Fresh Start.

2010 is ending in just a few hours. This has given me the chance to look back at the past year and reflect. What I see at least in my year are times where I was not focused on God, creating lonely times and sadness. I cannot express enough that with God I become the person that I want to be. Whether you believe in new years resolutions or not, you can still make a plan or goal for the new year. This year there are many changes in store for me as I enter adulthood. There are many unexpected changes and adventures waiting for all of us, but most importantly this year I know that I will have an amazing year because I am choosing right now to re-dedicate myself to the Lord. This new year is going to be a test of my faith, and I plan to be ready for whatever comes my way. My other goal is to help at least one person a month to hear about the Lord. That is something simple that we can all do. I am blessed to have been born in a Christian home, but others aren't so lucky. It is our job as disciples of the Lord to spread the word of God. I am looking forward to the new year. I am looking forward to everything that the Lord has in place for my year in 2011. Tomorrow when I wake up, the first thing I will do is pray. Its a new year, and another chance given to us. Let's make the best of the time that God has given to us. The Lord says of us, "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed- not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence- continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, "for it is God who works in you to will and act according to his good purpose." Philippians 2:12-13. Good luck and happy new year!

New Doors Open.

Through everything God is there with us ready to provide. The hurt that we feel should consume us, never seems to do so. There is nothing in this world that is bad enough to destroy us when we have the Lord. For teenagers, we over dramatize everything, so our "end of the world" feels closer all the time then it will when we reach adulthood. Every one of us feels like the last door that closed on us must have been it, and that we had no more chances at success, at love, or whatever else you are dealing with. These past few days I have been hurting emotionally, when I look back even now I realize that it could have been so much worse, but the Lord has opened more doors for me and given me what I needed. I lost some friends recently and I felt that trusting people would continue becoming harder for me. He showed me that it isn't trust in people that I struggle with, it was the certain people that I put trust in. I was not surrounding myself with Christians and my brothers and sisters in Christ. In my loss I have been given the ability to see all of the people around me that truly love me, and that things always have a way of looking up when we bring it to the Lord. This reminded me too back to the fact that I need to re-center my life on Christ, and because I have been working on that, I continue to see the amazing things that God is doing in my life and the people that he is putting there. I pray because I know that the Lord is listening and that he is ready to open new doors even when of the other ones close. New doors will always open for us through the Lord.

Distractions.

Distractions, they eat away at us until we forget where our life is actually supposed to be centered. Even adults are faced with the troubles of this world. We are all human and we all will disappoint each other, but what we do with that disappointment is how we can define our walk with Christ. Not just teenagers, but adults too will take their hurt and their anger, and turn it into gossip and rumors. We focus our attention on getting people on "our side". This is happening all around us, and sometimes we are the ones being fought over. Relationships on this earth, have been over publicized and now we feel that we must have many friends and we have to fight to get what we want. This takes so much energy, and it shows that we are not leaving it up to God. We are putting it into our own hands, and trying to provide what we think that we need in this life. The problem is that we are forgetting what the Lord has told us. He is the center, and we are to live our lives according to his will. If we are not reading his word and praying, how do we know that what we are doing is the right thing. When we are caught up in these distractions we forget the importance of putting God first. It is told to us in the Bible that, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" Matthew 6:33-34. This passage is here to tell us that with God first none of these drama's and broken hearts matter. When we put all of these distractions aside and center ourselves on God, we can see his great, almighty power working in and through our lives.

The Choices We Make

Sometimes there are things that we don't want to do. There are situations that I just don't want to be in but I have to. When people hurt me I do not want to be around them, nor do j wan to forgive them. The thing is that's what God tells us we need to do. Forgive our brothers and sisters in Christ because when we do something wrong we expect to be forgiven. This is a hard thing to do, but it's part of being the bigger person. One of the hardest things to do in life are be around people that have hurt you and have a peaceful time. In the end it will make you feel better. And remember, when all else fails get on your knees and pray.

Seek and You Will Find

Yesterday was a rough day for me. I had a lot of drama go on. I have never done well with any sort of drama. So I went off by myself to my room and cried. I then decided to pray, because I knew that God would listen. It first started with me yelling at God asking him why he puts people in my life who will hurt me. I then went off and talked to one of my youth leaders, who helped me gather my emotions. I got myself ready to sleep, when I saw my Bible sitting on the floor next to my bed. I picked it up and looked up toward the ceiling (I always feel more respectful when I'm looking toward God) and I just prayed for wisdom. Then I looked back at the Bible and opened it. I looked at what I had opened to and there was a verse that said, "you have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat" Isaiah 25:4. I have a devotional Bible, so right next to that was a responsive letter explaining that God will never leave me alone in drama or anything else that is thrown my way. I then knew that God had answered my cry for help. I left my Bible open to that page and put it down for the night, and I went to sleep feeling at peace with the events of the day.

Daily Testimonies.

I have found that although I am young, God has blessed me in so many ways, and I would like to share my testimonies in hopes that my experiences will help someone else. I have a love for writing that the Lord has blessed me with, so I choose to share my story through a blog. I plan to go on here often because I feel the Lord working in my life each and everyday.