When we ask to pray for somebody else, do we do it for them or for us or for God? Just think and let me know your thoughts

me and beauty

Have you ever walked and thought and sat and thought, walked up and down sidewalks, sat in coffe shops, drove in the mountains, thought and thought and wonder and dreamed. Read and shopped and listened and watched and searched but yet you come up with nothing? Find yourself gazing off into that which only leaves you wanting more because more might give you answers but it never does. Finishing an orange juice and wondering why you are still thirsty, finish a sandwich and find yourself hungry, go for a walk and find yourself wanting to walk longer, finishing a movie and find yourself still bored, buy cards and a skirit and find yourself wanting morning. We get caught into these lures looking for satisfaction, looking for pleasure and comfort and looking for something to fill the inner longings of our hearts. Then out of nowhere pure beauty displays it's self. So beautiful that with our eyes turned the complete opposite way we find ourselves turning and being satisfied. We drop our drink and stop the movie and throw aside our idols, we grab a coat and shoes and run to it. running, not stopping because we think by running we will get closer, but it is only then that we realize it is all around and it isn't us running after it is God just showing himself. It is not because of the righteous things we had done but because of his mercy...grace...love...Holy God...Father...Son...Holy Spirit. I realized this morning and this evening, in fact all of my life here and there it is only God...the answer to every question is God! A sunset painted by him fills our longing to see beauty, it is his word that fills our hunger and thirst, it is love that fills our loneliness, it is all of Him that leaves us wanting more of Him. I love God but more importantly is that he loves me, can you fathom that? I can't! God is so beautiful so why do we look away? God is so wonderful so why do we go elsewhere? God is so loving so why do we run into other arms? God is so faithful so why do we lack faith and trust?

Abra and Kate time!

Watch out world Kate and I will be together for the next week and that rocks. We just watched a girlie movie, ate pasta and oreos, and made invitations to our tea party! I love Kate and I love the peace of the dorms when everybody is gone, I love having a car to drive because Maggie went home today, I love God and his many blessings and I love not having to go to bed at 10 because I have to get up to go to work. Yeah no work until Tuesday morning! Chris is in my Boise! I love my parents! I feel like a teenager but I love life so praise the Lord for he is good, no he is GOOD!

And what would be a good name for the memory madness team?

Maybe some thing with Jeremiah 31:33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people." Sweet verse, and that is what we are doing.

Thank God that my big toe doesn't hurt

All comes from him, bring him all Praise

Blessed be His Name


Stop and think about that again, everything! EVERYTHING comes from him

every point of a test, every minute with your roommate, every smile, every warm night, every grape, every drop of water, every ray of sun, every phone call, every hug, every spoken and heard word, every breath. That...that breath you just took praise God, every scar, tear and struggle thank him, stop look where you are, look what you have, look at God's blessings...Thank God that my mom clothes me well, thank God for the hair on my head, thank God for my phone, thank God for this laptop, thank God for my parents, thank God that I am warm, thank God that I have water, thank God for all the food in this room, thank God for my bed, thank God that I have a place to celebrate Thanksgiving with, thank God for my glasses so I can see, thank God for the caring friends around me, thank God for random guys who hold the door open for you, thank God for all my classes, thank God for every ounce of knowledge that he has blessed me with, thank God for pictures, thank God for my beta fishes, thank God for my stuff animals, thank God for your Word, thank God that I can memorize verses, thank God that I have people in my life to hold me accountable, thank God for every bit of understanding he has given me, thank God for every situation he has hand picked for me to walk in, thank God that my path is laid out by him, thank God that his mercies are new every morning, thank God that he completly erases all past sins by his sons death, thank God for the cross, thank God for Jesus, thank God for his faithfulness, thank GOd for his love, thank God for his grace,...thank God...thank God...thank God...thank God

Shake me

Have you ever shook a tree branch and watched all the leaves fall off. That is what I want God to do to me. Shake off all the dead leaves that we still hold so tightly too. Shake them off so that new leaves can come in, so that he can truly live through us. It's those last leaves that seem to take forever to be shed. When God first starts shaking us when we are first born into him, all that falls is obvious and it seems like all of us is dying and that based on what lies on the ground we assume that we are bear, but we aren't just look. I'm at a point in my life when I know that I need to be more bear, what I have given to him in the past is no longer enough because he wants it all. I cling to my idols, my pride, my ungodly satisfactions, my worldly ideals and all that trash that I still think is a treasure...God just wants us to let go and trust his promise that "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." - Matthew 10:39

Let go that you may cling to an eternal treasure, God himself!

cry of a saint

God will really take everything away. All that matters is that which is eternal.

For the last couple days I've been amazed and in a sense struggling with my life in this world and my all important life with God. I'm having a hard time studying in class knowing that there are lost souls all around. It is hard for me to plan my day as I walk by an ambulance knowing that somebody is hurting and probably needs you. I can't read my book for my class as I watch somebody screaming in pain. I can't think about all the homework I have to do when I know that my dad as much as he loves me won't be with me forever if he doesn't accept Jesus. This world is lost, falling and doomed for destruction. How can I live a worldly life when I know this? Why is it that I still rather seek the satisfaction of a movie, a game of hearts, food, sleep, clothes and everything else that has become an idol in my life? How can I cry out to be more in love with Jesus when my thoughts wander away from him every minute, my pride still has a throne in my heart, when what makes me comfortable is all that matters, when I still cling to so much of me?

In steps God. Grace, love, mercy, patience, comfort, compassion, gentleness, forgiveness and more and more and more and more. Love and Jesus Christ. Life and victory, rest and faithfulness, understanding. As he reveals how far I am from being like him; he reveals how big and loving he is. For I can not sin more than God can forgive and wash. Oh Grace! Oh God bind my heart to thee. be glorified in me. use me. bring this world to their knees. slow my heart and transform it. break me and restore me. May I suffer and struggle so that you might b glorified. may i hear you when you call. take that which im not giving.