Passionate Worship {A Monday Melody}

Passion: "that which a person is willing to suffer for."

 Worship: "the action of adoring reverence or regard."

So often I hear of people solely refer to worship as what occurs at Church on Sunday. If Sunday mornings is that only time we worship something is not right because passionate worship cannot be contained in a day. It consumes our whole being. 

It occurs when we are in such deep reverence of God that we are willing to suffer anything for his name.

 It occurs when we love him more than we love ourselves. 

It occurs when we see his face. He changes us. 

Photography Friday

Forgiven. Redeemed. Free.

I-HEART {A Miscellaneous Midweek Matter}

I have watched this video over and over and I still cannot move on from it. Don't be afraid to let the truth change you. 

Dream #4

Dream Number Four: 
to pour a little life into a few girls. 

No society is perfect but it is especially hard to be a young girl in ours. Almost every, if not every girl, deals with some sort of pain or confusion. Usually these work together to create a chaos that we become all to familiar with. You see, as girls mature our emotions springboard into insanity. When this first happens it seems like the end of the world, we soon learn it is not. As time goes on we get used to the insanity. We realize that most of the pain we obsess over really means nothing. It is the pain we suppress that means a great deal. We learn that life is more complicated and confusing than we once thought. Each girl learns a different lesson depending on her past, present and future. 

None of this is horrible, we can learn a great deal of good from all the insanity. The horrible part comes in what our society puts on these girls. They are told they must be controlled and put together, after all no one wants an overly emotional girl, right?  I agree, but the answer is not putting unrealistic ideals on our girls. The answer is listening to every "end of the world" and showing them God in it. The answer is walking through life with them. The answer is loving them. 

You see it is through my mentors that I have come to see my "end of the worlds" are really not even a bump in the road. They have also showed me that my "everything's okays" are really not so okay at all and they walked me through them. I have grown and matured with them by my side. 

I want to be this for other girls. I want them to feel free with me. I want them to feel open. I want them to know that I care. And I want to show them God. This is my dream. 

Your Love Never Fails {A Monday Melody}

A Good Reminder To Start Your Week With...

Dream #3

Dream number three: 

to be a loving and nurturing mother. 

This, in a way, is part two of my family dreams, part one was to be a loving and supportive wife (dream number two). Both these dreams are a long way down the line for me and I am in no hurry, but I definitely hope for these someday.

 I dream of doing so many things with my future kids. Most of my dreams flow from how my mom raised me. She was, and is, an incredible mother. She nurtured and encouraged my creativity, and she truly loved me above herself, so much so that I never have doubted it. I remember her taking me down to Laguna Beach and setting me up with my finger paints and easel right next to all the professional artists. She would do so many incredible things like that. I owe my love for creating to her.

 I want to nurture these things in my future kids. I want to take the time to read chapter books and poetry to them, I want to take them on hikes and I want to set up their easels on a hill looking over the beach. More than all these things though, I want to teach my kids about God. I want to show them his hand in everything. I want to reveal to them the beauty of God in nature, in creating, in pain and in joy. I want to love them unconditionally, above myself, in order to show a dim reflection of God’s love for us. I want to pray for them, to laugh with them and to cry with them. This is the type of mother my mom was, this is the type of mother I dream of being.

Dream #2

Dream number two: 

To be a loving and supportive wife. 

 Now I know what so many of you are thinking, 18 year old girl dreaming fluffy happy rainbow dreams about marriage and meeting my “soul-mate” and living “happily-ever-after” in a magical land of butterflies and fairy dust. 

Well actually that is not the case at all, quite the opposite really. 

Marriage scares me more than anything. The idea of trusting a man with my heart is about the most terrifying concept to me because I have seen what a man can do to a woman’s heart. I have seen the pain and I have seen marriages break under pressure. It is near impossible for me to believe that one man can be content with me for the rest of my life, much less completely in love with me. And it is a struggle for me to trust a man, much less submit to him.

 I struggle with doubting God’s plan for marriage, yet I see how beautiful it can be. 

I see the covenant God has made marriage, it is a picture of his love for the church. I so deeply want to see another completely, the ugly and the bad and the annoying, and I want to choose to love him and support him through everything. I want to do this simply because that is what Christ has done for me. I want to cover another’s flaws with love, like Christ has covered mine with love. I want to trust my future husband and submit to him, because I trust God’s work in him. I want to paint a picture of God’s covenant love on this earth with another. I know it will be hard, I'm not naive.  I also know I will have to marry a very patient (christian) man to deal with my cynicism about marriage, but there is something so beautiful in the design God has made. And it is beautiful because Gods love for his church is beautiful. I deeply desire to work with another to display that covenant love. 

I want to display God through my future marriage, that is my dream.

Photography Friday

These three remain: Faith, Hope and Love.

But the greatest of these is Love. 

Dream #1

Dream Number One: learning to play the piano. 

 

I know it seems like a silly dream, and they all wont be like this, I simply wanted to start this dream series off on a lighter note. So here it goes, I REALLY WANT TO PLAY THE PIANO, and I want to play well too. I love to sing, but I don’t have the guts to do it anywhere where I can actually be heard, and I love to write, even songs. I so deeply want to compose music on a piano. I want that moment. That moment where you have so many emotions building inside of you and you pour them onto the keys. I want the freedom to turn my feelings into a melody. I want to share what stirs me without needing to say anything, and then I want to say it all at once.  I want to play the piano. And who knows, it just may give me the freedom to sing.

Why Study? {A Miscellaneous Midweek Matter}

"The more I study the more I know. The more I know the more I forget. The more I forget the less I know. So why Study?" -Unknown

Do we study for the grade? For the Degree? For our Parents?

Why do we study? 

I believe the answer lies inside this quote:

"There are some who seek knowledge of the sake of knowledge: that is curiosity. There are others who desire to know in order that they may be known: that is vanity. Others seek knowledge in order to sell it: that is dishonorable. But there are some who seek knowledge in order to edify others: that is love." -Bernard of Clairvaux 

Study for the right reasons.

Be encouraged.

And never stop doing it.