Love

Currently, I am in the process of memorizing 1 Corinthians 13. So far I have only gotten down 7 verses, but I intend to finish. I've learned so much just from reading this chapter ovver and over again. Love is so essential in a Christian's life. Even if you have everything else that a Christian is supposed to have but you don't have love, your life is nothing. It says that right out. Even if you give everything away that you own and even surrender your life to the flame, but don't have love, you are pointless. Love is essential and it is sometimes fake. You think you have love, but you really don't. In this chapter it lists many different things about love. Love is so much more than a petty liking. It's deep, true, and everlasting. Our society has a horrible view of love and we are all being taught that love is temporary and short lived. Love is not that way at all because, like the Bible says, love is true, real, and never ending. All of us need to analyze our relationships. We need to bring all of our relationships to God and have him help us analyze them too.

Different

I'm sitting here in my sister's dorm and her dorm is covered in little dots that say things on them. One of the dots has a quote from Francis Chan that got me thinking. The quote says, "Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers." That quote is so true, but a little hard to handle. If our lives make any sense at all to unbelievers, that's not good. Christianity is completely separate from the world, so we should show that. I know that this quote is a little controversial because some of the things we do will have to make sense because then no one would get saved, but I think it's talking about our everyday lives and the things we choose to do in life. If anything we decide to do can be rationalized by the world, then it isn't probably the right thing to do. We need to stand out and be different. We need to have a totally different life focus than the world. No matter what we decide to do with our lives, our overall goal should be to disciple people and win the world for Christ. Unbelievers have a different mind set, and once we start thinking that mind set might work too, we're going in the wrong direction. We need to constantly strive to be different. The speaker at my high school's retreat, Doug Routledge, said "Great leaders always stand out." I agree with that, but I take it a step further. I say, "Great Christians always stand out." Dare to stand out.

Life is an ocean

There is a song called The Voyage and some of the lyrics say "Life is an ocean, love is a boat. In troubled waters, it keeps us afloat." I like to change that to "Life is an ocean, God is a boat. In troubled waters, HE keeps us afloat." Imagine with me that sin is the water of the ocean. Once you decide to trust Jesus with your life, God gives you a boat. Everyone else who hasn't accepted Him are sinking in their sin, but once you do trust God, the boat keeps you alive. Without the boat, you may be able to tread water for a while, but if the waters get to rough, it's hard to stay alive. With God's boat, water may get in, like when Christians sin, but you are still afloat and no matter what happens, that boat is still yours. You may jump out once in a while because you decide you can do it on your own, but the boat is still there and it's always waiting to help save you. If you trust God, that boat will keep you afloat.

PRESS RELEASE NEWS!

Author Anna McTaggart has plans to release her first work ever in the near future.  After years of planning to write a book, McTaggart says her plans are now in the works and will be revealed later this year.  “I hope my book inspires people, because even if they’ve read some books that are similar in style before, I hope they understand the message of the book and take away some important life lessons,” says McTaggart to reporters.  The book, title so far set as “The Swiss Siren” has wowed editors and proofreaders, and McTaggart hopes it will do the same for all who will read the completed book.  Book release date still undecided, but it will be told to the public as soon as the information is available.       

                                                                                                                                                               Written by: Chasity Wood on July 16, 2010

ABC

     I have a new thing that ABC stand for.  It stands for Always Be Cheerful.  I know that you normally think that means always being happy, but cheerful according to the dictionary, means cheer giving or giving cheer to others.  Proverbs 15:30 says " A cheerful look brings joy to the heart,  and good news gives health to the bones."  This means that when you give cheer out to other people, it helps them feel better.
     Now, how do we give out cheer to others?  Well, you can start by not whining.  Our culture today seems to make you think it's ok to constantly whine about how you are tired, or how your stressed, or how you get to much homework, etc etc etc.  A way to give out cheer to the people around you is to not whine and if you feel the urge to, just think ABC.  Always Be Cheerful.  If you start to whine, it's not bringing good news to others like the verse says.  Everyone around you just gets annoyed because all you do all day is complain about how you wish you were somewhere else or how you wish your life was different. 
     That brings me to another way you can spread cheer.  BE CONTENT!  If you are content with what you have, you won't always be wanting other things and complaining to others how you can't get that item.  Another way to spread cheer is to think about the people that you are surrounded by and think of things you could say or do that would make them feel better.  Anything from saying they look nice to complimenting what they are doing.  Be creative and think of a way to brighten their day. 
     If you do the three things above, you will start to spread more cheer in your life.  If you start to get down and don't know what to do, just think.... ABC!!!

Alone

Friends and Family are God's greatest gifts to us.  They are always there when you need someone, and if they are really true, they'll love you through all the rough times in your life.  However, God also gave us another gift.  That gift is silence.  Sometimes the thing we need the most is just time to sit by ourselves and relax.  Even if someone is an extrovert, they still need some time away from the hustle and bustle of being around other people.  Alone time is whne you can listen and hear what God is trying to tell you.  Alone time can even be when you jamming to your favorite music in your room or when you are reading a good book.  Alone time is essential to keep up your relationship with God and keeping you sane. :)

I can't wait 4......

Many people today have things they look forward to.  Whether it's a birthday or a special event, everyone has things they can't wait for.  If you really think about it, half of the fun of the event is the waiting.  Some people may disagree, but if you don't have the waiting and counting down until the day of the event, half the fun is gone because there is no time to make yourself wait till the event.  Just remember that even though you don't like having to wait for something fun to happen, it will be worth the wait in the end.

Failure 2

As I said earlier, failure is much easier than success.  I have something to add to that.  Failure might come because of interferences.  I'm not saying you shoud make excuses, but I am saying that sometimes difficulty is added by outside forces.  You shouldn't complain about those and use them as excuses.  Use them to motivate you next time you try to do that task.  Objects on the outside sometimes can't be controlled, but that doesn't mean you should use them to whine or complain or to get out of the blame for the failure.  Just suck it up and try agan.  Problems are all around us.  The people who are truely strong have learned how to use past experiences to shape the future.

Perspective Shaker

I just visited a house today that had a fire in it about 5 months ago.l  The fire was only in the basement in one room of the basement, but the whole house smells like soot and fire.  The basement is all black and all of their belongings are ruined.  All of their walls have to be taken out and replaced.  Anything in the house that was white, including the marble on the floor and the counter tops, are brown and ruined.  It was the most depressing thing you would ever see.  It really shakes the way you look at your own house.  It makes me realize that I have been taking a lot of things for granted.  Even my own house and belongings I have been taking for granted.  Seeing this house has changed my point of view forever.

Failure

Failure is so much easier to obtain than success.  It's easier to give up when times get hard.  Success only comes to those who work.  The three prior sentences are said all the time when people talk about sports or homework.  I think it applies to everything you do in life.  Even in the smallest things you do, you can decide to fail and give up, or to continue on, even when you either don't want to, or it gets harder.  An example is when you decide you want to wake up early.  Today I decided I was going to wake up at 7:30 AM so my morning and day would feel longer and I could get more done.  In the end, I gave up and failed because I turned off my alarm and slept in till 9 AM.  I feel bad because I didn't succeed in defeating my body;s want to sleep more.  My body had already gotten the healthy 8 hours of sleep, but it wanted more and I was not strong enough to defeat the overpowering want to sleep in.  Thanks to this example, you can see that life has noe success and failure choices then most people think.  It's like in the Bible where it says that if you do well in the small things, God will give you more responsibility in big things as well.  I hope that now you realize that you need to have a longing to succeed in everything you do, because if you choose to fail in the small things constantly, you will end up being inclined to want to fail in the big choices too.

LIFE

Have you ever felt like the day is pointless?  Some days I feel like I don't have anything significantly important to do, so the day is going to be a waste.  It's hard because I need to remember that everyday could be my last and I need to make them worth while.   Everyday needs to become important and needs to have someway of being remembered.  I'm not saying that I need to do something huge and groundbreaking everyday.  I'm saying that I need to make each day worth living.  If you sit around all day and do absolutely nothing, then your going to waste your life.  Summer is the main time of year when time is wasted, when it should be the season when we get the most done for the good of the world and for God.  We have so much time on our hands that we should be shaking the world for the better.  Just like the band Big Time Rush's lyrics say, "If you want it all, lay it all on the line.  It's the only life you got, so you gotta live it bigtime."  That should define most of what we do.  We need to dream big and not be afraid to go for it.

Just started

I just started this blog and this is my first blog! Yay!