Little Things

This last week I've been challenged to help others I wouldn't normally help. I can sense the Spirit pushing me to do this or that, and every time I get that feeling I start to think, "I can't do much for them. There's such a need, but I can't do much for them." I start to feel like I can't do anything for this cause of that cause because I can't completely make their problems go away.

But then these last couple of days I've been challenged to think about the little things. I was challenged to think about how if we all did something small there would be great change in the world. We don't all need to be doing these huge things that take up our whole lives. Think of how much we could effect the world if we all did things in our own community that would bring glory to God. Even if it is just helping out in the nursery at your church or making cookies for an elderly couple that you know.

All God needs is our obedience to make a difference in this world. Are we going to obey God's call to us as believers to be a light to this dark world???

I would suggest you all check out this amazing organization that is bringing everyone together in making a difference in this world. Check them out. They've been such an encouragement in my life and I'm sure you'll be challenged as well.

http://www.i-heart.org/


Just Being Honest,
Joe

Let's change the world.

I'm finding it hard,
hard to take
Mistakes we have made
Ignoring the ones
that we hold dear
Out of selfishness

All these things distract
our eyes and steal our time

Why do we keep fighting, but saying everything's alright?
We all see the same things why can't we stand side by side?
United together, we can change the world

I'm learning to take the smallest steps, and making a way
Can You take anymore?
Can You stand by while our world crashes down?

Be the spark,
forsake your pride,
set things right

Why do we keep fighting, but saying everything's alright?
We all see the same things why can't we stand side by side?
If we have each other, we can change the world

Change The World- This Beautiful Republic

This song says so much. I feel like today, as a day that the world mourns the death of two great american icons, today is a day that gives me even more passion to change the world. The death of Michael Jackson has made me wonder how many celebrities truly know who Jesus is and what he did for them. I am fairly certain that Michael Jackson did not know Jesus, but I can't know for sure, only God knows that. But the thought of a man who revolutionized the music and dance industry and culture completely, spending a Christless eternity just really saddens me. His death makes me wonder, how many people in this country and in this world have put Michael Jackson before Jesus. As I watched the news today I saw Michael Jackson fans gathering outside the hospital where he was pronounced dead, I saw people gathering at his home, I saw people gathering at his childhood home, I saw people who literally worshipped this man. There were people talking about the impact that Michael Jackson had on their lives. It made me wonder what it would be like if we could or even would talk about Jesus on television or the radio like these people were talking about Michael Jackson. On a couple of radio stations the DJs were having a time where they opened up the phone lines for people to call in and tell stories about how Michael Jackson and his music had affected their lives. What if we sent videos to the public tv station or called into the secular radio station to tell them about how Jesus has affected our lives... they wouldn't play it. Our country and our world has our values and morals all backwards. We as the general public or general society worship people who woship things. When that happens, we begin to value the same things that our idols worship. Things like money, pride, power, and appearance.

Can You take anymore?
Can You stand by while our world crashes down?

I don't want to stand by and watch our world fall apart, watch it crash. Our world needs to realize the power given us through Christ. We as Christians need to live Christ out, especially in times like this. I am not saying we need to shove religion down people's throats, I am saying we need to be the body of Christ. When the body comes together and works together we can change the world. Christ is the head to our body and the head holds the brain. When the body works together that means we let Christ decide what we need to do, we just have to listen to what our brain is telling us and go do something about it instead of just listen. We need to live out our faith; we need to love; be honest with people; share life and care for those who are just going through life with no purpose and no direction.

Be the spark,
forsake your pride,
set things right

Let's change the world... what do you think?

Tonight I begin by praying for the family and friends of Michael Jackson. I also pray tonight for the family and friends of Farrah Fawcett.

Good night my friends.
Amanda

Sleepless Morning (written at 3 a.m.)

As I sit here at nearly three o’clock in the morning I have been laying in bed for over and hour trying to get to sleep. Maybe it is the heat, maybe it is the fact that I slept in until one o’clock this afternoon, maybe it is because my brain just isn’t tired yet, or maybe it was God trying to get my attention. I sat here and many things have gone through my head in the past hour. I thought of the girls I coached in cheerleading at The Potter’s House Middle School last winter. I wondered what they were up to now; whether this summer they are making good decisions. Many of them just graduated from 8th grade and I won’t have another chance to impact their lives, so I wondered if I impacted them at all… especially the girls who quit. From those girls I moved on to the little girl I have been praying for from the orphanage my future roommate is working in, in Haiti. Then I began thinking of Maryann (future roommate) who is currently (at least as far as I know) in a hospital in Haiti. I wondered how her surgery went yesterday, hoping that she is recovering from it quickly and safely. I was thinking about when we will be roommates. The thought of it made me smile. Then randomly I moved on to where I am going to put the rest of my stuff in my apartment when I get it out of storage. That got me thinking about where I am going to get a new apartment when I graduate from Grace next May. Who will be my roommate? Just thinking about that made me realize that although I am unusually flexible with my plans, I still always want somewhere steady to call home. My move out of the dorms officially was actually a really tough decision for me. Room 102 has been my “home” for the last three years (minus summers) and the thought of leaving my “home” is scary for me. But I know that my move to the apartment was a good choice and will serve as a good transition for when I have to actually move away. Another random thing popped into my head though, changing topics in my head; I tried to figure out if the lamp I saw in my friend’s apartment last week had always been there or if it was new, but I know I have seen the lamp before, so I thought maybe it was gone for a while and was back… but why did it matter? Then I thought of my friends Anna and Shelby. I was thinking of memories I have with both of them and how great of friends they both are and how much I absolutely cherish their friendships. Thinking about them got me thinking about all of my friends in general. I thought of how I view my friends. The majority of them I see them as such amazing people and see their strength to get through certain situations. I thought of their ability to deal with the things going on in their life and from where I sit I could see their strength. I thought why would they want to hang out with me? I am so broken. I am so weak compared to them. I immediately looked to my weaknesses, but something about that seemed very wrong to me so I looked at it from a different angle. I had to turn it around and view the situation as if I were not the weak one, but the strong one. Because I am not weak; I am strong, I just can’t always see that. As much as I can sometimes only see my weakness, sometimes I can only see their strength. But we are all broken and we are all strong in our own unique ways. I think that is why we all get alone so well, because in the areas some of us are weak, the others are strong and can encourage and build us up. But I know that none of us could be strong in our own strength. It is the strength of Christ that we lean upon when someone else is weak to lift them back up. Again I thought of things that many of my friends have said to me that have impacted my pattern of thinking or my actions that they probably didn’t even know that what they were saying was being recorded in my mind. I thank God so much for all of my friends. I thank God that I don’t have to go through life alone. I love my community of friends who I can rely on for basically anything ever… I definitely recommend getting together with a group of people to go through life together.

Sorry this was super random. I think I am tired enough now to fall asleep. Just remember you are not alone. Not in your joy and happiness, and not in your struggles and pain.

Have a great night friends!
Amanda

p.s. Something else to think about... What kind of impact can you have on someone else when you tell them your appreciation for the little things they do? What kind of impact can you have on someone if you let them know what they really mean to you and how thankful you are for them? Let someone know today that you appreciate them.

The Two Legged Dog!!!

As I was waiting for my coffee at Bigby with my good friend Amanda we saw this 2 legged dog walk across the parking lot. It was so random, yet it brought such joy to my life. It only had its front legs so it balanced on them and it's butt stuck way up in the air. It was quite an amazing thing to see. The craziest thing was that the dog got around just fine with only its two legs. It's like the dog didn't even notice it had a problem. He just walked around like any other dog pretty much.

As I sat there catching up with my friend I started to think about that dog. How he was just as mobile as any other dog and he seemed okay with only having two legs.
I also pondered how I sometimes find myself thinking that "God can't use me. I'm still really young and I'm not the strongest Christian" I sometimes feel like that dog, but instead of using what God has given me I start to think I'm unworthy.

Do you feel that way sometimes??? Do you feel unworthy of God's love and grace in your life??? Do you sometimes think that you're not good enough to be used by God??? Or that you've screwed up too much for God to use you???

Let me tell you something. You are good enough for God. Why? Because of what Jesus did on the cross some two thousand years ago. He paid the price so that we could be good enough.

I hope that you'll remember what Jesus did you for you and me. And that you'll remember that you are good enough. No matter what you've done God will always accept you :)

Just think about that dog that only has two legs, and he gets around just fine...and so can we


just being honest,
Joe

three little words.

"I'm dead inside"

That is a text I got from my cousin a little while ago. She took off and left me here without saying where she was going or when she would return. When I sent her a text asking her where she was, this was the response i got.

I can remember feeling like this. Completely hopeless, completely helpless. I hate that someone I love feels this way. I don't know how to communicate to her in a different way than I already have that she doesn't have to be dead inside. But I have to try to remember what got my attention when I was that low... It was people caring. People asking me how was REALLY doing. People loving me.

Maybe today you feel like you are dead inside or maybe you feel like you have no more hope left. Maybe you are stuck in a rut feeling like there is no way out. I am here to tell you that today you are not alone and someone cares for you. You do not have to live a life of bondage anymore because Jesus came so "that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10)."

Maybe today you are someone who has a friend who is hurting and you want to help but you feel helpless. Remember this "But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." You can be the hopeful for your friend or family member. Together you can overcome more obstacles than you could have ever imagined.

For me, I am no longer dead inside, but rather I have the life of Christ in me to be thankful for and to keep me strong when I am weak.

Be Blessed
-Amanda

Not my plans

Sorry this is going to be long...

How often do we plan things out, but then they really never go the way we had planned? Or, we get so caught up in doing something else that we forget why we are there in the first place.

For the past week and a half I have been in Texas. I have been here trying to help one of my cousins through a tough break up. When I got here I was so excited. I got to spend some time away from home (which was good news for me), I got to see my two of my cousins and my aunt and uncle who I had not seen in almost two years, I got to spend some time in the sunshine, what could be better right? Now for almost a month I have been talking to my cousin over the phone about her break up. I knew that things for her were bad, but I didn't know just HOW bad they were. When I got here I realized how truly heartbroken she was. There are so many places that we can't go to or things that we can't do because it reminds her of her ex boyfriend. She calls and talks to his mom and his sister trying to figure out why he would do such things or when he is going to come crawling back to her. She sends him text after text asking him why he is doing this and what did she do wrong? She gets very little sleep and there are only a few things she can eat (let me just say we have had more Chick-Fil-A in the past 9 days than anyone should have). It has been really heartbreaking for me to see her like this. She is not the same amazing cousin I have known and looked up to my entire life, and this is the first time I have been able to see her as just as broken as me.

I had all of these plans when I came down here. For one, I was only going to be here for 6 days. She had mentioned some things that she wanted to do such as go to the zoo and go putt-putt golfing and do some shopping. So I had these days planned out and was all excited, I even thought of conversations I would like to have with her. I didn't expect that she would be afraid of driving some of the places she wanted to go, or that she would have all of these things that she "can't do" because they hold memories for her. It was hard to even bring up things from Michigan because she took a couple of trips to Michigan with him. So after we did all of the things that she wanted to do or all the things that we could do, in the 6 days that I was supposed to be here, she decided that I couldn't leave yet and paid extra money for me to change my plane ticket to leave a week later. I had no idea why but I knew that I needed to stay another week. The next day I found out why. I can't really go into details but what happened left me with a very sad, very tired, quite drunk cousin. She didn't sleep much that night. I awoke to her crying at about 2 in the morning and I sat with her telling her that she is worth more than everything that this guy was doing to her. She didn't really know what I was telling her. As we sat there she asked me to read to her from Pslams. I was kind of caught off guard, I had forgotten why I was here. I had focused on keeping her occupied, not speaking truth into the lies. I had focused on trying to help her move on and becoming irritated when she wouldn't instead of showing her that God's love can overcome all and can help her through. It was a moment of refocus for me. It was what i needed to remember why I was here in the first place.

So as I sat there reading things to her from Psalms I was just glad to be able to show her how no matter her circumstances God can be her refuge and her strength when she feels she has none left. My heart was once again breaking for her, but from a different perspective this time. My heart was breaking the way that God has taught my heart to break for people when His heart breaks for people who are hurting.

She asked me to read to her again the other night when she couldn't sleep again, she said that she couldn't tell anymore which thoughts in her head were true and which ones weren't. She couldn't tell what was in her head and what wasn't. So I read her many things that night, I couldn't stop, I was just speaking as much truth to her as I possibly could. All the while, it was reminding me that I am not in this alone, as I was trying to do it for the first half of my trip. My plans didn't necessarily go as I planned, but God knew what was going to happen. God knew how it was going to play out. I am here because this is how it needed to happen. It is so much easier to focus on other things than what God is trying to show you, but when you realize what God is trying to show you it makes things so much better.

Don't close yourself off to what God is trying to show you, even when you are trying to focus on helping someone else... instead focus on God and God will reveal himself to you and to the other person/people in his timing.

Be blessed today my friends!
-Amanda

My Words or God's Words??

It's pretty early in the morning for me to be writing something, but even this early in the morning God can speak to us. :)

I was challenged this morning to consider my speaking. How I speak. When I speak. Should I speak? What should I say if I say anything at all?

All these thoughts and questions were running through my mind this morning. I've had a few instances this last week where my words were not very effective to people. I had said things I thought might help them or encourage them but they actually hindered the other person some how. I don't understand how that happens.

But this morning I was challenged to stop speaking. To stop trying to help people on my own power, but to allow God to do some more speaking.

I need to stop thinking I have all the perfect words to say and that my way is the best way to help people. When actually, God's word is perfect and God's way is the only right way.

I need to shut my mouth and let God do the speaking, whether that's through me or through the Holy Spirit.

Proverbs 25:11
A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.