Procrastination

Procrastination. I'm sure many of us do this a lot. I know I do. It's very easy to just put things off. In my opinion procrastinating should be put to a minimum. I mean we shouldn't do it. When I think about the best motivation for not procrastinating, I think of Christ. Did He procrastinate about dying on the cross for our sins? If I were Him I would've put that off until the last minutes but He didn't I encourage you to stop procrastinating and just do it. Don't put it off any longer:) Have a great day!

Worry

I know Caroline has done a post on worry before couple of times but I don't think I have... (: Worry have been a problem for me over the past year. I worry about school, soccer, piano, church, etc. I know that God tells us not to worry or be anxious about anything but, in my flesh, I still do. There is no reason you can come up with that is a good enough reason to worry. God is always watching out for us and will never give us more than we can handle. I want to challenge you to not worry about anything but give thanks to God in everything. Have a great day!

Philippians 4:6 ~ " do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. "

Run Your Race (Part 1)

I want you to read this passage. While you're reading it, think about it. Also, you might want to come up with some questions to ask yourself.

• 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 ~ 24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

What do you think about what you just read? What questions did you ask yourself? Well, with me personally to connect an athlete to something is one of the biggest way to get me to understand it because I'm and athlete. I know that in order to win games or run a fast mile you have train, eat the right foods, pace yourself, etc. One thing we all need to realize is that just as a runner prepares for a race, or a soccer player prepares for a game, we must prepare for our Christian race. Now when you win a race or a game you get a prize such as a trophy, but one day you will forget about it or it will be destroyed. What if you don't win? What happens then? Well, you typically don't get a prize. But what about our Christian walk? Does only one winner get a prize? NO! Anyone who accepts Jesus Christ as his Savior and accepts the challenge of following Him will get a prize and that prize is spending time with Christ in heaven. There is no greater gift than that one. As you run this race remember that you are never alone; Christ is always with you. I hope this was encouraging to you! I will try and have part 2 posted sometime this week if school permits:). Have a good night!

What Are You Learning?

Are you still reading your Bible everyday? I know I haven't checked up on this in a while and also I haven't given you guys any of the past 3 months reading plans... I'm sorry about that:). But my question is, what are you learning? If you are reading your Bible everyday, you should be learning something. If you aren't, I understand why. There have a few times where I read my Bible just because I'm supposed to, not because I need to. I've gone through my Bible reading time without focusing on it and when I was done couldn't even remember what I had just read. With school it can be easy to do that... we are too busy focusing on upcoming tests, or homework we have to do last minute, or, for me, I have soccer game and I'm so nervous I can't focus. None of those things are bad necessarily but Satan can use them to distract us from focusing on God and His Word. I just want to encourage you to read your Bible with a purpose and be learning something every time you open God's Word. Have a great day! :)

Living Outside the Box

Have you ever had someone tell you to "think outside the box"? I have had some experiences recently that have taught me to live outside the box and go outside of my comfort zone. Recently, a new girl from Africa came to my school. I was assigned to show her around the school and introduce her to all the teachers, etc. I love meeting new people, but this made me a little uncomfortable. I could hardly understand her accent, and I had to miss some of my classes to help her with stuff. Then, I realized: I really should be spending wayyyyyyyy more time doing things like this rather than spending all my time worrying about me, myself, and I. Most of the time, I just live inside my own little box, and I don't want anyone to bother me. But, I realized that that is a terrible attitude to have, and God has really shown me a lot through this circumstance. So, my challenge to you is: do something that is a little uncomfortable or inconvenient, but ask God to help you grow through situation. You'd be surprised what God can do!!

When Trials Come

Some people like talking about their trials. Some people like to keep it to themselves. Some people just like to go to their happy place and pretend that they don't have any trials. Now I'm not saying that if you aren't going through a trial right now that you are crazy. What I am saying is that if you are truly a Christian and you are trying to follow Christ, you will have trials and if you don't have one now be sure there will be more to come. So far all I've managed to do is basically put you all down in the dumps because you're either crazy or you have problems but if you keep reading it will get better. I promise! Since we are going to have trials, where do we get comfort? Where can we get strength? Where will we find help? The answer to all these questions is the Bible. Now that's a pretty broad answer so let's narrow it down a little bit.

We're gonna start out with Hebrews 13:5. It says, "Keep your like free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."" Now the first part of this verse is important but when you're reading it I want you right now to focus on the last part of it. Now let's move on to our second verse. It is in Deuteronomy chapter 31 verse 6. It says, "Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you." Again He states that He will never leave you. When you are in the middle of a trial I want you to remember these verses. They will hopefully help you get through your trial.

*I sort of combined this post with another I was going to do about God never leaving you but I think I covered that subject pretty well with this post. I hope this encourages you. I have other verses to go along with this lesson but I think it would be a good Bible study for you to do especially if you're going through a trial currently.

New Year's Resolution; Checkup

Hey guys! How have your new year's resolutions been going? Mine have been going surprisingly well. I been reading my Bible everyday which is shocking to me because I still can't believe I've done it faithfully for this long! Have you been reading your Bible everyday? If you haven't, I encourage to do it from now on. Now doing this kinda fits in with my post on motivation (which you see in our January posts). I just want to remind you that without God being your sole-motivator, you won't be able to do this. I encourage you to ask God to help you start or keep doing those new year's resolutions. I'm gonna keep checking up on all of you but, I can't ask you everyday so I encourage you be accountable to someone. This will not only help you but it will also help the person you're doing it with. I hope you all have a great day! :)

Complaining

Complaining is one of my best friends and has been for as long as I can remember but it's not a good character trait to have. Complaining not only annoys others but it also going against what God say in the Bible. In Philippians 2:14 it says, "Do all things without grumbling or questioning". I encourage you to memorize that verse so whenever you think about complaining because you're not happy with that situation you can think of that verse. Now this is much easier said than done. For me, I'm gonna have no choice but to follow through because my Mom reads our blog... 'nough said ;). But some of you may not be as lucky as I am. If you don't of anyone to check up on you then ask a friend or a family member or you can ask me:). The reason that I'm saying to get someone to check up on you is because it gives you accountability. So, next time you're about to complain think of that verse and pray and ask God to help you not complain but to reflect Christ in your response. Hope this encourages. you. Have a great day!

The Gift of Love

This post is from a sermon I heard last night. The speaker was Evangelist Will Galkin. He preached on the gift of love and how love cares about others not yourself. The passage he used was 1 Corinthians 13. I encourage you to go through and read that entire book but especially that chapter. I'm going to put my notes from last night below. I hope these help you:)

"None of us can be selfless without God."
1 Corinthians 13

• Gifts are made for giving and sharing with love. (gifts can also be talents)
• vs. 2 ~ "if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."
• Christ was and is completely selfless.
• We need to stop caring about 'me' and start caring about others.
• Love and patient and kind.
• Love is not jealous. Love stops talking and starts listening.
• Love is not caring about 'me' but instead caring about others.
• We need to love and care for others more than we do ourselves.
• Love is not self-seeking.
• Our only idol should be God; not tv, not friends, not sports, etc.
• Your anger reveals your idols.
• We let anger get in the way of our love.
• Don't "keep score" of peoples' faults.
• Love brings hope and mercy.
• Love endures all things.

Some of you may be thinking about that one person that you couldn't possibly love. I did the same thing. While I was listening to this I kept thinking about this one person that I have ignored, disliked, and talked about and thought about it. Could I love? I made a decision last night that no matter what that person (or any person) I would still love them. But only through Christ is that possible. So, I guess this could also be a challenge. I challenge you (and me) to love others more than you love yourself. But remember you can't do it without God! I would like to ask y'all to pray for me because this is going to be hard and I know it will be for you too. I hope this post encourages you to love through Christ alone. Have a great day!

Friends

Friends are in and out of your life just like moments passing on a clock. I have a very good friend who I like to hang out with whenever I can get the chance. She lives in Illinois, and since I never get to see her, making contact is important to me. Just like I cannot see my friend every day, we cannot see God. But we can see Him through the reading of his word. I mean, we can't see him face to face (like I can this friend on Skype), but we communicate with him through the reading of his word and praying. As we read his word, the Holy Spirit guides and directs us to the way we should go, just like a good friend. Good friends are hard to come by. 'Good friends' are the friends that will stick by us when the going gets tough. Friends that we can rely on and will understand us. I once read this next quote somewhere, and it says, “Be careful of who your friends are. For you become what they are." We need to have a close, intimate relationship with God so that we can become more like Him. By reading His word and praying, we become more like him. So my challenge to you is, choose your friends carefully, and become more like God.

New Year, New Habits

Well, here we are in 2011. Can you believe how fast time has gone?!?! As you can see the title of this post is, "New Year, New Habits". Do you have any new habits? I have a couple; 1. I've been reading my Bible everyday. 2. I got up on time! 3. Kept my room clean. Now you may be thinking, ok Breanna it's been 3 days! Seriously? I know it's only been 3 days but they've been a good 3 days! Now with there being 362 more of them I intend to keep doing what I've been doing. Now I have already done a few posts about reading your Bible everyday and making GOOD new habits so I'm not gonna keep running those things into the ground but I do want to check up on you guys. I'm not trying to be nosy but I want to know that I'm not alone;) I need some moral support;) jk. Now I know Caroline is typically the only one who comments but on this post I want everyone who reads it to comment on it. I don't care if I know who you are or not. You don't even have to say anything! I just want this year to be really focused on God and on His Word, and if we do that then everything else will fall into place:D. Well, I guess I better go so you guys don't get tired of reading a really long post:) but I hope all of y'all have a good night!

Another New Year's Challenge

Happy 2011 everyone!!!! I know that I have encouraged everyone to make New Year's resolutions, but I have gotten a great idea from another blog. I was reading the Lies Young Women Believe Blog the other day, and they had a great idea. They challenged everyone to start the New Year off by reading their Bible. For many people, that is a given. But, I thought that it was a great idea, because it will keep my resolutions (hopefully) focused on Christ. So, it is my challenge to y'all (and of course, me) to take the month of January, and think more about reading your Bible than your resolutions. I'm not saying not to do them, but to think about reading your Bible first. That way, when you think about your resolutions, you will think about them more through Christ's point of view. I thought it was really cool that I read this on another blog, because my resolutions almost always end up not happening. This way, I will know if they are really important. I am still doing my other New Year's resolutions, but reading my Bible is my first priority. I hope that this will encourage you to be focused on God's Word this month, and for the rest of the year!

New Year's Resolution; Part 2

Like I promised I am going to update you about the reading through the Bible in a year plan. When we are doing this, it's not just to say that we've read through the Bible in a year, it's for us to study the Bible. We can't forget to focus on what we're reading because that is the most important thing. Now that we have focused on that New Year's Resolution, what other ones do you have? I have a few of them... One of them being to run 365 miles from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011. I can't decide if that's unreasonable or not but I'm going to tr y and do it. Of course the Lord is going to have to help me because this is gonna be hard to get going. So what are your new year's resolutions? I would love to hear them! I am going to put the January reading plan below for your convenience... because I probably won't have time to do a post every day. Hope you have a great week!

January

1. Genesis 1-3
2. Genesis 4-6
3. Genesis 7-9
4. Genesis 10-12
5. Genesis 13-15
6. Genesis 16-18
7. Genesis 19-21
8. Genesis 22-24
9. Genesis 25-27
10. Genesis 28-30
11. Genesis 31-33
12. Genesis 34-36
13. Genesis 37-39
14. Genesis 40-42
15. Genesis 43-45
16. Genesis 46-50
17. Matthew 1-3
18. Matthew 4-6
19. Matthew 7-9
20. Matthew 10-12
21. Matthew 13-15
22. Matthew 16-18
23. Matthew 19-21
24. Matthew 22-24
25. Matthew 25-28
26. Exodus 1-3
27. Exodus 4-6
28. Exodus 7-9
29. Exodus 10-12
30. Exodus 13-15
31. Exodus 16-18

Are You Ready For 2011?

Can you believe that it's almost 2011? I can't. It seems like just yesterday that we were sitting around waiting for 2010. Time definitely flies sometimes! Do you have any New Year's resolutions? I have a few so far. They are:

*Read my Bible every day and read through the whole thing in a year (Breanna and I are doing the same plan this year and I think she is going to post it for y'all).
*Run at least two miles at least three times a week (I'm trying to train for a 5K, so we'll see if that happens)
*Finish the year with all A's (I may have to change that to all A's and B's, but we'll see)

I'm sure that I will think of several more resolutions before the New Year begins. My challenge to y'all, though, is to really try to keep the important ones. I mean, I know that they are all important or you wouldn't have made them. But, for instance, if I don't run 2 miles three days a week, that won't affect me spiritually. But if I don't read my Bible every day, that might. So, I challenge you to at least keep the really important ones, even if those are the only ones you are able to keep. I am sure that there will (unfortunately) be days that I do not read my Bible this year. But I am going to try my best to do it whenever possible, and to make time to do it each day. I hope this post encourages you, and I would love to hear about any resolutions you have made!

New Year's Resolution

What is your new year's resolution? Have you given it any thought? Well, I want to maybe give you an idea for your new year's resolution. My new year's resolution is to try and read through the whole Bible and I want you to do it with me! My plan is to open a new page and try to do a devotion update every day but with school that may not happen but I will do my best. This is a big challenge and may seem a bit overwhelming but we can do this together. I promise! I am really excite! It's gonna be a great study. Now this challenge to read the Bible in a year goes along with reading your Bible everyday. This may seem hard too . I know it will be for me but, if I have to be accountable like this then hopefully I will do better and I'm gonna try my hardest! Now I haven't decided which plan I am going to use yet but I will have that posted hopefully before the end of the week! So I hope you will take this challenge with me and try to complete it. Also, encourage your friends and family to do it with you if they don't have another Bible reading plan. The more we know about God the more we can understand Him though we can never fully understand Him. My next post will tell you more about this devotion plan and what it is about. I hope you all have a great night!

Is there more?

Well, if you read my last post you remember is was about focusing on Christ during Christmas. But is that the only time we need to focus on Him? No! He should be our main focus all the time but rarely is. Trying to focus on Him is often the last thing we want to especially with all the things the world has to offer. The world often looks more appealing but that's not true. The world often tempts you to do stuff that you know is wrong and yet you do it anyways. I would know because I do it too. I am human and so are you so naturally we don't want to follow Christ. I know Carline just did a challenge but, I'm going to give you another one:D. I want you to start focusing on Him all year round. Now there are going to be some challenges and you're going to be tempted. But I don't want you to not do the right thing because you're scared. We need to stand up and follow Christ it's gonna test your strength but I have a feeling most of you are strong enough if you ask God for you help. I hope you will take this challenge. I am going to try. I hope you have a great day!!!

Christmas: A Challenge

With it being so close to Christmas, I thought I'd do a post about it. I know Breanna just did one, but I thought I would challenge everyone (and myself!!) about the true meaning of Christmas. I tell myself every year that I'm going to do better, but somehow, I never really do. Maybe it is because I'm not asking Christ for help. Maybe I'm depending on myself to fix what I can't. So, this year, I am going to ask Christ to help me focus on Him this Christmas. I am also going to focus more on giving than receiving. I already have so much, and there are so many people with nothing. I hope this challenge motivates you, and I will post back after Christmas and let y'all know how it went!

Good Deeds: A Challenge

The other day I started thinking. I was thinking about how when we, as Christians struggle with a particular sin, and we know that we do, we will try to fix it. Which is a good thing, as long as we know that we can't apart from God's strength. But then I thought, "I think while we're so focused on all of the negative things, we miss out on the positive ones." I'm NOT saying that we should just let our sin go, but simply that we should be just as focused on that, while also trying to do good deeds. Christ did so many good deeds while He was on earth. Some of them, like doing miracles, we can't do. But, others, like being hospitable, etc. we can do. So, it is my challenge to you, and me, to try and do some good deeds this week. I think you'd be surprised at the results!!! I will comment in a week or two and let you know about my experience!!

*You may not struggle with this at all, but I recognized it as something I struggle with, so I thought I'd do a post about it. If you don't struggle with this, then keep doing the good deeds that you're doing now!!*

Our Speech: A Challenge

Hi Everyone!! Breanna and I would like to put a challenge out there for all of y'all (and us). We have heard a lot about gossip lately and know just how hurtful it can be. We were thinking that we should have a challenge not to gossip for a week (we really should work up to not gossiping at all, but nobody's perfect and I'm not even sure if I can go a whole week). This is something that we need to ask God to help us with; we can't do anything on our own. I will be praying this week that God will help me to not gossip. If you slip up, that's OK! As I said before, nobody's perfect. Just keep asking God to help you not to, and eventually, it will become a habit.
A lot of the time, the reason we gossip is because of peer pressure. Even if we were resolved not to in the beginning, our friends will start and then we get pulled into it. They say something about someone, and we can't resist sharing that juicy tidbit of information we know about that person. A good way to test whether you're gossiping or not is to ask yourself if you'd say what you're saying about that person, to them. If you would, you're fine! If you wouldn't, you need to not say it. A verse that has really impacted my life is Ephesians 4:29: Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. This verse was a great revelation for me, because even though I knew not to gossip, this kind of explained why. What we say should edify, or build up the people we are talking to and about.
I found that this post was very easy for me to write, because this is something that I have really struggled with, and therefore heard a lot about. I feel like this is a very important issue, because we could be spending our time doing and saying much better things than gossiping. I hope this post really encourages you and helps you! Breanna and I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject and how you did with the challenge!! We'll post in a week to share our experiences with you!!