Recent Life Lessons

It's been quite a while since I've written...but right now I'm in the middle of graduating and open houses (plus my open house) as well as starting college and helping out at home. My parents finally pushed me to do Drivers Ed and that's been going on for the past week and a half and I'm only half way through...24 hours total for classroom which means 2 hours a night, 4 nights a week, 3 weeks. It's been a little hectic with that...but mostly boring. Guess what they call me there? "The Old One"...whaaaa O.o  ... The kids there don't take it too seriously...but I'm doing it with a few other homeschoolers and plus I really enjoy my instructor so time is passing. And he told me last night that I can legally drive on my own a month after I turn 18...so really I can drive on my own in early September if I jump on the ball, get a decent job, get my own car fast...just get going. So I'm praying that all falls in place. We're also having to do a lot of work around the home to get it ready for Jon and my open house in early July. Because we're inviting both our friends it is getting pretty big. Should be fun, though. Other than that, God has really been showing me some valuable life lessons. He's showing me them, and I'm still working through the problems...seeking for solutions and trying to overcome them.

One of the first lessons He's been showing me is that everyone is imperfect. That sounds silly...but some people look so good! They look so nice and kind and sweet and thoughtful. But are they *real*? I had a friend come to me and thank me for being so real...so imperfect. For messing up. At first I was confused but then it just make sense...I am not *real* with people. I am not the real sinful me out in open. We all want to look good and nice to people, but people all know that no one is truly perfect, so we live a lie that way. We all know that all fall short, all sin, all mess up...why hide it? When we have it out there it is asking for help and guidance, proper advice and prayer from others. You get HELP. Part of this lesson included understanding more how people often mold themselves to do, say, and look like what others want them to. That's not themselves. You are your own person, special and unique. Why be what your friends or the culture tells you to be like? Why not just be you? If they cannot appreciate you being you (flawed but always seeking to better yourself from sin) then they do not deserve you! You be you. You be honest and open and free to be the real you and not some good image that they want to paste on you.

Which leads me to my second lesson...I don't go out and seek out help. It's kind of rare. If I've ever done it to you then you are something special or I'm in a funky mood. But we all need help...we have friends, family, and most importantly GOD for that! But do we use it? Or do we hide away our pain and ignore it? Pretend it doesn't exist? That won't help it...we have to address it and face whatever the problem is in order to make it better, to improve it. We cannot just be cowards, putting our pain and hurt in a little cubbyhole and telling ourselves that it doesn't exist. We must pull out our problems and seek out help. Our first help is to come from God. So often we want to run off to our friends first. But God comes first. He is our ultimate Help and He is the One with the true solution. From there, we go out to our parents. They understand WAY more than you could ever realize. Maybe they don't say so...maybe you don't communicate well...but they still love you and want your very best. Then you have friends. Maybe you have one friend, maybe you have countless friends...but you always have someone. If you don't, then go get one! Pretty much everyone loves people. Most people love people. People love love. And so people love people. You are bound to find a friend if you are faithful, honest, and loving. If you are a good friend then you will find good friends. You'll find bad ones too, that is inevitable. But seek out your friends. Use them as a support. TELL THEM when something is wrong. Don't say, "it's fine", "I'm fine", "Nothing's wrong" when there is! They love you and always want to help. Just make sure you listen to *them* when they have bad days or problems as well.

The third lesson that I've been facing is there are good days and bad days...even bad weeks...even bad months. And just because you go back into bad times of darkness and rain clouds doesn't mean you haven't made progress. You can work at your life, your belief, your relationship with God, your faith...you can work on it for months and months and think you've made great progress and then one day you come face to face with the "reality" that you've not gone a single place. You've been walking on a treadmill and not advanced anywhere. Then you feel like a failure and like no matter what you do it will be worthless...and that's just not true. If you seek it, you will always have progress...and on bad days you will be told it's worthless and useless...you're a failure...but it's just not true. It's just a bad day...a bad week....a bad month. It will pass and you can continue on. The dark rain clouds will go away eventually and the sun will shine. I can say this right now in the middle of the clouds and that's great encouragement to have that kind of hope. It's not my own, but it's a gift of God to have this hope and encouragement.

And the last lesson (I love how these are all tied in and related...you just go from one to another) is that you are told things...all the time...you tell yourself stuff. But it's really not true...it's not you. It's your old nature, your sin nature. It's the devil. Whenever someone ever said the word "devil" or "Satan" I always inwardly chuckled. Psh...there is no power there. And to some degree it's true. God is so much more powerful than the devil. But if you read the story of Job, you know God is always in control, but at the same time so much wrong and hurt can be done to a child of God through simple work of the devil. And when you tell yourself you're not worth it, you're not good enough, you're not a good person, you will always fail, you're nothing but a failure...that's not truth. It's not truth at all. "No one loves me", "No one wants me", "No one would want to hear my problems", "I'll never be good enough"...these are lies. Maybe you've heard someone say it before, maybe you've said it to yourself before...but that's not you. You are a child of God and as such you always hit the mark, you pass with flying colors. You are snow white, clean, and beautiful. Not because of you, but because of Christ. This means, no matter how much you mess up it won't be near enough to really mess up because it's due to CHRIST. No pressure on you! So go ahead...mess up...see if it matters. Not to Him. He loves you all the same because He sees you as clean, perfect, and blameless because of the great sacrifice of Christ. He loves you ..without fail. You are all He could want. So don't listen to the lies, don't listen to "yourself" as the devil tells you what to say. Listen to Truth.

Have a wonderful day, lovely readers!

From Church

I know...I haven't been posting a lot lately..between finishing school, concerts, recitals, Cedar Point trips, graduation, work....it's been crazy. I do mean to post more often on here now that it has begun to "slow down" ...but no promises! We shall see how summer paves out. In the mean time, here's to another post!

"And this is that regeneration so highly extolled in Scripture, that renewal, new creation, resurrection from the dead, making alive, which God works in us without our aid. But this is in no wise effected merely by the external preaching of the gospel, by moral suasion, or such a mode of operation that, after God has performed His part, it still remains in the power of man to be regenerated or not, to be converted or to continue unconverted; but it is evidently a supernatural work, most powerful, and at the same time most delightful, astonishing, mysterious, and ineffable; not inferior in efficacy to creation or the resurrection from the dead, as the Scripture inspired by the Author of this work declares; so that all in whose heart God works in this marvelous manner are certainly, infallibly, and effectually regenerated, and do actually believe. Whereupon the will thus renewed is not only actuated and influenced by God, but in consequence of this influence becomes itself active. Wherefore also man himself is rightly said to believe and repent by virtue of that grace received.