Adoption

There are 143 million orphans in the world. That's nearly half the population of the United States. I think adoption is so great. I really hope to adopt one day. What do you think about adoption?

Adoption - Are You Open? (full) from Catalyst on Vimeo.

Technically this is a beer commercial but it is so beautiful.

Summer Expectations

Can I just say that I am super-excited about this summer? Oh, it will be such a joy. Every summer I fall more and more in love with God and I can't wait to learn more about Him and be around people (like the two pictured below) who make me want to be more like Christ! I also get to hang out with Audrey, Aaron and Julie's daughter, this summer. That's going to be awesome.

Hot. (I know he would hate me, so that's why I put it up! Plus the reflection on his glasses is pretty sweet.)

Seriously, summer is the time when I am the happiest. I get to hang out with my absolute favorite people in the whole entire world. It's actually kind of like One Tree Hill (allow me to explain before you tune out). In real life people don't walk around town going to different people's houses to chat with them but at camp I can go find someone and we can talk for 30 seconds or 3 hours. It's so wonderful. We build such awesome relationships because of the time we spend together!

We also have lots of fun. We play games of "The Game," Gotcha, and random made up games like bouncing Nalgene bottles to each other. Oh, and we also dress up sometimes.

This summer Breehan and I are going to be kicking butt and working out. I'll update you on how awesome I'm looking throughout the summer!

God has blessed me so much with these people and this camp.

What makes a "good" Christian?

There’s this perception that a “good” christian has to be a “successful” christian. We think that our worth lies in a long list of accomplishments. (Salvations, books written, bank account, spiritual fruit, twitter followers, etc.)

Who’s the successful one in God’s eyes? Is it Billy Graham? Or the Parking Volunteer at his crusade?

I think we all know the answer to this question. They both are! They’ve both done their part… what God has called them to do. And the question isn’t even how “well” they did it, but how much love they put into it.

God’s already impressed with you. Stop trying to “wow” Him. I mean, can we really impress the creator of the universe any way? For some reason He’s madly in love with us. So just accept it!

The fruit will come. The numbers will come. The success will increase. But our gaze should be fixed on a love relationship with Him! Productivity HAS to flow out of a place of personal intimacy with God. Otherwise, the product is useless.

Have I mentioned that I love jack mooring. He wrote this. He is from the band Leeland and he has some great insights.

Celebrity Crushes

My top ten celebrity crushes in no particular order:

Adam Brody (especially his voice!)

Leonardo Dicaprio (have you seen "Catch Me If You Can"?!)

Matthew Broderick

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (if he asked me to marry him right now, I'd say ok)

John Cusack

John Mayer (because of his music and his wit!)

Jude Law (duh)

Jonathan Rhys-Meyers

Heath Ledger (I almost cried when I was told he died)

Eric Dane

My girl crush: Kate Winslet

So, who are your celebrity crushes? Male and female. Come on, we all have girl crushes and man crushes!

Praise

Isn't it nice to know that God doesn't expect us to be perfect? We have been justified through Christ. Christ is my covering. That means that instead of God seeing all of my faults, He sees Christ instead.

Lately I have hated the person that I have become so I opened up my Bible and landed on Romans 5. It talks about how Christ died for me while I was still a sinner. He didn't wait for me to get my act together. His grace justifies me before God even when I have screwed up and now I am reconciled to God. What a blessing!

From Romans, the Holy Spirit took me to Psalm 32 which says "Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered" and "Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity." He was verifying in my heart what I already knew in my head. It also talked about the reason I was feeling so broken: "For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away...For day and night your hand was heavy upon me." But there is a remedy for brokenness: "I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin."

But David left no question as to what would happen after I was forgiven: "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you." God isn't going to let me sink back into my sin; He is going to counsel me and lift me up.

The music is ok. The video is pretty great.

Jealous?

25 Things About Me

1. When I was in grade school I went to a church preschool (Pre-K), secular private school (K), a Christian private school (2-4th grade), homeschool (5-10th grade), and public school (10-12th grade). 

2. I came into college wanting to be a (1) nursing major, then I changed to undecided, then to (2) economics, (3) journalism, (4) art, and finally (5) english.

3. I have a 3rd degree black belt. Seriously. I took Taekwondo for 7 years.

4. My family used to own llamas (again, seriously). At one point we had 9 at once. Tanner and I used to take them to llama shows. Once I won money for showmanship. I could make a llama go through a hula hoop.

5. We had a bus that we would drive our llamas in. We took out the back seats so they could have a place to stand or lay down. You wouldn't believe how long it took to go to the gas station when you had llamas in your bus.

6. Once we walked our llamas through a drive-thru. (OK, that's all my llama stuff.)

7. One of my strangest and biggest fears as a child was that someone would build a spaceship in the middle of the night and launch it so close to my house that I would go deaf.

8. Another fear was that bees would use their stingers to boar holes in the window screens in our house and come in and attack me.

9. I love, love, love (!!!) the smell of books. Old books. New books. ANY books.

10. I love the circus. This is not a past tense thing. I saw the circus last year and was mesmerized.

11. I love to cuddle up in my bed when my room is really cold but I hate waking up to a cold room.

12. My biggest fear when getting my wisdom teeth taken out was that I would tell the dental surgeon that I thought he was hot (which he is! Hey Mike!)

13. I would start a fan club for my former photography teacher if I had the time. We said that we were going to make matching shirts and wear them on the same day but we never got around to it.

14. I LOVE making lists (yes, this is like a little slice of heaven for me).

15. I am HORRIBLE at small-talk (which means that I am HORRIBLE at meeting new people).

16. I am chronically early, which is almost as bad as being chronically late because it means that I have to deal with my small-talk issues or sit alone.

17. After playing bass for 2 weeks, my brother threw me on stage with it. SCARY!

18. I am a total mom. I always make sure people are being safety conscious and responsible. It's annoying even to me.

19. Probably my favorite moment up to this point in my life was laying on top of the Holston Mountain fire tower star-gazing with some of my best friends. We saw this really awesome red shooting star. I will never forget that day.

20. I have a secret goal of playing an acoustic show in a Starbucks.

21. I really want to adopt one day.

22. I wish I had an afro, thus I will adopt black kids and they will have mandatory afros!

23. I am a MAJOR introvert. I do like to hang out with my friends, but I could spend a whole day alone and be perfectly fine.

24. For one semester I took a homeschool dance class (so did Tanner, FYI), you laugh but I can waltz and swing dance.

25. I knew about sex before I knew that Santa wasn't real.

Random thoughts for the day

Wow. I only made it one week with trying to post on my blog twice weekly. Sad. 

I almost wrote a post right before this one but it was just full of complaining so I ditched it and started a new one. 

The new semester has started and I'm loaded up with books. I think I've bought 20+ books in the past two days. I do love reading....

Sorry that I'm so boring today. What's new with you?

Also, I'm looking for a new devotional. Any ideas?

This will make your day

Seriously, I hope this makes your day as much as it did mine!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY&fmt=22

Updates on the "To Do List"

1. Take one picture every day. --I have done this but I haven't been very inspired so none of them are that great. If you want to see them you can go here.

2. Quit Facebook for 6 months. --It's not super hard BUT I have no way to contact anyone. I wish I had revised it to only checking facebook once a week or something.

3. Hang out with old friends. --I've hung out with Breehan a lot and I have plans to hang out with another friend.

4. Read a book (outside of school books) every month. --I've read "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey and I'm halfway through "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets".

5. Hang out with my dad more. --We went to lunch yesterday and looked at 4Runners (because, if you didn't already know, someone ran into my car and totaled it while it was parked on my street).

6. Work on my prayer life. --I have been writing something to pray for on my hand every day. This is helping but I still need a lot of work in this area.

7. See more movies. --I got Netflix so I have been watching movies like crazy! The two that came in the mail today are "Schindler's List" and "One Flew Over The Cukoo's Nest" (which I think will also be my next book to read).

8. Write on my blog twice a week. --Today makes two!

9. Write in my journal twice a week. --Nope, slacker.

10. Memorize one Bible verse a week. --Yep. Colossians 3:1-3.

How is everyone else doing with their resolutions and goal lists?

Colossians 3:1-2

This week's verse(s) are Colossians 3:1-2.

"Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on thing that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth."

This is a hard verse for me to follow. I too easily get caught up in the things of the world: the boys, facebook gossip, Grey's Anatomy. These things all take God's place in my life continually and I have to constantly battle with those things. But I think that God is pleased when I put those things aside for His glory. When I consciously decide to stop dwelling on those things and turn to Him, He receives me with open arms. How great it is to have a God who, when I ask sincerely, will forgive me for (gasp) replacing Him with trivial things. 

It really shouldn't be that hard. God has asked me to set my heart on the loveliest things. He didn't ask me to do this to punish me; He asked me because when I think on these things, I will be more happy, more filled, and more satisfied through seeing the greatness of His kingdom. This command is not a punishment; it is a joy! Why, then, is it so hard for me to remember?