to the friend who gives me grace

Her name lines up perfectly with what she gives freely to me, even when I have been an absolute piece of junk when it comes to being a good friend.

Grace. 

Wow. There's not enough words in my vocabulary to thank you for always sticking by me even when I haven't always been there for you. You've put up with the ugliness of my sinful nature: my pride, my selfishness and my shortcomings. Thank you for loving me through the midst of it.

You and I have been through similar situations and have had similar battles. I think that only you and I, and people who have struggled with the same issue understand how amazing it is to find someone who gets what you're struggling with. 

I have so much fun with you and I am realizing that you are one of the only people I can truly laugh with about the dumbest things that only we get. I think we were born to be soul-best friends. I'm praying that nothing, not even college and grown-up life will ever separate us.

I think you are my closest friend because you get me better than I know myself.

You know my tendencies. You know when I'm going to act a certain way around a boy, or that I will most likely react to a situation in ___ this way, so you give me advice in response to it. 

I think because we have had our clashes before, it makes our friendship inseparable and stronger than any other friendship I have. 

You know I think one of my favorite things about you is that we can laugh, but we can also have some of the deepest conversations known to human existence. One moment we might be laughing about Aaron playing the triangle and the next minute we might be talking about being accountability partners and why people make the choices they do. 

It must be the fact that we weren't meant to be just friends. We are truly somehow, in a strange way, knit together at the heart, because at the end of the day, we are immaculately family. Not just sisters in Christ, but family. 

Thank you for sticking by me all the times where I was blind to the idolization of friendships in my life that I forsook the time and energy I should've been investing in our friendship. Tears come to my eyes as I think about how blind I was and how BLESSED I am to have a friend that was willing to confront me and tell me about my sin. And to give me grace in the midst of it.

Thank you for waiting patiently until I realized my sin and thank you for still willing to be the person who actually genuinely gets me the most here on earth. 

And from the bottom of my heart I truly do mean this: I think you are getting more and more beautiful every single day, inside and out. 

Thank you for being a living reflection to me of what Jesus Christ looks like. 

love a lil more

what if we all decided to love a little more? regardless of what we will get in return?

Often times we try to make Christian community into heaven and we end up getting hurt because we don't seem to get what we need from a broken, earthly community.

When we give love and we seek community with Christ as the center, he will nourish us in our pursuit of community. Community cannot fill the hole of love and acceptance that only Christ can fill and community will hurt, but it is worth it.
There have been some incidents where new girls would start attending our church and my heart was not open to loving new people. I felt comfortable and happy with the girls I already had in my sphere. However, Jesus opened my eyes to the amazing friendships that were possible when I opened my heart to these girls and was willing to be vulnerable and grow closer to them. They have made me a better person and have taught me many valuable lessons about different things.

Not every girl is going to become your best friend, but if you have the common bond of Christ, you already have something mighty awesome in common. I have a girl who started attending our youth group about a year or so ago and yes we are friends, but our personalities are so different so we will never be close. Yet I am still called to give her the same amount of love as I give someone who I deeply desire to be around and love. So keep your heart open for the people that God wants you to open you heart to.

A little bit of love changes everything.

7 songs to start your school year right

thoughts on homosexuality issues

Last week I spent a week at the Teen Leadership Conference in Clark Summit, Pennsylvania. One of the speakers touched on the issues of homosexuality and transgender issues from a biblical perspective, and I loved the way it was presented and the perspective brought.

First, let me state what I wholeheartedly believe is true about homosexuality.

It is clearly a sin and even though those who believe that homosexuality is no longer condemned because it is only mentioned in the old testament have not dug in deeper to what the Bible truly says about it.

1. Homosexuality must be thrown from our lives because it is sin.

Take for example Leviticus 20:13 which mentions the act of homosexuality and how those who commit that sin should be put to death.

Even though the punishments have changed and with the changes of no longer being under the law, it still shows the seriousness of the sin and supports the idea when it is mentioned in the new testament... in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.

⁹ Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men ¹⁰ nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

There is no vagueness to what Paul under the inspiration of the spirit is calling a sin. Those who are homosexuals and are sexually immoral alike are sinners...and will not inherit the kingdom of God without a belief in Jesus Christ's death on the cross to forgive them of their sins. There is hope for those who are caught up in any sort of sin, not just homosexuality.

Sin may seem really appeasing, but that doesn't make it right according to God's standard. When we say things like "love wins", we are defining sin on human conditions and how we feel about something and not on the conditions of a perfect God.

2. We must remember our own sin and how apart from Christ, we are also completely lost in our sin and in darkness.

With Jesus, it is possible to have salvation when we believe in Him and we are given the gift of grace: justified in Christ. But we must repent of our sin and turn away from sins and lifestyles that are completely contrary to God's word. God designed marriage to be between a man and a woman, as seen in Genesis 2. Just as any other sin may seem appeasing and fun, and even though "love wins" may seem fun, homosexuality is a sin even if it doesn't "feel" like it.

3. We have to accept that it is possible to love the sinner and hate the sin.

Jesus portrays this very idea and tells the women in adultery to leave her life of sin because she has been forgiven. Jesus is not saying that her act of adultery was justified. Neither are we called to be the judge of the sins of others because we have sinned.

Read John 8:2-11 to get the whole story and idea of this passage.

4. We should proclaim the gospel and the victory found over sins through Christ

Some of those who are transgender or homosexual will say they are born that way and are created with certain genes that make them this way.

We are all born with bad genes and sin tendencies! They just differ depending on who we are!

For all sorts of sins, without any exceptions, Jesus gives us VICTORY.  He is able to way more than we can ever ask or imagine if we are trusting in His strength to defeat sin.

How can we look beyond just this idea of homosexuality and look to the sin tendencies that we also fall into without realizing it and throw them away?

Making August Happen

This post kinda brings a pit to my stomach as I write it. I cannot believe how quickly June and July flew by and how bittersweet it is to know I only have two weeks of summer left.

July Goals

1. Go in and get my license

Done. Freedom and responsibility are mine.

2. Finish reading my summer reading book and read half of the second one

So I didn't exactly finish half of the second book, more like 1/4 of it, but I did complete the first one and started the second so that is good progress for mwah.

3. Finish one of my summer goals

Umm, yeah I didn't go to a drive in movie or eat late somewhere or send a youtuber mail. But I had a great last week of July at Teen Leadership Conference which makes every other fun thing pale in comparsion.

4. Finish creating the senior video

I don't know, this just didn't happen.

5. Use less sarcasm

It's kinda hard to tell and mark the progress of these goals, but I do believe that I have made some headway on using less sarcasm...or I guess I can definitely see progress in handling my emotions better. During the week of TLC, I didn't let my emotions get in the way of trying a few new things and I also could see that God was working in my life in that specific area.

August Goals

1. Do my devotional track from TLC daily.

During the week at TLC, I was grow immensely spiritually and I was so encouraged by the daily devotionals that they had us wake up and do everyday at 7:30. I want to keep doing this everyday this month because I grew closer to God even in the five days they had us do them at camp, and I know how rewarding and how much joy through Christ I have gained from doing them.

2. Continue in my accountability partnerships

I created two specific accountability parternships throughout the week of TLC. One accountability is with a younger girl and one is with a girl my age. I need to keep these up and make sure I'm also striving to fill those commitments I have made myself.

3. Be patient and spur the others in my community of believers to good deeds

Yes most of these goals are relating to what I learned in TLC, but I guess that makes sense doesn't it? Shouldn't we be taking what we learned and making goals to complete those things? In spurring others on to good deeds, I want to pray about a situation where I'm not sure if confrontation is necessary. I also want to make sure that I don't fall into gossip, which also doesn't spur others onto love and good deeds.

4. Find a phone

I'm trying to figure out if I can get a refurbished iPhone or somehow work an iPhone through Sprint's prepaid plan...but whatever I choose to do, I need to get a phone this month. Mucho necesito.

5. Claim leadership in my youth group

Our youth group the past year was beautiful and we had amazing leadership, however we struggled a bit getting the younger girls and guys involved in the youth group community. Since I am stepping up as one of the main student leaders in youth group, I want to brainstorm with the other older girls on how we can make this year successful and involve all of the girls.

6. Finish my last summer reading book

This actually has to be done in two weeks, so I have to make sure it gets done.

What goals do you have as the summer comes to a close?