A Sketch

I just love looking at this sketch because it reminds me of the parable of the shepherd looking for the one lost lamb (Luke 15:1-7). It reminds me that I am that important to Jesus; that he would come looking for me. An individual, a sinner, who is unworthy of his love and forgiveness. But because of Jesus' ultimate sacrifice, himself, we our forgiven of our sins. It's overwhelming to think of how much love he has for me, and for you. It is something to cherish with all our hearts. Jesus gives me strength and through him I have life. Its like Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It is through God's grace and strength that places me where I am today. I would not have been able to make it this far without him. It urges me to do all things for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 I just recently understood what that passage meant. I hope that when you read that passage you can understand it the way I have and that you can find a deeper love for Christ. God Bless You

The Unsolved Puzzle...

The Unsolved Puzzle

I look into the mirror 

There are only two things I can see

A girl who is broken and lost

She feels like an unsolved puzzle 

One that will never be solved

But she slowly builds up the courage 

The courage to see the finished puzzle 

To see who she is 

She starts putting pieces into the unsolved puzzle 

She thinks that she is making progress 

Then something happens

The puzzle shatters in her hands

As she sees this  mystery before her eyes crumble 

She feels a sudden terror 

Instead of losing her temper

She thinks for a minute 

She bows her head to pray

She asks God to help her find her way 

She prays this each time

Each time her puzzle crumbles into a thousand more pieces 

She sees new things in the puzzle every time she tries to assemble the pieces 

for that she is thankful 

Thankful to learn more things about her puzzle

At the same time she feels as if her whole world is going to fall apart

All she wants is some help to assemble her puzzle 

She's crying out for help

No one can hear her cry

It's silent 

For she doesn't know how to ask verbally 

You can see it in her eyes

All she wants is for someone to help her 

There is no one she can trust 

For they all make her have to restart her puzzle 

She grows weary of the puzzle 

The frustration takes over her mind 

not for to long

She bows down

With her hands gently holding each other 

She prays again

Her task becomes easier to bare

As she is reassured that she is not alone 

She starts her puzzle over again

This time with more strength than the last attempts 

She knows that she is not perfect 

That her puzzle will probably crumble again 

She starts it anyways 

She doesn't want to give up on life

But embrace as much of it as she can

Both the good times and the bad times 

She now knows that her puzzle will never be solved 

She focuses more on living 

She does what she can to help people

Ever since she stopped focusing on her unsolved puzzle 

She began focusing on God's work 

And that has fulfilled her life in so many different ways

This is a poem that I wrote, I hope you guys like it! 

Christmas

It's that time of year again! Christmas today is associated with getting gifts, and we have lost sight of the true meaning of Christmas. That is not what Christmas is about though! It is about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It's about his coming down to earth to save us from our sins, it's celebrating his coming. I would like to challenge you guys to read the Christmas story from the Bible to your kids, family, friends, or to yourself; to remind them/yourself the true meaning of Christmas. When you read it be open and let Christ work in you.    God Bless you and have a Merry Christmas! 

Matthew 1:18-2:23

Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son

¹⁸ This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about^[a]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet^[b] did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
²⁰ But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,^[c]because he will save his people from their sins.”
²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”^[d] (which means “God with us”).
²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. ²⁵ But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
The Magi Visit the Messiah

2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi^[e] from the east came to Jerusalem ² and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

³ When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

⁶ “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
    who will shepherd my people Israel.’^[f]”

⁷ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.⁸ He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

⁹ After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. ¹² And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

The Escape to Egypt

³ When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵ where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”^[g]
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. ¹⁷ Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

¹⁸ “A voice is heard in Ramah,
    weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
    and refusing to be comforted,
    because they are no more.”^[h]

The Return to Nazareth

¹⁹ After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰ and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
²¹ So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. ²² But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, ²³ and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

PERSONAL THOUGHT

I've always thought that I was worthless, I've thought that I never fit in anywhere. I've been called things that hurt but I wouldn't let it show because I thought that would make me weak. So I figured that if I changed to be more like my sisters than people would start to like me. But when I tried, it just didn't seem right; when I talked it felt like my sisters talking, not me. Now I realize that I don't want to be anyone but me, even though I may not fit in, I'll be happier. I don't want to be afraid of showing my emotions, I don't want to be afraid to do silly things.
I am who I am and I am not going to change that for anyone, not even society

Pray

I have finally grown weary in hiding my true personality from my family, friends, and my enemies. I want to show everyone who I really am, no matter how much teasing or hatred it may cost. I want to live my life for God; I don't want to be afraid to show out my faith to everyone. I want to grow in the Lord and follow him wherever he takes me.
I think that I am finally strong enough to be me, I mean there are defiantly going to be a lot of things I won't want to be because of fear. But FEAR has made me terrified of living. I have missed out on so many great things because I was to afraid of embarrassing myself. Now I don't really care of what people think of me...sometimes I do, but that's where I have to keep working on.
God's love is everything, and as long as I have that...I know I will be okay.

Please pray for me, thanks :)

It takes real courage to show your feelings!

Trust

How do we learn to trust people? This is a question I know I have been struggling with. These days it is so hard to trust family, friends, leaders, ect. People are always in fear that if anyone knows what they are truly thinking, they will get judged. Many people hide their true thoughts and feelings away because of fear, fear in our society. Society is so degrading of people just being their-selves and it creates us to be something different. I have started   to try and be myself around everyone, sometimes it is the hardest thing to do at the time, because being yourself also means to you should be honest. No one can ever truly be themselves if they aren't honest with people. But how should we trust people? How do we know what to trust them with and what not to trust them with? A lot of the time we over exaggerate things, and think our friends won't like us if they knew things about ourselves that we find horrible and unbearable. We are scared to tell people of the mistakes we make because it will make us seem like less of a person, at least that is what I think. We shouldn't be afraid to tell people about our mistakes because they shouldn't be judging us. It is something that is so easy to stress about, and it requires a lot of thought.
Romans 12:3 - "Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of  you this warning: Don't think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us."
This means that we are not suppose to place ourselves higher than anyone else and no one else should place us up higher on the scale. We are all equals no matter what are station. Judging people isn't up to us, it's up to God... are only right is to give LOVE out to people. It's hard to do with some people, but it is worth it in the end.
Now trusting is hard and will always be hard, but once you start trusting people than you will have a better relationship with them. We should learn to be more trusting in people, but we should also be careful who we trust. One person we should place all our trust in is God.
Psalm 56:11 - "In God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me."
This explains that we should trust God, and not be afraid of man! That is such a powerful verse, and it has helped me see things in a different light. I am finding it easier to be just myself around people, and I am loving it! No more worries about being judged because I don't care anymore.

Love part 1

Love, what does that really mean? That is something that someone should take a lot of time to think about, not just a couple of hours... or a day... or a week ... or even a year, but more like a lifetime. Here is a song by JJ Heller, it keeps reminding me what love should be like. 


"What Love Really Means" 
He cries in the corner where nobody sees 
He's the kid with the story no on would believe 
He prays every night, “Dear God won’t you please 
Could you send someone here who will love me?”

Who will love me for me
Not for what I have done or what I will become
Who will love me for me
‘Cause nobody has shown me what love
What love really means

Her office is shrinking a little each day
She’s the woman whose husband has run away
She’ll go to the gym after working today
Maybe if she was thinner 
Then he would’ve stayed
And she says…

Who will love me for me? 
Not for what I have done or what I will become
Who will love me for me?
‘Cause nobody has shown me what love, what love really means

He’s waiting to die as he sits all alone
He’s a man in a cell who regrets what he’s done
He utters a cry from the depths of his soul
“Oh Lord, forgive me, I want to go home”

Then he heard a voice somewhere deep inside
And it said “I know you’ve murdered and I know you’ve lied
I have watched you suffer all of your life 
And now that you’ll listen, I’ll tell you that I...”

I will love you for you
Not for what you have done or what you will become
I will love you for you
I will give you the love 
The love that you never knew

This song has been such an inspiration in my own life. I know that I struggled a little bit with accepting people for who they really are and loving them was even harder. I used to hate them for things they could do and the things I couldn't do. But now I have accepted the things I can't do or can't change; that has made a huge difference on how I look at people now. I love them for everything they can and can't do, for the things that scare them or the things that trouble them. 

Love means to love people for the good things about them, and love them for the bad things about them also. We should be willing to love them through the hard times as well as through the good times. I have so many opinions on what LOVE means to me but then if I typed it all out I would be here all night. So I will finish this tomorrow. 

A poem

REFLECTION:

When we look into the mirror,
what are we searching for?
We're searching for our reflection,
and we stop there.
We don't bother to search any further,
but God doesn't stop there.
He searches further in us.
He isn't looking for our beauty on the outside,
but he is looking for it on the inside.
He sees us for what truly matters.
He sees what's in our hearts,
and in Gods eyes,
that's where the real beauty lies.

"I'm tired of people telling me how I should live MY life, from now on I am going to live MY life for MYSELF and nobody else." Anonymous
I found this quote to be very helpful to me sometimes. I hope that it will help some of you guys to!

=)