misc.

Hello Everyone! I don't have any excuses other than "school" for why I haven't posted in so long, so I'll just say I'm sorry :)

Anyway, in my devotions this morning I read this selection from Morning and Evening:

"His bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob."
-- Genesis 49:24

"That strength which God gives to his Josephs is real strength; it isnot a boasted valour, a fiction, a thing of which men talk, but whichends in smoke; it is true-divine strength. Why does Joseph standagainst temptation? Because God gives him aid. There is nought that wecan do without the power of God. All true strength comes from "themighty God of Jacob." Notice in what a blessedly familiar way God givesthis strength to Joseph-"The arms of his hands were made strong by thehands of the mighty God of Jacob." Thus God is represented as puttinghis hands on Joseph's hands, placing his arms on Joseph's arms. Like asa father teaches his children, so the Lord teaches them that fear him.He puts his arms upon them. Marvellous condescension! God Almighty,Eternal, Omnipotent, stoops from his throne and lays his hand upon thechild's hand, stretching his arm upon the arm of Joseph, that he may bemade strong! This strength was also covenant strength, for it isascribed to "the mighty God of Jacob." Now, wherever you read of theGod of Jacob in the Bible, you should remember the covenant with Jacob.Christians love to think of God's covenant. All the power, all thegrace, all the blessings, all the mercies, all the comforts, all thethings we have, flow to us from the well-head, through the covenant. Ifthere were no covenant, then we should fail indeed; for all grace proceeds from it, as light and heat from the sun. No angels ascend or descend, save upon that ladder which Jacob saw, at the top of which stood a covenant God. Christian, it may be that the archers have sorely grieved you, and shot at you, and wounded you, but still your bow abides in strength; be sure, then, to ascribe all the glory to Jacob's God. "

Oops, some of the words are smooshed together. Sorry about that! Hopefully you can still make it out, because it is powerful and encouraging! I don't know about you, but I frequently feel my lack of strength spiritually. Not that I question my salvation, but sometimes I just don't feel strong in my faith. Like the ever-so-popular children's (and adult's) worship song, Jesus Loves Me says: "They (we) are weak but he is strong!" (now just picture a room full of 4-5 year olds singing that with only a handful of adults in the room, with heavy emphasis on the "strong". That's what I get to see almost every Sunday:) Anyway, to picture the Lord laying his arms and hands on mine and restoring my strength is a thing of great beauty to my soul. I'm falling deeper in love, people!

Okay, I have two more awesome tidbits to share with you. I received an ESV Study Bible for Christmas this year! And I've been using it nearly everyday (I'm trying to read through the New Testament this year). Just this morning, however, I decided to register my "online code" in order to view my Bible online. IT IS SO COOL! You are able to add notes, listen to a person read it (enthusiastically, I might add!), read the notes from the Study Bible, go directly to a linked verse, see a verse just by hovering over the bold type, and more! If you have a Study Bible, but, like me, you never registered your code, DO IT! You won't regret it. And if you don't have a Study Bible, I highly recommend one! It has been very helpful to me in understanding what was really going on in Bible times, and it has also helped me with theological questions that I've had.

Now for my last item: Faith Like Potatoes. I watched this movie with our small group on Friday night and it blew me away! It is a Christian film that is both encouraging and faith-building. There is one part in the movie that I had to close my eyes, and for families with younger kids, I would recommend fast-forwarding through, since it is a scene that involves an extremely traumatic circumstance. However, it really added a whole other dimension to the movie, and although it was hard to watch/hear, it was good for me. I hope to do a more full review on this movie later, but for now I'll leave it at that and add it to the "Favorite Movies" section of my profile ;)

Off to start my day!

Extraordinary disappointment...

Well, I'm sick.

Yesterday, I was supposed to go to one of my best friend's house for a double sleepover and the long anticipated (by us) premiere of the movie Extraordinary Measures. But, I woke up feeling cranky and tired and terrible. And I knew that would be a rotten way to spend a double sleepover. Plus, I would hate to give my friend or any of her many little brothers and sisters my sickness.

So, I cried as my mom called her mom to say that I wouldn't be able to come. I was nearly heartbroken. I just couldn't understand why God would have me get sick at the exact time that I wanted nothing more than to hang out with my dear, dear friend. Why, after we had both been praying that nothing would go wrong, did He see fit for me to come down violently with a virus?

All I could do was think about the verses in the Bible that talk about God's love and Providence. I believe that God is Sovereign over everything. Everything? Even sickness? Even death? Even movie premieres and double sleepovers and teenage girls? Yes. EVERYTHING.

The following verse gave me comfort:

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

The truth is, I still don't know why it was good and better for me to have gotten sick than to have gone to my friend's house. But I do know that it WAS what was GOOD and BEST. Because I am a child of God, and He works all things together for the good--the further sanctification--of His children. Even if it's hard or difficult. What an incredible thing! What an incredible promise! Who is like our God? NO ONE! He is the best, most loving Father that will do what is best for His children, no matter what.

So anyway. Please join me in loving Him more and more every day!

Here is one way that He has blessed me during this awful virus:

Has anyone heard of Watch It Now on Netflix? Well, it's something where you are able to watch select movies and T.V. shows on your computer right from their website. Anyway, as I was looking for something to watch, I stumbled upon a FANTASTIC version of Jane Eyre. It was a 1983 version starring Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton as Jane and Mr. Rochester, respectively. They were phenomenal! I was enchanted for nearly 5 hours!

Also, I am in the midst of reading Sense and Sensibility, as I've stated before, so I've decided to put up a poll. Who is your favorite male lead in this novel? I plan to do more polls like this in the future, and I thought this would be a fun one to start out. Please vote for your favorite and then leave a comment with who you voted for and why!

Okay, I should get to bed...just one more thing. I wanted to let y'all know that I actually and genuinely enjoyed myself at Driver's Ed! My teacher is very fun and nice (he actually remembered my older sister and said that I look just like her!). There are a couple kids that I know that are in the class, one being a girl that I knew a while back but had fallen out of touch with. She's super nice and I went up to her and asked to sit by her. So now, I'm not stressed in the least. Praise the Lord!

p.s. I apologize for any grammatically incorrect sentences or misspellings--I'm exhausted and sick at the moment ;)

The time has come

(How's that for a better title?)

Well, here I am, at 6:47 in the morning, showered and dressed. What's that? Why am I awake right now instead of sleeping in my soft, warm bed? The answer is simple. Driver's ed.

Yes, starting at 8 o'clock this morning, I will begin learning all of the facts necessary for driving. I'm taking a class that is on Wednesday mornings for 15 weeks. I am insanely nervous.

Not really, it's just fun to say. I am a little nervous, but who wouldn't be?

So anyway, I hope I survive this class so I can come home and tell you all about it. :) I'll try to post later today, if not later this week.

p.s. any prayers would be appreciated ;)

Owl City

Okay, all of my post titles are really lame. No ingenuity whatsoever. I'll have to work on that. Anyway...

Has anyone heard of Owl City/Adam Young? He's a guy from a just an hour south of where I live. As the story goes, he started making music on the computer in his parents' basement in the middle of the night as a result of insomnia. Some of my friends really liked him and so I thought I'd look him up. I really liked what I heard, and Amazon was selling his new cd (a download, like iTunes for people like me that don't have real iPods) for $6, so I bought it. I LOVE IT! The songs are super sweet and happy. You have to come over so I can play them for you. Well, I guess you might not like it unless you are like me and don't mind a little cheesiness for the sake of utter sweetness and cuteness! I listen to it while I do Algebra 2 and my lit. study guides. The songs make me so happy. Even my mom likes him!

And on top of all of that awesomeness...he's a Christian! I don't have a twitter account, but I saw on his website a tweet that was talking about glorifying Christ Jesus. Actually, he's been to my church and he really likes my pastor. Well, our church is split into three campuses, so he's been to the southern-most one, but it still counts, right? :)

So, now I'm jealous of my friends who first told me about him because they are going to one of his concerts in May. How cool is that?!?!

Anyway, you should listen to him and let me know what you think! And if you've already been exposed to this happiness, tell me your favorite songs. My favorite by far is Vanilla Twilight. So. Stinkin'. Sweet.

Sense and Sensibility

Well, so far for my book group I've read: Wuthering Heights, The Three Musketeers, and Frankenstein and now it's on to Sense and Sensibility. I'm very happy about this selection, as you may have guessed :). I love both movie versions that I've seen and I've started the book more than once but I have never finished it. Part of what I love about having a book group is that you have to finish. And it's fun, too! Trying to figure out what other people will think, mentally "bookmarking" an especially touching moment so that you can share it with a group, and, well, just talking about any book makes it so much better and more in depth. Speaking of which, I have yet to read more than half of this week's assignment, so I'd better get off of Blogger and get into the world of the Dashwood sisters, Colonel Brandon, Willoughby, and Edward Ferrars. Farewell!

Amy has a blog!

My sister Amy now has a blog, at www.hehassavedme.blogspot.com. The name of her blog is "Coming to Jesus". She's only 9, so I don't expect her posts to be very regular, but they are so sweet when they come that I thought it might be worth it for you to become a follower. :)

I'm so sorry...

...that I haven't posted in so long!!! The holidays etc. had totally taken over my life, but now that we are starting school again (well, we will on Monday) I'm hoping to take over the reigns again. Hopefully this will mean that my New Year's resolutions will be able to actually happen. Here they are:

1. Personal daily devotions in the morning (I am reading through the New Testament at night, but I think it would be best to start my day in the Word. I'm also hoping to start journaling more.)
2. Blogging more often (at least 2-3 times per week, hopefully even more)
3. Exercise and drink lots of water! (Ideally, I'd like to exercise every school day, but I'd be happy if I did Mon-Wed-Fri faithfully!)

Well, I'm hoping to post more about each holiday soon, (and maybe even with pictures!) but I don't have the time right now. I'll just say that my family had a wonderful, peaceful holiday season, remembering Jesus throughout the precious time :)