my "birthday"

It was 2 years ago yesterday that I re-dedicated my life to the Lord. Time has flown by! So now i'm a little 2 year old baby Christian :) I am so thankful for all that God has been doing in my life and how He has shown His grace and mercy to me. It was a monday night and i was at MNL. When Pastor Garid spoke that night, it felt as if he was talking directly to me. Thanks Mom for asking me to go with you to church on that day!


Over these past two years, God has shown me how I am a brand new person and all my sins and stains have been washed away. It's been hard learning this, and sometimes seems impossible to be clean and brand new, but it's the truth! ‎2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." Thank you LORD, for what you have done for me! And for making me brand new!

How can I glorify the Lord today?

"How can I glorify Christ today?"

That's the question I've been asking myself lately. How can I glorify the Lord today, even when I have no strength left in me? Even though I'm sad and a little fearful? Even though I feel so burdened? These past two weeks have been extremely difficult for me personally. The Lord has had His hand in all of my circumstances though. I have to trust in Him that this is what He wants for me; and I have to know and believe that His will and plans for me are far better than my own. The Lord has been faithful to be there for me through it all. And I have been blessed by great friends and mentors who have poured out Christ's love to me so much over these past two weeks. Thank you Lord for these special people! One of my best friends Jessica had some great words of encouragement for me today via text:

"As we walk through the trials of this life its always nice to dream about our futures and what we wish for them to hold.. but we must wait on God for those happy future things and instead not waste the time our Lord has given to us today. Today He asks us to spread His word and His love to ALL people. Today He asks us to spend time with him and honor Him in all of our ways!"

Thank you Jessica for the encouragement! I love you!

So today, I choose to glorify the Lord through these hard trials and circumstances. I choose to live for Him and Him alone today! I choose to fight all negative thoughts and emotions that come my way today and will instead lay them at the foot of the cross.

Father God, I surrender all my thoughts and hopes to you today.
You are my strength and my shelter when I am so weak.
Help me to rely on you for all that I need.
Help me to breathe through today, and keep going.
I want to look only to you. Not to the right or the left.
Only up to you.


How can you glorify the Lord today?

Things I want to do...

So I love the thought of blogging all the time and always having pictures so I can remember this time in my life, but I never actually do it! I love following other people's blogs and seeing all the pictures they post. I think it is so neat that we can do all of this and can always remember what was going on in our life at a certain point in time. There are a few things that I really want to start doing over the next few months:

1. Buy a camera. One day I would love to own a 5d mark ii. It's too expensive though. But it's still fun to talk about it! And my sister and I want to buy fun little cameras. Like instant cameras or holgas.

2. Read my bible consistently every single day. I don't know why I don't read it everyday. I love reading it. I just need to take time out of my schedule and spend some more time with the Lord. 

3. Make more crafts with my sister. Recently we made these ball things with a million little paper flowers on them. They look so awesome! I wish I did that more often with her. It's so much fun.

4. Spend more time with my friends. And not just my best friends, but other friends also. There are a few people I can think of that I should try to spend more time with.

5. Spend more time serving. I really should be more involved with the youth ministry at my church. I'm a youth leader at Calvary Chapel East Anaheim for the freshman and sophomore girls. I love them so much! I just wish I spent more time with them helping out at different events and what not.

6. Spend more time sharing. I am so quiet at work and at school about God. And I get really sad and upset that I don't talk to more people about the Lord. I just need to speak up.

7. Spend more time cleaning. My mom needs so much more help with just cleaning and taking care of the house and all the different errands that she needs finished. I want to be a good daughter and I need to help her out.

8. Spend more time praying. Seriously, it's so important and I don't do it nearly as often as I should. Sorry God!

9. Spend more time exercising. My parents bought me a gym pass and I only go maybe every other week. I'm so inconsistent at going. I just really want to get back in shape and feeling good and healthy again.

10. Spend less time wasting my life. This ones pretty general, but I really want to live my life full out for God! In practical ways, I need to and want to live my life completely for my Lord and Savior. He deserves it after all!

So, I guess in a few months or something I can write back and tell how I'm doing with all of these things. I hope I make some progress. I think I will :)

praise

PRAISE THE LORD, O MY SOUL!

1 John 4:9-10: "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

How amazing is our God? That He would love us, love me, enough to send His only son as a sacrifice to wash away our sins. He is my redeemer and my almighty Father. I praise the LORD for who He is and what He has given to me -eternal life. My faith rests in Jesus Christ and it is because of Him that I am called a child of God. I am His beloved daughter. Thank you LORD for who you are. I will praise you forever!