To the Little I Don't Deserve

Although there are no perfect people that walk among us, sorority girls still wish to find that “perfect little”. Luckily, everyone has a different definition of what perfect means to them, so there are many possibilities for someone to get their own type of blessed. Little did I know how truly blessed I would be when getting placed with mine. 

Now we are far from perfect and we know that. Our human flesh will fail people day by day, but one thing we are able to find greatness in is Christ. We will continue to fall, but I believe that God placed us together to help each other back up. We may not have what a general body would view as a typical big/little relationship, maybe be even abnormal, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. We weren't called to be normal people, for that is simply not what we were created for.   

People love to make promises, but like I said we will let other down, whether it is intentional or not. But I AM saying that I will try my hardest to:

-Love you the best way I know how, in the valleys and on the mountain tops. ["And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these." Mark 15:30-31] 

My love for you continues to grow daily. The more we get to know about one another, the more things I grow to love, even the flaws. I know your story and I now get to be a part of it, which is just the best. I pray that I am able to love you like Christ does and see you through His eyes at all times. That is the most ultimate love there is and even though I know I will never reach that point, I will try my hardest to show grace, mercy and love towards you.

-Pray for you and be there when you call. ["I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them." 1 Timothy 2:1]
I often think about how blessed I have been by you little, and realize how so undeserving I am. This is when I thank God so much for giving us each other. I pray that you don't just stay for a season of my life, but you will remain for them all. I pray that God will guide you in all you do and in your times of joy and times of heartache, you will know that you have a God that is greater than all the things you may be going through. I pray that you will constantly be able to feel how loved you are and have peace that comes from Christ alone, knowing that He will never forsake you. I pray that you will be able to find your confidence and worth in Him alone. I pray so hard for you.

-Take abnormally posed pictures with you.
Just because...who wants to be basic???? We are honestly the farthest from it so there is no point in acting like we are. I love coming up with the strangest, cutest, craziest and funny poses with you. Whether we are on our next retreat, during a random big/little date, at church or even on our wedding days, I know we will make sure pictures are squeezed in there. I hope it is able to portray our craziness about each other.

-Love God alongside you. ["As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend." Proverbs 27:17]
It brings me so much joy being able to turn to my side and see you worshiping God right beside me. Knowing that we share a common love for the Lord gives me such a sense of peace. I am so free to be my true self, as you are too and remain unashamed of the amazing God we have. I pray that our relationship remains constant in accountability, prayer and love. Looking forward, I know that we have only started on this journey with each other, continuing to grow closer to God along the way.

-Remain a positive, but most importantly Godly influence in your life. ["One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray." Proverbs 12:26]
As we have gradually worked our way into each other's lives, I have only grown to be more self-conscious of my actions. I'm constantly thinking about how my actions and words would impact you, but most importantly how they will impact God's kingdom. That is ultimately all that matters. I was chosen to be your big sister and with that becomes the responsibility of leading you in the right direction, with the guidance of God. This includes putting God in the center of my life so all my actions reflect Him. Living transparently, having grace, remaining slow to speak and anger, showing love to all and keeping negativity out of my mouth.


-Be spontaneous with you.

What's life without a little bit of unplanned fun? Whether it's 1 am Cookout runs, a day trip to the beach or just spending a random afternoon together...the list could go on for days. God didn't put us here to stare at four walls, so let's keep having fun for years to come.

-Challenge and encourage you to be the best you God created you to be. ["Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near." Hebrews 10:23-25]
You are already such an amazing woman of God, who makes an impact on everyone she encounters and I want nothing more than for you to never lose this spirit. God's light already shines through you so much, but there is still more to come. There will always be more to learn, more to know and more to feel. As long as you keep running your race and chasing after God, you will experience more joy, love and comfort than ever before. You have the capability to change the world as long as you believe it. You will also pass that class, get over that boy and see God's face one day. You can do it and I believe in you!

I hope that I am able to live up to the expectations that you had prior to finding out who I was. I can tell you that you definitely surpassed anything I envisioned, along with the rest of our fam. I don't deserve having a blessing like you, but I will forever love you with the most Christ-like love I know how.

Love,
your grateful big

["This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me." John 15:12-15]

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