True Valentine

Written Feb.14, 2011

 A week ago  my pastor showed us a video from his daughter Emily that really made me think about love.  For a while, I myself have been struggling with the concept of "Love". Love now has a different word in my vocabulary, Give.Give everything, Give up!  Before it was just a feeling for me, something that I felt I had to have. I always focused on what I loved and who loved me that I didn't put my whole focus on the only LOVE, Christ.  It was all about me, myself, and I. I  didn't realize to truly love the Lord I had to GIVE Him my ALL.  Sure, I knew that was the greatest commandment. The verse "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, with all your mind, and all your strength" has been engraved in my brain since I was a small girl. But it wasn't till recently that I learned the full meaning...All.  All my strength, all my mind, all my soul, all my heart... That's a lot. Before, I didn't give it my all. It was only 75% some of the time, and that is not enough. I struggled with the idea that with love I will get attention. Like Emily, I tried to fight in. Tried to impress people with the my words, my actions, and even my appearance. Now, love is all about how much I can give to God, my all, everything that I am and everything that defines me. It is really cool to think about His love and how I have the capabilities to  spread His love. With that being said, I have the wonderful opportunity to spread God's love to beautiful children in Guatemala. God has been working on my heart this year about Love and what He wants me to do after high school, and His timing is perfect. In exactly 39 days, I will be in Guatemala working in an orphanage with a couple other ladies. I always wanted to go to a foreign country, but I never expected this. I am going to try my hardest to give 100%(my All) to Christ now, when I am down there, and when I return. It is going to take a lot of work and it may be hard, but I am going to do it! That is what love is about. I am going to GIVE my ALL! Today as it is the day of Love, think about the ONE TRUE LOVE, God! Thank him for everything because without Him we wouldn't be able to love, without Him we wouldn't be here. Please pray for me that I will continue to give my all  for Christ  now, as I am in Guatemala, and after that. Also pray for those beautiful children in Guatemala!

Thanks! We have a BIG God! <3

Out of My Comfort Zone (New Orleans)

It has been two weeks since we have back from our mission trip to New Orleans. I can not even begin to explain how much my mission trip has impacted my everyday actions and attitudes. What my youth group saw in New Orleans has truly made us grateful for what we have. It has been five years since Hurricane Katrina, and New Orleans is still suffering from the flooding. The city is working extremely hard on rebuilding the city, yet there is so much more to do. We were fortunate enough to work along with our youth group at Team Effort Mission Camp. Team Effort Mission Camp is a camp geared towards youth working for Christ all over the country and a few in foreign countries. At camp we learned how to do construction jobs such as sanding freshly mudded walls, priming, painting, and even some gardening. It was so neat to talk with Shelia, who was in her sixties. She explained to us that the day the levy broke it was sunny and warm outside, and she thought the storm had past. She thought there was nothing to be worried about, and that is the reason she was not in a hurry to leave the city. To her surprise, the levies broke, and the water poured in uncontrollably. Then it started storming, and the winds started blowing so hard that she said the houses blew back and forth. She managed to get out of the city and go to her sister’s house in Texas, but her eighty year old mother was not so fortunate. She had to be rescued by helicopter on the top of a building. Shelia came back to more than 4 feet of water all throughout her house. To make matters worse, she lost her job as a teacher in the NOLA school district. Although she had to live with her mother for a long time until her house was rebuilt and she lost everything she had, she had such hope and vigor. It wasn’t a burden for her, and she did not dwell on the disadvantages she was faced with. There was hardly any bit of remorse or bitterness when she told us the story of Hurricane Katrina. She told us that God had a purpose for Hurricane and was thankful that he gave her the opportunity to retire early although she probably had a good 10+ years still left in her. It is so amazing that someone can have such hope and perseverance especially someone in her circumstances. It just shows us how small man is, and how big God really is. It is taking New Orleans 5+ years to fix and rebuild something that took God mere seconds to destroy. Though many ask why God could let this happen to so many people, the answer is always the same. The answer is that He had a purpose. Sure, many people died and for many others their lives were devastated, but God did it for a reason. It might take others more seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, and maybe even a lifetime to figure out what God’s purpose was and is, but He always has a plan. I have been struggling that myself, and this just opened my eyes because I am always focused on everything in the future. I tend to get stressed out way to much and I also tend to be a perfectionist which is going to bite me in the butt. Both Jared and I felt inspired to continue our new passion for helping people and learning to trust in the BIG God we have. I have always heard from parents and Sunday school teachers that I have to trust God, but I never really recognize that I wasn't fully trusting him. Jared and I discussed and we want to live and love like Christ. We want to be so focused on him that it is all about him and nothing about ourselves. We were stretched out of our comfort zone by doing things we normally do not do, but we learned to put on a happy face because it was all for the glory of God. We learned that no matter the circumstance we can have hope because we believe in God. It is not going to be easy because we have been so used to our self-absorbed worlds focused on “All about me”, but we are going to work at it with everything we have because it is not our will, but His. Please pray for our journey to come!