In His Presence

"You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."

~Psalm 16:11

"Waiting on Me means directing your attention to Me in hopeful anticipation of what I will do. It entails trusting Me with every fiber of your being, instead of trying to figure things out yourself... I have promised many blessings to those who wait on Me: renewed strength, living above one's circumstances, resurgence of hope, awareness of My continual Presence... It also helps you to enjoy Me; in My Presence is fullness of Joy."

 ~Sarah Young, "Jesus Calling"

Incredible

"¹⁹ The sun will no more be your light by day,
   nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you,
for the LORD will be your everlasting light,
   and your God will be your glory.
²⁰ Your sun will never set again,
   and your moon will wane no more;
the LORD will be your everlasting light,
   and your days of sorrow will end."

-Isaiah 60:19-20

Words to live by

"Everything I do, I do for the Lord. You know, anytime, anywhere, no matter what I'm doing I just say "You know what Lord, I'm doing this for you." And at that point I feel invincible, and no one can stop me. I have all of this energy and strength because I know I have the Lord right there with me. And When I do things for the Lord, I am always rewarded. Last year I did everything for myself, and this year, now that I have my mind focused on the Lord, He has blessed me and rewarded me so much. Now I am not trying to please everybody else. Not my parents, or my friends, or my teachers... Their opinion does not matter to me. God's does. And at the end of the day His is the only one that I care about."

While enjoying the beautiful weather and a parfait, my sweet friend shared this with me. I am so thankful for the person that she is and the friendship God has blessed us with. She has encouraged me so much, in ways I couldn't imagine. And I am so thankful for her!

Think Good thoughts

Man today was such a great Friday. I mean, the weather was gorgeous!! But I was so encouraged today. I was sharing with my friend about the Kony movement, and he told me he thought to many people were following a trend instead of actually feeling like it is a good thing to do. Even though I agreed with him to some degree, I think that's the whole point of the movement. Who cares if people if are just going by trend; they are accomplishing what they wanted: For Kony to become famous. He kind of apologized and told me that he wasn't trying to shut me down, he has just been really trying to analyze what people tell him and what he is being taught. Instead of just believing what he is told, he is digging for the truth and what he believes to be true. He told me that he was trying to dig deeper into the Bible and analyze what he is reading. So often I just believe what is being shown to me. When really I should be taking those things and studying them further. That is how you learn and grow. I was just really encouraged by him and his wisdom. And it kind of made my day.

Amazing Grace

John sang Amazing Grace tonight. There was nothing more peaceful and beautiful than everyone singing together. I know it made God smile. There was just something so precious about hearing all of those voices join together; no matter what we were going through, we joined together as a God loving congregation to sing praises to our Lord. It was just beautiful

Faith Like a Child

I felt so encouraged today. I had such an awesome talk with my dad this morning. We just talked about faith and life and God. And it just amazes me to see the he life he was living before he knew the Lord and to see the life he is living now. There aren't many people who would give up the life and fun they know to follow the Lord. That kind of faith is so encouraging to me. It encourages me to live a life more pleasing to the Lord. And it just helps me to see that the Lord does use every little thing for His plan and glory. I am just so thankful for both my mom and my dad. Not many people have great parents like I do.

The beach was stunning this morning. I mean... BEAUTIFUL. I want to live there. .. One of these days I will... But until then, I will enjoy Upland. Oh, Pepe's was incredible as well. Definitely hit the bottom.. Now I'm off to go run this food baby off. Good start to a gorgeous Saturday