Random Vent on Purpose

Hello, readers! M. here.

I was inspired the other day by this quote I saw on Pinterest:

(credit goes to the original author, it is not my property)

I wanted to love it so much. It sounds like the quaintest little description of people I've ever read. But at the same time; this view of us is really so wrong.

Why? I think that whoever wrote this missed an important part of the picture. Yes, humans are cute. We have our weird quirks and habits, we are living and loving under the countless stars. But we're not just animals, we don't just do this stuff for no reason. We're more than bodies, we are souls. And we were created by a loving God to have breakfast beneath billions of stars. And we were created to do that for His glory. 

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31

I like thinking about the beauty of the story that God is writing into each life on earth.

If I rewrote this little passage, it would look like this:

"Humans are so cute; when we say goodbye we put our arms around each other and to show we love someone we bring them flowers. We say hello by holding each others hand, and sometimes tiny little dewdrops form in our eyes. But the simple things like that can't even begin to describe how much greater our purpose in life really is. We are God's precious creations, and he loves us so much he'd die to have time with us in eternity. And we bring God our tiny little efforts to be like him because it makes him smile when we want to please Him. We're just His children learning to fall in love with Him and having breakfast beneath billions of stars; stars that He made to give us just a glimpse of His magnificence." 

There's my random vent on purpose for you all today! Talk to you later!

Fall, Movies, Excitement, and Other Random Happenings

Hi everyone!

Well, it's been way too long since I posted, so here's the collection of thoughts, projects, and happenings in my life lately. :)

• I'm back in school! I'm doing online coursework for the year before I transfer to university on-campus next fall. I finished a Christian worldview course about a week ago and REALLY enjoyed the class. It stretched my mind in lots of different ways, which you all know I love. :D Right now, I've just started taking Old Testament History!
• I work full-time now!! At least almost full-time. I nanny/babysit for two different families and I absolutely love it! I can't even think of a better place that I'd want to work right now. 
• I CUT MY HAIR OFF. Well, I actually paid someone else to do it, but ya know. :) It's kind of a longish pixie now.
• I recently got the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan and have just started reading it. So far, it's really convicting and theological and just all-around awesome. I also recently read C.S. Lewis' The Weight of Glory and I really loved that, too. Have any of you read anything interesting lately?? Comment below! :)
• Fall is finally here, and Winter is in sight!! Fun fact: Winter is my favorite season, hands down.
• I've been thinking about grace a lot lately. God's grace isn't clean, it gets dirty. Grace has to cover every sin, not just the "little" ones. When we understand God's grace, we become free from fear of perfection, because we are no longer required to be perfect. We are free to just be ourselves and chase after God with all of our hearts!
• I changed the blog background! (Again!) I went with blue this time, and I really like the new fonts I found. :)
• My brain is about to die. I've watched a lot of movies lately and have been thinking a lot about the worldview in each of them, (big surprise!) so hopefully I can still put together a set of coherent thoughts when I need to. (Which, looking back on that sentence, probably won't be happening anytime soon...) Recently I've watched The Maze Runner, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Citizen Kane, The Patriot, (edited) and The Magnificent Seven.
• We have a new page coming soon to the blog!!! L. had a really cool page idea for us to add, and we're excited for you to see it! Stay tuned...
• My friends are awesome. Jus' sayin. :)
• I color-coded the apps on my phone. It's kind of relaxing to just scroll through and see all of the colors. :)
• I'm running out of relevant information to put in these bullet points...
• Our cars have all been dying!!! And our house has lost power three times in the last week. It's freaking me out. 
• I keep waiting for something really exciting to happen, but I don't know why. Maybe I've just had too much routine lately. (But if there's too much excitement, I completely shut down and can't function until I have routine again...)
• Last Saturday, I got 7 pies smashed in my face. L. and E. were responsible for two of said pies. I'm totally getting them back for that, but I haven't quite decided how yet. :D
• I went to a concert over the weekend that was absolutely amazing!! I got to see Colton Dixon, Francesca Battistelli, Jeremy Camp, and Hillsong United, along with others, but those four were my favorite!! (I also got to start sponsoring a little girl in Thailand with an international program!!! I'm super excited about that!)
• Here's a verse that I fell in love with the other day! At Bible study a few days ago, the teacher had us do something called lectio divina with verses we were assigned. (Look it up on google; it'll tell you what that means...) The verse I got was 1 Corinthians 1:17 - "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel - not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of of Christ be emptied of its power." The phrase that stood out to me was "words of human wisdom" because words are so meaningful to me. I was  thinking that maybe the way we preach the gospel is with a language of love and grace, rather than words. The cross kind of transcends the very limited power of words, which I find fascinating. My mind's been on this thought a lot for the past few days.
• There are pushpins in my bulletin board in the shape of a heart. Just in case you wanted to know. :D

There ya go! Enjoy trying to decipher my life! (Hint: Oh, wait. There aren't any hints. I can't even decipher my life!) I guess you could say it's kinda... simplex right now! (Hahahaha! I see what you did there!!) Oh, man, I'm laughing at my own puns. This is really bad. I'd better go and save whatever dignity I've got left. Bye!

-M.

The New Look and Other News

Hi Everyone!!!

How do ya like the *new* look??? I wanted something a little more fun for summer!!! 

In other news, it's L's birthday!!!! Well, it was last Friday. ;) (happy dance)

In other news....

Well, it's been a bit crazy 'round here. (My house, that is) We had lots of juggling with new foster babies and car trouble and my brothers' guinea pig died, too. :/ And that all happened in the last two days!!

One of the books I've been studying lately is Galatians. It's been cool to dig deeper into the first chapter. It talks about Paul's warning to the churches of Galatia about false teachers. He then goes on to share his testimony of his conversion and some of his missionary journeys. It's a pretty cool chapter, and I can't wait to get into the rest of the book!

Worldview was also awesome!! I staffed for a week in June and had an amazing time! I was so grateful to see friendships form and hear great conversations throughout the week. 

Last week I volunteered for our church's VBS program and it was such a blast!! My brother, my friend and I acted in the drama and got to walk around the campus in character afterward. I played the "bad guy" and had a great time with it! My character did come to a conversion experience on the last day, which got me thinking about the simplexity of it all!!!

Oh, and another cool thing! I was on the road the other day and I saw a truck with the word "Simplex" on the back!!!!! It was probably talking about that really complicated science term that pops up when you google it, but it still made my day!

There you have it, my completely random post for today. ;) I'm in a random mood today anyway.

See you next time!

-M.

A Little More of My Story....

Hi guys!

It's M. here. I just wanted to talk to you for a few minutes about what Christ means to me, and how He's worked in my life.

I grew up in a Christian home, and I have an awesome family.  I accepted Christ when I was three or four; I don't remember the exact day. But for a while, I was okay with Christianity being just another thing for me. I would go to church on Sunday and AWANA on Wednesday. That was all.

Three or four years ago I went to a Christian conference called the Rebelution. The speakers asked some tough questions and challenged my faith. I realized that I called myself a Christian, but I lived MY life, the way I wanted to. That day I realized that I needed to live for Jesus, not myself.

The next day, I went back to normal life. I began to learn more about Jesus and act more like a "Christian." But looking back, something was still missing. That something was a relationship with God. Over this past year, I've realized the importance of a daily quiet time to talk AND LISTEN to God. (The listening part was - and is - difficult for me.) Now I try to make it a priority to spend time with him every day.

For the past three years, I've attended Worldview Academy in the fall. The camps have greatly affected my outlook on the culture and my outlook on myself as well. I'm blessed to have had these experiences.

Well, that's most of the story. I've struggled this year with lots of things, but those struggles have caused me to grow. I've been in awe, and I've been confused. I've had some really rough days, but I'm super thankful for how God walks with me on those days. The path in front of me right now - well, I won't say it looks pretty. But actually, I don't want pretty. I'm trusting that God will lead me where I need to be.

Talk to you later! 
-M.