To live wholly for Christ.
To love Jesus, so I can love who he loves.
To change the world.
To not only exist but live.
To take the first step in changing the world, by daring to allow myself to be changed and molded.
To live without fear. Never letting fear or sorrow control me. Fear is my friend, because by fear, is courage developed.
To allow Christ to make 2008 the best year of my life(so far)
(THIS, I resolve)

(that pic is of my sister. Hehe. Cutie.)

What do YOU resolve?

"Every man thinks of changing the world, but hardly anyone thinks of changing himself." - Leo Tolstoy

"What you see depends mainly on what you are looking for." - Unknown

"And I, I took the road less traveled by-
and that has made all the difference."
-Robert Frost

THINGS I LEARNED IN 2007:
1. Life is what you make it to be.
2. When everything is done, you know who your true friends are.
3. Choose your friends wisely. They change you without you even really knowing it sometimes.
4. Serve God, and he will bless you. But dont serve him for that reason. Serve him because he is worthy.
5. "All the world's a stage, all the men and women merely players. We have our exits and our entrances, and one man in his lifetime plays many parts."- (Jaques, from As You Like it by William Shakespeare)
6. Dont judge people. REALLY. Dont Judge people. It hurts things.
7. If you want friends, you have to be friendly.
8. Your parents know more than you think.
9. Your parents are always there for you, and are actually pretty smart.
10. I dont deserve to live this wonderful life. Jesus is too amazing for me to comprehend. All I can do is serve him, and thank him continually.

What did YOU learn?

(this is my best friends sister. Cutie, eh?)

-In Christ Alone-
Becca

"You made a commitment to yourself and to God, and we want to help you keep that commitment." My dad said. I grunted and nodded, of course, I thought, and I intend to keep the commitment to not date. My parents were talking to me about text messaging guys. In their respected opinion, texting guys is "going around" courtship and all
of its styles and rules my family has set.



I was furious last night when my parents told me they did not want me texting guys because some of them were apparently flirting with me. Flirting? My friends?! Yeah right. I didn't think anything of my friends who like joking around with me. My parents also pointed out that while I am texting guys, it allows me to get to know them and everything without even my parents permission- after all- its texting!

Humbly, I respect their opinion, but I also thought of this- am I not allowed to have any guy friends? All my life I've had tons of friends who are guys, and who are just friends. The guys I text are not guys I'm attracted to, and I doubt they are attracted to me! (HAHA!) But at the same time...I cant be to sure...*scratches head*

After much heartache, thought, tears and....a lot of other things, I have decided something. I DID make a commitment to God, and I think this commitment I made to NOT DATE will indeed change my life, if I allow it to...and my parents are right about texting guys, to a point.  Maybe it is wrong to text guys just for fun, but I think that if I need to know something, like- is there a staff meeting today, or soulwinning? What time? Then it is okay to text them.

So... I did make a commitment to God, and he has brought it before my eyes that if I text guys "for fun" then I am indeed going around that commitment.

"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart."
-Psalms 37:4

Right now, I need to keep my eyes entirely on Jesus....and I know he will give me the desires of my heart...in fact, he will give me desires IN my heart, if I first allow him to. :)

TODAY'S CHALLENGE: Keep your commitments you make to God....seek Jesus FIRST, because of our LOVE for him...and he will give us the desires of our hearts. Stay commited to what is worth committing to in the first place. :)

I got the strangest, most interesting comment today, from one of my friends at church. He came up to me and said, "You know, it's kinda funny, you always look like you're going to cry, but you're smiling. Like, your eyes are
always filled with tears, but you are always smiling and laughing. It's crazy."

I really thought a lot about this comment. What did he mean? Was it good or bad? I started thinking about the symbolism behind what he said. It was probably a silly comment he didn't even think about before he said, but you know me, I meditate on everything everyone says. Haha.

So...maybe my tears (as he called them. I think it just looks like that because I have sparkly eyes, haha.) are tears for the world. I mean, my soul is overwhelmed with the burdon of the world. Maybe it is life that has given my eyes that funny look which makes me look like I'm ready to cry. I really am not sad at all! It must be something deeper, you know what I mean?

My question is....what should our eyes look like? Some people have old eye, some have young eyes, some have eyes filled with tears of sorrow, while others have tears of joy- of life. Some I have seen, have no specific apperance of anything- blank- as if...confused.

What do you think?  Comment and let me know! There is so much more to us, than our outward apperances... our eyes are the windows into our heart.



Today's challenge is- embrace that "so much more."

With open arms.