One Thousand Gifts (Jan 12-14)

January 12th: Above, below and beside
Above- Sunshine (even though it's seriously lacking today and we're dealing with crummy gross memphis weather! It's still there though!)
Below- the piles of things under my bed. I'm thankful to live in a country where I have a safe place to sleep at night and freedom to throw whatever I want to under my bed! (as long as mom doesn't find out. Shhh!)
Beside-books on my side table.

January 13th: 3 Things about yourself that you are grateful for
1. The way I'm determined and passionate about certain things. If I set my mind to it I know I can do anything, and if it's something I love then you'll probably have a hard time pulling me away from it. Haha it gets me in trouble occasionally like when I spend twice as much time on my English homework instead of doing my Algebra, or work on something for my middle school girls instead of doing an essay that's due the next day.
2. My height. I love being tall, you should try it sometimes Angie Jennings! <---- it gives me little snide jokes like that that i can make to my mom and other short friends/ family members. Ha! Just kidding.
3. My love for people. I love to talk, I love to listen to stories, I love helping people, I just really love being around people. I'm grateful for that bc it's given me opportunities to learn from all sorts of people: young and old!

January 14th: 3 startling graces from God
1. His unconditional love for me. I still don't totally understand this one. No matter how many times I screw up He still loves me. And it's crazy how He reminds me sometimes!! I was on the way home yesterday and I said something along the lines of "God I'm feeling really anxious and far from you, and I don't feel like you're listening to me at all." And then, frustrated,I put my iPod on shuffle and two or three songs in a row came on that we're singing ab Gods peace and love for His children. How cool is that?
2. He isn't mad at me for messing up. It goes with His love for us but it deserves its own number because His mercy and forgiveness really blows my mind.
3. He is patient with me. When I try to control things and insist on doing everything myself He doesn't yell at me and strike me with lightning or anything like that. He waits for me to realize I can't do anything without Him, ask for his forgiveness, and allow Him to show me what He has in store for me. This is kind of a continuing cycle between me and God. I'm learning and its getting better, but I'm amazed by how patient He is with me.



Our church's women's ministry is doing "one thousand gifts" where we post three things we are thankful for every day onto a private page on Facebook. I am really bad at keeping up with stuff like that, and I like to comment and explain the reasons I pick certain things, so I figured doing this through the blog is a better idea. :)

One Thousand Gifts (Jan 1 - Jan 11)

January 1st: Three things heard
Music! (All of it! Today I've been in a Taylor Swift mood...)
Birds while I'm walking through the park
The bell telling me it's time to leave school and start the weekend

January 2nd: Outside, Inside, on your plate
Beautiful Weather
My Dog
Haha, a microwave Lean Cuisine meal

January 3rd: three graces you've heard
a teacher telling someone else I was doing a good job
my grandmother laughing and smiling and talking
talking with a friend while walking through the park

January 4th: A gift old, new, and blue
A bouquet of paper flowers
new earrings
blue T-shirt that has a coffee cup on it that says "Espresso Your Heart to God"

January 5th: Something you are making, reading, seeing
reading "Not a Fan" on my nook (reccomend!!!)
making a cross stitch Owl...it isn't coming along very quickly...
seeing a bunch of smiling faces

January 6th: one thing in your bag, your fridge, your heart
My bag- homework (I'm thankful for my education in general. I may not always like school but I'm thankful I have the opportunity to go.)
My fridge- Sugar free minute maid (in a can) lemonade
My heart- Jesus

January 7th: three graces from people you love
Forgiveness when I've done something wrong
Encouragement when I'm having a hard time
Advice and wisdom when i need it

January 8th: dusky light, surprising reflection, lovely shadow
A sunset! (tonight's was really pretty. It's been raining the past few days and it's really cool how God made something so beautiful right after something cold, wet, and yucky)
The conviction I have felt while reading the book "Not a Fan."
(this one was hard) the shadow of the bartlett police man car that was driving behind me earlier. Not thankful for the nervous wreck it made me for that four or five blocks, but I'm thankful we have police officers and firefighters to help keep us safe.

January 9th: a gift held, passed by, sat with
 My ipod touch
the beach
Jesus Calling devotional my bible study leaders, Angela and Jessica, gave to me for Christmas (2011)

January 10th: A gift sour, sweet, just right
 Sour Patch Kids (Christmas color special edition)
Great grandmother's fried pies
Not too hot, not too cold, coffee or tea my mom makes me before I walk out the door for school

January 11th: 3 yellow gifts of fresh mercy
 Sunflowers to remind me to face the Son (stretching it a bit but it counts!)
Yellow T shirt that I bought on Destin FL Youth trip to remind me of the beach and fun times with youth group. Reminds me of the first destin FL trip we went on. I became a christian on that trip. God's mercy saved me! :)
Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal. He's really big and makes a great pillow. I sleep at night on him. I wake up in the morning. God's mercies are new every morning. (also stretching it, but it also works)




Church's women's ministry started doing "one Thousand Gifts" where we list 3 things we are thankful for every day. I already know I'm not going to remember to post every day so I'll post it on my blog and update/catch up as often as I can in various posts. :)

"After You"

Here's my little happy to share with you today:

I walked out of house this morning with my hair pulled up, sweatpants on, a solid red Tshirt, and a pair of sneakers. It was one of those days! It's gross outside, it's cold, and I want to crawl back under the covers and sleep!! Today, on three different occasions, three different boys went out of their way and held a door open for me. Not just propping a door open with their hand as they walk in, actually opening a door and stepping aside. One even threw in an "after you." These weren't grown ups either! Three high school boys. Three high school boys that I don't know. Three strangers. See my point? On some days, I'm impressed if boys at my school say "excuse me" after they belch. I'm not saying girls are perfect members of society with impeccable mannerisms. I've seen girls who can belch the alphabet to the tune of  "Old MacDonalad." (Not really...that would be impressive though.) I'm just saying that stereotypically, high school boys just don't show off their manners like they show off how many noises their armpits make before the teacher comes back into the room.

Anyway, I know this seems like a small thing but on days like today when you feel thrown together and feel like things keep falling apart, those little things make a world of a difference. Ladies, chivalry and southern charm are not dead. ;)

Good-Bye 2012...Hello 2013!

Found this. Love it! Had to share!

 

2013 Mini Bucket List

2013. WHAT? How did that happen? Well, here we go! Here's to a year of new adventures and fun surprises! 2012 is behind us and there's nothing we can do to change it. Let's hold our heads up and look forward to all the wonderful things this year has in store for us. My biggest "goal" this year is to get healthy. I would love to come off my medication for my diabetes and get my blood sugar under control. It won't be easy, but I know I can do it if I really set my mind to it. As for the migraines I've been having, I'm hoping we finally have a medication that works for me and that they become less frequent this year! :) I don't really have the cliche list of New Year's Resolutions to show you, but I decided to make a "off-the-top-of-my-head" bucket list of things I really would like to do/accomplish this year.

Happy New Years everyone! :)



The mini 2013 Bucket List (in no particular order)
-Scrapbook all of my youth group pictures and take lots of pictures at church this year!
-Take my bike and go ride a bike trail somewhere
-Eat Wedding Cake Supreme at Jerry's Sno Cones at least once this summer
-Find a job doing something I like to do
-Read through the Bible
-Graduate High School
-Learn how to cook edible things that do not come from a microwave
-Take time to practice my photography
-Lose weight (no set amount, just try to be healthier)
-See Les Miserables (This will be marked off very soon! I've been waiting for that movie to come out for years! SOO excited!)
-Go camping with my friends
-Go canoeing with my dad (We are SOO doing that this year. We've been talking about it forEVER!)
-play "Messy Twister"
-Get out on the lake this summer
-Go on a mission trip

God is Sovereign and Sympathetic

"...God is not only sovereign but also sympathetic. It's not that 'He isn't sympathetic with us, has no idea what we're going through, but He's powerful so He can make it right!' It's not that 'He's not powerful can't do anything about what it is that we're going through, but He can feel our pain.' He is perfectly sovereign and perfectly sympathetic. The reality, according to Revelation 21, is that He will make this right. He will make what happened in Oregon, Connecticut, China and all the other tragedies that happened this week, he will make them right. He will bring with Him a new heaven and a new earth and He will make it right. As we walk through this and are confused and hurting, we have a sympathetic high priest who doesn't look back and say 'I bet that hurts, I don't know what that's like, I'm up here on my throne.' Instead, we have a sympathetic high priest who says 'I know. I know it's horrible, i know you've wept so much that there are no more tears to cry. I've done the same. I understand that you're so stressed out by this that you can't even eat, I've sweat blood before, I understand stress.'
You say 'God, I don't even want to wake-up, I'm fearful, I'm confused, I am completely overwhelmed.' and Jesus says 'I know what that's like. I'm not just standing up here on my high horse telling you to get over it. I've walked it. I know.' And so we have to make a choice to trust, to trust our perfectly sovereign savior, and our perfectly sympathetic high priest. We have to trust Him. Jesus once said in his ministry '...if you want to follow me you must eat my flesh and drink my blood.' At that point, a lot of people said "I'm out!" and just walked away. Jesus turned to his disciples and asked therm if they were going to leave too. Peter, one of the disciples, said "Where could we go? You hold the words of life."
You can run away from God in this, or any other tragedy in your life as an opportunity to run  from God. But, where will you go? Only one holds the words of life. There is nothing that my sympathetic savior, nothing that my perfectly sovereign savior, can't get me through..."

-Grant Nixon [Excerpt from sermon "Love Came" (12/16/12)]
http://ccbartlett.org/media.php?pageID=35

I can't do anything without Him

"My biggest struggle with faith is not a lack of belief, God has shown himself trustworthy time and time again. No, my bigeest struggle is that my prideful, arrogant heart tends to say "don't trust God with this because you can handle it." I need to daily be reminded of how sinful my heart is and how desperately I depend on God. Friends, have you placed your trust in God today, even with the little things that you mistakenly believe you can handle on your own?"

This was a friend of mine's facebook status today and boy, did I need to hear that. I can't tell you how many times I tell myself "Fix whatever problem you have so ou can go to God later and say 'Look! I did this by myself! Aren't you proud of me?'" The reality is though, we can't fix everything on our own. We NEED God to help us with everything we do. I think it makes God happier when we ask for His help. It means that we know that we are totally dependant on Him, not just kind of dependant on Him. This truly is one of the biggest things that I struggle with and one of the things I really hope to change!! :)