Bye-Bye Dreams

We need to start changing our "wants" into "wills". 

We all have wishes and dreams, some more than others. Some may be more lavish and extreme than others, but whatever the vision may be, they're inevitable. 

I want to have a beautiful family. I want to adopt a pet. I want to be a chef in my own restaurant. I want to live in Europe one day. I want to graduate college. I simply want to be happy. 

This list could go on for days. These are all things that I want and long for to become reality--like I really want them. 

It's so easy to want, it's for the simple-minded. Now does anything change when I replace the "want" with a "will"?

I WILL adopt a furry friend. I WILL graduate college. I WILL have a successful career. I WILL live a happy life.

What do you wish to do? 

Say it: "I want ______________"

Now say: "I will ______________"

Doesn't that sound so much more empowering? You have the power to do these things, if it's something you really desire. God didn't grant us with this life on Earth for us to just sit and watch Netflix or sleep our life away. There are so many things to be done, places to be seen and people to be reached.

We need to train our minds to start thinking "I will" and tongues to start speaking with the positive power we are able to use. (The tongue is a powerful thing)

Now face those want and dreams and start putting them into action, big and small. It will be a challenge, for sure, but it will be worth it. Imagine how successful and satisfying you will feel when are able to say, "I did."

DREAM BIG.

-e

"And if you will make a new start, listening obediently to God, keeping all his commandments that I'm commanding you today. God, your God, will outdo himself in making things go well for you; you'll have babies, get calves, grow crops, and enjoy an all-around good life. Yes, God will start enjoying you again, making things go well for you just as he enjoyed doing it for your ancestors." Deut. 30:8-9

Finding Joy Through the Lord

There are often times in life when we are faced with tough situations, whether it involves relationship conflicts, death, struggles with school, or maybe personal health issues. We live in a fallen world, so problems like these and many others will constantly be placed in our lives. And as humans, when we are faced with these situations, we often make the mistake of turning to Earthly things for comfort.

If there comes a time when there is a death in the family, one may grieve by drinking. Maybe a roadblock comes in a relationship –friend or romantic, we often turn to a friend or mentor. There are so many examples of struggles that we can go through on a daily, and there will always be the option to turn to material things or other humans for comfort. And this will result in us constantly getting hurt. It will become a never ending cycle of disappointment. These things that we often turn to can cause temporary happiness, but God—the key to eternal life, can give us more joy, happiness and peace than we could ever obtain from anything on earth! 

Over the past couple months I would say I have gained a new perspective on life. I have learned that when we continuously rely on God, trust in Him, love others and maintain a relationship with Him, life can be so much more enjoyable! 

Ooooo...joy and happiness and peace. That sounds fantastic.

• God calls us to love others as He loves us. ["This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you."John 15:12] This is such a simple sentence to say, but not always the easiest act to carry out. We can say that we "love" someone and still think horrible thoughts about them, talk about them behind their back and many other things; it's when we train ourselves to clear our minds of negative thoughts that we are able to start loving others easier. This isn't something that we can do on our own--we must pray and ask God to help us. We must ask him to see others as He sees them, to rid our minds of all things negative and to love. We need to genuinely love others. Love them deeply. |Love God. Love People. By loving God, you will love others.|
• When life is great and it seems like everything is going as planned we may thank God for the blessings, (i know i do), but what about when something comes up that wasn't in OUR plan? There may be obstacles that come up in life, like the ones previously mentioned, and when these pop up people usually do one of the two things: Push God away, blame Him for the bad things, question Him; or Grow incredibly closer to Him, asking Him to provide strength to them. Both of these are understandable reactions. It is not always easy to understand why things don't happen in our favor, but that's when we need to remember that God's plan is greater than anything that we could ever imagine! So when we are faced with trials, we should thank God for giving them to us. Not only that, but through our struggles we should also thank Him for the blessings that we already have, making it known how thankful we are for all we have been given. God provides, always has and will continue to. So we need to appreciate all the blessings, big and small. When we focus our energy on all the good, the bad doesn't always seem so bad! |When God gets the glory, you get the joy and the world gets the good.|
• Gaining a relationship with Christ is the number one thing on the to do list of all the to do lists ever created! All things are pretty much impossible without it. When we pursue a relationship with Him, not only does He get excited about it but we get SO much joy from it!--Think about when you make a new friend or get into a relationship and how much fun it is, how happy it makes you, it really is just a great feeling. So imagine how beautiful a relationship with God is...The One who will never forsake you. Who is always by your side. Who you can literally talk to anytime! Now an amazing bond like this can't be formed overnight, just like any relationship. It takes work work WORK. Constant prayer and giving thanks. Having personal time with Christ and reading the Bible. Worshiping Him no matter what the circumstances. Keeping a firm foundation. Once we put the foot in the door, joy will overflow! The Holy Spirit will be inside of us and in Galatians 5:22 it says [But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness...]. This is just proof that so much good will come from it. |No God, no happiness. Know God, know happiness.|

While we are occupying our temporary home, Earth, we need to be on the lookout and keep our eyes open to the goodness and beauty of God. He reveals quiet blessings to us all the time. YOU could be someone's blessing. Simply smiling at someone could make their day. The Bible constantly mentions, "inspire shouts of joy"--you can do this by radiating God's lights. 

DON'T FORGET TO SHINE.

-e

["The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust Him with all my heart. He helps me and my heart is filled with JOY. With my song I praise Him." Psalm 28:7]

p.s. comments? questions? helpful hints? plz let me know!

Conforming is too comfortable.

Good morning everyone!

So since I have started college I have noticed how absorbed a lot of students are with the idea of "popularity". Yes, this term of acceptance is still follows us even after grade school. People continue to think that the price of the shoes we walk in and who designed of our watches define us. If I don't hang out with the COOL kids, then I'm just not cool. If I don't have X amount of followers on Instagram, then I'm just not worthy of even sharing anymore. There is a theme here. Clothes, Accessories, Social Networking Sites...these are all earthly things. All of these things that we consume ourselves with apparently define our happiness now...? Funny, because I think we are all forgetting about this Father we have in Heaven that actually IS the One who defines us.

I know that I am guilty of thinking this exact way at times (and it's something me and God are in the process of working on), but it really is ridiculous when you think about it. We have this awesome God that can give us everything if we just let Him! He will provide the essentials. He will place the right people in our lives who are focused on the same overall goal as us, eternal life.

When I first came to ECU I don't really know what I was expecting. I knew (well hoped) I would make some friends and I knew I may lose some along the way as well. What I didn't know was that within my first semester here in Greenville I would get plugged in to a college ministry that's constantly on fire for God and find a great home church for when I'm at school (both of which are continuously growing and helping more and more lost people find their way...Hallelujah!) and that out of these I would be involved in a small group with some of the most amazing, God-fearing women that I have ever met. I didn't know that God would bless me with a pretty large circle of friends who are running the same race as me. Who are constantly helping me to become a greater image of God and to spread the love of Him to others. Who put Him first in their lives and are teaching me to do the same. Now when I say these things I am in no way trying to boast about all the good things in my life, nor and I trying to compare it to others' because I can testify that life is definitely not easy all the time. There will often be hardships, but if we truly carry the Lord in our hearts He will get us through anything. I believe that God places certain people in our lives to help us get through these times as well; someone to be a voice of reason, an encourager or maybe just some ears to listen.

Apart from all the temporary, worldly pleasures, whether they are considered distractions or blessings, none of these things are greater than God. Nothing in this fallen world is greater than the everlasting love of God and eternal life we have awaiting us. So stand out! Be bold in your faith and don't worry about what may happen in the process because it is all in God's plan. Focus on Him and it will come together.

DON'T CONFORM.

-e


"For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever." -1 John 2:16-17


p.s. thanks for reading guys! my relationship with God really has grown tremendously since I have been at college and I've never been happier. My prayer life is better than it's ever been before and I'm surrounded by the right people. God really does have a greater effect on people than we think. And my gaining all the things that God provides I challenge all of us to go out and spread all the love we can in this evil world. We need to repair the broken. The devil constantly is constantly tempting us, but we need to show him that OUR GOD is bigger, greater, stronger, more powerful, loving, comforting and soooo many other things that no possession, person, or devil could ever be!

Epiphany

Hola. Salut. Hi.

Well, I'm going to try this blog thing and see how it goes. I've had the urge to start a blog for about a year now and just haven't had the guts to actually go through with it for various reasons...I'm a horrible writer, I'm terrible at taking the thoughts from my head and making it to where people can understand them, I wondered if anyone besides my mom and best friend would even read it, I didn't think that I have ever had a very exciting life worth sharing about and the number one problem I had was that I could NOT come up with a catchy blog name that I thought was cool enough (I literally sat for hours on the computer googling all kinds of adjectives and nouns and synonyms). lololol. But as I was lying in warm bed and once again thinking about how I had all of these thoughts I wanted to share with others, I wondered what was really stopping me? It's not even about me! I may think this or that, but if this is something God is laying on my heart to do then I will joyfully sit my happy butt up and do it, glorifying Him through it all.

We may think that we live average lives, that we don't have thoughts worth sharing or that the only person that will ever truly love us is our mom, but we often forget about the guy upstairs. God. Creator. Father. (whichever you prefer) He is what makes our lives extraordinary! Through Him we can do anything! And He will loves us forever and ever and ever and more than any human could ever fathom.

So I really don't understand why we all aren't doing the things we feel called to do! If you feel like you need to start some type of ministry to reach people, do it. If God has placed it on your heart to go skydiving, then in the name of Jesus do it. If the Holy Spirit's telling you to go up to someone and just ask how their day is going, then do it. Or if you feel called to simply start a blog, DO IT.

God does extraordinary things with ordinary people. I doubt that anyone would want to give up the opportunity to work through God, so I encourage us to live for Him in all we do. You never know how one little (or HUGE) act can make a difference in someone else's life.

BE BOLD.

-e


"Let me not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of my mind, that is by testing I may discern what is the will of God, what is good acceptable and perfect." -Romans 12:2


p.s. I hope that this made sense. thx for reading. you're the bomb. frfr. and please excuse the dreary template on here. I have no clue how to work this thing. oh, andddd I guess the blog name works..? hahah