As Christians we need to be like molding clay - ready to be shaped and formed by Christ. Are you ready to be shaped and formed into the vessel Christ has planned for you?

During those dry times......

All you do is give. Give and give. Give encouragement. Give advice. Etc. Not taking any encouragement or  advice back in. And now, you are dry. You are empty. You are running out of stuff to give out. It's one of those dry seasons. So empty. So dry.

This is sort of how I've been feeling lately. I've been so busy and so tired. And I feel as if I am becoming dry inside. Yeah, people do give me encouragement and advice; it just does not seem like it happens that often. And after running this way for a while, I'm running out of energy. I haven't been in the Word as much as I should be. I noticed this morning that that was a lot of the problem. I should be drinking in nourishment from God's Word. And that's what I'm not doing.
So, advice for you guys. If you ever feel like this, talk it out with your Father. And then, get in the Word. Drink in it's life giving advice and encouragement.
God bless! And be filled! ;) 

Only God Knows

So what?!? I stink at poetry. 

This was in memory of a young man my family had prayed for for about 6 years. Riley finally lost his fight with cancer, and I wrote this in his memory. And now, I can say this is for my grandma too. 

ONLY GOD KNOWS

Someone I cared for went to be with the Lord last night.

Why He decided to take him, I don't know.

Only God knows.

He is now in God's arms, at home and free of pain.

Where God's light shines bright,

And I know I shall see him again.

One day soon.

                                                                                                  - Bekah G.

The Struggle to Surrender

Surrender.
Never.
Right?
Well, it shouldn't be that way. At least not between your Maker and you. It should be more like:
Give Me your heart.
Yes, Lord, I surrender my whole heart, my whole soul, and all my strengths and failures over to You. Please do whatever You want through me and use me to bring glory and honor to You alone.
But is it really that easy?
No, probably not.
You see, Surrendering doesn't come naturally. We were born with a nature that was totally against God. To put that part of us to death and allow God to make us His children is a constant fight.
When you want to surrender, you can't just choose to surrender the easier things. You need to fully surrender to your Savior.
Imagine this picture..  God reaching out. Reaching out to hold your heart. Reaching out to grab your heart. And then all of a sudden, you rip it away from Him. Leaving Him there with His hand outstretched waiting for you to give it to Him - waiting for you to fully Surrender your heart to Him.
The other night, God showed me an area I need to surrender to Him. I didn't want to. And then, God gave me a picture sort of like the one I just described.
You see, God wants each and everyone of our hearts. And He doesn't just want part of our heart. He wants the whole thing. About a week before God gave me that picture, I had told God that I wanted to surrender to Him, I just didn't know exactly what that meant. So, lately He has been showing me a lot of areas that need surrender. My friendships. My unforgiveness. My bitterness. Etc.
So, search yourself. Are there any areas in your heart that you need to surrender over to the Lord? If so, talk to Him about them. He is waiting for you to fully surrender.
And no, it won't be easy.
But yes, it will be worth it. :)

Talking Behind A Back ;)

So, I am what you may call a missionary in the home. Or at least I should be.

My family has hosted exchange students since before I was born. In the last few years, we began to host more. This year, we have been blessed with two students staying with us. I love our students. And they have taught me important things. 

One thing I have really felt convicted about lately is talking bad about people behind their backs. When you live with people, you see their good and bad and they see yours.
Lately, God has shown me that talking behind people's backs is not okay. (I knew that stuff before, but this was more of a conviction.)
Talking bad behind someone's back turns you against them and builds up walls between you and them.
So, don't talk bad behind someone's back. Don't gossip. Etc. Instead, use words that will be encouraging and build them up. :) 

The Gift of Friendship

“To have a friend be a friend” (Anonymous).  Friendship is such a gift. God has blessed His people with small gifts, and friends are among the greatest of those. Some people take friendship lightly, but friendship is not a thing to be taken lightly.  To become a better friend, a person should know the definition of friendship.  This person should then understand why friendship is important. And then last of all, they need to apply their knowledge to become better friends.   Friendship is one of the greatest gifts a person can be given as long as they take the meaning, understand why it is importantriendship, and put all that into action.

Friendship is the bond between two people.  It is a deeper relationship than an acquaintance.   “A friend is someone we turn to when our spirits need a lift, a friend is someone we treasure for our friendship is a gift, a friend is someone who fills our lives with beauty, joy, and grace and makes the world we live in a better and happier place” (Anonymous).  In the Bible, there is the great example of friendship from David and Jonathan.  They loved each other more than they loved themselves. Samuel 18:1 says, “And it came to pass, when he had finished speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.”  They had a bond that was unbreakable. Even when Jonathan’s dad, Saul, turned against David, Jonathan remained just as close to David.   Their friendship lasted till the end.

A friendship is not to be taken lightly.  It isn’t an opportunity; it’s a gift.  “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival” (C.S. Lewis).  Friends make people happy.  Companions help make life worth living.  Also, when a person makes a friend and is a true friend to that person, they can be a great encouragement to the companion and help these friends through the trials and troubles of everyday life.  If a friend is struggling, a true friend will patiently help them through those.  Faithful friends are very valuable.  Not turning on their friends, just as David and Jonathan didn’t turn on each other during the hard times, these people will become treasures worth more than rubies.  

Applying the qualities of friendship is necessary for a successful friendship.  Loving a friend even when they scrape up, faithfully sticking by one’s friends and being truthful in a friendship can make all the difference.  If a person treats a companion lovingly, faithfully, and how God would want them to be treated, this friend will be extremely blessed and uplifted.  Gossiping is not acceptable in a friendship. It builds up walls and tears down a friendship.  A self-controlled friendship will blossom because if words are used with self-control, kind words will overpower the angry, unkind words. Forgiving friends and forgetting what they have done wrong will help that friend feel loved and not feel judged.  Good friends encourage their friends in the Lord, pray for them, and build those friends up.

Friendship will be most successful if friends understand the definition of friendship, understand why friendship is necessary, and put that knowledge into practice.  Friendship is a bond between two people in unity. Friendship is necessary to make life more enjoyable. If the qualities are put into practice, a friendship will be a great, loving bond. “Friends are the flowers in the garden of life. Beginning with the seed of trust, nurtured with laughter and tears, growing into loyalty and love” (Anonymous). 

Leadership Conference

Hey ya'll!
So......... This past week, I got to go to Missouri and Kansas! I went to Kansas to visit some family and then my mom and I drove to Missouri for a leadership conference. I feel so blessed for the opportunity I had to go and fellowship with other young leaders/believers and learn to better serve my team as a leader.
The conference was called "What Time Is It?" Maybe it was time for us to search our hearts. Maybe it was time to make some change in the way we lived. Etc.
Another thing we seemed to focus on was Discipleship. This was a really awesome thing for me because just recently I felt a calling on my heart to disciple the youth on AIM. I even had a discussion on how to do so with our Assistant Director. While I was there, I felt like the calling was growing even deeper. I felt like I had more of a heart for it.
We also had a time of Communion at the end. While we were singing I Surrender All, I started to open my hands in worship (When I worship I sometimes like to show I surrender or thankfulness to the Lord by raising my hands/arms and opening my hands). But then came the fight inside... I wasn't ready to surrender all. No. I was still holding onto my troubles and my hurts. The pain and hate I had been having inside me. I realized I wasn't ready to give it over to God. I wasn't ready to let Him help me. I had been pushing Him away. I didn't really want His help, and in the process I was making decisions that I never should have. I was hurting Him. I was hurting those around me. I was hurting myself.
After all that, I know I need to hand it all over. I need to raise my white flag of surrender. I need to give Him my hurts, my insecurities, and all the other junk I've been holding onto.
I would really appreciate your prayers as I work to be able to fully surrender everything to my wonderful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Another thing that I really enjoyed doing during my time there was look at the standards of excellence in AIM based on 1 Timothy 4:12.
Love.
Faith.
Purity.
Speech.
Life.
Our team discussed how we modeled those excellently. We also discussed what we needed to make better and how.
This also led into more discipleship stuff. Like how to disciple the kids in these areas.
This was probably one of the biggest highlights for me of the whole weekend.
I'm thankful that I had the opportunity to go to the conference. It was a good experience for me and a blessing. :)
Thanks for reading.

Mathew 16:24-27 (New King James Version)

²⁴ Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. ²⁵ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. ²⁶ For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.