One of my favorite things..

Can I just say that I think it's very possible that one of my new favorite books of the Bible is Ecclesiastes?

I had never really paid a whole lot of attention to it before. I was mostly just familiar with the well known passage that says there is a season for everything. But then last month I was reading through it to find something particular, and two things struck me.
At first, I thought, "Geez, this is kind of a depressing book..."
And second, the more I read it, the more I thought, "Wow, this has some crazy-beautiful passages!"

And, of course, once you reach the end of the book, you see that it is really not as depressing as it seems in the beginning, because it all goes back to show that all things are done in vain, unless done for the glory of the Lord, and if you do all for His glory and in His name, then you will lead a rich, blessed life.

Now I have been reading through it more for devotions, and there is so much to be found in it.I love so many of the verses I come across, from the way they are phrased (they are so poetic!) to what they have to offer. There are some that really make you think.

"One generation passeth away,and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth forever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing."

Ecclesiastes 1:4-8

"Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness."

Ecclesiastes 2:13

"For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool forever seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? As the fool."

Ecclesiastes 2:16

"He hath made every thing beautiful in His time: also He hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end."

Ecclesiastes 3:11

"I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever:nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and so God doeth it, that men should fear before Him."

Ecclesiastes 3:14

"Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm  alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken."

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

"As he came forth from his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hands."

Ecclesiastes 5:15

"Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better."

Ecclesiastes 7:3

"Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which He hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun."

Ecclesiastes 9:9

"Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun."

Ecclesiastes 11:7

Power of Prayer

I've really been thinking about something interesting today.

The last couple days have not been the best for me. There have just been a few things going on that have made me a little frustrated. But then I realized...what if the things that are frustrating me are direct results of my own prayers?

Due to some special circumstances within my life lately, it has been brought to my attention more than ever  how ridiculously impatient I am, and that's a problem. I've really looked at it as something that I want to work on and solve, so I've been very earnestly praying lately that God will help me build up my patience.

God always answers prayers anyways, but when you pray for something like patience, it's more of a practical thing that you can only build up by actively working on it through specific situations.

I mean, have you ever really thought about it that way?It's not bad to ask for patience, most of us could probably use more of it, but if you do, you had better believe that God is going to crack His almighty knuckles and say, "Okay.You want patience, so we'll build up your patience.But it's gonna be hard."

Because it's like I said before, something like patience has to be carefully built up through practice.He will absolutely work with you on it, but it might take some trying experiences to get you to the level you prayed for. I feel like that's kind of where I'm at right now with some stuff that has been going on. I hadn't truly thought about it til this afternoon, but I honestly believe that especially one experience in particular was to test my patience. I also think I didn't do so well with that test.

But my God is faithful, and as long as I hold up my end of the bargain and remain willing to work on it and try my best to improve, He'll keep working on it with me. Because, thank goodness, He has endless patience. He'll watch me get restless, then come to my senses....and all because He really loves me that much. :)

Oh,I'll always love you too...

"Don't remind me that some days I'm the winsdhield, and other days I'm just a lucky bug. As cold iron rails leave old mossy trails through the countryside.

The crow and the bean field are my best friends, but boy, I need a hug cause my heart stops without you. There's something about you that makes me feel alive.

If the green left the grass on the other side, I would make like a tree and leave. But if I reached for your hand would your eyes get wide? Who knew the other side could be so green?

Don't remind me I'm a chickadee in love with the sky, but that's clearly not a lot to crow about. Cause when the stars silhouette me, I'm scared they'll forget me and flicker out.

I chase honey but I haven't seen the hive. I didn't look, I didn't even try. But still my heart stops without you, there's something about you that makes me feel alive.

If the green left the grass on the other side, I would make like a tree and leave. But if I reached for your hand would your eyes get wide? Who knew the other side could be so green?

We are honey and the bee. Backyard of butterflies surrounded me. I fell in love with you like bees to honey. So let's up and leave the weeping to the willow tree and pour our tears in the sea. I swear there's a lot of vegetables out there that crop up for air. Yeah, I never thought we were two peas in a pod until you suddenly bloomed, then I knew that I'd always love you. Oh, I'll always love you too.

If the green left the grass on the other side, I would make like a tree and leave. But if I reached for your hand would your eyes get wide? Who knew the other side could be so green? If the green left the grass on the other side, I would make like a tree and leave. But if I reached for your hand would your eyes get wide? Who knew the other side could be so green?

And if I reached for your hand for the rest of my life...?

Who knew the other side could be so green?"

Happy Mother's Day

"Discipline your son and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart."

Proverbs 29:17

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it."

Proverbs 22:6

"And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."

Deuteronomy 6:6-7

"The first love of your life is generally your mother...She is one of the first teachers, she is a disciplinarian, she is loving and loved, kind, tenderhearted, blessed, praised and more.."

-Pamela Rose Williams

A little faith will get you a long way

There is something that was brought to my attention, and the more I think about it, the more awesome it is. If you've grown up in a Christian household or have spent most/all of your life going to church, then you are undoubtedly familiar with the story of David and Goliath. You can find the story in I Samuel 17. There is one particular verse in there that is interesting:

"And [David] took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine."

I Samuel 17:40

In that verse, it just talks about how David arms himself before he goes to face the giant, Goliath. But did you catch what it said? It said he chose five stones. Yet it only took one to actually slay Goliath in God's name, due to God's strength.

So why did David pick up five stones instead of just one?

Was it because he was doubtful?Did he pick up four extras in case he missed the first time? I don't think so. It also tells us in another part of scripture that David knew Goliath had four brothers, who were also giants. So what if David didn't pick up four extra stones because he was doubtful, but because he had that much faith in God?

It tells us time and again in scripture how David was a true servant of the Lord and a man after God's own heart, even way back in the day when he faced a giant. Somehow I think that things might not have worked out for him quite the same way when he faced Goliath if he had been doubtful--kind of like when Peter sank because of his doubts.

No, I think David had total and complete faith in God that it would take one small stone, and one only, to slay Goliath in the Lord's name. And I think he picked up the other four stones because he was prepared to face his four brothers if need be--he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if God could kill Goliath with one stone, he could also take down each of his brothers with a stone.

How cool is that, when you really think about it?!
How amazing to think that little David had that much faith in God in the face of troubles, yet so many of us who are older and wiser (or at least, we'd like to think so), and are not facing literal giants who want to kill us, have so much trouble putting all of our faith in God.

Goodnight

"I dropped you off just a little after midnight.

 I sat in my car til you turned off your porch light.

 I should've kissed you. I should've pushed you up against the wall.

 I should've kissed you, just like I wasn't scared at all.

 I turned off the car, ran through the yard, back to your front door.

 Before I could knock, you turned the lock and met me on the front porch.

 And I kissed you goodnight.

 And now that I've kissed you, it's a good night, good night, baby, goodnight.

 You couldn't see me watching at the window.

 Wondering what went wrong, praying that you wouldn't go.

 You should've kissed me. You should've pushed me up against the wall.

 You should've kissed me. I was right on the edge and ready to fall.

 So I turned off the car, ran through the yard, back to your front door.

 Before I could knock, you turned the lock and met me on the front porch.

 And I kissed you goodnight.

 And now that I've kissed you, it's a good night, good night, baby, goodnight.

 I turned off the car, ran through the yard, back to your front door.

 Half scared to death, can't catch my breath..

 Aren't these the moments we live for?

 And I kissed you goodnight.

 And now that I've kissed you, it's a good night, good night, baby, goodnight."

This crazy life of mine..

Well, this last week has been totally chaotic, so I haven't posted quite as often as usual.
I talked about a certain sweet boy on Monday, and my song that was stuck in my head, but that was it.
Yet SO much has happened since then!

This past week was finals week, so it was really crazy just as far as turning school work goes and things like that, but it was also totally chaotic because I had to move out of the dorms for the summer, which is a WAY bigger process than I was expecting it to be.

I started packing the week before, and moved stuff out ahead of time, and cleaned like you wouldn't believe, but I still didn't finish until about 5 pm on Friday. So Friday was absolutely crazy. I was literally on the go non-stop from 8 in the morning til 5 at night.

Plus I was already sore and tired because I hadn't gotten much sleep the two nights before, and had spent the previous two nights swimming and playing pool volleyball, and going to the midnight premier of The Avengers (which was awesome, by the way). But it was all worth it!

And now I can officially say I have completed my freshman year of college, I am moved out and staying in a little hotel for a few weeks before I go back to TN for the rest of the summer. Most people I talk to say that's crazy because I have so many friends in the area that I could stay with. Honestly though, I don't think it's bad at all. I do have friends who I could stay with, but I'm staying for almost a month, and all of them have to work all the time, or only have a couch I could sleep on, so it just makes it not exaclty ideal for a long-term thing. And I don't mind staying in hotels anyways. I don't get to do it very often, and it's kind of fun. My room is teeny tiny, and it's an older hotel, but it is clean and nice, so I can deal.

Then, as if this entire week wasn't crazy enough, tomorrow is a kind of big deal for me. :)
I finished the membership class that I talked about a week ago or so, but that doesn't automatically make me a member. I have to meet with two of the elders, and then the congregation basically has to accept me (which they should, no problem). So, tomorrow is the meeting with two of the elders. I am really excited, because I can't wait to be a member, and it's not too bad because I know both of them very well. Yet I'm still a little nervous.

But overall, I am excited, and I know that God will take care of everything. So, even though I have tiny butterflies floating around inside at their leisure, I'm basically excited and ready for tomorrow, because it should be a great day!