Constantly Changing

I'm a few days overdue for a new picture.
So, we were' driving home from Jacksonville a few weeks ago and I was just staring ahead. (I lost my MP3 player, so I was kind of bored) Anyways, I was staring at the sky and when I looked away for literally like a minute, the sky would look completely different when I looked back.  It was so crazy. It was changing dramatically and I didn't even notice it. One second it was blue, the next it was gray. One minute it had big clouds, the next minute there was none. It was so strange, but cool to watch the sky change like that and I didn't even know it.  I couldn't watch it change, it just did.

Well, again, like always, this got me thinking.  God is kind of the same way.  He is constantly working in us, changing us, but we don't always notice it. I think that a lot of times, we think that God isn't working in us. We get frustrated because we think God isn't changing us. But in reality, He is and we just can't see it yet.  Just like the sky changes in seconds, without me even realizing it, God changes us, we just don't always notice it.  I didn't know the sky was changing. I didn't know that if I looked away and looked back, it would be different. It just happened.  God is working inside of us, each and every day.  We might think He isn't, but He really is.  A long, long time ago when I used to go to Sunday School, my teacher always talked about faith. I will never forget, every time she said the word, she would ask the same kid what it meant, because she liked his definition. He always said, "Faith is believing in something you can't see." That applies here too.  We don't always feel like God is changing us, we don't always feel like He is working inside of us, but He is.  And we just have to have faith that He is.  I couldn't see the sky changing, but I believed that it was because it was different.  I guess in this case, you don't have to see it to believe it. :) That miraculous sky that was once gray, turned orange in a split second. Maybe, in this split-second, God is changing something inside of you. You may not see it now, but you will. And it will be beautiful, just like the sky.

"In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." 
1 Corinthians 15:52


*Amy :)


P.S. Guess where I'm off to on Friday?! BarlowGirl/Superchick concert!!! SOO excited! Cannot wait to post pics when I get back!!!!!

Jessica Long: Strength, Perseverance, and Determination

99th post! Yay! So, it's picture time! I was going through the week with absolutely NO ideas for a picture post at all and then all of a sudden, 2 hit me. So, the one I will choose first was inspired by my mom. Yesterday, she was talking about how there are so many people out there that lose things like their legs or arms. No matter what it is, they keep going and they keep living life. They don't let that stop them and move on.  She was talking about her desire to be like this. Not to the extreme of losing body parts, but just being able to take any situation, embrace it and move on from it.  When she was talking about this, I had the perfect example.  I used to get the Brio magazine, when it existed and one month there was a feature, cover article on a girl names Jessica Long.  She is an olympic swimmer that has won 9 championship gold medals.  But she won these medals without legs.

Jessica grew up in an orphanage when she was a child, and then she was adopted by her parents when she was 2 years old.  They adopted her knowing that she didn't have most of her legs.  Jessica grew up, like anyone would expect, struggling a little with her condition at first, but now she says she would not change it for the world.  Although Jessica realizes, she can't do everything, she plays basketball, swims, does gymnastics, roller blades, skis, was a cheerleader, etc. She is only 17 years old.  I don't do any of this now, and I have 2 full legs.  Jessica never took any physical therapy and stayed determined through her whole life to learn to do things on her own without any help. She used to fall over a lot when she first wore her prosthetic legs. Her parents tried to help her, but she didn't let them. She embraced who she was and said she would learn to do all these things on her own.  As she grew up, Jessica has competed in many, many Olympics and won many times.  She does things that even normal people can't do. 
      Jessica's life has had things happen to her that most of us couldn't imagine.  She grew up without legs and she was adopted.  Jessica didn't let those things in her life bring her down or keep her from reaching her goals. She had determination, perseverance, and strength.  She moved on from those problems and embraced them. That's who she is and she knows it.  Jessica is still doing these things, accomplishing her goals. She let her problems or her diabilities make her stronger and she said herself she wouldn't change it for the world.  33 American records, 15 world records, and 3 gold medals.  All of these came from that mind set of not letting anything get in the way. This is her life and she plans to live it to the fullest.

(Learn more about Jessica- *HERE* and on her *WEBSITE*)

Disability or none, we all need to be like this.  We were all made a certain way and no matter how difficult and hard life gets, we will always be the same person.  Those difficult times and those hard things can't stop is from living our life.  We just have to push past them and move on to greater things.  That's determination and that's strength. 

*Amy :)

A Light That Shines Brighter

I kind of really need to blog so I'll go ahead and post another 'Picture Of The Week' for you.  Yesterday, we went and visited some of our friends at a campsite where they were spending the weekend. I took some really good pictures, and this one in particular I am going to talk about.  So, yes, this is another picture that I took. 

I've taken more pictures like this before, but I didn't start thinking about this until now.  What I think is cool about this picture is the sun shining through the trees. I'm sure we've all heard the song or expression that says, "There's a light at the end of this tunnel."  That's kind of what I see in this picture.  The trees represent all those things in our life that are obstacles or problems.  Things we think that we'll never get through or things that seem to block our minds from everything else in life.  The beauty of this picture is that the sun shines through those obstacles. The sun shines through all those things in our life that we hate.  Those trees are just like all the problems that we face every day throughout our lives.  They stand tall and hover over us, making us believe that we can't get past them. They make us think that we'll never see anything better.  BUT like the light at the end of the tunnel, there's also a sun shining through those trees.  God's beauty shines through our lives just like this.  All those problems and obstacles don't compare to that light that shines through them.  God's love is bright and beautiful.  God's love and beauty can overpower anything "ugly" in our lives.  Those problems or trees can stand as tall and powerful as they want, but God's light will still find a way through. That's the power and beauty of our God.  Nothing can hide His love from us. We can't do anything to lose it either.  That's what the love of a Father looks like.  It looks like a bright light that will shine through and brighter than anything!

*Amy :)

Stop Living For People

I have to admit, I keep up with celebrity news. Jon & Kate, Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, all of them. I read their tweets and search for their news. If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past few weeks, then you know of the tragedy that occurred… Miley Cyrus deleted her twitter account! Ok, maybe I exaggerated when I said ‘tragedy.’ But that’s not the point. I read Miley’s tweets and I saw it as a way for her to connect with her fans. So, at first, I’ll confess, I was a little disappointed that she deleted it. After all, I’m extremely nosy! But I wasn’t surprised. After the world of Miley fans broke down, Miley herself posted a video on YouTube explaining her reasons. She even made a little rap for us, full on with background dancers. Out of the whole rap explanation, the one line that caught my attention the most, Miley said this: “I stopped living for moments, and started living for people….. I ain’t living for tabloids, I’m living for me.” Miley mentions that everything she typed and everything she did was turned into news by gossip sites. Who wouldn’t want out of that? But those 2 lines that I quoted can apply to more than just Miley. One of the biggest problems in our world today is the fakeness of the people. It seems like every day, we change ourselves more and more to impress the people around us. We stop living for ourselves and we stop living for the moments, and instead we start living for people. In this world, finding acceptance is extremely hard. No matter how hard we try, we just can’t seem to be allowed to be ourselves. There’s always something we have to change about ourselves to be accepted by the people around us. This is how we ‘live for people.’ It takes time to realize that that really doesn’t matter at all. We have to live for ourselves and be who we are.(When I say this, I don't mean in an egoistical, self-centered way, but in a way where we are who God created us to be and we live that way, happy with ourselves.) We have to open our eyes and live as the person that God created us to be without trying to change to earn acceptance from people. Probably my all time favorite verse in the bible is Romans 12:2. In this verse, God tells us not to conform to the patterns of this world. We have to learn that God made us in an incredibly special way, and we don’t have to change anything about ourselves for him. If people don’t accept you the way you are, then that may be their problem, not yours. Being who you are and accepting yourself that way is hard, but worth it. Nobody can change who you are and nobody can tell you to change who you are. God made us all so special and the love he has for each one of us will not change, ever. We have to stop living for people and start living for ourselves. This world isn’t about being liked or accepted, but more about being the best you that you can be and not worrying about changing for anyone else. Like Miley said goodbye to twitter and lame gossip sites, we should say goodbye to acceptance and identity fights.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2

Amy :)

'A Beautiful Mess'

I'm making up for my long absence by posting another 'Picture Of The Week.'
I've been wanting to use a picture that I took myself, so I am doing that now. I took these pictures a little less that 2 weeks ago. My guitar is my model :)


I came up with this post when I was looking at all my pictures after I took them. This is originally my Mom's guitar, but I use it. When you first look at these pictures, you can see that this guitar is obviously not in the best shape. It's pretty old. You can see dents, scratches and chipped paint. The strings are held on to the guitar by beads that I found in my room, and some of the tuning knobs are breaking. All of this proves that this guitar is... beat up. But, under all of these imperfections, there is something you can't see. Something more important than the appearance. Something beautiful. This is what comes out of the guitar. Regardless of the old, beat-up shape, the sound that this guitar makes is beautiful, not perfect, but beautiful. Aren't we the same way? On the outside we're beat up. Our appearances show dents, scratches and imperfections. Why? Because we're not perfect. We're messy. Our outsides show this. There is a song by Matthew West and it has a line in it that says, "You're the one who looks at me, and sees who I was meant to be. More than just this beautiful mess." I love this line, because we're all like this. We are a beautiful mess, but God sees the beauty inside of that mess. Beyond our scratches, beyond our dents, and beyond our imperfections, there is something greater and something more beautiful inside of us. In our hearts, there is something different, something that is far better than all those bruises that we focus our lives on. This is the love of Christ. The love of God that is in our hearts far surpasses everything that is on the outside. That love travels far beyond any of those imperfections. Just like my guitar. The beautiful noise that comes out of that old, beat-up piece of wood is far greater than any of those dents and scratches on the outside. None of us are perfect. We weren't created to be perfect. But those imperfections that we all have will never compare to the amazing thing inside of our hearts. That love of Christ that rests inside of us is beautiful and that love shines through our heart. It shines through and it shines brighter than any of those dents. Our imperfections are nothing compared to the love that God has placed in our hearts. Just like the beautiful sound that comes out of my guitar, God's beautiful love shines through us.

'But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever.' Psalm 52:8

*Amy :)

Comfort

Wow, I haven't posted in forever! I'm so sorry.
I definitely owe you a post or more, so here is another 'picture of the week.'
This week, I was talking to my cousin on twitter and she posted this amazing verse.

^"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
Matthew 5:4

If you get a chance, the rest of this passage, Matthew 5 is also amazing. This verse really spoke to me this week. After going through the death of a loved one, and being away from my parents so long, I had a really hard time. So many things swarmed my mind that kept me upset and they kept me sad. I cry myself to sleep at night. I hate when I do this, because all I want to do is be strong. I want to be strong for my family and I want to be strong for myself. But I just can't seem to do it. I just break down and then I get upset with myself for it. This verse just came at the perfect time because of the last word, comfort. When we go through hard times, we're going to mourn. We're going to cry. We're going to be upset. But the one thing that can always reassure us is comfort. God's big strong arms are holding us and comforting us as we go through those tough times. God is holding our hand as we walk through this long fire. I think that reading this verse and realizing this comfort is more important than anything. It really tells us that we CAN be sad, and we CAN cry, and we CAN mourn. Through all of that, God is holding us and comforting us.



The picture I have to go along with this is one that I have had on my computer for awhile. It shows a small hand, that of a baby, holding on to a larger, stronger hand. When a baby cries, usually its mom or dad picks it up and holds it in their arms. When a baby is safe in their mother or father's arms, they feel comfort. We're the same way with God. Even when we are upset, we feel comfort in our Father's arms and we can rest assured that He will always be there. Our little, weak hand is holding on to his for comfort and love. That little hand, that can't do much on its own is holding the strong powerful hand of the Father's. He will always give us comfort, especially in our hard times.

-Amy

'A Beautiful Display'

New blog feature: 'Picture of The Week!'

I've always loved to travel. My whole life, we've gone to many different places and I have been on an airplane many, many times. I've always loved airports, sitting and waiting for your plane to be ready, running around and looking at the souvenir shops, and experiencing the fear of walking through that security. Traveling is just something that I really enjoy doing. It gives me the opportunity to see new places and experience new things. I'm a natural born tourist :)

Anyways, for my first 'picture of the week', I wanted to post a picture of a place that I've never been, but always wanted to go. Actually, there are many places like this. I have a thing for big cities. I love all the lights, bridges and tall buildings. So, out of the many big cities I would love to visit, one of them is Chicago. I found this beautiful picture of it the other day:


This picture got me thinking. When you look at it you see beautiful colors, amazing sky, water, and lots of buildings. I looked at it for awhile and had this thought. We are all kind of like these buildings. By "we," I mean, WE as people. We are all different shapes, sizes, types, and colors but when we come together, we make a beautiful scene. I know I'm taking a lot out of this simple picture, but it's true! This picture is magnificent and beautiful, just like we are as God's children. We all have our own special purpose and design just like these buildings. We're all different, but when we come together, we make this amazing picture.
Tobymac has a new song called 'City On Our Knees.' (Look I'm talking about songs again) This is an amazing song about being one family under Christ and being one special city. There's one line in this song that I particularly love and it says this:

"Tonight’s the night
For the sinners and the saints
Two worlds collide in a beautiful display"

I think that these lyrics just perfectly display what I'm talking about with this picture. This is actually the picture in my head when I listen to this song. We're all so different, just like the buildings in this picture. But none of that matters when we come together and make a beautiful display. We are one city under one King and it's amazing. I love how one incredible picture can relate so well to our lives. Looking at this picture makes me see how amazing we all really are as God's children. We really do make a beautiful display when we stand together. All our differences and faults are forgotten when our worlds collide and we become a city, one city under one King.

"Cause its all love tonight
When we step across the line
We can sail across the sea
To a city with one king
A city on our knees"
-Tobymac (City On Our Knees)

*Amy :)

"Wait and See" by Brandon Heath

Guess what? This is officially the LAST 'Song of The Week' on my blog! It's exciting because now I can start something new! Still not sure what though. I am thinking about 'blog of the week' and 'picture of the week' but I also wanted to do something with music videos, so I'm still not sure. I'll figure it out soon and let you know. My cousin and I are also constantly thinking of new ideas together, like the interview (Which you can read on her blog) and yesterday we came up with some other post ideas, so new things will be coming! Rest assured. :)

Now, on with the song! Thinking and thinking and thinking about one last song to do was hard! Again, I wanted to do a new artist... so I decided to do 'Wait And See' by Brandon Heath. I've heard this song a couple of times on the radio, but never really listened to the words until the other day.When I came home from school, my brother ran into my room and started telling me that he had a brand new favorite song of all time. He also wanted me to learn to play the chords to it and stuff. So, I found the chords and have been playing it lately. Anyways, it was this song called 'Wait And See' by Brandon Heath. (Which I recently added to my playlist if you want to listen to it.) But yeah, I figured out why my brother loves it so much, the lyrics are great! It's an awesome song.


You can read all of the lyrics *HERE* and watch the brand new official music video *HERE*

I also found a quote on Brandon's website about the song. It says this:
"'Wait and See' is probably the most autobiographical song I've ever written. But I think that anybody can relate to this song, and be encouraged to know that God has a plan for us, even if we still feel like a failure at times. If we come to know Jesus as our Savior, He is going to change our hearts and lead us into a greater existence other than for ourselves. For me, the last verse of 'Wait and See' is really what my journey is all about, 'now's my time to be a man, follow my heart as far as I can, no telling where I'm ending up tonight.' Most nights, I am in a hotel room and I barely know where I am, but I know that I'm doing what I am supposed to be doing. I just have to wait and see what God is going to do with the rest of the story. I'm encouraged by what He has done already, but I know that the story will continue to unfold and I'll keep learning more about the purpose of my life." -Brandon Heath

I love this song because I think that everyone at one point has looked at their lives and asked God where He is taking them. I've done it and this song is really encouraging because it does remind us that God has a plan and He's not finished with us yet. I think a big majority of our lives is made up of failures and imperfections and people telling us that we're not good enough or that we're not going to make it. And especially if you're a sensitive person or even if you're not, it can really affect you. It's hard to hear from people that you're not good enough. It's hard to hear that you're not going to make it far in life, or you're a failure. And I think that we've all heard something like that before in our lives. It's not easy. We want to know that we're going to be successful, we want to know that we're going to do everything right, but unfortunately our lives aren't going to be perfect. At that point is when the words to this song apply.

"There is hope for me yeah, because God won't forget. All the plans He's made for me. I'll have to wait and see."

I LOVE this line! So many important things and meaningful words packed into this one little part of a song. God has made so many plans for our lives, plans that we don't know and plans that we probably can't even imagine, and they will all develop in His perfect timing. One big lesson in life is patience right? Yeah, that applies nicely here. God has our whole lives planned out for us and He won't forget all the great things He is going to do in each of our lives. We just have to have faith, hope, and patience, while we wait and see. God is going to do extraordinary things in all of us, even if it doesn't seem like it now. We'll just have to wait and see what He is going to do with our lives :)

Another important line in this song says...
"I've seen enough to know that I'm not here for nothing."

I think that especially in teenager's lives, we feel like this a lot of times. We feel like we're just meant for nothing and we feel like we're so useless. But we're NOT! We're all so special and God loves each of us so much that no human on this earth could tell us differently. We are here for a purpose and we have been created for a reason. We may not know what it is yet, but in time, we'll see.

*Amy :)

This Is Who I Am...

Ok, so I have 2 more songs to write! Then, after I finish these two songs, I am going to start a new weekly thing on my blog :) I am not sure what yet, but some of the options include... music video of the week, picture of the week, word of the week, and more. We'll see which one I end up choosing :)

I am also doing an 'artist of the month' on the sidebar. Each month, I will change the artist and you can always click on the picture to go to their website. So, this post will be the second to last song of the week! :)
And for this song, I chose 'This is Who I Am' by Third Day. When choosing songs, I look through my library and now that I'm at 18 songs, I've done a song by almost all of my favorite artists. But the problem is that I could just talk about 40 songs from one artist, so in order to keep some diversity, I searched for a song that was by a band I haven't used yet.

So, this song is 'This Is Who I Am' and it's by Third Day, which is a band that's been around since 1991, before I was even alive and they are still amazing. They've won Gospel Music awards, 3 grammys, American music awards and they've had 6 gold and 2 platinum albums... PLUS they all have families. I have seen them in concert live twice now and they put on a heck of a show, it's a lot of fun to watch and be a part of. They kind of have a country sound to their music, but they make it better, because I hate country music, but I love them!


Anyways, this song is awesome! For awhile, it was my brother's absolute favorite song of all time, even though it's not his favorite band, so that's pretty cool. It's a short song but the music is great, and if you know the words, you'll sing along. The lyrics are pretty awesome too.

Read all of the lyrics and listen to the song... *HERE*

So, both of the verses state who the singer is...
"I'm a son of a good man, I'm the child of an angel, I'm the lover of a beauty, and I'm lookin' for direction...."

Then, we move into the chorus:

This is who I am
This is who I am
So take me and make me something so much more
This is who I am
This is who I am
So change me and make me someone better than before

Ok, so this song is amazing. I love how the lyrics just simply state 'This is who I am.' I'm not trying to be anything else, but myself. This is who I am and this is who God created me to be. I struggle with this a lot. I pay so much attention to celebrities and bands and actors and everything, that I find myself getting so jealous. Sometimes I just want to be famous, I want to be something so much more than myself. But then I stop and realize that God made me for a reason, God made me special and even though I may not see it, it's true. So for me, the simple lyric of 'This Is Who I Am' means a lot, because it reminds me that I am who I am and that's good enough.
Then, the lyrics add to that and say, 'take me and make me something so much more.' Now, this isn't changing the original meaning of the song. I'm still who I am, but I'm asking God to change me everyday. We're so special the way we are, because that's how God made us, but that doesn't mean that we can't change or improve every day to be more like Him. Each and every day, we can grow in Christ. We'll still be "US" but we'll be changing each and every day through Christ. I realize that my life is special. I am important because God created me in His very image, but I'm not perfect, and as each day progresses, and my relationship with my father gets stronger, I change. I am still ME but I grow in Christ and I change to be more like Him. It's such an incredible thing.

The bridge of this songs says...
Take me as I am But please don't leave me that way 'Cause I know that you can make me better than I am today

God will always take us... in fact He's already taken us. He's taken each and every one of us into His loving arms. And He has taken us exactly as we are... broken, helpless, whatever we are, God has taken us as we are. But He won't leave us that way, because like I said, each day as we live our lives with Christ, he changes us, and He will continue to do so, because we'll never be perfect. But, we will always be one step ahead of where we were yesterday. We will always be growing in Christ, every second of every day. God is continually working in us and making us better than we were the previous day. He's not changing who WE ARE, but He's changing our lives through Him... and He will always change us for the better.

So, This is who I am, but every day I am changing to become more like Christ.

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
2 Peter 3:18

'By Your Side' By Tenth Avenue North

So, it's time to blog about another song, but before I get to that, I just want to inform everyone who cares... about my life. I started college classes on Monday, and they are going good. It's definitely different than of course, what I'm used to but I like it. I am super tired all the time, but a 3 day weekend sure is making up for it :) So, I'm taking English, History, Ethics, and Algebra, and so far, I'm enjoying them all. So there's the school part of my life.

Also, I pre ordered BarlowGirl's new CD, Love & War and as of today it is coming out in 13 days :) So, I am super excited! Also, as far as I know, my family and I will be going to another BarlowGirl concert! This year, on November 13, BarlowGirl is coming to Florida for their Live Superchick/BarlowGirl tour, and we are planning on going, so of course I'm super excited for that!

It's going to be a great end of the year :)

September- BarlowGirl's new CD, October- Close family is coming over! :) November- BarlowGirl Concert! and then of course December-CHRISTMAS!

(To read more about BarlowGirl's new CD and hear song clips, click... *HERE* (Which will lead you to BarlowGirl's fansite) or you can just go to their website. BarlowGirl.com.

So, there's some lovely info about my exciting life. :) Just kidding.

Now, it's time for the song of the week. So, this week I'm choosing 'By Your Side' by Tenth Avenue North. This is a band that actually grew up in my Dad's home town of West Palm Beach, Florida and met at Palm Beach Atlantic, before it even became a university. The band name 'Tenth Avenue North' comes from the name of the street where 2 of the band member's house was located. So anyways, 'By Your Side' was one of their biggest hit songs that hit #1 and stayed there for 3 weeks. It will also be one of the tracks on WOW 2010 coming out this year in October. Read the lyrics *HERE* and watch the music video *HERE*. (If you wish to)

This song is written from God's perspective, talking to us, which sometimes I don't like songs like that, but I really like this one. The chorus of the song says:

I'll be by your side wherever you fall

In the dead of night whenever you call

Please don't fight these hands that are holding you

My hands are holding you

So, lately... well for awhile now, when I talk to God (which is all day, every day) I always tend to say to Him, "Please just hold my hand the whole way." That's what seems to get me through my days. Like, on my way to class this week, I always just asked God to hold my hand the whole way and not let me go. For me, whenever I'm nervous or anything, it's just so reassuring to know that God is by my side and with me all the time. It's reassuring to know that my hand is in His and he will not ever let go, which is exactly what this song is saying. I can't even go on and one about this song or elaborate it anymore. All I can say is exactly what the lyrics say. God is just always with us. Through our dark nights, through our tough times, through the fire, through everything, God is always by our side, holding us. So, when we're dealing with something hard, isn't it just the biggest reassurance to know that God is with us through it all? God is holding our hand the whole time. Whether we're starting school, starting work, dealing with family issues, or whatever, God is there with us as we go through it. His scarred, big, strong hands hold our small, weak ones as we deal with the troubles of this life. Not even just the troubles, God is by our side through the great times in our lives too, since we all know that life isn't all bad. :) God's there through it all, good, bad, easy, hard, he's there, By Our Side, leading us through.

The bridge of the song says:

And I, I love you

And I want you to know

That I, I'll love you

I'll never let you go

I think I've mentioned enough that God loves us SO much, but hey, you want to hear it again? Can you ever hear that enough?! :) My favorite line is the last one. "I'll never let you go."

We can screw up a million times, and completely fall, but God won't let us go. His hand will be in ours even when we fail, and He'll be there to pick us right back up, because He'll never let go of us. We are his children and His love is greater than anything mistake we could make. His strong, powerful hand is there, holding us and ready to pick us up. He will never, ever let go of us... NEVER!

*Amy :)

Broken by Lifehouse

I decided to go ahead and do another song since I've been late every other time :)

So, there's a movie out now called 'The Time Traveler's Wife'

I haven't seen it, but I have seen many trailer and previews for it. The preview that I have seen many times now plays a song called Broken by Lifehouse. Just by listening to the song, I could feel lots of emotion. It's an amazing song and I based that opinion just on hearing it from a commercial and a preview for a movie that I probably wouldn't go see.

So a few days ago, my brother heard the same song on the radio station in the car, and I was like, "I thought it sounded like a 'Christian' song." I said this because we listen to what you can label as 'Christian' radio. So, from that I assumed that this was a 'Christian song' by a 'Christian band.'

Well anyways, yesterday I looked it up and discovered that this is not what we would label as a 'Christian band' but just a normal rock, alternative group. I watched the music video for the song, which you can see *HERE* and read the lyrics, which through my eyes seemed as though they were talking to God. The lyrics, much like the song are very powerful and after researching and reading comments, I found out the story behind the song::: Jason Wade, member of the band had a friend that lived in Nashville who needed a kidney transplant. Wade flew out to Nashville to see his friend while he was in he hospital and when he spoke to him, the chorus of this song is what his friend told him. It was basically his friend's words to God.

Here are the lyrics to the chorus:

I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing
With a broken heart that's still beating
In the pain there is healing
In your name I find meaning

So, here's someone who is at the end of their life, breathing their last breaths, and the only thing that they are holding on to, the only thing that is keeping them alive is God. I love that so much, because it doesn't only have to apply to someone who is at the end of their lives, but it can apply to all of us. No matter what we are going through, it can be a reassurance to us to know that we can always hold on to God, we can always find meaning in His name. Another section in this song says,

I'm hanging on another day
Just to see what you will throw my way
And I'm hanging on to the words you say
You said that I would, would be ok

More meaningful, powerful words. I think that it is just such an amazing thing to know that through anything we go through and through anything that happens, we can hold on to God, and we can be assured by his words that say we'll be OK. There is nothing else in this whole world that has that reassurance. There is nothing else that we can hold onto with our lives besides God. His hand is holding all of ours.

If you wanted a mental picture, it's kind of like falling off the end of a cliff (popular movie scene). When you look down, the fall is endless and you know you would die, but right when your last finger slips off the edge, a bigger, stronger hand catches you and keeps you from falling. You hold on to that hand with your whole life. It's that same way with God. No matter how hard our lives get, no matter how often we think we're going to fall off the cliff, God always catches us and we can always hold on to Him.

So, that's the message you get from a band that is not labeled "Christian."

*Amy :)

One Word... LOVE

Wow, so it’s been a crazy, crazy, tough week. There are so many songs that could describe this week. One that’s really big on my heart, especially for my family is a song called ‘She Walked Away’ by BarlowGirl, but because of the circumstances, I’m actually going to choose a different song for this week. Besides, haven’t I done enough BarlowGirl songs? Or could there ever be enough? Haha, no, I’ll go ahead and do a song by yet another female artist named Britt Nicole.

So, today my Dad talked a lot about relationships. Not our relationships with each other but God’s relationship with us. Sometimes we find ourselves doing all these crazy things to get God’s “acceptance” or to "find" God’s love, or to gain something, but maybe in reality all God wants is US! He just wants a relationship with us. It doesn’t have to revolve around anything and we don’t have to do anything for it. So, I was thinking and looking for a song to describe what he was saying. A few came through my ahead like ‘Psalm 73’ by BarlowGirl, ‘Love Is Here’ by Tenth Avenue North, and many more, now that I think of it, but I will choose ‘You’ by Britt Nicole because I haven’t done one of her songs yet.

Read the lyrics to this whole song *HERE*

And I will post the words to just the chorus:

“You

I'm coming back to

You

The only thing I know worth living for

Will You take this heart and make it more like

You

I give it back to You

It's obvious no one could love me more

I'm Yours

I'm coming back, yeah

I'm coming, coming back”

So, I chose this song, because it talks about really just the love that God has for us. I say it all the time but when my dad mentioned the relationship thing, I realized it’s more than just saying ‘Ok, God loves me’ but it’s really knowing that we don’t have to do anything for our relationship with God. God doesn’t need us to go to Vacation Bible School every day every year, or read the whole bible in a year, or have perfect attendance in Sunday school. God doesn’t need us to do anything for His love. God doesn’t need us to do anything for our relationship with Him. We don’t have to plead God every day to love us because He already does and nothing could change that. Not one single thing that we do in the world could change the love that God has for us, no matter how often we screw up, God will always love us the same way. God doesn’t need us to do all these things because all He wants is us, the exact way we are. All he wants is a relationship with us. I like the line in this song that says “It’s obvious no one could love me more.” Nobody in this whole entire world could measure up to the love that God has for us. Nobody’s love in this whole entire world is worth as much as God’s love. God really is the only thing worth living for, God‘s love is the one and only perfect love. There’s another line in this song that says,

‘Back to Your love so true and so simple

don’t understate it or complicate it’

God’s love is so deep, yet so simple. There is nothing complicated about having a relationship with our Holy Father. Why complicate it? Why make such a big deal about it? God’s love is perfect, real, true, and amazing. We cannot change the overwhelming love God has for us and we will never be able to escape it… ever! My Dad’s main point and mine also in this post is that there is nothing we have to do to make ourselves worthy of God’s love, there is nothing we have to do for God. God doesn’t want anything from us but a relationship. A relationship based only on one thing and that of course is his Love.

*Amy :)

P.S. (This post sounds a little unhappy, I didn't mean to make it sound like that! Haha, this is such a happy, joyous thing!)

"I'm Looking At The World Through Goggles."

Ok, so first of all...

I got the most amazing comment today from someone on my blog. I get comments sometimes, not often, but when I do they are great! It really makes me overjoyed when people read my blog and really like what I write or post, so first of all, if I can't thank you personally because it's anonymous or whatever than THANK YOU, so much! I blog for myself but also for you guys, and the sweet comments that I get make me just want to write something every single day! But unfortunately, I don't think my brain can hold that many thoughts :)

Anyways, I got the best comment ever today and because I couldn't respond to this person personally, I have to do it in this post. So, if your name is Annette and you commented on my blog, then, THANK YOU SO MUCH from the bottom of my heart! Your comment meant the world to me and I just cannot thank you enough.

So, now that I got that out of the way, (which I HAD to do!) I have something to post about (finally) I think about things to blog about all the time, and yesterday one finally hit me!

I was swimming in our pool with some of our friends and I usually don't wear goggles or anything, I just close my eyes when I go under the water, but yesterday I wanted to see underwater so I put on a pair of my brother's goggles.
When I went underwater, I turned over on my back and went to the bottom of the pool and looked up. With the fog in the pool, my terrible eyesight, and the fact that it was getting dark out, I couldn't see much. All I could see was a thick, foggy cover that separated me from the sun shining through the water. (I wish I could have taken a picture!)

This kicked my mind into 'thinking gear' and I started comparing what I saw to the way we see the world. When we look at life or the world in general, we usually see it as a terrible, bad place, right? With the economy slowly spiraling down, and all the disagreements that we have with the government, we kind of see the world as a bad place, usually. It's kind of like what I saw through the water. From where I was, all I could see was the foggy, dark layer. It looked bad, just like how we see the world, but maybe we're just looking at it wrong.

Through this thick, foggy cover, I could also see something else, something less 'grey'. I could see the sunlight. Through this dark, blanket of water, I could see the sun shining high above me, and when I took the goggles off and came up above the water, it was bright and sunny! I think that this compares a lot to how we see the world. We are seeing the world we live in or maybe even our lives through this foggy layer or cover. Maybe, just maybe, that's the wrong way to look at it. Maybe we should be looking at it "without the goggles." The world isn't all bad, it's not all "foggy and grey." Look outside and look at the trees, the flowers, the blue skies, the white clouds. It's all so beautiful, but you can't see the beauty unless you look at it without your goggles. If you look at it through the thick, foggy layer, then all you see is 'a dead tree' or 'a cloudy, dark sky.' But if you look at clearly, then you will see a beautiful tree, beautiful nature, beautiful clouds, and a warm sun. God created this earth with such beauty, and because of the goggles we are wearing, we can't see it. I started out talking about the state of the economy, well it's not all bad either. Sure it's not in good shape, but God has a plan, right? Don't we believe He can do anything? Without the foggy layer, we can say, "Well sure, the economy's not as good as it needs to be, but hey God can do with it what he wants."

There are a trillion and one amazing things about life and about the world, but we can't see or experience these things if we're under the water with goggles on. We have to come out of the water and look behind or over the layer that's keeping us from seeing it. I know we can its there, and I know that we have the ability to see it, but we have to want to and we have to try to. Life is amazing, this world is amazing, let's look at it in an amazing way!

My Christian Bubble...

I have to share this. Ok, so last night I was listening to Total Axxess on the radio. They had a guest band on the show. Flyleaf. You may know them from their hit song, ‘All Around Me’. Flyleaf is ‘if you will’ a Christian band. But what’s interesting about them is that they don’t just play in churches and at ‘Christian’ concerts, but they play at mainstream shows. Flyleaf is a very hard rock band and many times have gotten judged harshly for their decisions to play at different shows and to sing a certain way. One thing that I found so crazy is that all the judgments and the criticism that the members of this band receive is from Christians! Now, if you think about it that makes no sense. Here are a group of people who play hard core music and proclaim their faith from many stages, and the one group of people that judges them and doubts their faith is Christians!
One thing I’ve realized a lot is that Christians nowadays seem to think that we are on top of the world. We seem to think that everything we do is right and there is only one way to do it. We don’t look outside of the box. We don’t see past our little Christian bubble.
Lacey Mosley, the lead singer from Flyleaf has had a very hard life but God has really used her and changed her. When Lacey was only ten years old, she began to use drugs and continued to for a long time. She began to change everything about herself, left her family, and even considered suicide. One thing that Lacey shared about on the radio was that she became an atheist because all the Christians around her judged her so harshly. All the people at the church criticized her because of how she looked and how she acted. Because of the hatred, she received from these Christian people, she became an outspoken atheist.
After awhile of struggling, God brought Lacey to a point where He showed her who He was. He showed her He was real in her life, and Lacey began to follow Christ every day. Now, Lacey shares with thousands of people what God did in her life. She doesn’t share this at churches, but she shares it at mainstream shows, where she finds girls who were just like her, girls who had lost all hope in a God. She shares with these girls the light that God shone in her life. Through Lacey, God is reaching other people. Lacey is able to show love and compassion to people because of her life experiences, and what she has undergone.When talking about the criticism she receives for what she does, Lacey says that she doesn’t believe that just because her and her band are Christians, they should be labeled a Christian band, she says this, "We all share the same faith. And so when we deal with the whole 'Christian band thing,' we kind of think about something P.O.D. says, like, 'If you're a Christian, it affects everything in your life. So if you're a plumber, does that make you a Christian plumber?” "I don't know the answer. We're a band, its part of who we are, so it comes out in our music, and it's the fuel for what we do. And finding faith saved my life. So I'm not ashamed of it at all. And most of our album reflects that."
Last night on the radio, the host of Total Axxess was very impressed with this band. I also was, for this very reason. Lacey and her band get so criticized because of what they do. When she gets asked how she feels about it, all she says is, “Well, it’s sad because they don’t understand, but you know, whatever?!” I love that. She has so much grace for people. People do not understand anything about her life and her reasons for doing this, and instead of getting angry about it and scowling those people; she just shows them grace and says, ‘whatever.’
The producer of Total Axxess went to one of their concerts and said that all the people at the show had you know a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Flyleaf played some worship songs and the people raised their beer bottles in the air. Some people will read this and think that’s so weird, but it really isn’t. Flyleaf is living out their faith in places were normal Christians would never be caught dead. Flyleaf sees that God loves everyone the same and sometimes the best place to share our faith is with people who never hear it or people who have given up on it. Another thing that the producer saw at the concert was afterwards, backstage he saw like 4 or 6 teenage girls gathered around Lacey and heard her sharing her testimony with them. The cool thing about that is that those girls really had someone to connect with. They had someone there who had gone through what they were going through. Some youth pastor somewhere may have said, “Don’t cut. Because… well, because it’s bad.” Lacey was able to share with these girls her story, she was able to tell them how God helped her through it. Sometimes, we don’t need some man who is better than us to tell us the rules and what not to do, but we need someone who has been through the things that we are struggling with and it able to connect with us.
Sometimes, as Christian we don’t realize that we’re not on top of the world. We forget that Jesus hung out with tax collectors. We forget that everyone is loved equally. Most importantly, we forget that it’s not our job to judge others. Flyleaf takes a big step. A step out of the Christian bubble and a step into the real world. We don’t have to live this sheltered life. We can be radical and do out-of-the-ordinary things. We can live our life out-of-the-box. We can, (in the words of Lauren Barlow, ‘Shake this world up a bit!’
I really enjoyed these 2 hours on the radio with Flyleaf. What they do is amazing and different. The way they react to things is loving and full of grace. I love what this band is doing, and I hope we all see the effect that it has on the world.

"Would you really leave me God?"

So, this morning I was sitting at the table and typing up a little... "article" I guess you could call it, so I am going to post it :) Here you go:

So, for years and years and years, for as long as I can remember we have the “Footsteps in the Sand” story on our bathroom wall. It has been there since I was very young and every time I walked into the bathroom, I knew it was there. For all those years and years, I thought that I knew the story and just assumed that I had read it before.
Well, one day I walked into the bathroom and looked up at the wall where it hung. I had accidentally dropped it a few minutes earlier and when I went to hang it back up, I actually looked at the words and started reading them. I read the whole story and was amazed. This story had been on my wall in a small picture frame for so many years and I had never taken the time to read it. I just assumed all my life that I already knew what it was about; when in reality I had never read or understood it, until that one day in the bathroom. For me, it definitely felt like one of those “God moments” if you will. I read the story and it just opened my eyes. The best part of this story is the very end. There is this man and his whole life there have two sets of footprints in the sand. His and God’s right next to his. His whole life, He has known that God has been right there with him. Then, when he reaches one of the hardest points in his life, he looks down and notices that there is only one set of footprints in the sand. So, he says, “God, I don’t understand why when I needed you most you would leave me.” So, then God replies to him, and says, “My son, my precious child, I love you and would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you only see one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.” AMAZING! That’s all I could say after I read that. It just really made me feel so glad to read that.
One of my favorite books of all time that I would recommend to ANYONE is ‘The Shack’ by William P. Young. I know that the amount of criticism towards this book is huge, but from my experience reading it as only a young teenager, I can say that it’s a life-changing book. In the book, Mack (the protagonist) goes through the hardest point in his life when his youngest daughter, Missy is abducted and killed. Mack deals with a loss of hope, and a loss of faith through this. Years later, God (whom Mack calls, Papa) writes Mack a note and asks him to return to ‘The Shack’ where Missy’s clothes were found drenched in blood. After much thought, Mack returns to the Shack. The rest of the book talks about his encounter with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Of course, like anyone, Mack thought that God left him, during this time in his life. We all, as humans, believe that when we need God the most, He leaves us. But it’s not true. Just like the Footsteps story, and just like Mack in the Shack, when we are at our hardest, lowest points in life, God is there. Just like he is there every other moment in our lives. We tend to think that just because our lives are terrible, God is not there, but the truth is, He is. God is there when we feel like we don’t need Him, and God is there when we need Him most. He is not just there when we need Him, but He is there, carrying us through whatever situation.
If you ever look down and see just one set of footprints in the sand, never think that God left you, because he never would. When you see one set of footprints beneath you, you will always know that God is carrying you in His arms.
The bible says in Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.’ Says the Lord.”God made a promise in His word that He would never leave us. I know He never will. Even when it feels as though He has, we have to hold tight to our faith and know that he never will.