Different, in almost every way.

Different, what does it mean to you? Werid, crazy abnormal? God put this on my mind recently and I have been thinking alot about it. o stand and fight

So I was reading an article in readers digest. It was about names, and naming your children, so naturally I was drawn to it. I actually found it extremely interesting. It was mainly talking about different names, why parents name their children those names, and what it says about those children to the world. One of the mom said something along these lines "I wanted to name my child ____ because I wanted his name to say to the world, "yes I am different, but I am not ashamed." I really got thinking about this. Isn't this what us christians are supposed to be doing? We are not sopossed to be blending in and going along with this world, we are supposed to stand out, and say, "I am a Christan, a son of the Lord Almighty and I AM NOT ASHAMED." Now I am not saying that I am going to name my child some wired different name to get him/her to stand out. And I am also not saying that I stand and say that all the time, because, well, I don't. But, is this what I am supossed to be striving for? God put me on this world, in this life for a reason. I have no idea what the reason is other then to serve Him. But when am I going to start serving Him? When I "grow up"? When I am "fully mature"? After contemplating this question for quite a while, my answer is..no. I am not going to wait. When God presents me with the chance, I am going to say "I am different, I am not like most of this world, I am a daughter of God." Now, I will fail, I will fail miserably, I know I am not perfect, and I will not do this every time God presents me with the chance, but at least I am striving towards it now, I am striving towards be different, but different in a good way, different for God.

On this same note my favorite song, that I can listen to over and over, here are the lyrics:

I have had the right
To stand and fight
But it would have still been wrong
I've had the chance to prove
A hurtful truth
I had to let it go and just move on

'Cause there's a gift called grace
That's captured my life
Though the way of the world is power and pride

I want to be different, Jesus
Just like You
I want to be tender with mercy
Guiding all I do
So when others talk about me
Let it be because
I am different
Let the difference be love

Let me have the kind
Of heart that shines
The light and shows you're real
And where hope is dim
And fear sets in
Will you use me Lord to help and heal

I don't want wealth or fame
To define the life I live
Oh let me be known
For what I give

I want to be different, Jesus
Just like You
I want to be tender with mercy
Guiding all I do
So when others talk about me
Let it be because
I am different
Let the difference be love

Every day is a chance to serve You
By caring for someone else
I will make the choice to surrender
And not live for myself

I want to be different, Jesus
Just like You
I want to be tender with mercy
Guiding all I do
So when others talk about me
Let it be because
I am different
Let the difference be love

"I want to be differnt Jesus, just like you." I truly do, I want to do everything it says in that song and more. I know I can not even breath without God, let along do all of that. But if God wills it I will strive towards that, what ever He calls me to do. "So when other's talk about me let it be, because I am different, just like You."

here is the link to the youtube video so you can hear the amazing lyrics, and yes the song is available on itunes. ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVOJQPU0S3w&feature=related

Good night!!

Joys.. and work.

This morning I woke up at 6:30 am as usual, sat up in bed and froze!! It was very cold! I only had capris on so I ran over and changed into my nice warm pants and socks. Needless to say my mind was not quite as focused this morning on God as other mornings. After I did wii fit (which I do every morning for exercise.) I knew I was a bad girl and got on the computer... then I went down the twisting loop and ended up spending over 45 minutes on it. God used it for good though because I discovered all about backdrops for my photography which I really want to get, and are currently on the top of my christmas wish list! After that I had to take a shower and rush to get a little school done before bucket time (or history, which is from 10:45ish to noon.) I ended up starting pumpkin bread towards then end.. and then I had a stressful afternoon of trying to get school done, before we had visiters this afternoon, with little sucsess. We had an amazingly wonderful time with the vistors who have a 6, almost 3, and newborn. They are dear friends of ours we knew in San Antonio, and I babysat for all the time. They live about 2 hours away. They left after spending about an hour here, so I was able to finish science, but I normally do my writing assinment for the week on Mondays, and now I am going to have to figure out where else to squeeze it in at, but the visit was totally worth it.

I had an wonderful night at BSF. We are studying John this year, and God really convicted my that I need to give ALL the glory to Him! It is not me that is doing any of the stuff I do, so I should not take credit for it! They said something I really like, Reflect the praise given to you, up to God. So this week I am going to try very hard to not "swim" in my own pride, but give God the glory for all that He has given me and blessed me with.

Finally I am giving myself a challange. I think God has showed me that I have not been drinking enough water latly, so I am going to try to drink eight of my water bottle a day. My friend gave me a great tip..... for a minimum drink half your weight in ounces a day... this means if you weigh 120 pounds, you drink ATLEAST 60 ouces of water a day. I am striving for alot more and I will see how it goes....

I am up WAY to late, I need my sleep and I was hoping to read a little. But I really enjoy blogging, so I hope people will read... and I would LOVE to hear your thoughts!!

Fair pics.. experimenting with photoshop...

Me and Erin....
the kiddie roller cosstar
the awesome ride... (basically sideways feriss wheel)
some experimenting with photoshop.. please tell me which you like better :)

Sunday...

I had a wonderful sunday today... Church was fun.. I got to help with a little toddler and hold him while he was sleeping :) And we watched the notebook which was a very good:) I loved it.. another good romance.

I have really had a busy sceduale latly... but I am enjoying it. Everything but school I really love. I am really getting inspired in photography.. and wanting to take picutres more and more. I found this awesome site (iheartfaces.blogspot.com) which has a photography contest every week!

aww...life :) I am going to post a picture I took at the fair yesterday...

Birthday sleepover and Ocktoberfest :)

So yesterday night I went to a friend's birthday party here. It was so much fun... we just played around, talked and did normal girl things :) The girl turned 15. She has 4 younger siblings.. one who is a 2 yearold girl.. and I had her on my hip like all night:) Her parents kept saying "you know you don't HAVE TO hold her" And I was like awww.... but I really want too :) She was very cute :) The family also had an Honda odyessy. The first time I saw it I was like "You guys have a honda odyessy? Lucky's that is my favorite car!!" And another girl who was at the sleepover was like... You know your a homeschooler when your like "YOUR mini van is cooler then OUR mini van!" :) She also said..."Don't do bad things... do hard things. :) It's a homescholler Joke... only us get it. I thought that the people (who's house we were at) had a cool Idea. They had 4 bedrooms upstairs but they made 1 the parnet's then a dorm room for the kids.. and all the kids slept in there, and then another a school room and another a play room/clothes room. It was cool. And since all the "messy" room were upstairs their downstairs actually looked nice and clean ;) We slept in a tent outside and us girls were so proud...5 girls set up a 5 sleeper tent in 15 mins... with no help!! (Well except from 8 and 9 year old boys :) And we disasebled it in the mornign in like 5 mins with no help! We slept outside in the tent and it actually didin't rain like we thought it would..

Today after getting home and changing our whole family went to the ocktoberfest on Ft. Belivor. It was so fun!! We decided to make it J.J's birthday party and we all got wrist bands and rode rides all day. I was a dare devil and rode every ride. There was one ride I was refuing to go on but Erin pushed me on and sure enough I hated it!! It was one of the scariest things I have ever done.. your stuck in a whole body cage going round and round while your cage is fliping and the another thing is moving... it was SOOO scary.... I swear the only thing that got me through was repeating bible verses the whole time. But other then that it was fine. We went on the ferris wheel to relax after eating lunch before going on more intense rides.. but there were wasps EVERYWHERE!!! And it was not relaxing...We tried all sorts of food... the fresh sceezed lemonade was sooooo good! I was hoping that there would be spatela there but there was none to my sugrine :( We tried deep fried oreos!! (Oreo's dipped in funnel cake batter and fired... soooo good) But almost too sweet. Over all it was a fun and great day with me family that I LOVE so much :)

Bekah's tip of the day: Domino's Are AMAZING THINGS!! I take them on babysitting trips all the time.... they are pretty cheap...are great for all ages because they have colors and numbers for education and young ones.. you can stack and make houses or towers...build long line and know them down (my personal fav) or play real dominos. And they are too big to fit in a babies mouth (but can also be stuck in the dishwasher after being sucked on for hours :) So anyways take them babysitting or get them for your kids!! They are great!

Thought you might like to see an example with of my photography.

Blogging...

So I actually keep I diary every night...and one night I thought....why not blog instead? So I am going to try it and see how it works.

I used to always get frustrated with people.... even though I knew I was not an adult...I got frustrated because people did not treat me like one. Then a few days ago God finally hit me over the head. I was thinking about what makes someone mature.....and God brought to my mind all the exsperiences I have had over the years... especially the ones with children. And I realized EXSPERIENCE, not knowledge is what makes someone truly mature. I mean think about it... someone can read how to spoon feed a baby for their first time... and they can see picture... but someone else who has had the EXPERIENCE of actually spoon feeding a baby is going to know better what to expect. Even though I think knowledge is important... I think knowledge and experience together = wisdom. On this topic, it also brought up thoughts about Homeschooling. Public school kids can sit at a desk all day long reading text books.... while us homeschoolers are out and seeing and EXPERIENCING everything they are just reading about :)

I also thought I should give people who don't know me a brief backround.

I name is Rebekah...(Middle Jean after my grandmother.) I love the Lord with all my heart soul, and mind, and my top desire is to do His will! I am 15, I curently live in Alexandria VA, after my dad (who is in the millatary) got transfered here. I LOVE babies, and children and anything to do with them. I also love Portrait Photogrpahy, and recently opened a new business (www.LeslieJoyPhotography.com) I know almost anything about baby gear you would possibly want to know. I also love interier desgin and decorating. Another one of my weird hobbies is playing with names, making up names etc. I have some amazing friends around the world from all my moves, and my goal for the future (other then serving the Lord) is to one day that God will bless me with a husband and LOTS of children.

Recipie #2

Hello again! Last week I made another recipe from Rachel Ray. I made Mac and cheddar cheese with chicken and broccoli. Now from the name it did not sound very appetizing, and I cirtenly thought that my dad would not like it, but it was one of the only recipes that I had all the ingredients for, and it was quick and easy so I decided to try it.

Here is the recipie:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/mac-and-cheddar-cheese-with-chicken-and-broccoli-recipe2/index.html

I did this on a thursday night after coming home from co-op so I was tired, and I will not cook on thursdays again. I followed the

recipie. So first I cooked the chicken with the onion, and while I did that I chopped up the broccoli, boiled the maceroni and then

added the broccoli. I drained the broccoli and maceroni, and then started cooking the sauce, but it did not want to boil consitently,

so after about 8 mins of cooking it, I just decided to add the cheese, and then pour it in a big bowl with the rest (chicken, broccoli

maceroni.) I mixed it all together, and to my surprise, it had a pretty good kick :) I did need alot of seasoning, but after I got it all

seasoned it was actually rather good. The kids complained about the broccoli and I did agree it could have definitly been cooked

more, so if you try it you might want to add the brocoli a little sooner then the recipie tells you. Over all it was a pretty good meal,

but I don't think I would make it again, it was a little bland even with all the spices, and it was NOT good as leftovers :)

If you try it please let me know!!!!

Recipie #1

For school I am doing a project and picking 1 recipe a week and trying to cook it and then blog it. I really enjoyed my first recipe from Racheal Ray so I hope to do most of them from her for now. So my first recipe:

Parmigiano and herb chicken brest tenders .

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/parmigiano-and-herb-chicken-breast-tenders-recipe/index.html

Ok so I did make a this recipie, and all of my family loved it. But I did make a few ajusdtments.

First of all I just used prego instead of the sauce. Then I did make about 1 1/2 time the amout said of everything the recipie called for, but we had tons of leftovers! After cooking it to the directions I do have a few things I would adjust. First of all, all of my family agreed that we would not put it in the oven after frying it again, becasue it just dried it out and did not seem to do anything good for it. Also I would have to pans to fry in if you were going to do anymore then the recipe called for. Other then that the recipe was very easy to make it took me about 1 1/2 hours but I think if i did it again, it woudl take me about 30-40 mins.

I floured the chicken, egged it, then coated it with the special mix, and fryed it, It turned out wonderful!

I hope you try to make it! And if you do let me know what you think please :)

The Battle for Control

This was a paper
Week #5
It’s Fate
Aug, 31st 2009
The Battle for control.
Everyone wants to be in control. Whether it’s the remote, a choice, what they want to do with their time, or even their life. Many people think they are in control of their life, but the daunting question is…. Are they really? I am going to take you with me as I remember a very important time in my life, to give you my answer for this question.
July 25th, 2009. I am sitting on a plane, thinking. The plane is on its way to Washington DC, my new home. New Home, really? I had lived the last three years in TX on Randolf Air Force base. Now my dad, a Coneral in the Air Force, had gotten transferred to the petagon. Him and I were on our way to meet the packers at our new house. I was so excited, with so many questions at the same time. Was the house going to be big? Pretty? Nice? How big was my room? What color were the curtins? Is there any stores close by? Oh when are we going to get there!!? I had no Idea what the next 3 weeks had instore for me!
Yes when I got to our house, I knew that it was just the right house for us! It was beautiful inside and out.. Just right for our family! My dad and I soon discovered a huge shopping area, very close by (about 5 mins!) Aww.. This was amazing, our whole new life was coming together so nicely! We had already found a home-school co-op and BSF class.. My dad and I had checked out a church that we really liked, and it even had a small group for girls that met Sunday nights. Just what us girls needed to get connected and make new friends! It just astounded me how our life had come together..but was it all by chance? Did this wonderful life just fall together randomly? Was I in control of it all? OR, was there a bigger power behind all of what happened?
We’re back to that question again, who is in control, is it me? Or is no one, is it all just random? Or could it possibly be God? I look to Jeremiah 29:11 for the answer. “For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord..plans to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” Wow, so God was in control of all that happened! He had everything plotted and planned out to work for our good! That certainly answers the question!
Now even if you don’t belive me, from now on, whenever you have a choice to make, especially a hard one, you are going to be thinking about control, who is really in control? Are you going to try to take matters into your own hand, or just leave them up to God? This is The battle for Control.


I had to write for school, and wrote it on the wrong computer, so now I have to get it to the other computer to print.