Life~Trials~Inspiration

For those of you that don't know, I am a member of New Hope Oahu' Sand Island campus in Hawaii. Since my family and I don't live there, we attend church online at one of the three services every Sunday via the live stream that they have. Today was a truly eye opening, inspiring and down right amazing message. Every once and a while you get a speaker that God works through to really just touch your heart down to the core and today i experienced that in this message.Today they had a guest speaker that maybe you have heard of, if you haven't I highly suggest looking up some of his messages on you tube. His name is Nick Vugicic and he has no arms or legs, his story of the struggles he endured as a child and how he came to know Jesus, then overcome these struggles is truly inspiring. He reminds us that no matter or circumstance or what we have going on either mentally or physically that God has a plan and a purpose for us all. No matter our physical limitations he wants to u...

The past week, I've come to realize something that I think we all notice but maybe brush off again and again due to busy schedules and life in general. How often do we pay attention to the little moments in life? And I don't just mean the ones we all call significant like your kids first steps or words or the first date etc. I mean in our every day lives , the little moments and the little blessings. I feel like when we look around we have so much to be thankful for, so many little blessings that we may not usually count as "blessings". How often do we actually take the time to look at the stars on a clear night? Or go enjoy the park or nature reserve near by? How about just playing with your pets? Or spending time with a friend, girlfriend/boyfriend or loved one? So many little moments that either go by without us realizing or moments that we neglect to actually put in the effort to enjoy. How many parents actually make date night a priority with their spouse? Yes li...

Hey Ladies<3 This post is specifically for all my ladies out there, we often hear the word "beautiful" in many ways. Its often used when we see someone we find prettier than ourselves in our eyes. We feel like we don't measure up because we aren't the "perfect or ideal" weight, or maybe we aren't using the super expensive makeup that someone else is. People in general are self conscious but we as woman get the brunt of it. We constantly try to be the "ideal" for someone else, its like a constant battle to be someones idea of beautiful. So much so that we forget to focus on our own idea of beautiful. We wear uncomfortable cloths, go on massive diets, and try to learn the impossible eye liner tutorials so that we feel like we measure up. We get so caught up in the worlds idea of beauty that we loose track of what we think is beautiful and what is spiritually beautiful. Some think that beauty comes from how much you spend on your appearance ,b...

What comes to mind when you hear the word "community"? You might think of your neighborhood or maybe a group/ team that you are apart of.  Community is a word with vast and multiple meanings ,which can be determined by the individual using the word. The broadness of the word offers many different ways of being composed which is very interesting by the individuality of each person whom uses it. Even according to Websters dictionary ,there are many forms of this word and ways it can be interpreted in our language and society today.  The definition that I would like to focus on specifically today is, "a group of people with a common characteristic or interest ,living together in a larger society." No matter who we are or where we live, we have a small or larger group of people surrounding us, this is our community. In our group of people, we have some that share common interests as us, this can be religion, hobbies, work, school etc. Life is like a story it begins when...

I know that I have written about a similar topic before but I feel this is one that should be mentioned more than once, as we often forget. Life gets busy and we often forget to take time and put God first. Today I found a verse that reminds us of this perfectly, Mathew 6:24 says. "No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one or love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other, you cannot be slaves of God and Money". This is saying that those of us dedicated to the Lord cannot be obsessed with money, aka greedy. We need to trust the Lord completely even with our finances and if we are greedy with money than we are not giving ourselves over completely to him. This can be difficult because it means giving up control but if we cant trust the King of the world with our lives, than who can we trust? We have to be willing to give up everything to follow him, then and only than are we truly putting him first. Today I want you to ask yourself,in what ...

As I was doing my devotions tonight, I was reminded of something. As humans ,we have certain thins that we are attracted to and certain things that also deter us. These things are often shown about us whether we realize it or not, when it comes to meeting and getting to know new people. Everyone has heard the saying "don't judge a book by its cover." This is so beyond true when it comes to interacting with one another. We often are attracted to people who seem to have the same clothing or living style as us, than theirs people who seem different and instead of reaching out,what do we do? We hide or run from the differences instead of embracing them and trying to get to know the person for who they are. We take our first impressions so personally that we risk the chance of missing out on what could be a great friendship or relationship. God gives us a verse as a reminder about this. "Stop judging according to outward appearance; rather judge according to righteous jud...

As humans we often have a tendency to get caught up in our past. We make a mistake and we dwell on it endlessly as a side-effect of regret. We let our one mistake ,or maybe its multiple mistakes of our past define us, own us. No matter how much pain we go through beating ourselves up over it or the consequences we have accepted because of it, we don't feel its enough. Living in the past only tears us down mentally and spiritually. My question is ,why do we spend so much time in our pasts when we have an entire future. A life full of opportunity and doors waiting to be opened. I think its because we feel safer living in our past wrong doings, than we do opening new doors. Trying new things can give us a sense of insecurity and when we feel insecure ,its our natural reaction to panic. Even if our past is painful and tears us down, we often feel more secure there than chancing a new future. We would rather face pain, heartbreak, sadness, suffering, etc than CHANCE a new beginning or n...

Self improvement is when you look at yourself and find flaws that you want to improve. This can be improving anything that you feel you want to change about yourself, it can be mental or physical ,its all about you and the person you want to become. I chose this topic today because I myself have had a very eye opening day. I strongly believe that God has a way of getting through to us when he has a point to get across or something to tell us. Today he had quite a bit to tell me, I have so many goals for my life and I want to reach out to people ,but how can I reach out and help others if I'm not also working on helping myself become the best version of me that I can be? So God clearly pointed out some areas in my life that I need to improve on. Some people will call me crazy for saying all this but the truth is God does have a plan for our lives and I'm learning that when he speaks to us ,he has a reason and we need to listen intently. Sometimes I get nervous sharing with you a...

Lets be honest , we all get a little drained from time to time. This thing we call life tends to do that. We can only take so much before our strength dwindles away like sand going through a glass. Whether we like to admit it or not as our pride can get in the way, we all need a hand or push now and then, a strength refill. We look everywhere to be rejuvenated and yet nothing works, theirs still this "hole" or empty feeling that we cant quite get passed. Why is this? Its because we always look in the wrong places. I'm sure we all remember playing the game hide and seek as kids right? I mean who didn't? Well this is the same kinda game, we look high and low to be inaugurated and refreshed and we think were getting close than we just find and empty spot again. We think that earthly things can satisfy us but we constantly forget that only one thing can truly satisfy us. We were made in the image of God, not in the image of the world. So when were feeling down and we try ...

Kind of a piggy back to my last post , we are all blessed and we often forget to give back and help others that are less fortunate or in need. Volunteering is helpful and rewarding especially with so many opportunities right in your area! I have quite a few options I will list here although depending on where your at they may not be available in your area, so if not a quick google search can do the trick and help you out :) A fairly well known city around here is Albany so if your looking in this area here's some suggestions. 1) Helping Hands- Albany OR  www.albanyhelpinghands.com 2) Safe Haven Humane Society- Albany OR  safehavenhumanesociety.org 3) Police Department Cadet program- for ages 16-20 years old, contact local police department. 4) Park cleanup- contact local recreation facility or park office 5) Jackson Street Youth Services- email Aaron at  (aaron.kratzer@jsysi.org)  6) Samaritan Hospital- so many opportunities here, visit www...

Today I realized something that I often remember but than again forget. Today on Americas birthday I would like us all to take a moment and remember how blessed we truly are. No matter our struggles we are so much better off than millions of other people across the world ,simply because we live in America. We have so many freedoms that we take for granted every day and we forget that we have veterans constantly fighting in order for us to keep these freedoms. Our freedom comes at a price ,we just live our lives and its normal for us ,these freedoms but its a constant war to keep them. There is always other countries who want to take our freedoms and take control. Our nation is so blessed that we have our veterans who have the courage and the strength that they feel the need and the want to stand up for what they believe in and to stand up for our Country, to stand up for what makes America the beauty and everything she is today. If it were not for our heroes we would not have the freed...

Heya! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've had a pretty hectic week at horse fair but I'm back now! The topic I would like to focus on today is "positive outlook" , this can be having a positive outlook on anything and any situation which is why I love it. Broad topics become more interesting to talk about as they can branch off so easily. You can have a positive outlook on life in general or specific areas, maybe your always positive and optimistic in one area but another needs some work. When we realize where we need to work in our lives to improve ourselves than we can continue to grow. Its our flaws and mistakes that give us room to grow. Now positive outlook can be pretty difficult, I mean we're human so who naturally wants to be positive about a tough situation? Yeah basically no one and for those few of you that do I commend you because that truly is a great trait. For those of us who are not super humans , I would like to really stress the need to...