Our Stories

          "Most people live life on the path we set for them, too afraid to explore any other. But once in a while people like you come along who knock down all the obstacles we put in your way. People who realize freewill is a gift that you'll never know how to use until you fight for it. I think that's the chairman's real plan. That maybe one day, we won't write the plan, you will." (as said by Harry Mitchell in the movie "The Adjustment Bureau").
          My main question for you right here, right now is are you going to write the plan, the story of your life? Or are you going to let someone else take the pen and paper? We are the ones who decide how we live our lives. We choose how we act, what we do, and we even choose our future. But you first have to chose to own your life and not let someone else choose what your life will become.
           We face challenges but will we just give up? We are put in scary situations but does that mean we won't explore different paths in life? NO. You are strong, you make mistakes but, NO MATTER  how much you feel that nothing can change, it will. You are you and that won't change, just know it's not over until it's over and I gurantee, it is NOT OVER!
          Ultimately, we get to choose if we are happy or sad, successful or not. We need to choose that our lives will be good, that we will have good attitudes, and that no matter what we won't give up. Can you do that? Together can we own our lives?

-Julia-

Ahh, yes, the past can hurt

          We all live with some kind of past or fear or trial that we want to get rid of, we begin to think we can just forget about it. We think we can run away so, without giving any forethought, we automatically try to find the fastest way to escape because it feels threatening. The thing is that doesn't work, we run and run but just get tired and unsatisfied. We think we can let go of our past, our fears, our trials... but we can't, all we can do is learn from them. I think Rafiki from the Lion King says it best, "Oh yes, the past can hurt. But you can either run from it, or learn from it." You see the more we run the more pain we will gain on the way. Though when we learn from our past, trials, and fears we see the good in them, we learn why it happened to us and why that thing that seemed so tedious would chase us around. You see once we learn the good we are just a bit more relieved. So no matter how hard it may be, I challenge you this week to confront your past, your trials, and your fears and just let go and learn.

-Julia-

2015

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
As we enter into this new year I wanted to hear your New Year resolutions. Do you have any?
I personally have a few goals for this year! Let me share them with you...

First off, this year I really want to get a jar and put into it as often as possible, a small piece of paper that says something I'm thankful for, something good or bad that happened, or even a random thought (this was a modified idea I got from my friend Brenna). I am doing this because at the end of 2015 I would like to be able to look back at the year and see the good, the bad, the mistakes made, and the things I was blessed enough to have.

My next goal for 2015 is to put time aside for friends, family, and God. My reasoning behind this is because this next year I want to get to know these people better and want to develop better relationships with them.

One pretty short goal that I have is to blog at least once a week (let's see how I do). I really want to grow this blog and develop these writing skills of mine!

One last goal (of many) that I would like to share with you is to be joyful. 1 Thessalonians 5:16 says simply, "Be joyful always". Therefore, I am following that advice and making it my main goal for 2015 to be joyful in ALL circumstances.

Remember, if you mess up and go against your goal sometime during the new year the WORST thing you could possibly do is give up. KEEP TRYING! If you have any goals or any tips on how to keep them, comment below!

-Julia-

Priorities

          This time of year I hear so many people talk about priorities (myself included), whether we know it or not we probably have some of our own. I think getting our priorities straight is something we really need to do to be productive and become who we want to be. For me my priorities is a list including family, friends, my relationship with God, youth group, household chores, etc. (the list goes on and on). I decided that this year on my blog I want to do something with you all, I want to work on the priorities. Our goal together is to clear out clutter in our life and really do what matters to us.

1. To start,sit down in a quiet area (do it now, don't put it off). I want you all to think about your daily routine and if what you do daily is what you really want your focus to be like. Ask questions like: Am I always too busy? Do I have clutter filling my life? Am I doing things I actually care about?
2. Now that you have all these things in mind I want you to write down your daily activities. Highlight the different things you do that are important to you! (or things you have to do like school and work). The things that aren't highlighted is clutter. These are the things you don't  NEED to do and should do it later when you have extra time (this should leave time in your life to just take a break). Take out the clutter and put together your new schedule based on your new priorities.
3. Take a test run on this schedule. Follow this schedule for a week and see how it goes. Through the week take out the things you see you don't need in your life and add the things you want to focus on. Remember that taking out all the clutter will take you while and that this all just takes time.
4. Once you really get your priorities in order I advise that you go thorough them again and make sure all the things you need are included. You can make sure that things like exercise, Bible reading, cleaning, etc. are in your everyday schedule.

         I hope this helps you bit this year so that you can really set your priorities and get them straight for 2015. If your like me and don't like schedules too much just make a checklist. You can put the most important things on top for what you need to get done (the things on the bottom can be what you don't have to do). So get out there and set some priorities for the new year!

-Julia-

Christmas: Jesus

Before I write to you what should have been posted yesterday (Christmas) I want to let you all know that I am working on organizing things so I have time for the priorities in life. Hopefully this will also make it so that I can post on a regular basis. But enough about me, let's get to the post (to let you all know this post is about Jesus and the Christmas story).        
          Let me start by saying that we are not the focus of Christmas God is, but Christmas is about God's deep and vast love for us. Jesus was sent by God into the world as a Savior (John 1:4), meaning that Jesus had the mission to save all who would accept him. Some people during Christmas just look at Jesus as a helpless baby in a manger, but it's so much more than that. God was willing to live a the life of a mortal man (Jesus) and go through all the bad things in life to die on a cross to save us! When we think of Christmas we should think of Jesus's birth AND suffering; we should think of how God has a plan for you and for me. The Bible says in Jerimiah 29:11, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and future,'". This Christmas season let us rejoice that Jesus was sent into this world to die, so that we could be saved; He has given us true hope.

-Julia-

Christmas:Joseph

          Joseph is a descendant of David and is a carpenter by trade. Joseph was betrothed Mary (as we learned about a few days ago) and when Joseph heard Mary was pregnant he was going to quietly divorce her. It seems rude that Joseph would divorce Mary because she was pregnant, huh? The thing is he did it because he cared, he was "unwilling to put her to shame" (Matthew 1:19). Joseph cared so much for Mary that he would divorce her so that people wouldn't accuse her of adultery and put her to shame.
          Joseph also had at least four other sons and at least two daughters. Since Joseph isn't mentioned in the incident related in Matthew 12:46, it is likely that he died before Jesus began his ministry.

Bottom line is that Joseph was a "just man" who really cared for his family.

-Julia-

Christmas: Mary

I have decided that I am going to do some posts about the different people involved in the story of Christmas. I hope that this will not only help me understand Christmas more but, hopefully help you this Christmas season as well.

          Through Luke 1:26-38 Mary shows total obedience. She says, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." Mary doesn't complain like most of us would, and as we can imagine she must have been terrified. Imagine this teenager visited by an angel, telling her that as a virgin she would give birth to Jesus. I would personally think that the whole thing was some joke, I would most likely run and hide. But Mary did the complete opposite... she obeyed. Mary obeyed like none of us have before, she agreed to give birth to Jesus as a virgin teen.

This is the first of MANY posts coming up this next week. We will most likely learn more about Mary through the week, but I figured this was a good start. I think today is a wonderful day to try to be a bit more like Mary and be God's servant.

-Julia-