) on Monday Night
•  I get to see TenthAvenueNorth in less than 9 weeks
• I get to see them again when they come to the Grizzlies game in January
• David Crowder Band has a new music video out they made with LITE BRITES!!!! Amazing!!!!
• I FINALLY have been able to upload pictures onto Facebook
• We have a canned food drive in Bartlett on Saturday
• Mr. Randy is playing a part in Jericho Junction on Sunday Night (Homer the Gardener...)
• Tim Hawkins is HILARIOUS!!!! Look up God Bless Chick-Fil-A, and Banana Peeling whenever you get a minute. Those are my favorite ones I think...

We were in the car on the way home from Breakout this Tuesday. (I had gone to help my mom sort the copies but she ended up having to wrestle with the machine because it was being stupid. Sooo, instead I went to Breakout with the middle school kids.) Sam goes "I have been craving a big giant plate of hot spicy chicken wings." When it was dead silent. Hahahahahahahaha!
Mom started to talk about how colorful our Chinese dinner was.
Then, Jacob asked if anyone ever related art and music to God.
All were very interesting subjects, but it was a RANDOM car ride...

Anyway, these are all of the thoughts I have for now. It'll probably be awhile before I post again. Bye! =)

Little Pieces of me!

I can't even think of a title for this one...

I think it's safe to say I've been going through some stuff lately. I felt completely empty when I went to church, when I read my Bible, and when I prayed. Sure, God's there but I felt like maybe he wasn't listening. Maybe He heard me but didn't want to deal with me.
Boy, was I WRONG!!! (what else is new? lol) If you take the time to read them, these are just a few of the verses and quotes that literally seemed to be jumping off the pages and screaming in my face. I somehow finally just realized that God knew exactly what He was doing and I guess I kind of let a lot of stuff go. I wish I could really explain things more, but I honestly can't. Just know that God is absolutely amazing. Completely and totally amazing.

"Though the trials may grow harder, though your steps may grow yet darker, though the valley's shadow grows even longer, it is only, perhaps, my friend, because your faith is growing stronger and you are ready to climb a higher mountain and dive deeper into your Father's fathomless grace." -Sarah

2 Consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds 3 for you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him..." James 1:2-5

6 ...but He gives us more grace! That is why Scripture says: God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." 7 Submit yourself then to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and He will come near to you..." James 4:6-8

13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.” James 4: 13-15

13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.James 5:13-16

"...Don't forget all of the stuff God showed you in the light. You might feel like your in the darkness now, lost and confused, but you shouldn't give up just because of that. You feel distant from Him now, but you know He's there..." -Grant

"I'm tired of all this...so tired. My bed has been floating forty days and night on the flood of my tears. My mattress is soaked. Soggy with tears." Psalm 6:6

That verse especially blew me away. It was written by David who apparently was this guy "after God's heart." I don't think you understand how comforting it was to know that here was David who was supposedly like this really good dude but he was struggling too.

I was emptying my bible case of all of the index cards, notes, handouts, pencils, pens, etc. It got a hole in it so I was getting stuff out to throw it away. Well, I was throwing it away and this little slip of paper fell LITERALLY onto my lap!!! It was from a REVERB from who knows when... and I had written like 4 or 5 different points.

• He isn't surprised or disappointed
• He will use our hurt to help us grow
• He promises to be there with us

Then in Sunday School I just so happened to be called to read Ephesians 2: 8-9

"8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. 9not by works, so that no one can boast."

I did NOT want to go to Saturday Night service this past week. But I did... It was like the 2nd song and the band starts to sing "How He Loves" and I lost it. I felt like I was about to bawl. So, I went to Mr. John's office just to find a tissue but I couldn't find the light switch. It's amazing how the smallest thing can send you completely over the edge... I didn't even get to hear Grant talk, I was in there praying with tears rolling down my face and big ugly sobs coming out of my mouth. =) But, I let it all go. All of the stuff that's been bothering me lately, I finally realized (once again) that God can handle all of it. Every single little thing. I won't lie, I'm still trying to figure some stuff out. This time though, I won't try to do it by myself because I know that I can't. I know that I definitely shouldn't be angry with God or anything like that, and I know that He loves me. I've always known that God loves me, but I don't think I ever really grasped what that meant. I mean, think about it...
God made the entire universe. Do yourself a favor, if you've never taken a second to, and Google pictures of our universe. Earth is really really really tiny. I mean we aren't even microscopic, we're smaller than that. So if earth is that small, think of how small we are? There are like 6.5 BILLION people on the planet! God loves each individual person though. It's insane!!! Hold 1 strand of your hair. Then take a few strands. Now hold a little chunk. Now hold a big chunk. Ok, now hold half of your hair into a little ponytail. Finally, hold all of your hair up into on big ponytail. There's a verse that says God knows EXACTLY how many hairs are on our head.
I went to the Chattanooga aquarium and asked our tour guide/marine biologist person if it was true that if the water that coral grows in, changes by ONE degree it could all die. The statement is true. God cares about all these plants and coral and stuff, so think about how much he loves us?!?!? It's totally and completely insanely amazing, and that's the unconditional love of God. <3

Last thing I'll type and then I'll be done. I have said it A LOT in the past few weeks but I am so unbelievably thankful for my church. I was seriously at the point where I was just like "forget all of it b/c if I can't figure it out by now then God just doesn't care..." Then I just so happened to find an AMAZING friend who had been through the same stuff as me before, and she helped me SO much. I don't know what I would do without her. My Sunday school teachers, and my youth minister, and basically just everyone in my church are such amazing people! I really don't know where I'd be without them.

Little pieces of things that are amazing!!!!