Song Sense

Sanctus Real - We Need Each Other

From the album We Need Each Other

I think I caught a glimpse of a life without friends: bitter, empty, hollow, dark, and lonely
We never meant to hurt each other, so can we trust again?
And take it as a chance to keep on growing?

I don't know why it doesn't come easy, but I know that we could be happy
If we'd only learn to love

Chorus:
Oh, oh, we need each other, so what's the fighting for?
Oh, oh, we need each other, please don't close the door
Oh, oh, we need each other, through all the highs and lows
Oh, oh, we need each other, 'cause no one's meant to be alone

Life revolves around the need of having someone, causing every complicated feeling
Oh, and I don't want to lose you, so there is nothing wrong
With telling me what you need to keep our love strong
It's just a part of being a family, taking the good with the bad and the ugly If we could only learn to love
Oh, oh, we need each other, fathers and mothers
Oh, oh, we need each other, sisters and brothers
Oh, oh, we need each other, yeah, we need friends and lovers

I need you, you need me, 'cause that's the way it's meant to be

Friends...the people you can't imagine living without, and sometimes can't stand. Yet, it never fails that true friends stick with you in trials. I have a tight group of about 5 friends who stand next to me in everything, even if I don't feel their presence. I'm so thankful that God has blessed me with friends who strengthen me and protect me. I'm not one that typically reaches out for help and I like to keep to myself most of the time, but my best friends can read my expressions 100%! Has God blessed you with friends that you don't deserve? Many times I wonder how I ended up with such great people around me, and He blesses me with new friends every day. :) My parents say my life revolves around my friends, and I admit it...it's true, they're my best friends and apart of my family. But if you have friends like I do, you'd understand why I enjoy them. I pray that you all are blessed with friends like this, or will be at some point in your lifetime. Tell me about your friends. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH!!

Yesterday one of my best friends turned 17! And for her birthday we filled her day with suprises! We started at 7:45 am and went to Jacob's ladder (a ropes course) to do some "team building" with our group we're traveling with over Spring Break to Chihuahua, Mexico. This part wasn't a suprise, but it was still a lot of fun. We returned to Edmond around noon and began her day of suprise. The idea behind the day was for her to spend time with people who have been in our past but we don't get to see a lot now. She started at Panera Bread with Andrea and Caroline. Andrea was our youth leader in middle school, and Caroline, she's another best friend. Then she went to Starbucks to meet up with Michelle, her brother's girlfriend. Next came Jacey, who we met over Spring Break last year in Monterrey. We all clicked instantly and have been friends since. I met up with them around 3 and her afternoon of pampering began. I took her to get her hair styled and it look AMAZING!!! She was so worried about not being able to look pretty for her party, but her hair reassured her confidence. We finished early, so we went shopping at Old Navy and Target. Finally we met Lori and Trisha. Trisha was our leader before Andrea, and we haven't seen her in probably about a year. They finished the pampering with manicures and pedicures. Needless to say, by the end of the day she was suprised and LOVED her day of suprises. We missed Megan as she had to work yesterday, but we all enjoyed the rest of it. By the time we reached her party we were all pretty tired, but put on our best attitude and pulled some energy from who knows where. :) Hannah, I hope this was a birthday you'll never forget! We all love you and can't wait to see what God has for you. Being friends as long as we have is pretty much un-heard-of and I can't wait to see where God takes us. Happy 17th and I can't wait for you to text me on Monday!

"Tell a man he is great, and he will become so."-Thomas Curlyle

Lately I've been struggling a lot with some good ol' fashion self-doubt. I don't know about you, but the greatest way Satan attacks me is in what I think of myself. You could say great things (or call me a fool) and it wouldn't matter, unless I believed that myself. Thankfully I have a great friend who continually speaks life into me and doesn't give up. I've been battling a lot of fear in that I'll never get my dream job, I'll never measure up to what they do, I'm just not worth all that much. (Don't worry, I'm not depressed. It's just what I think). :) Well, I've decided to take a mindset change. I am not worth that much, and I don't want to be prideful. BUT through Christ I am worth everything. I refuse to believe my dreams will come true. I commit to telling myself every morning: you are worth something to the world, don't give up, God has many things stored ahead for you that are greater than you could ever imagine. And He will fulfill His promises. You are loved, even when you don't feel it.

Are there mindsets you need to change? Do you need to wake up every morning and tell yourself you are worthwhile? Or am I alone on this struggle?

Quizzes

I know, I know...but I love taking quizzes that tell me about myself and others...

What positive quality are you??? (I scored faith)
http://www.gotoquiz.com/which_positive_quality_are_you

The Ultimate Bible Quiz (some of the answers are kinda funny)
http://www.gotoquiz.com/ultimate_bible_quiz

What's your best quality?? (Guess what mine was...that's right...intelligence!)
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_s_your_best_quality

What's Your's??

"She is clothed with strength and dignity, she laughs with no fear of the future. When she speaks her words are wise, kindness is the rule when she gives instruction." Proverbs 31:25-26

This is my life verse. As I grow in my relationship with Christ, I pray I become more and more of this woman, wife, and mom. How many women are strong and kind? Fearless and wise? Dignity? If you are like me, not many with all of these mixes. I would hope you see (or have seen) these qualities grow in me as I get older.

What qualities are you developing? Do you have a life verse or quote?

Generations

These are lyrics from a new Charlie Hall song, "Walk this World"

Broken but singing
Our hearts keep shining

Let my life shine, come and let my heart shine
We’re going to walk the world and lift the bread and wine
Like the stars shine, come and let our hearts shine
In a dark world, we lift the bread and wine

Our generation is hurting for something, anything, to chase after and pursue. Thanks to our parents generation and their need for "freedom" they raised a generation who is on a constant search for firm foundation to build a life around. Not to brag, but I believe my generation will change the world in a way it has never seen before. We are so passionate about the things around us. We were raised with a universal awareness and want to solve EVERYONE'S problems. Brace yourself, it should be good. :)

"We are a generation, touched by Your salvation, made by You for Your glory."

Those of you apart of my generation: don't be afraid to live for His glory. Let's seek to live for truth and peace of mind. Let's decide to live for something real that changes lives. EMBRACE IT!!! This should be good...

(just a random thought from today...)

these are 3 of my beautiful girls!!

Hannah (she's on the top)-I've just recently taken her under my wing. :) She loves to dance (just like I did) and actually takes dance at one of the places I did.

Aubrey (she's int the striped shirt)-I spent everyday with her this summer, and she is HILARIOUS!! She has such a sweet heart and loves and serves so much...and she's only in 6th grade. I wish I was a passionate as she is in the 6th grade about serving others around me.

Matyson (in the brown shirt)-she's my protege, my mini-me, and my mentee (I'm her mentor). She pretty much rocks!! She thirst so much for knowledge and understanding and just soaks up anything you're willing to tell her. She doesn't settle for mediocre living. She gets frustrated with people who are hypocritical and HATES to be involved in drama. :)

I would encourage you all to find people to mentor and find some one to mentor you.We all need our Timothy and our Paul. Who in your life can you start to pour into? Do you already mentor others? How do you mentor them? Do you have a mentor you just couldn't live without? (I'll talk about mine in a later post, so stay tuned...)

Introducing...

I'm feeling a little better today. The medicine really worked and now my nose is just continuously running. :) Anyway, I thought I'd update you on my my new blog sites!!

Wendy--an insightful friend of mine; she has an amazing testimony, so go check it out.

Laurel--she's also a new blogger, and if you ever just need something to laugh at, you'll find it on her blog.

The Mountain Man--his posts are well, random. If you're looking for an interesting news story or something that just "stirs the pot" you'll find it here...

Chris--walk with him on his journey in life, he's open and honest.

My mom--she's a newby and so far has had some great posts.

Anna Meadows--her blogs are full of spiritual truth and wisdom

Cindy Beall--once again, everything can be found on this page: one post will leave your heart broken and the next will make you literally "lol" :)

Caroline--she's new! get to know her and heart wonderful heart through her blog.

Robin Meadows--full of wisdom, need I say more...girls--read this and take to heart what she says :)

Taylor--check out some of her pictures, and enjoy her poem!!

Keri Austin--get a kick out of her everyday experiences to lighten the mood.

Amy Starke--if you ever need an idea to make something crafty...go to her blog. It's full of ideas!!

***And in case you didn't catch the BEAUTIFUL sunrise this morning here it is...our V-day present from our ultimate romance...

Ooooooooo...... Ahhh.................

YUCK!!!!

So my life has been pretty crazy lately and sorry it's taken me so long to post. I went to Big Weekend from Friday through Sunday. As I'm sure you've heard, it was pretty amazing and as much as we LifeChurch people are spoiled with an hour experience and timeliness, we still enjoyed the1.5 hour experience. Travis Crim spoke and Charlie Hall lead worship. If you've never seen Charlie Hall live...it's a must next time he's in Oklahoma. I love weekend retreats where you get to spend time with people you see all the time but have never really took time to engage in a relationship with. Spending time with the Sr. High XL girls was so much fun!!!
Sunday I spent most of my day doing homework and things I had to finish before Monday. Then...Monday morning, woke up sick. Made it through school but not to work...at first I thought it was the flu but now, I think it's just a really bad sinus infection. So I slept through the afternoon and felt a little better Tuesday morning. So I went through my typical day (school, internship, work). By the time I got home I was exhausted, but my night wasn't finished yet. I had a mission meeting I had to attend, and by the end of that, I was wasted. I couldn't have done more if I had tried, so I stayed home today from school to rest some more. Unfortunately, it's incredibly hard for me to sleep when I can't breath out of my nose!! I hope you all are feeling well and haven't caught my germs yet...sadly I have to miss church tonight as an agreement to staying home. I'll miss you all tonight! Stay healthy!

MY AWESOME DAY!!!!

I had the COOLEST two days ever this week...on Wednesday my day started out talking about the primary on Tuesday (by the way I think I was pretty much the only person who wasn't old enough to vote...). Then my English teacher said she needed a free day so we could do whatever we wanted, so I worked on homework. In Calculus, nothing special happened except I only have one more chapter left to test over. Then (here's where it gets good...) my 4th hour teacher told me to just go home because she didn't have anything for me to do. SO I GOT OUT OF SCHOOL AT 10:15!!!! Next, I went home and caught up on some homework and went to church for my internship and finally went to work. After that I met up with some friends and an old leader for dinner before returning for church for Switch.

Today I WENT TO MY FIRST ALL STAFF MEETING!!! For those of you who don't know what this is it's basically the highest meeting the staff attends. EVERY staff person all over the country was there via satellite and it was so COOOOOOLLLL!!!!!

My New Friend!!!

SIMONE!!!












I met her on Wednesday, and yes, she's from Australia. She's our Campus Pastor's sister-in-law, and I've never met someone so quick-witted! I learned a lot about the differences of our two worlds. Did you know the trunk of a car is called the "boot?" They call cokes "soft drinks" and Hummers are outlawed because they take up too much room on the road. And I learned all this in about 10 minutes. We are a lot alike actually: we enjoy the same school subjects, music, and movies. She tried to convince me I should go to prom because I'll regret it and for my birthday she's buying me "formal stuff." Good luck Simone!! She's here for 3 months and I can't wait to spend more and more time with her.

What were your impressions of her??

Europe-2

Our bike tour...can you believe I got in FOUR wrecks while we were riding. I was not created to ride a bicycle for the rest of my life!

Tina and I on the boat to our train station in Zurich!! It was so beautiful there...I can't wait to go back some day.

The amazing landscape of the Palace of Versailles.

The Starving Baker

So if any of you have read any of the Habitudes books, you've probably heard this story before. I'm gonna try and make it short, so that you don't get bored, but I don't think I've ever had anything pinpoint me so easily. :) Okay, so this baker opens a bakery and it gets really busy fast. Overtime you notice he's loosing weight. Soon he's shrunk to pretty much nothing. Why? He's so focused on serving others, he forgets to feed himself....

I don't know about you, but sometimes (well, most of the time) I focus on making others' lives easier placing as much as I can, and more on myself. And I will go to extreme lengths to take on people's burdens. I don't feel comfortable when other people are struggling. Anyone.

So all this to say, my task for the next week is to feed myself. Spiritually I've been lacking on this a little bit. Do any of you struggle with serving others so much you forget to fill yourself up?

Children of...

I had an odd rendezvous today while I was at work. I work with my kids who are between 2 1/2 and 3--and they just haven't got that listening thing down very well. Maybe I'm not strict enough or mean enough?? I don't know, but I do know they don't listen all that well. BUT BUT BUT I have learned they respond best when you just wrap them up in your arms and whisper quietly to them individually what you would like them to do or stop doing. Isn't that strange? They don't respond to anything else quite like that. Today we were painting with dot paints and I showed each one of them how to use them correctly--and all of them used the paints the wrong way at least once. I still had to remind them how to use it and I had just told them not even a minute earlier. The last child who used them--I pulled him real close and made him watch my eyes and whispered, "Don't forget this is how you are supposed to use it, remember?" And you know what, he didn't once use them incorrectly. :)

Have you ever wondered why God prefers to speak in a quiet and soft voice? (Granted there are times when children need the booming voice to get them under control). Hmmm...

Be sure you can hear His quiet voice if that's how He's speaking to you.

Fat Tuesday

So for those of you fortunate enough to vote on Fat Tuesday here in a few weeks...do you know who to vote for? Please don't go unprepared!! If you're not sure, go take this quiz! It's kind of fun to see where your personal policies lie. Let me know what candidate you were close to. My scored me as a Huckabee voter, but I don't agree with Terrorism policies, and of course, I was farthest from Obama.

*I'm really jealous of all of you who get to vote in the Primaries. I'm really excited to vote in the election! Can't wait!

http://www.kieskompas-usa.nl/page/0/thema+s/

I want to see the results...

Monday Morning Tunes

I have to start out and say I was really excited we didn't have school today so I could sleep in and catch up from my exhausting weekend (although I wouldn't have changed it for anything). I slept until 7 a.m. Now to understand my frustration, I am not capable of sleeping past 9 anymore. As a teenager, I'd like to be able to sleep as late as the rest of my friends--they're all night owls. :) So needless to say I didn't get to sleep in and I'm still pretty tired, but I suppose I'll rest later.

Monday Morning Tunes--
"I remember all the times
The good times and the bad (some good and some are bad)
I'm still holding on to you
Some days I wanna run
And times I come undone
But I still belong to you
That’s how I know that
When I feel like caving in
My heart my soul is wearing thin
I just want to give up
Nothing seems at all to add up
Can you hear me Lord?
My face is down upon the floor
Its then you whisper in my ear
Be still and know I'm here."

If we would just remember God is here, even when we don't feel him. When everything comes crashing down, God will keep it from crumbling on you, we just have to let him take over and be still to hear him speak. God speaks in a soft voice more often than a booming one! Trust me, trusting in God's faithfulness and believe in His word is worth it even though giving up control is extremely difficult!

Faithfulness-4

4) Be faithful to your church.

This is kind of hard topic to discuss. For those of you who know my family, you know just how faithful we have been to our church. When our friends left, we remained and listened to conversation after conversation about why we should leave. We dealt (and still deal with) bitterness and grudges held by people who still attend Life. Through all this, we believe God has placed us in the situations and places He has for a reason, and until He says it's time to go, we won't budge. (I know, we're an odd family). This is hard for all of us, but we've learned to persevere and even though we don't always agree with decisions made, we have remained faithful to God's plan for our church! We're sold out to a greater vision than our own, and it's difficult for us to find excuses for leaving when so many people are surrendering their lives to Christ!! If you are ever tempted to leave, make sure you aren't making a decision from hurt and that it is truly God calling you elsewhere.

Faithfulness-3

3) Be faithful to yourself.

For this one I just want to copy what my dad said, because I don't think I could say it any better than he did so concisely. Here it is...
"Be the person God created you to be. Work hard and study, be tenacious. Don't forget to rest and play some, too. Don't' forget to laugh. (and finally) Don't let any distractions get in the way."
Here's my version:
Work first, play later. Rest and play (I certainly don't do that enough). LAUGH!!!! It's great exercise too! We all need a little laughter in our day. (After all it takes less work to smile than frown--a little tidbit for you all!). NO DISTRACTIONS....focus, focus, focus (to quote a neighbor).

I wanted to encourage you all to not get so caught up in pleasing others, that you let your heart fade! Live always in His joy and embrace His strength in your weaknesses, after all we can't do it on our own--hate to break it to ya, but we just weren't made to be alone.

(I don't have any reflective questions, but I'd love to hear what you think.)

Faithfulness-2

2) Be faithful to your family and friends.

On this one, I think I have a pretty good grasp on how to be faithful to both family and friends. I don't know about you, but this has been a little bit of a struggle since I have been able to choose my friends. I understand you have to be faithful to your family, but to do it without bailing on your friends can be difficult sometimes. I've learned that the friends who understand this battle are the best, because they'll still be your friend even if you have to stop being their friend for a while. Thankfully, I haven't had to fully end friendships with anyone. This is a gift God has blessed me with. When I form a relationship with someone (be that friend or family), I find it almost impossible to end the relationship entirely. I've never been able to give up on someone, even if they've hurt me or others around me. Thankfully, this part of faithfulness is almost natural.

How do you show your faithfulness to someone? Is it easy or hard for you to be faithful to a relationship?

Faithfulness-1

One thing my dad encouraged me to never forget as I grow older is my faithfulness.
1) Be faithful to God and His vision for your life.
2) Be faithful to your family and friends.
3) Be faithful to yourself.
and lastly
4) Be faithful to your church.

Tonight I'm going to hit on the first one, and the rest of them I'll hit later this week. I'll try and keep it short, because I'm learning how little people like reading long posts. Being faithful to God and His vision for my life. Being faithful to God is pretty self-explanatory, so I'm not going to go into that so much. However, being faithful to His plan is much harder. God's plan for my life is simply to work in the church and be a wife/mom. Wouldn't think it would be so hard to follow, right? But I've faced more opposition in this area than any of the other four areas. For starters, the closer I get to having my "dream job" the more other people oppose me. I also feel less and less capable of being able to do it--which is most likely a step in the right direction). It by no means we'll make me "rich" in my families' terms. Thankfully, my parents are supportive of this career--they see my passion. But even though not all of my family understands my mentality and I feel less qualified today than I did when I was 11, I can't deny the passion I have to work in His ministry--and not just a general term. I have to continue to be faithful in the small areas now, so that I can be entrusted with greater things in the future.

**What are the things in God's plan you need to continue being faithful towards, even if the enemy is opposing you? Are there things in the past you were faithful in and God blessed you for that?