A community....

Hello Lads and Lasses! It's been awhile since my last post on this here blog so, I said to myself, I said "Self......lets get back to the blogging scene." I am most definitely going to be doing that in this here post. Today, I feel obligated to talk about our community, and no not like our town community like Wells, Blue Earth, Winnebago, Elmore, blah blah blah, Walters-Kiester Area, etc. I mean your community of people that you can fully trust in and share the same beliefs/ideals with, the people in your life that you could open-up and be your complete self with. For me, I have many "communities," I have my TEC Community, those I can turn to with my faith and confide in, and my youth-group those I can turn to in time of talking to or heck even times I just need someone. I want to talk about my youth group first of all. It's a group of people from different walks of life, from different diversities, from different groups of friends, that come together and discuss our lives and then relate that to God. It's not like a blood-brothers for life kinda deal where because you show-up for one you now obligated to come to all, it should be a thing that excites you, that helps you cope with the weekly struggles, and it helps you through our hectic as well as sometimes drama filled lives for some. Another thing that struck me is that high-school students like myself have a tendancy to care waaaaaaaayyyyyyy tooo much about what others AKA their peers think about them. It's a normal thing to feel in high-school trust me, I've been there done that, but you can not let how other people think of you define who you are now......"People don't think about you as much as you think they do." That quote pretty much sums that issue up in my mind, that's why I try, that doesnt mean I always do, to not care what people think about me. If your "so called friends" think you are wierd for going to youth group or going to a church retreat or even going to church period then they probably dont matter very much. This post has gotten way off the topic that I wanted it to be about, which was to get a Christian community that you can confide in about your faith and about life in general. To have a safety-network of friends that are there always praying and always there to support you in your endeavors of your life is really nice to have, it give you that extra support system that "I got your back" feeling. Anyway, so this is me encouraging all who read this that have not found that community of peers that you can trust and confide in to do so, because it is always a great thing to have in our confusing and sometimes overwhelming lives. I want to end this post with a quote from an unknown author....."Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.” This community, no matter it be TEC or your youth group, cares enough about you to sit and listen to what you think and what you feel.....and help you break down those insecurities and walls you put around your true selves. Some people care, just let those people in and let the real love and magic happen.

Amen

Dancing With The Stars

Hey guys, if you're friends with me on facebook you might have seen my post about Chaz Bono and Dancing With The Stars.

If you haven't: Chaz Bono is the first transgender contestant on DWTS, and now many organizations are saying that DWTS is no longer a family show.

What are your thoughts on this? Let me know, people. What makes a transgender contestant more controversial than a playboy bunny? :)

Tri-blog: Engage!

Well, after all the wait, the Tri-blog will finally have it's third author! :)

That just happened.

Let Us Love

So it's been awhile since our last post on here and in these weee hours of the morning I've been really thinking about myself. I feel as though the past two weeks have been an eye opening or an AH Ha type of thing going on in my life. Lately, I have been really getting away from my normal self and I dont know going through one of those valleys that we all seem to go through as humans. Let's venture to the beginning of my epic eye opening awesomeness of a time period.

Well we begin with the mission trip that I was involved with for the first week of awesomeness. I experienced things that used to be way beyond my comfort zone like how to react and help people with mental disabilites, but along with bonding with the campers and staff that I met at Camp Friendship, I learned new things about myself that I had never known before. For example, that I have a fear of my past coming back and showing it's ugly face in my current and clean future. I feel as though I have problems showing my true self to people that I know and have grown close to because they know of my past and of who I am. On the otherhand, I'm more comfortable with meeting new people because the "slate is clean" meaning they know me for who I am now instead of my past and dont know about my past unless I actually build enough trust to tell them. I am so working on this whole "not letting my past define me" thing and I know it's going to be a struggle.

That's just week one......I like to call it The Realization Week.
Here is week two......TEC Week.....End. This weekend really helped me out with the whole past, and getting over it. With God's love and grace, I have been kind of refreshed with the Holy Spirit and shown the light in retrospect. That I will not let my past define me......to forgive all, love all, pray for all, and most of all love myself.

"To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
-Mark 12:33

That verse tells us to Love God with all your strength and all of your understanding, but also to Love Your Neighbor as if they were yourself.

Just like this song says:

Let us love, Like we were children. Make us feel, Like we're still living. In a world I know that's burning to the ground. Give us time, To beat the system, Make us find What we've been missing. In a world I know that's burning to the ground

-Let Us Love by NeedtoBreathe

Prayer/Life

It's been a long time since I've posted on here.  Life's been a little hectic lately.  Here's the past week or two in a nut shell:

Something is wrong with my foot, but it's my senior track season, and I didn't work so hard the last four years to back down when the going got tough.  Not to mention as the leading scorer, I feel like I owe it to the team to try.

We've had a rollercoaster season, but we pulled it together and won not only Section True Team, but last Saturday and won State True Team for class A.

Found out on Monday that we have a Calculus final Tuesday through Friday.  That's right, a pop-final.  Not cool.

So with work, school, track, and getting ready to graduate I've been keeping busy.

I wanted to talk a little about prayer.  Like I mentioned, Saturday my track team headed up to Stillwater to compete in the State True Team meet.  A couple days before the meet, I had posted on the Prayer Request Group's facebook wall.  I told them about the meet, how the weather was supposed to be bad, and my foot.

Although it rained during 99% of the meet, they kept the meet running and there wasn't any lightning to delay it.  We have had to practice in the rain many times this year, and I feel like we had the upper hand over the other teams with the weather how it was.  It let up right at the end of the meet. 

I asked for some prayers for my foot.  Even though it hurt a lot between my events, it felt great when I was running and I had some good performances considering it was raining.  I even had a pass on the last leg of the 4x400 that counted as a 6 point swing over the second place team, who we only outscored by 4.5 points.

God works in mysterious ways.  Only He can see the "blueprint" to all of our lives.  A while ago, I might have asked God to help me win, but I know now that that's not how it works.  God doesn't pick one side of good people over another.  The other track teams certainly weren't possessed by the devil.  I didn't ask God make my team better than the others, or to heal me just so that I could do better.  There are more important things than track.

I asked God to help me be a leader for my team, to let the meet run smoothly without delays, and that my foot would hold up for the meet.  He helped me with all this, as well as blessing me and my team with the championship. 

I believe that things happen for a reason.  I'm not sure why or what's wrong with my foot.  But I do know that even more than last year when I was our number one hurdler, this year I've been working even harder on leading the other hurdlers and setting a good example for all of the younger kids.  Last year, I kept looking forward to this year, and how I had a shot at individual state titles.  But now, with my foot and all, I might miss my trip to State again, but I already feel like I've accomplished all my goals through State True Team.

It kinda sucks that it took a bad foot in my senior year of track to fully realize it, but track (life) isn't just about being a good individual.  It's about being a role model to someone younger, being a leader, a follower, a team player.  It's about leaving behind an example that you can be proud of, and helping the people around you become better too.

Life.....

Life. A struggle, a grind, a punch for punch boxing match. Those things are describing my life right now. But no one said life was going to easy did they? Apparently not because this punch for punch boxing match is really starting to get to me, in other words I am in what you would call a "funk" or in TEC terms a "valley." Here is what is on my mind tonight, how Life seems to be knocking me out, to use a boxing term. Life for me is a good one, I have a great family, good network of friends, good in school, and all of that good stuff going for me, but I seem to always be a step behind in life....never a step ahead of whats going to happen. I mean as soon as my life feels like I'm getting back out of my previous valley, I get punched in the gut causing me to fall back into that valley. Right now, I have that "kicked in the gut" and depressed feeling you get when you are at your lowest. Let's start out with my previous valley and work it up to the now new valley I am in. The last month or so my faith has taken a turn towards the not-so-good, not like not believing, but more like the "going through the motions" type thing and I could feel the relationship between God and I weakening from my end. Lately though, Im really starting to bring my faith back and starting to feel back to my old self until tonight when I got the "punch in the gut" from Life. Apparently, my uncle and I'm not going to go into details, is very very sick like organ transplant would be needed, but because of his previous surgeries he might not be able to handle that. So there is my valley I'm in now, worried sick about my uncle and yet having all my daily stressors added ontop of that. Life is a punch for punch boxing match, and right now I'm knocked out....but I grind through my life, pray to God to show me the rightous path, and to perform one last miracle for my family.

The End of the World

Hello one and all. It has been awhile since my last post and I have got a lot to talk about tonight. First of all, with all the end of the world stuff. Let's dive right into it. Alrighty, I do believe that Judgement Day is real and that near the end of my lifetime or even after my lifetime the world will indeed come to an end. But, here's the deal the whole rational behind the thinking of when this is going to happen is totally ludacris (and no not like the rapper). The theory is based on biblical translations from old testament to new, but here is the deal the bible can be translated into many different ideals or opinions at what you think it is trying to tell you, like when each of us reads a passage from the bible we get out of it what we feel like it means to us. I mean some of the things the bible says are stated metaphorically and use comparisons to tell us life lessons and such. Ok back to the case at hand.....End of the world. I think that we will indeed have a Judgement Day, but to use all different variables to figure out an exact date of when this will happen is not what its about. I think that we as followers of Christ are supposed to live each day as if it is our last. People have stated earlier that the world was going to end at the beginning of the new millenium....guess what, we are alive. In my personal opinion, nothing against any of you that believe that tomorrow is the beginning of the end but, I'm going to live my life like I have been and take it one day at a time, thanking the good Lord for giving me another day on the great earth he created for us. Plus, I really dont want to have my life taken from me before I even graduate high school, I believe that I have a lot of life ahead of me and that no matter what happens tomorrow, in October, next year, or heck even 90 years from now, that I will be a continuous follower of God and what ever happens happens. As my friend, Spock from Star Trek would say, "Live long and prosper" my friends.

Words Hurt....

This week I have been thinking a lot lately about words, and how that the words we speak can hurt even more than a punch to the gut or can make you feel out of this world. Words are what I would call a "double-edged sword," meaning that they can be used to bring a person's spirit and demeanor up or can be used to hurt and defile that spirit that you just brought up. I have personally experienced these things lately, but I have been the source of the words, both good and bad. The bad like saying hurtful and spirit-breaking things in a joking fashion as a deflecting type shield in situations that I feel insecure about myself or awkward. I also tend to say those things just to get a laugh or to feel "part of the group," which is totally against what I stand for and I am totally starting to figure this out now.

In Romans 12:2 it says, "Do not conform to the ways of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." That is one of my life verses, but isn't it hard not to conform to what other people are saying and or doing to make yourself feel accepted? I think so, yea because we as high-school students are still trying to find our inner selves and get a grip on this huge thing called life that is put on each of our plates in our own way.

Sorry for this off topic tangent, but to me this is why I personally say some of those hurtful and heartbreaking things. I am not giving excuses, and I most certainly am not writing myself off as one of those "stand-up" and almighty Christian figures that doesn't say hurtful stuff to people because I do, and now after realizing that my words have probably effected people's lives in a positive or negative fashion, I feel as though things are going to change for me. I am going to remind myself every time that I even think about saying anything hurtful that I was a victim of such words in my day, and I know the effect it has had on my self-esteem and self-image. I still think that I'm overweight and that I eat to much, and don't exercise enough from those names I was called in upper elementary school. These toxic words effect people's lives even if you don't think they do....the hurtful things stick in the mind and stay with them through all of their days.

I want to end this with a verse from Proverbs 15:4, "The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit." The words of love and of uplifting spirit are what keep us going through our daily lives, but the words of hatred and despair that, I think we all have experienced in anyway shape or form, crush our emotions and our spirit as well as our self-esteems. I read that verse for the first time today, and totally felt empowered to work on this whole "word thing", I don't really know how else to describe it, and work on myself personally. To work on the words I speak, to speak words of kindness and love instead of throwing up the insecure blockade wall that is hurtful teasing. This will be a struggle, but I pray that I will become a better person and a better role model because of it.

Bear the Fruit of the Lord....

Howdy all! It's been awhile since my last post....sorry for that, but life has gotten busy and all that jazz....you folks get the idea. Today, I wanna talk about bearing the Lord's fruit. Your fruitfulness in other words. Lately with me, I kind of feel like I am not bearing the fruit of the Spirit. But, lets back it up a second and find out what exactly the Fruit of the Spirit is.

In Galatians 5:22 it kind of defines what exactly the Fruit of the Spirit is. It
states: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness"

That verse kind of says a broad amount of things that "the Fruit" actually are, first its says Love. To love all of God's people, to show them the love that the Lord has for them, and to help them experience that same love in human likeness. These words that the scripture tells us are all really intertwined....Joy, Peace, Kindness, Goodness, and Faithfulness are all basically telling us to live our lives spreading that Joy through Kind and Good actions. Faithfulness is interlinked there in my opinion because the more Faithful you are to our Father and reflecting him through your actions and demeanor instead of just through your words the more you are bearing his fruit.
At Bible Study last night, we watched a message by Peter Haas that was talking about this exact same topic. (that's what inspired me to write about this....how neat is that!) He said something that stuck in my brain, he said in a round-about way that when we spread the Word of God that it should be to lead by example. To not just profess your faith and use tongues to do it, live it, be it, bear the fruit that the Lord has given us. Christians that tend to "profess" more than they "live" are more likely to be "toxic."
I am as guilty of this as anyone else, pushing Christianity onto people, making it weird on them and on me. Trying to get them more involved in the church is my biggest thing really. I mean, there are a group of people that I sometimes try to hard to get to do church things...and Peter Haas's message we watched last night really helped me realize something that I have been lacking in my faith. MY FRUITFULNESS! I have been going through my life thinking that talking the talk is all that can be done to spread the Word to others, but my realization is that if you open your heart up and love everyone and care for all that you meet as well as stay faithful to your Father, you are being Fruitful. This realization hit me like a slap in the face! I don't know, my outlook on things are changing. I hope this little post here will kinda shine my Father's light onto you all that take a gander at this here post. I just want to end this with a prayer.

Lord first of all I want to thank you for all that you have sacrificed for us here on earth. Secondly, I want you to help us to bear the fruit of your spirit and to help us to shine your light in your name. Please remind us that all that we do is in your name and that in everything we do and everything we say that we do it to glorify you and all of you goodness and love. In your name we pray.

Amen

High School "Spirit"..

Ok, so tonight, the USC Rebels played the Southland Rebels for boys basketball (The Rebels won). 

I guess I'm just trying to figure out where "School spirit" is crossing the line.  For example, our students were cheering "You need Rogaine" whenever one of their players was shooting free throws.

I just think it's weird that school spirit, at least for us here, revolves around jeers instead of cheers.  You know that in any other place, where there wasn't a competition, the "Rogaine" cheer would be considered mean and unnecessary.

I just want to know what you think about this, from your point of view.

How He Loves Us

He is jealous for me
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy
When all of a sudden
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
And I realise just how beautiful You are
And how great Your affections are for me

-David Crowder Band

That song, How He Loves Us, is one of my favorite songs, and I literally sing at the top of my lungs when this song comes on the radio, or even right now when I am writing this post. The reason this song really plucks at my heartstrings is that it is sooooooo amazing how much God actually loves us and cares for our well-being.

John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

The most famous verse of the bible right there, by far, because that verse shows just How He Loves Us. Lets break it down, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son".....What exactly does that mean? Well, I think of it as God loved US, you and I, SOOOOOO much that he SACRIFICED his Son, Jesus Christ, but to do what? The other half of the verse says, "....that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have ETERNAL life." That half says in my view that if we fully believe in God and in Christ we will have eternal life, or everlasting life. In other words, we will be GLORIFIED in the kingdom of heaven. Now put that together. God loved US SOOOOOOOOO much that he SACRIFICED his Son to SAVE us from our sins and to be GLORIFIED in the kingdom of heaven.
Think back to the song, How He Loves Us by The David Crowder Band. The song tells us of how much God actually loves and will continue to love us. It tells us that God's LOVE is unimaginable. It is beyond comprehesion. If we tried to comprehend how much he actually loves us, our minds would not be able to grasp on to it. God loves US soooooo much that he let his Son die for our Sins to be washed away, and for us to be glorified in heaven alongside them.

And O how He loves us
Oh, O how He loves us
How He loves us all

He most definitely loves us all indeed!

-Amen

Be like Your Rabbi....

Today, I was leading a Sunday School type thing we call 7-up at my church (7th grade and up, hence the name), and we pulled out a video from the Nooma series by Rob Bell (check it out) and popped it in. This video was about being Jesus' disciples and to be like Christ Jesus. Well in the video, Rob tells about Rabbi's and their disciples. He says that the disciples that the Rabbis chose were the cream of the crop, with the same ideals and visions about God as they did. He also goes on to state that if a Jewish man (we would call them young men like the ages 15-20) was working as a fishermen or any other job they were not considered "worthy" to be a disciple of any Rabbi. This next part is what really hit me. When Jesus chose his disciples, if you remember correctly, they all were working men, none of which were accepted by other Rabbis to be their disciples. None of them made the cut. So, think about that. Jesus selected everyday men and women to be his followers. To pick up their crosses daily and to be like Christ Jesus. That is kind of amazing to think about, that Jesus selected basically the B-squad of followers, the everyday people, the middle class of the faith to trust in them that they would spread his word and alter history forever by continuing Jesus' work.

"In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus."

- Philippians 2:5 (NIV)

This verse was our theme verse for my church's last trip to the Youth Gathering in New Orleans, and the theme that was decided to go along with that was "Think. Act. Be.........like Jesus," which is exactly what Rob Bell was saying in that video I was talking about earlier. To be like Christ Jesus, to be like your Rabbi. Now, if you all haven't inferred this already our Rabbi is no other than our Savior, Jesus. He selected people just like you and me, of the same age to drop what the work they were doing and follow him, to be his disciples. This may feel like I'm pounding this point into your heads, but it is worth repeating. The disciples were the same as us, ages 15-20 and were not the most faithful people in the world, even they had their flaws. The bible says that when Jesus and Peter were walking on the water that Peter began to sink. When he cried for help, Jesus asked him, "Why do you doubt?" He wasn't asking why Peter doubted Jesus. He asked why Peter doubted himself as a disciple, a follower of Christ.

Jesus didn't select the "all-stars" or the "superstars" of faith, he selected people from all demographics and told them to "come and follow me." I mean, Matthew was a tax-collector, basically what the IRS is today, and Peter was a fishermen. Now, think of yourself, we are also disciples of Christ in the here and now. We the new followers of Christ are his disciples, we are here to emanate God and to be like Christ Jesus. I ask myself how can I do this? But then I think back to the disciples, those 12 that dropped what they were doing and followed Jesus. I then know that it is most definitely possible to be in the same mind and heart of our Rabbi, Jesus Christ.

Hierarchy...

When you think about a hierarchy, what is the first that you think of? For me, I think of what in the world a hierarchy is in the first place. Well, the dictionary definition that fits what I'm talking about is "any system of persons or things ranked one above the other." Now bring that definition back to our faith. Normally, you would think God is number one in our hierarchy of the Trinity followed by Jesus and the Holy Spirit. God is all powerful, all knowing, and in everything, but in the book that I have been literally glued to, "The Shack," says something that totally makes sense to me when you break it down, but when I first read it, it sounded confusing and encrypted. Well, here is my interpretation of it. The book tells us that God is not at the hierarchy of the Trinity, but he IS the Trinity. He is fully himself as God, fully himself as a human other wise known as Jesus, and fully himself as a spirit or the Holy Spirit. He intended for there to be NO hierarchies, NO laws, and for us to govern ourselves WITH Him, with the guidance and nurturing of Him. The book also goes on to say that when God created us He intended to have us to be in the Trinity alongside the others, to be in that close-knit relationship that they share, and that when temptation brought us into sin that we kind of broke off and became independent, which humans still want to this day, to be independent. BUT, that is not what God wants for us, he wants us to be in that close-knit, loving, and trusting relationship with God. So, basically what you are saying Tyler is that it all revolves around the relationship you have with God? Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying. If we have that one-on-one loving and trusting relationship with Him then we will all be more likely to spread that LOVE and RESPECT to others, making the hierarchies and laws we have in place pointless and bringing us back to our Almighty and Merciful God.

Did that make any sense at all? ha ha

The Show Goes On

"So no matter what been through, no matter what you into
No matter what you see when you look outside your window
Brown grass or green grass, picket fence or barbed wire
Never ever put them down, you just lift your arms higher
Raise 'em 'til your arms tired, let 'em know you here
That you struggling, survivin', that you gon' persevere"
       --Lupe Fiasco "Show Goes On"

Ok, so Tyler took a big leap on here with his personal faith walk, and it inspired me to do the same.  More specifically, the major moments of mine.

The thing that I believe shaped me the most, positively and negatively, happened to me in kindergarten, and is really hard for me to talk about. Up to this point I've only told a very small group of people.

For those of you who don't know, the house I've lived in since I was one is about 3 and a half blocks from school, so I've always walked.  Starting sometime in the winter of my kindergarten year, a kid started bullying me as a walked back to my house after school. He lived another two blocks or so past my house. I went to the catholic school, so I had a 6 minute head start until the public school was released, but he had a bicycle and would always catch up to me. He told me he was a senior, and that he was just short for his age, and I believed him.  Looking back now, he was probably in 4th grade.

Regardless, a kindergartener is the bottom of the food chain, so I didn't have a chance. It started with him calling me names, and pushing me, sometimes hitting me. Eventually, it elevated to a point where he would make me go into a driveway of an elderly neighbor nearby and drop my pants.  Then he would call me names and finally leave me alone so that I could go home. It was so embarrassing. I felt like I had no control over the situation, and he had threatened to hurt me if I told anyone, so I never told a soul until last year.

Eventually it stopped, and I started walking to and from school with a friend that lived nearby.

It's because of this that I have trouble trusting people, until I know them better. It's hard for me to open up, especially about how I feel, because at that point I learned that hiding my emotions got me through..

But like I said earlier, I also was affected positively by this. Being put through that has made me want to have a positive impact on the younger people around me. I still remember that time, and because of it I now do everything I can to leave a good impression on some of the younger kids at my school. It has also taught me to be not only a good listener, but to read between the lines when someone is upset, because maybe if I had someone like that it could have been put to a stop earlier.

The final thing that this taught me was forgiveness. Even though I still haven't fully forgiven that person, I have started to.

Jump ahead to my freshman year in high school. Our school isn't exactly bad, but then (and now) there was some immoral activity going on at parties. Towards the end of freshman year, I was getting invited to these parties, but I chose not to go to them if I knew there was alcohol there. However, as summer got underway, I was at some parties with friends who began suggesting that I start going to those parties. I was very close to going down the wrong path when an older friend suggested I go to TEC.

Both of my sister's had been involved, so I figured, "Why not, I don't have any other plans."  This decision ended up being a major life changer. Even though I had been raised in a fully catholic, church-every-sunday family, and had attended catholic school, my faith had never really developed.

Now to wrap it up.  "Why include the quote in the beginning?", you may ask.

I believe that who we are is based on the trials we go through, and that perseverance is one of the best qualities a person can have. My trials helped mold me into the person God intended me to be. It's easy to look at the bad things, and forget that the good things happened. When I look back at my life, I know I was blessed, despite the few bad things. I'm at a point in my faith where I feel comfortable moving on to the next part of my life, because I know God will watch out for me, and that the trials I face will only help me grow stronger.

My Walk....

So....lately I have been thinking about my Walk with Christ....I don't know why I have been thinking about it and dwelling on my past because I know God wants me to live in the present and not to worry about my past endeavors, but I can't help but look back at my Walk.
My Walk begins at the age of 5....now I only have scattered memories from this time, but here is what my Mom has filled me in with now so that I can understand a little better. My younger brother, who was 2 at this time, was diagnosed with leukemia. What is leukemia? Well it is basically where cancer cells in your blood are then attacked by the body's immune system making it weaker against minor sicknesses and ailments. OK...enough background on that. So, at the age of 5 my life was completely upside down. I felt like my parents abandoned me and my youngest brother, just a baby at the time, and were always gone to Minneapolis for doctor appointments and spinal taps etc....etc. But, during this time I stayed at my grandma's house. This is where my faith really began. She always talked about God's will and every night that we stayed there, me and her would pray right before bed to thank God for what we have and then asked him to heal my brother of that retched disease. The praying and all the support paid off, as he was healed of the disease!

Jeremiah 29:11 (one of my favorite verses) states: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." This verse speaks about trusting the LORD for his plans are only good for you, even though we don't believe this statement at times and ask Why do these bad things happen to good people? Well, there is not a clear cut answer I can give you guys about why these things happen.....but I can tell you that in my personal experience God pulls you from the darkness that you are in and brings you back into the light because these things that happen to you are only made to help you succeed in life, not to bring you down.

In my life, the darkness that fell over me was tremendous after my brother was fully recovered. I was now in 4th grade and I my appetite began to increase. I grew in weight from average healthy weight, to an unhealthy weight. As a result of my weight gain, I became the "pick on kid," or the kid that everyone loved to make fun of. I mean I was called names all through those years, I even got the nickname "Rhino" because I would get SO angry with the name calling and would charge at the person out of pure frustration. These anger issues at school then became the same with my parents, and my mom especially.

This time was the time in my life that I hate to remember, when ever I think about the things I did, I cringe and sometimes sob in regret. This is even hard to tell you guys about as it still plucks at my heartstrings, but I ,as a 4th going into 5th grader, beat my mother. She would tell me to do something and boooom explosion and I would hit her.......I hit my own mother. The one person I could confide in and I hit her.....this continues to linger in my mind thinking that I could do such a thing. I did indeed work this stuff out with some deep and even drastic counseling, but during all of this my family and I grew farther and farther and farther away from God. We were not committing ourselves fully to the LORD like it tells us to do in Proverbs 16:3, "Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans." My family and I didn't go to church, we didn't go to Sunday school. I only went to release time on Wednesdays because I liked the shortened classes and the cool little reward field trips we used to do. Even after the miracle of my brother, we didn't even legitly talk about God in our household.

Fast forward, 7th grade confirmation starts God starts working through my youth director and starts reeling me back into him. At first I resisted, then as I started to understand God and the story of Jesus, I began to feel myself starting to change from a depressed and saddened kid to a flower blossom ready to emerge.

Fast forward again, 2 years later, 9th grade......I start feeling the presence of God in me.....I feel his arms helping me support my burdens and my stressers. This whole movement of feelings toward God really came to a head when I went through TEC. Now I this is not a promotion to those reading this, but my faith was brought into a whole new dimension!

Anyway fast forward again, to present day. My faith is in full bloom! The flower that was just a bud at the beginning of my 7th grade year is now at the point to where I feel that my relationship with God is as strong as ever. Let me end this post with this, Jesus died on the cross so that I and all of us can be forgiven for our sins and our transgressions. Now, I tell you that I now am a full follower of Christ, do I make hypocritical mistakes? Yes. Do I know that I am totally forgiven for these mistakes I have made in my past? Most definitely. Now think to your Walks....are their some things you regret? don't like? resent?.....I'm sure you do, but now think of the same Walk Jesus took so that our sins could be forgiven. Pretty amazing to think that one man would knowingly sacrifice himself to have our transgressions and sins washed clean wouldn't you say?

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." - 1 John 1:9

Post-post-Valentine's Day

As you all know, tomorrow is post-post Valentine's Day (two days after).  My pencil buddy, Jeremy, suggested that we celebrate it by wearing red. 

I know Tyler just went over how pointless Valentine's day is, and I agree.  However, I will be celebrating post-post Valentine's day, and invite you all to do the same, because hey, why not have multiple celebrations of the "Day of Love?"

Along those same lines, Merry 52nd day after Christmas!!

Valentine's Day....

Valentine's Day. A holiday of LOVE all about LOVE wouldn't you say? The one day where everyone gets all mushy gushy and ishy squishy valentines from certain people, and boyfriends feel obligated to get their girlfriends chocolate, flowers, cheesy cards, or even bring them out on a fancy date to their favorite restaurant. Now, this holiday sometimes makes me cringe, walking down the hallway at school and seeing all these people PDAing in the hallways, and all that jazz that comes with Valentine's Day. I used to love this holiday back in elementary school, having parties and getting a whole bunch of candy from your classmate, but that totally changes when you get into middle and into high school.
This holiday to me is one of the most over commercialized, over hyped holidays that we have here in America. My personal thinking behind this is that shouldn't we as followers of Christ love our fellow man as ourselves everyday. Aren't we called to do this? To spread God's everlasting AGAPE love to everyone and last person we see?
It tells us this in John 13:34-35...."A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" That verse speaks to every each one of us, saying that we should love each other as much as He the LORD has loved us. Now I know that this is maybe one of the hardest things for us as followers of Christ to do, but when we Love each other and respect one another we are spreading God's AGAPE love. There's that AGAPE again, some may not know what that is so here is a short definition. AGAPE is the love that we spread from each other to one another, not romantic love, or a light hearted "Bro.....I love you man." It is a whole hearted love that we have and spread throughout our communities and to our families.
So think of Valentine's Day and the happiness people have when they get a surprise bundle of roses or go on a fancy dancy date. Wouldn't our relationships with God, and with others around us be better if we treated all with the up most AGAPE love and respect? I myself am going to go forth and treat everyday like Valentine's Day, not handing out cheesy cards everyday, but showing love and respect to my family, my friends, my enemies, my peers, and to my God.