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Showing posts from 2014

Do I deserve this???

It is the end of the year and all I can think about is wow, how is it December already? Despite that it is the end of the year I reflect over this past year and all I can see is God showering down blessing after blessing over me. I see the opportunity to start another semester at Texas State, developing new friendships, participating in a once in a life time opportunity, and so much more. Yet, in the mist of it all I look back and think how I do not deserve any of it. In between each of those blessings I know I have sinned multiple times, and yet He still gives me another day to live in this world. “Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin/ would look on me with love/ and watch me rise again?” These relateable lyrics are sung by Mark Hall of the band Casting Crowns. Why would God choose me of all people to bless? I have sinned in more ways than I can count. I hold grudges against people I should be loving. I tend to judge a person as soon as they have done one wrong thing that  they&

Fully living each day.

Life is a precious gift. We are not promised another day, yet, God still gives us another breath to take. There are days that we wish we could stay in bed rather than face the day. Yet, what if we are in that mindset and God decides to take us home before we could see the next day? God encourages us through His Word by stating “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring” (Proverbs 27:1). We all have days we look forward to in the distant future, but if we are so focused on that day we may miss out on what is going on in front of us. Take for example, high school students looking forward to graduation day. I know there where days I could not wait till I was out of my parents’ house and in college, but then again I look back and wish I had spent more time outside of my room instead of watching the days pass. High School is a time of enjoying yourself and really spending time with your friends, and more importantly; your family. In addition to that, it is a

Isaiah 30 Devotional

This chapter begins with God's children rejecting Him. As His children we get to the point of, "It's OK God I can do this on my own. I am a big kid." When in reality we are not. Sometimes with our freedom we become careless and forget about our Creator who has brought us to where we are. God says in verse 13 "This sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant." The sin that we are involved in starts piling up in our life. We are trapped behind it's wall to the point of were it falls on top of us, and everything we have done wrong comes back and bites us. Yet, God says he doesn't want us to face it alone. Verse 18 starts off stating " Yet, the Lord longs to be gracious to you [...]." He wants to bestow blessings, care, and shelter upon us, but if we are standing on our own will how can He do any of that? We have to let go of our pride, let go of our plans so He can work in our life in s

Quiet Time is crucial

“Yes I will be there. Thank you,” you respond as you end the phone call. One glance at your calendar and all you see is a blur of colors. Pulling out the blue pen you mark down another event that you agreed to attend. “Why am I so busy,” you wonder, “I never seem to have time for myself.” You glance to your left and notice your dust covered Bible lying there. It has been almost a month since you picked it up. You feel defeated realizing that, in addition to not having any time for yourself, you don’t seem to have enough time to sit down and have quiet time with your Heavenly Father. This is normal for everyone. We rush through everyday life and no matter how busy we are we continue to pile on more activities. Then we arrive to the point where we wonder why are we so tired all the time, or don’t have the strength to make it through the day. In addition, we wonder why God seems so far away. The reason for this is because we tend to push back our “Quiet Time” (our time with God), or

Friendship

Every day we have moments of clumsiness, minor breakdowns, funny stories, and at the end of the day we just want someone to spill it all to. You see we were created to do life with people helping us through, not by ourselves. God took Adam after he created him and said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen 2:18). Thus companionship was born. Having someone to walk through life with makes this crazy roller-coaster called life much more bearable. Ecclesiastes 4:8-12 speak about friendship. More specifically theses verses take about how it isn't good for man to be alone. Verse 12 states, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.” Growing up I moved around quite a bit and because I was a victim of bullying I had a limited number of friends. When I think about the girls who I called my friends at the time, I realized I never had a good mutual friendship with them, the kind

God Is.....

  You are staring up into the sky with tears in your eyes wondering why God isn’t answering your prayers. Why is it that your whole world is falling apart and it seems that God doesn’t seem to care? “God why don’t you fix this” you shout. A still small voice responds with, “Have you given me everything about you?” God is: everything to me. June 30 th 2012 was the day I recall Christ becoming my center. He became the center of all I do. I actually gave my heart to him when I was twelve years old, however, I feel that June 30 th was when my relationship with Him really began. After this date I really began digging into His Word and finding out more about who He is. Also at this time I started to see His plan for my life beginning to form. Yet, before this date I had just ended my junior year of high school, and was stressing out tremendously. I could tell that all the stress was taking time away from God, so my relationship with him seemed nonexistent. I had no idea what to d

Relationship on hold

Psalm 97:3 states “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” The desires of your heart include everything ranging from the dreams that are hidden away to relationships. Relationships were one of the main forms of life that surrounded me in high school. There always seemed to be a couple displaying their undying love for each other in those crowded halls. Yet it seemed as if those same exact couples changed their relationships within that same week.                 Growing up surrounded by Cinderella stories and your grandparents completely devoted to each other puts a lot of pressure on us young adults. We tend to believe it is our job to search for that particular person. Then if we do meet someone but that certain guy or girl does not have that one specific attribute we are looking for, then we completely write them off. Or say they do not look like the Romeo or Juliet you always pictured, but that is what God gave you. When that happens do

Leading for such a time as this.

This summer I am apart of a program I never thought I would attend. As I write this I am participating in a church program in Colorado called Leadership training, LT for short. LT is about learning to show the world the Jesus in you and closely following God to seek His plans for your life. I am truly blessed to be apart of this program because I have been given the opportunity to lead three other girls this summer in a small Bible group setting. I had not known in advance that I would be a lifegroup leader, but God knew what he had in store for me this summer. However, the really cool thing about it is that me and one of the other students from my big Bible study group are the youngest two leading lifegroups. 1 Timothy 4:12 greatly applies to me this summer, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and purity” (NIV).   Once I found out that I would be setting an example for three other g

Slice of my life.

I grew up in a catholic home and struggled with my identity in Christ and with learning how to fully trust my creator. At first glance I may seem like a normal teen, however, once I pull my hair back you notice the thing that sets me apart: I wear Hearing Aids in both my ears. I was born with a slight hearing lost caused by the disease CMV. By the time I was about to start school the doctors at Texas Children’s Hospital told me that my hearing was at the point where I would need a hearing aid as well as attend speech therapy classes. However, this hearing lost was only in my left ear, my right ear still had full hearing. I moved around a lot as a kid so I do not really remember much about having to deal with my hearing loss then. When I was 9 years old my parents got a divorce and I moved to my 4th school. When I had moved to this school everything changed for me. The bullying I had already endured had gotten worse, yet the good thing about moving was that I was told I didn’t need to

Voice of Truth

Smiling is the one universal sign among the world. It is the way that we spread love and joy. Yet, when something bad happens that smile and joy vanishes. Your reason to smile fades and you forget about the voice of truth that has given you every reason in the world to smile. Casting Crowns hit single “Voice of Truth” sings, “Out of all the voices calling out to me/ I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth.” As a believer are you listening to what God’s Word is telling you, or what the world is saying about you? God has given us the ultimate reason to smile: He sent his only son, Jesus, to die for us. Jesus died for our sins and so that we could have life more abundant. That’s the reason for smiling and being joyful. Smiling because we are free of all the sin and bondage that the devil uses to hold us back. Although we know this truth, and know that Christ has died for us, we let the devil take away our smile. Hebrews 3:15 states, “As has just been said: ‘Today, if y