Graced with Grace

Hope.   It’s what I cling to on the days when I don’t think I’ll make it. I cling to hope when I think I am going to fail another test or when I do fail that test. Its hope that I cling to when life is full of pain, when life hurts, when life is hard and I don’t think I can finish the day. When my day is filled with tears there is still Hope. When dreams seem so far away, there is Hope. When life becomes empty and dry, I still have hope. Hope. Although I despair, I cannot despair completely because I have Hope. I cling to hope when all else fails. I cling to hope when I have made yet another mistake in a friendship, when I fall into that same sin yet once more. Hope. It’s what keeps me going when life is a blur and I can’t see what lies before me, when I have no idea what my future holds. When I can’t even see the next step in front of me. Hope. I hold fast to the hope of what is unseen. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his gre...

Hold me close When storms surround me. Hold me close When my heart fails. Hold me close When lying voices overwhelm me. Hold me close When I feel all alone. Hold me close When darkness engulfs me. Hold me close.   Hold me close When the light is seen again. Hold me close When I rejoice once more. Hold me close When friends surround me. Hold me close When life gets easy. Hold me close Through joy or through pain. Hold me close.   Let me not be crushed By the weight of sorrow, But let me not drift When life is okay again. Hold me close.   Let me rejoice Through rain or through shine. Let me rejoice When life gets hard or is just fine. Hold me close.

"So God sent us sights suited to our wandering state, to admonish us that what we seek is not here, and that we must turn back from the things around us to where our whole being springs from - if it did not, we would not even seek these things here." "First we had to be persuaded how much God loved us, in case out of sheer despair we lacked the courage to reach up to him. Also we had to be shown what people we are that he loves, in case we should take pride in our own worth, and so bounce even further away from him and sink even more under our own strength. So he dealt with us in such a way that we could progress rather in his strength; he arranged it so that the power of charity would be brought to perfection in the weakness of humility." "Furthermore, the only thing to cleanse the wicked and the proud is the blood of the just man and the humility of God; to contemplate God, which be nature we are not, we would have to be cleansed by him who became by na...

Just thought you might need to be reminded why singleness is so great and maybe a little laugh too. ;) But seriously, guys (meaning all of mankind, just in case someone thought I was referring just to the male gender )! ;)

Are you looking for a spouse? Or maybe you're too young to be even thinking about that right now. But really you're never to young to know what are good or bad characteristics to have in a future spouse. Maybe you won't be getting married any time soon, but you can be taking note of Biblical godly characteristics.  The Desiring God blog , of which I highly recommend for some good solid reads, posted an article that gave six good solid biblical characteristics that should be sought for in a future spouse and that I found helpful, so I thought I would share the link with ya'll. Maybe some of you will even be inspired to explore the Desiring God blog further if it be your first time visiting it. ;) http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/six-traits-to-look-for-in-a-spouse After you've read the article, come back here and share your thoughts about what you thought of it. Do you agree with the author? Would you add anything to your own list (it's not a...

    "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." Romans 8:26-27 These words of truth bring so much comfort, assurance, and peace! To know that the Holy Spirit is interceding for me on my behalf "with groanings too deep for words" is a huge comfort. Only one who genuinely cares about someone would pray for someone in that way. How often do you or I pray for a friend with groaning to deep for words? Never! Yet the Spirit is interceding for me in this way. This is indeed, an unfathomable love! Furthermore, because the father and the Spirit are one, the father knows the mind of the Spirit and the Spirit knows the mind of the Father, therefore, the Spirit knows how to intercede for me acc...

Joining in with Five Minute Friday . Same. Sometimes life seems to get boring. The same ol' same ol' happens every day. Or is it the same? The same sun rises and sets each day, but is it the same sunrise or sunset that is painted across the sky? Every single day I get out of bed and perform the same rituals , but is it the same? Its a new day and nothing is ever done in the exact same way. And every new day has every new blessing and every new grace. God never gives us the grace that was for yesterday. Today is new grace. New blessings. New sounds of laughter. New tears. New homework that must be complete. Every day is never the same day. God never makes a duplicate. He never makes a same. There are similar. There are twins. But there is never the same. Never the same snowflake. Never the same sunset. Never the same person over again. But one thing is the same. God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. He never changes. From before time was, God was and he...

-That moment when you realize you can probably see more clearly without your glasses on than with them on because they are so dirty. -That moment when you suddenly realize you have said "yes" to way too many things and also realize that you are still just as human as you were before and begin to wonder if it is humanly possible to do everything you had said "yes" to do. Yikes!!! -That moment in Greek class when your professor says something about the second person plural and singular being confusing because it is both translated as "you" and the southern girl thinks, "uh, no it ain't! 'You' is singular and 'ya'll' is plural." (Don't worry, I didn't say it out loud. ;) -That moment when you drive all over town trying to find a place to park, just so you can run into a friend's house to grab a book and leave again. -That moment when you burn your lip from a fork that you try to eat off of after just ho...

I have a confession. Ok, not really a confession because just about everyone who actually knows me knows it and I am not ashamed of it, but.... I have an obsession, of sorts, with Winnie the Pooh! Yes, go ahead and laugh, but seriously, I kind of like him a lot (ok, not as much as Cowboys, but that is a different story). So my car has a little Winnie the Pooh hanging on the mirror and he basically is my friend that accompanies me on all my road trips and road adventures of getting lost (happens a lot). So, whether you like it or not this post is Winnie the Pooh quotes. I probably just scared away half my readers, but you know if you can't put up with my Winnie the Pooh obsession for just one day than that is really just too bad. Be thankful I did not decide to do a Seven Brides for Seven Brothers post instead. I would understand if you left me after that. That would be the testing of whether we are true friends or not, but this time I am just sticking with Winnie the Po...

I don’t like to admit that I have a problem with fear because it shows just how human and weak I am, but I do and I think I am beginning to see my problem for what it really is. I have always tried to side-step it and rather than say that I feared this or that, I would say I just didn’t like it, but in truth, it was more than likely fear and not simply a dislike of something. I have had a lot of fears growing up. Some of which have been conquered and others which are still in the works and others which still must be faced and all of them are probably pretty stupid and ridiculous. To give you a hint of how real fear is a hindrance in my life, I used to fear automatically flushing toilets. Yes, I am completely serious and that was a fear everyone in my family was aware of. ;) I couldn’t side-step that one either because it was such a real fear. Yes, you go ahead and laugh at me, but seriously those things can be absolutely terrifying. Another fear, was the act of talking on a p...

One of my assignments for a couple of my classes is to keep what is called a Commonplace Notebook . So basically it is a notebook where I write down at least 5 quotes from each book that I have to read for that class. This is one of my favorite assignments that I have, except that even that is a little hard for me to keep up with. Haha! But anyway, I thought I would share with you some quotes that I have enjoyed from my readings in the past couple weeks, along with a little explanation why I liked the quote. Hope you enjoy! "Courage, dear brother, this is no time to give in to fear. We have come so far, across so many mountains, and our journey is about to reach its goal." ( Gilgamesh ) This quote stood out to me because I have had a lot of fears coming into this 3rd year of college. Fears that I will fail, fears that I won't be able to finish, fears that I won't understand what is being taught in class, etc.. Yet at the same time, I have already made it thro...

Coffee and book       coffee and Greek And always a lot of grace.....