To Every Girl Who's Hurting..

This is a message to every girl who is hurting:

You are loved. While you may feel lost and completely alone in this world of pain and sin, there is One who never fails you. Ears are open to hear our cries, and arms are wide to hold you close. While you may have been physically and emotionally abused or hurt, and while true love may seem far away, hold on, for there is One who never will let you go and One who will treat you as the treasure you are. You are made originally by the Creator of the universe, and you are loved individually, for you are beautiful. God knows you, He sees your hurt, and He will bring you through it. You may feel as though you have no worth and it doesn't matter how you treat your body, but you have been deceived by the world and its lies. You are worth the world to your Heavenly Father, and He wants You to come to Him and trust Him. Throughout His life on earth, Jesus Christ impacted the world and loved those who thought they were not worth being loved. Through His death on the cross, He covered every sin of every man and through His sacrifice demonstrated His intense love for mankind. Through His resurrection He displayed His incredible power over death and His conquering love. Jesus Christ is your hope, and you no longer need to feel worthless. You no longer need to feel hopeless and dirty. You no longer need to feel abandoned. God is a God of hope, and in this hope, you can be rid of every doubt. Doubts of your self-worth, doubts of your competence, and doubts of your quality. You are loved. You are more than what you've been told you are. You are more than the world has treated you to be. You can be God's child, eternally forgiven, eternally loved, pure and holy, and a new creation in Him. There is hope, and Jesus Christ is it.

I'm not really sure why I felt the need to write this, but I feel a burden for every girl out there who has been physically or emotionally abused. I just wanted to share the love there is for you.

God Bless <3

And Life Goes On

Well, this week has definitely been a learning experience. While some situations hurt, it's somewhat comforting to know that they could hurt much worse. I'm definitely thankful that God works things out in a way that we can handle and never gives us more than we can bear. My back's not broken yet. I've also learned to be thankful for books (above all- the Bible). In the restless times when I need to be busy instead of over thinking things, I find that reading is the perfect outlet to avoid dwelling on unchangeable issues. The Bible most definitely never gets old- it actually seems new every time I read it. I'm also planning on starting The House of the Seven Gables ..mostly because I just wrote a paper on Nathaniel Hawthorne and I'm all in "Hawthorne mode."

I'm so thankful for friends and family. I've learned that through it all, somebody does care. People may not always understand or be able to help, but they care. I think that's all we really need sometimes- a shoulder to cry on and a friend to eat lunch with. On top of that, I have a best friend who can understand, help, and hold me through it all, and His name is Jesus. It's a great thing to have Christ; in all seasons of life He is there.

Proverbs 18:24 " A man who has friends must himself be friendly,^[a] But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."

I'm getting really excited for this camp. I can't imagine what type of experience it will be, but I know that if God's bringing me to it, He has something good in mind. I know it will be a learning experience and incredible time to serve and love children who need to see Christ as He is. In a world gone mad, full of sin and sorrow, children need to know that there is hope for the rest of their lives. We, and they, are the next generation, and Christ needs to be the center of all that lies in our futures.  I can't wait to be used by God to minister to these children. I pray that I can be the witness they need and the friend they are looking for.

God Bless <3

'I Love You' Could not be Said a Better Way

"The more You show me, the more You grow me, the more Your glory becomes all there is. The more I know You, the more I need You, the more I love you, the more You become to me." -Downhere

Sometimes it's hard to come to grips with God's will. While I feel completely at peace with where God has me, it's still ridiculously difficult to say goodbye to things that I was at a comfortable place with. When it all comes down to it, I'll be ok. God has a plan and knows exactly what's going on. God has something great coming, but for now this is what I need and He knows it. Trusting God has never been so hard and allowing Him to work in my life has never been so painful, but it'll all come around and in the end I will see the beautiful masterpiece which Christ is currently painting in my life. James 1: 2-4 says, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."
Psalm 34:18- "The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."

"A Better Way" By Downhere

I'm not alone, I really believe You never go, You never leave.
Here and now You've always stayed,
'I love you' could not be said a better way.

It's everything You promised
There's no greater love than this
From prophets until today
A Man laying down His life for His friends
The Sacrifice has spoken,
You gave everything and 'I love you' could not be said a better way.

I am forgiven, I clearly see it's why You came to do all You did for me,
Trading earth with heaven, You took my place
'I love you' could not be said a better way.

It's everything You promised
There's no greater love than this
From prophets until today
A Man laying down His life for His friends
The Sacrifice has spoken,
You gave everything and 'I love you' could not be said a better way.

Because you redeem, I know what's to come
Everything thing I could lose here, You've already won
So You have my surrender, with passion obey
'I love you' could not be said a better way.

Ramblings of a Restless Heart

Alrighty then. How do I even begin this? Well let's start with a little scenario. I finally feel confident about a situation in my life and really feel that its God's will- then what happens? Everything changes. And I can tell you that I have no idea what it has even changed to. All I know is that it's not the same as it was. And here's where it gets hard: Since I am not all knowing and do not know what the future holds, I must fully surrender myself to God and whatever He allows to happen because He is all knowing and does know what the future holds. This, my friends, is one of the hardest things for me, probably ever, which is most likely why God is bringing this into my life. When it comes to not being able to control anything, not knowing my current situation, and being completely helpless I collapse in my walk with God. I really do hate to admit it though. That little tidbit right there was a little fact that I struggled to even type.

So, if I know that I have an all-knowing, all-powerful God, why do I even fear? To be honest, I don't know. Why can't I just let God do what He wills and stop putting myself in the way of whatever may happen? It's not that I know where God is calling me and don't want to go there, but that I have no clue where I'm going at all. It's like I've been walking around, fully aware of circumstances and happy with where things were going when BAM.. brick wall. I think it's more frustrating for me than anything else. Don't get me wrong- oh, I know that God is in control; it's just allowing Him to BE in control without questioning Him that's the problem. It's being patient and waiting on Him to bring the right people and situations into my life so that I may fully serve Him.

I think I am more ready then ever for this summer camp experience. I just want to try new things, see where God will take me, and be open to whatever area I may serve Him in. Right now I'm just.. going crazy. I feel constantly restless, confused, and annoyingly jittery. AH. This. I need to stop typing before I ramble more.

God, please just use me where You want, show me where You want me to go, and show what ties I have to break so I can be fully in Your will.

Spring Break Happenings and a Look into a Book

I cannot believe spring break is almost over. I haven't really decided whether I really don't want to leave or whether I'm ready to go back. I love being home and it's definitely a nice relaxing time when I'm here, but on the other hand I definitely enjoy the freedom of being away at school and on my own. It's a love-hate relationship on both ends.
Other things going on in my life.. hm.. oh! I just got a twitter- it's just a trial basis. I kind of have this feeling that it's going to get really old really fast. It's pretty much a bunch of status updates and quotes, so I'm not really sure how I feel about it. (As you can tell, I'm a pretty indecisive person).
What's on the plate for today? Oral surgeons. Yes, the dreaded wisdom teeth consultation. While I knew this day would come, I was hoping it wouldn't come for a few years since my wisdom teeth haven't even grown in yet. Unfortunately, one of my wisdom teeth happens to be growing into the roots of the teeth around it and therefore has been causing me pain and agony. Ok, maybe not to that extreme, but it's pretty bad when it affects your teeth, your jaw, and your ear. Also, I'm sure it doesn't help that I clench my teeth in the middle of the night. I've been having crazy dreams every night and have been waking up with my jaw clenched shut and my blankets on the ground.
Anyway, other than that consultation, today will consist of finishing a research paper, starting another paper, and going out to dinner with one of my awesome cousins!
Yes, I did say that I had two papers over spring break.. but it's ok, because who wouldn't want to analyze Nathaniel Hawthorne's works over spring break anyhow? (Don't worry, that was sarcasm).


Alright, now that I've run out of unimportant things to update you on, it's time to share with you things that actually matter! As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been reading Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver. Last night I was reading a little bit in it when I came across the issue of "worrying." Well, whoever reads this blog can obviously tell that I have an issue with worrying and I need to 1up my trust in God.. or maybe 10up. Weaver states her issues with worrying and the negative affects it has on her life. Weaver also gives statistics regarding "What We Worry About,"

40% are things that will never happen.
30% are about the past- which can't be changed.
12% are about criticism by others, mostly untrue.
10% are about health, which gets worse with stress.
8% are about real problems that can be solved.

Well, of course these statistics got my wheels turning. How often do I sit and imagine possible scenarios that might happen and most likely never will happen.. and most of the time never do happen. Or how often do I sit and think about what I could have done differently in a certain situation that happened five years ago. I also do frequently over-analyze what people are thinking about me and often assume that they are having negative thoughts about whatever decision it is that I am making. And even if they do- so what? That's the thing. So many times we sit and over-analyze, over-care, and under-trust when it comes to situations or people which we don't even have control over. One verse she shares is Proverbs 12:25, "An anxious heart weighs a man down." Matthew 6:27 says, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"
Some quotes from Joanna Weaver:

"If anxiety caused God's closest friends, Adam and Eve, to hide from his face, just imagine what worry must do to you and to me."

"God knows worry short circuits our relationship with him. It fixes our eyes on our situation rather on our Savior."

After relating our worrying to a deep London fog she says, "Our mind disperses the problem into billions of fear droplets, obscuring God's face."

"Instead of helping us solve life's problems, anxiety creates new ones, including a tendency to unhealthy introspection."

"Worry seeps into our thoughts, poisoning our joy, convincing us to give up on solutions before we've even tried them."

Those are just a few of the ideas which Joanna Weaver presents in her book, but it definitely opened my eyes to problems which worry cause and its failure to be beneficial.
She also goes into the explain the difference to between worry and genuine concern, which are two very different things. To go into it briefly, she states that worry is often "unfounded, generalized, obsessive, creates more problems, and looks to self or other people for answers," while concern "involves a legitimate threat, is specific, addresses the problem, solves problems, and looks to God for answers."

Anyway, that's just a tidbit from the life of Daisy Wolf. Hope you enjoyed or maybe benefited a little!
God Bless!