God's Circle

So I am finally getting to writing on my blog. Yes. I know. I have been very, very bad. But hey. At least I am doing it now, and I totally didn't desert it. In the many, many things God has been teaching me lately, one of them is to take life as it comes, enjoy the moments, and DO NOT stay in the future. You can not change anything about it. It is done for. It happened, and God had a plan for it. So accept it, learn from your mistakes, and forget.

On that same note, I have been thinking a lot about the "circle of life." Now this may not be the circle of life you are thinking of. I am thinking of the one God desgined so amazingly, mainly the emotional circle of life. One of the main things I realized is that you ARE going to have hard times in life. That is garentted. There is no way to get around it. It is part of the "circle" God has designed so well. Now you may be like, exuse me? But think about it. Without any of those hard times, so many things would not have happened. There would be SO MANY lessons that had not been learned. And we would not appriceate the good times, if there were no bad. So, once we finally accept that there will be bad times, what do we do with this knowledge? Well, first of all, we thank Him for those bad times, espcially while we are in them. Now when I say bad times, what do I mean? I mean anything that is hard on you, spiritually, emotionally, or physically. I know all of us encouter things that are hard on us many times a day. So, that gives us many times a day when we can spesifically thank the Lord for His goodness, for giving us those bad times. Now, thanking Him is not the only purpose in those bad times. Learning is a big thing. If you never had the bad times, you wouldn't learn very much at all. While in the bad times, you need to look at them, (now as I keep saying you, I am mainly saying it as this is what I am STRIVING to do.)and say, God you have put me in this time for a reason, howevery much I may not like it, please help me to learn what you want me to get out if this. Other very important thing you get out of the bad times is depenance on God. What if we never had bad times? We would never need God's comfort, His love, His grace, His abundant mercy. Jesus would not have had to die if we didn't have bad times. But we do have them, and He did die. He died to set us free from the sin that was going to sperate us from that God we depend so much on.

Now tieing all of that in to what I said earlier, we will have good times too. We will have times when we feel like our God is amazing, and everything is good. And then we will go again into those bad times. And we will long for the good times. But we should appreciate just the amount of God has given us. And thank God, learn from and depend on God in each and every time in our life. And all we do, we should do, for the Glory of our amazing, everlasting God. This is God's circle of life :)


This is an absolutely amazing saying my friend made up, and I took the picture. I LOVe it!

I heart faces- hands on fun

This week over at I heart Faces, the theme is hands on fun. This is one of the precious kids I babysit. He is a huge ball of energy, yet he has a very sweet and gentle spirit.
The photo was the result of hours and hours of being stuck indoor because of the blizzard.
Blizzard + Cardboard tube + hyper boy + camera= Hours and hours of fun, and one great photo of our Hands on fun!



So head over to I heart faces and check out some more totally awesome photos of hands on fun!

Happy Valentine's day!

I never really enjoyed Valentine's day much, i mean all the cheap valentine's people exchange, the "romance" that everyone wants. It just does not appeal that much to me. But I will say, this Sunday, my pastor gave one of the best sermons. Even though it was focused towards marrige, it still very much applies to many of my relationships. So here are the main points I got:

In our hunger for personal happiness, we not only forget all God has done for us, but we forget that God is currently holding us in His hands, and molding us for His perfect purpose.

I find that sometimes, I get so self-absorbed in MY wants, and MY thoughts, that I don't even stop for one second to look at the bigger picture. Even though I can not always see the full image, I do know that God is in control, and that His plans are always best for me. This can be a hard thing to trust, because I am definitely type A, and I am just like any other person. I want what I want, and I want it the most. So, this week I am specifically praying this week, that God will lead my heart to not only trust His plans, but put other's want's first. And I do realize this may sound like something your taught in Sunday school, but it is something that I am sure I can be reminded of over, and over again :)

Next thing was:

No one person can meeet all the needs of your heart. God has reserved that pleasure for Himself.

This is something that I have been praying about latley. It is about balance in my life. He has given me my amazing friends and family, for many reasons. But at the same time, I need to make sure HE is the center of my thoughts, my mind, my life. Not anyone else :)

And last but certinly not least:

Instead of trying to change another person, try to change ourselves. Spesifaclly work on Loving like said in 1 Corthinans 13:

¹If I speak in the tongues^{a]" style="line-height: 0.5em; ">[a]} of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,^{b]" style="line-height: 0.5em; ">[b]} but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. ¹²Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

So I hope this blesses you this week, and makes you think about what is really behind Valentine's day!

~Rebekah

I heart faces-Dancing

Now that my life is returning to "normal" again really wanted to start i heart faces back up. Well this week seemed like the perfect opurtunity, the theme is "dancing". The photo I chose to enter is one I took when I was just starting out it photography, even before I had my nice camera. But it has remained one of my favoirtes through the years!

Now head on over to I heart faces to see more wonderful "dancing" photos!

Hello again!

Some totally AWESOME TeenPacter's!

I know I have become a stranger, I am sorry! I hope to start writing more often... :)

But for now, here is an overview of the last couple of weeks:

Just having fun with my brother :)

Last Monday we were supposed to leave for Teenpact, but because of snow on the Saturday before, it got moved to Tues. Tues we leave for Teenpact, (In Richmond) And spend an absolutly amazing, life-changing week, worshiping God, learning about be an active leader, and spending time with some of the awesomest people I know! Friday, we race back inorder to get home before blizzard hits. Fri-Sat blizzard hits, everything is canceled, we get like 26 inches of snow. Monday no one goes to work, everything is canceled, we are stuck inside, and shoveling snow. Tuesday another storm hits that night, everything canceled, Wednesday storm with strong winds still going, finally slows down to almost halt, have gotten another 10 inches of snow! And so that has been my last couple of weeks. It is just lovely, it was nice to get a brake but I will be SOO glad when my social life starts back up again!

What at somepoint in my life, was our sidewalk :)

Can you see that little thing back there? Under all the white? That is our house :) Ok so I am exaggerating, but if you saw a picture of what it normally looks like, you would be shocked!!

~Rebekah

p.s. Check this out PLEASE! It is so very cool!

http://www.therebelution.com/books/starthere/book_bomb.php