There is Something About That Name

"Jesus, Jesus, Jesus

There's just something about that name Master, Savior, Jesus Like the fragrance after the rain Jesus, Jesus, Jesus

Let all heaven and earth proclaim

Kings and kingdoms shall all pass away

But there's something about that name."

My parents used to sing this to me as a child to help me fall asleep when I couldn't sleep. It was one of the most comforting things for me. I always just became super peaceful and would fall asleep when they would sing this to me. Now that I am an adult I understand fully as to why it has always been so comforting to me. It's such a great reminder as to how sweet and great Jesus' name is. Just the sound of Jesus' name should put us at peace. He is our master, our savior, our redeemer, our best friend and is always there to give us peace. Jesus came so that we didn't have to bear the burden of the world on our shoulders, instead he takes on the weight and gives us something so much lighter to carry. We just have to give our burdens and troubles to him. Even what seems so minute to us can end up adding up and become so huge! Just give Jesus your burdens and he will carry them for you, so that you might rest in the peace, joy and comfort he offers! Just as the poem, by Mary Stevenson, "Footprints in the Sand" states "The Lord replied. "The times when you have seen only one set of footprints, is when I carried you." Jesus will carry you through the tough times if you let him.

God Bless

CUPCAKE FUN!!!!

So tomorrow my church is having a Memorial Day picnic so I decided i wanted to try something that I saw awhile back.... tie-dye cupcakes!!!!! :D They took more time than I thought, but they were super easy and fun to make :D Ok so here are the steps to making these super fun cupcakes!!

For these fun cupcakes you will need:
Cupcake liners
Lots of napkins, because it gets pretty messy
White cake mix and whatever the box tells you that you need
5-6 different colors of colored food coloring
5-6 spoons and bowls for the different colors
Icing
Sprinkles


STEP 1: Mix the batter the way it tells you too on the box. Make sure to use WHITE cake mix, lol I tried using yellow and the colors just aren't as pretty.

STEP 2: Evenly put the batter into 5-6 bowls depending on how many colors you want to use, and then add the food coloring. I just used what I had and it worked great! :) It did help that they were neon colors lol.

STEP 3: Layering time!( I  put my colors in order of the rainbow which made the colors work better together. ) Start by putting one color at the bottom on all of the cupcakes and then just layer each color on top.  Make sure you don't put too much of each color, because you may run out of a color, or not have room for all of your colors.

STEP 4: Put them in the oven and bake them for however long the box tells you.

STEP 5: Let your cupcakes cool and then ice them and decorate them however you want!

I hope you enjoy these fun cupcakes!!! Have a happy Memorial Day!! God Bless!!



I'm back!!!!

So It's been awhile since I wrote anything for my blog. Lately I have really just felt that I needed to get back and actually commit to blogging:) I actually really really enjoy it! I am hoping with it being summer I can really get into the habit, so when school starts up it will be easier to keep up with! lol Well my second semester of college was quite an experience:) lol here are some pics from it :D

 Me and William at a Birthday Party

Texas Music Educators Association

Conference
fun lol
 We went to the MAGIC TIME MACHINE for dinner one night!

   

19th Birthday fun!

Choir trip to

                                                                        New Orleans lots of fun, full of many new experiences! Probably one of the funnest trips I have gone on with a choir!

 

                               PLAY DAY fun! Great day to
                                                   relax before preparing for finals!



                               

Easter with the cousins!!! :D
                                                                      

Informal!!! last day of class dance!!! Basically a rave with clean music and no drugs or alcohol!! lol What Can I say? We are Baptist! lol But yet we still dance? hmmm? lol

my little sister's prom!

REDEEMING LOVE

WOW WOW WOW!!!! I'm so awake right now and so incredibly at peace and happy beyond measure!! It is about 2 o'clock in the morning and I just finished reading one of the most amazing and most inspirational books ever!!! It is called Redeeming Love, by Francine Rivers. It was a book inspired by the book of Hosea in the bible. The whole theme of the book was just as it was titled redeeming love. The whole book alludes to God's great and undying love for us. The love we don't deserve, but God offers it freely without holding back. Even when we fall away from or deny God he loves us all the same. When we are impatient and putting other things before him creating idols in our lives he still loves us! All he wants is for us to see that Love and just grab hold of it and never let go. He sent his son to this earth to save us all, so that we might experience his love!!!

For me God just kept whispering to me "Beloved. Good things come to those who wait." Ever since I was little I have always wanted that fairytale ending where I find my true love and we live happily ever after! I have always wanted to get married and have my own family. I know in God's timing, key word- HIS timing, that will happen, but I know that right now I need to put all of my focus, attention, and just my whole entire soul and being solely on God and his great love for me. I know that someday when God knows my heart is fully his and ready he will bring across a love more amazing than I could ever imagine into my life to share his love with and be able to use our love towards each other to show Christ to the world. I am so in love with God now more than ever. All of my distractions are not going to have a foothold any longer. My longings will no longer control my every move. Lord I give YOU control!!! You are all I need. You are the bridegroom and I am your bride. Lord show me YOUR will for my life. Take away my idols, i give them all to you father. Amen

There is so much more going through my mind, but I can't even put words to it. God is just so good and so patient. I am so incredibly thankful he loves me the way he does even though I do not deserve an ounce of it! He is my maker and creater. He is the potter, I am the clay. I am his empty vessel for him to fill with his love, so that I might share it with the world. Three of my favorite verses keep popping up into my mind.

"Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,

for I have put my trust in you.

Show me the way I should go,

for to you I entrust my life."

-Psalm 143:8-

"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 a future."

-Jeremiah 29:11-

" For to me, to live is Christ

and to die is gain."

-Philippians 2:11-

I just feel so relieved right now. I've been crying out to God for months and months, but I just didn't sit still and listen to his still small voice. He has been there and always will be. I just need to swallow my pride and listen. I feel as though I have no care in the world. I know I will wake up in the morning with all the things I need to do and feel overwhelmed, but I know God is there to help and I am not in it alone. God bless!

Perfect Love

One of my friends sent me this the other day and it just really encouraged me and challenged me at the same time:D Its such a great picture of what God's love is like and how once we are content with his love for us he will give us that special someone to share his love with for the rest of our lives:D

Perfect love--

Everyone longs to give themselves completely to someone. To have a deep soul relationship with another, to be loved thoroughly and exclusively. But God to the Christian says, "No, not until you're satisfied and fulfilled and content with living, loved by Me alone and giving yourself totally and unreservedly to Me, to have an intensely personal and unique relationship with Me alone.


"I love you, My child, and until you discover that only in Me is your satisfaction to be found, you will not be capable of the perfect human relationship that I have planned for you. You will never be united with another until you are united with Me -- exclusive of anyone or anything else, exclusive of any other desires or belongings.


"I want you to stop planning, stop wishing, and allow Me to bring it to you. You just keep watching Me, expecting the greatest things. Keep learning and listening to the things I tell you. You must wait.


"Don't be anxious and don't worry. Don't look around at the things you think you want. Just keep looking off and away up to Me, or you'll miss what I have to show you.


"And then, when you're ready, I'll surprise you with a love far more wonderful than any you would ever dream. You see, until you are ready and until the one I have for you is ready, I am working this minute to have both of you ready at the same time, and until you are both satisfied exclusively with Me and the life I've prepared for you, you won't be able to experience the love that exemplifies your relationship with Me, and this is perfect love.


"And dear one, I want you to have this most wonderful love. I want you to see in the flesh a picture of your relationship with Me, and to enjoy materially and concretely the everlasting union of beauty and perfection and love that I offer you with Myself. Know I love you. I am God Almighty, believe and be satisfied."

-Unknown Author-

Patience is a VIRTUE!!!

Patience is definently something God is trying to teach me lately. Let's see I want to be a youth intern, but i have to wait on that as well as being a Younglife leader, because I'm not quite old enough. Also God has blessed my voice with such potential, but sometimes its just so hard to wait on the potential to become reallity. Then there is waiting to date the guy i like, but I know that I need to be patient and wait for God's timing, but sometimes I feel like God's timing isn't fast enough!! lol

All in all though I know in the end it will ALL be sooo incredibly worth it!! I have never had much patience for anything and I think that has hindered my walk with God for so long. Also with being patient, I have put things such as my dreams for my future- getting married, having kids, being a choir director and or hopefully someday being a stay at home mom, and being possibly a girl's minister at a church in the way of totally focusing on God and what he wants me to be doing right now this very minute of my life. I heard this verse the other day that has totally stuck with me since I read it:

"I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my
cry. He lifted me
out of the slimy pit, out of mud and mire; he set my feet
on a rock and gave me
a firm place to stand." Psalms 40: 1-2

These verses really got me thinking. Even though I seem to always cry out to God I never seem to just be patient and see what he will do in me and my life around me. So I have started to really just trust God and know that all will be well in the end. God can do so much more through me when I just step back and give him the reigns. Just as he did in Japan God is continually ruining me each day, so that he can be in control of my life!

Its definently a work in progress. I would love to say I'm all healed and now I am just a patient person who only has eyes for her Lord, but I know it takes work for me to become more patient and fully give myself to God, but I am sooo ready to take up the challenge. I am very thankful to all of my friends who are trying to keep me accountable by reminding me God is in control and that he has great plans for me and that his timing is perfect. I am so excited to see what God will continue to do in my life in the days ahead!!! Glory to God!!

God is AMAZING!!!!

So now its been almost 2 months since I returned from being in Tokyo, Japan for 9 days! And what an absolutely amazing experience it was!! It was actually more than amazing!! The only way I can begin to describe it is to say that my heart is still in Tokyo! I will never ever fo;rget my experience there! I cannot wait to go back! I actually may be going back next summer for the whole summer, which I feel so blessed that God wants me to return!

God in the midst of my selfish desires gave me the opportunity to spread his name in Tokyo, Japan! It couldn't have been a better experience! the people in Tokyo are extremely friendly and very open to hear what you have to say. It was just mesmerizing to see God's ancient work in the hearts of the Japanese! In the days there we saw two people come to the Lord which was just amazing, because we weren't expecting any at all!! We (all 200 0f us on the trip )probably talked to close to 3,000 people or more about God's word! My heart is definently still there! But I have realized that I need to use my life here in the U.S. as my mission field. I don't have to go to the other side of the world to spread his word, i need to remember that I can right here where I am in Belton, Texas!

God also showed me to listen and obey him in all I do. Saying no will get me nowhere, but saying yes will open so many more doors. I say this because I felt God calling me to go back to Japan next summer and it totally messed up all plans I had, but I know I need to follow his will and not my own. I was ruined by him while in Japan, and I will continued to be ruined by him everyday, and know that his plans are waaayyy better than my own plans.

Another thing I learned was the power of prayer! Oh my word I never realized how powerful prayer was until I was on this trip. Yeah I have seen God answer prayers before, but I have never experienced such immediate responses from him as I did in Japan. We would be just standing there with our 5 min english posters trying to get people to come talk to us and somedays just nobody would come.. So then we would stop for a few minutes and pray that God would send people our way and sometimes immediately right after we prayed, people would come up to us , and sometimes it felt like they would just appear out of nowhere! lol All in all it was just absolutely amazing and I just feel so blessed I got to go! To God be the Glory forever and ever amen!!

"Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted among the earth." -Psalms 46:10-