Practicing Up!!

Practicing up....for several things!!

One: Ryan* and Kayla*'s wedding coming up on Sunday. Christina and I have polished quite a few pieces for this. It's the first wedding that we get to officially do the music. We're excited, and hey, it's good motivation for practicing up some nice classic music for flute and harp:)

Two: College starts Monday. I attended the orientation today. Mr. Bidlemen* teased that he hoped I passed the first class. Oh, I hope so too!!:)

Three: Just practicing beholding Christ more and more.  I just want to know Him and to be like Him!

Well, that's just a couple things I wanted to jot down on my notes today.

Week of Prayer

I am finding a deeper understanding of righteousness by faith. All the pieces of the puzzle that I have had placed before me at sometime or another really fit together! It's not my righteousness but Christ's that saves me! Yea, I knew that before, but the thing of works just confused me a little bit. I'm starting to grasp this beautiful concept for what it really is: Jesus does the work in me. I don't focus on changing me!!! Jesus changes me as I behold Him! My work is to spend time with Him, build a relationship with Him, and stick to Jesus. This is not always easy. Paul tells us that we are to fight the good fight of faith. We just have to fight on in the right place- not fighting to change me, but to know Him.

I'm taking lots of notes from Pastor Lee Vendon's series, "It's all about Jesus" that He is presenting here. Very good!! It's so inspiring to me!! I see that I just need to know Jesus better. This be always my goal!

Back to School

Back to School. 

These words have, in the past, framed a different picture for me than for most students.

For me they included:

excitment,

anticipation of new classes,

looking forward to homeschool gatherings,

choosing a new notebook,

making new goals,

starting out with a clean slate,

and, oh yea, doing my school work in my bedroom or the dinning room table:)

This fall these words, back to school, mean something a little different to me. I find myself figuring out last minuet details on my college schedule, scanning textbook lists at the bookstore, looking on Amazon for better deals and just feeling a bit more overwhelmed and nervous but as always- excited! 

School officially starts the 20th.

I will only be at the college about 3 hours a day, but still, it's different from my once a week classes in town.

What's it going to be like? Really have no idea! 

I'm setting some goals though and going through a great study skills DVD class: Super Star Student. It is very good!

This one thing I try to keep in mind:

"Upon the mind of every student should be impressed the thought that education is a failure unless the understanding has learned to grasp the truths of divine revelation, and unless the heart accepts the teachings of the gospel of Christ. The student who, in the place of the broad principles of the word of God, will accept common ideas, and will allow the time and attention to be absorbed in commonplace, trivial matters, will find his mind becoming dwarfed and enfeebled. He will lose the power of growth. The mind must be trained to comprehend the important truths that concern eternal life."{CT 12.3}

This quote reminds me of that song: "My Hope is Built on Nothing Less....

....than Jesus Christ and righteousness. "

This song states my life goal to place my hope in Jesus -not on academic achievement, not on recognition or fame, riches not on anything else but Jesus and His righteousness.

That's just a little piece of this girl's very full life. I know that I will be challenged with Hard Things this year, but I look forward to them trusting in Jesus.

"Trust 101," From the Lesson Book of God

I really enjoy a great time floating down the river with cousins, Uncle Jason* ,  Auntie,  Pepere, and the rest of my family. It's wonderful when so many of us can meet on the same continent at the same time, but even then we are missing three of the little girls, Auntie Annie, and Memere...too bad Africa lies so far away. Well, that will make heaven all the better.

Anyway, I put my retainer in my pocket while we ate lunch on the riverbank, and then totally forgot about it.  Oh:(( I swam the rest of the way down the river, and yea, you figure out the rest of the story.
.. The retainer slipped out somewhere in that big river, and it's gone.

I have a great family though. This morning, when they found out how much $$$ it would cost me to replace it they all decided to do  a grand search of the river.  A ridiculous idea? Yep! I really have a great family though, and that with faith. We have faith in a God who knows the end from the beginning, and who cares for His children as a father. We all knelt down to pray.  One of my little cousins prayed this, "Dear Lord,  Could you please give us a good swim? and if it your will could you please find us the retainer?"

You know you are loved when:
 Your whole family forms a search party for your missing retainer.
 Your Uncle nearly freezes in water far colder then his normal body temp. limit.
Oh yea, and your Grandfather, Pepere, stands on the bank and cheers everyone on.!

The water seemed colder then ever.

Sadly, we didn't find that ol' retainer.

I had to run to the orthodontist and set down the $$$ for a new one. ick!!

I still trust my Father in Heaven, though! He somehow saw best not fix the problem like I would have planned it, but I am told that "He has a thousand ways of which we know nothing", and that "He would never lead His children otherwise than they would choose to be lead if they could see the end from the beginning and discern the purpose for which they are fulfilling as co-workers with Christ".

I asked the Lord, last night, to teach me to trust Him more. He's answering this prayer. This is just more page in the lesson book of God, entitled, "Trust".

When You Face The 'Deep' Hard Things

I've wondered what I should write for my second blog post on this journey to do hard things. I've had so many ideas swirling around in my brain but just to be able to take a moment and get them down on paper in some kind of meaningful notation is the challenge. I don't like fessing up. It's a hard thing for me, but I faced a challenge yesterday that showed one of the most difficult things in life- at least for me. That is character defect. I don't like being found "in the wrong" or  "at fault"- definitely a pride issue. The thing hit pretty deep yesterday as I didn't want to be "wrong", didn't want to admit I was "wrong",  and didn't want others to think I might have been "wrong".  After mulling over it for quite a long time (oooh, like two hours) I realized a much bigger problem lay under this little thing that I was so ready to defend. I had a heart problem. "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."

What do you do when you realize you've done wrong? What do you when you feel like everybody knows when you've "messed up"? What do you do when you have to say, "I'm sorry"? 

These are hard questions. Why? because they dig deep into the heart.

Prayer Meeting last night was excellent-just what I need to hear. We've listened to the Ivor Myers series about the art of spiritual warfare. Every message inspires, but for some reason the DVD player wouldn't play any of the sermons except the last one which dealt especially with 'our warfare stance'.  Pastor Ivor paralleled our spiritual warfare with that of other types of fighters. Stance is very important to most fighters because without a good stance they are easy prey to the enemy. They are "Push-overs", and that is all it really takes to bring down someone who does not have the right stance. Just push them over (hint: plz. don't try it). So, what is the correct stance? According to Ivor, it is low with the knees bent.

Did you see that, LOW with the knees BENT!

Jesus say, "Come unto me for I am meek and LOWly in heart."

Oh to be more like Jesus! To be willing to come low,  to spend more time with our knees bent in prayer. I believe that if we were to pray more we would become more humble.

This is what I dealt with yesterday-the hardest of hard things- coming face to face with pride and self! No, this is not the first time I have met or surrendered them and I have heard that it is the work of a lifetime, but I have chosen to spend more time "low' on my knees in prayer and study of the life of Christ. I pray, Lord help me to learn to be more humble. Help me to learn to do these most important hard things!

Do Hard Things

I highly recommend this book: Do Hard Things, by Brett and Alex Harris.
It’s very inspiring- a must read for all teenagers. I borrowed it from a friend of mine and I just finished it.  This is not a book that you can read and forget quickly- at least not for me. It is a challenge to meet the high calling which God has placed within the reach of youth today. It’s a challenge to do hard things, not just the great but also the small.  Oh that we would reach for the highest bar of success!!


I am  trying to implement the five ‘hard’ things that this book talks about in my life.

1. Things that are outside your comfort zone (doing what’s hard for you)
2. Things that go beyond what is expected or required
3. Things that are too big to accomplish alone (big hard things:)
4. Things that don’t earn an immediate payoff (Wow!! stuff like making your bed, driving the speed limit??!! Also things like fighting sin, doing schoolwork, and obeying parents)
5. Things that challenge the cultural norm


What hard things will we do today??


You can find this book on their web site:
http://www.therebelution.com/books/