Life in the eyes of a child

Today was the final day of VBS. It was a great week if i do say so myself! I had more fun and learned more than i could have ever expected to! There is nothing that i would do to change this week. Rachel and I had so much fun together conquering challenging courses on the playground, watching the cars roll by, and praising Jesus! I remember it was yesterday that we were sitting there on the steps of the playground. Rachel was fascinated by the multitude of cars that were rolling by. And i really felt God telling me to talk to her about him. So i asked her... "Rachel do you love Jesus?" and at first her response was "No" but then i explained who he was and that he loved her very much i asked her again.. "Do you love Jesus?" and she immediately responded saying "Yes i love Jesus!" I cant tell you how good that felt! It was tough and i was very knew to dealing with children with Down Syndrome but i wouldn't have traded my one on one time with Rachel for anything. There is no where else i would have rather been than watching her grow so much and become so much stronger! Watching her embrace life instead of hiding behind it! She was such an encouragement to me! I want to live like Rachel. Full of love and joy! Not fearing the obstacles in my life but taking them head on and dealing with it. I grew to love this amazing little girl! Rachel is my hero! And i am so glad God placed her in my life!

Baby steps

One thing i noticed today was how fast paced society is! With everything, making new cars, new phones, new houses, anything to upgrade. The i phone comes out and not even half a year later there is already a phone out better than that. Why is everything so competitive?! I want so badly to move to the Amish country where they don't bother worrying about technological things that distract us from what really matters! like emails and text messages facebook or myspace. Little stupid things that distract us from God mainly. We are focusing so far ahead into the future and how we can be better than what we have now that we are missing out on all the amazing gifts God has given us right now! I write this because i believe i am the most guilty one out of all of us. I have my life planned to the core! I knew how many kids i wanted where i want to get married the dress i want my colors the flowers what my house would look like what pets we would i even drew out what my husband would have and would possibly look like... I am so pathetic i know! I guess i wanted my life to be perfect in my timing and in the way that i planned it to be! But i forgot that its not my life to plan. I am Gods. He gave me this life so its not mine to plan. I know now that everything will happen in Gods perfect timing and i cant even begin to explain how much weight has been taken off my shoulders! I can say now that if things dont go the way i wanted them to be... if i dont have 6 kids ill be Great because ill know that this is what was best for me! Our God is so great and powerful! I look forward to the mystery of my life!!! I dont know what will happen in 1 hour or tomorrow or next year! I like it better that way!

Its a Wonderful Life

Its amazing the things that are taken for granted these days... For instance the cell phone is a device that the majority have in their possession. We would normally look at a cell phone as just a normal everyday thing instead of a huge blessing to have people that God blessed with this amazing brain to comprehend this complex science to make a tele device and be able to talk to someone thousands of miles away in a matter of seconds. I am one of those people who takes it for granted. I never realized exactly how much i have. I am blessed with a beautiful home and great parents who provide for me, a brother that can make me laugh when i am upset, a sister that admires me and that wants to be just like me(though i have NO idea why!), a best friend that through thick and thin loves me and has always been there for me, i have an amazing church family that i cant even put in words how great and important they are to me, and most importantly i have a God that has offered me Grace without thought Compassion without judgement and Love without question. Right now our church is doing VBS and i went into it with the mindset of "this is going to be a drag but ill just go and see if they need me to help out..." so i went today and they asked me to be a buddy for a special needs child. I agreed and i was given a little girl named Rachel who has down syndrom and has been diagnosed with cancer many times and actually just got out of the hospital which she had been living in for a month and a half. She has many scars on her head from surgery and she is very sick looking but that child has the most joyful uplifting spirit i have ever seen. When she smiles your heart stops and when she laughs you cant help but laugh too. I only spent a few hours with her today but my life is forever changed. Rachels life was almost over a few weeks ago. And by her attitude and perspective on life you would never know it. She is a huge blessing and i am proud to say i will be her buddy for the next week! I love it when God uses younger people to impact their elders. I dont want to take things for granted anymore... I want to count my blessings and celebrate them. Our God is an awesome God. He is so faithful!

Glorious Love

I love the feeling of being loved by someone. Its almost like a new relationship giddy feeling! Where you get butterflies in your stomach just from thinking about them or when they look at you you get all jumpy and excited because they noticed you! That's how i feel with God. That sounds extremely creepy but its not. When i talk to God or see something he created i cant help but feel like the luckiest person in the world to have such an amazing God. For example whenever i see a sunset i see God because i LOVE sunsets and the mixture of colors in the sky. I think of how much time God spends on making things beautiful so that i can enjoy them. Its hard to explain the joy i feel inside knowing that i have a Marvelous God that loves me so much he paints the sky different colors every single day just so that i can watch it disappear in 10 minutes. Just thinking about the unfailing love that God provides me with day by day makes my head pound. His love for us is so huge we cant wrap our minds around it. It is my dream that everyone will open their hearts to feel that love that i am blessed to feel everyday of my life. And yea there are some days that its hard to feel Gods presence but that's not Gods fault that's my own for falling away from him. I am comforted knowing that God will never leave my side, even when i am sleeping i know he is there watching over me. Phil Wickham sings "A deep deep flood an ocean that flows from you. Of deep deep love yea its filling up the room. Your innocent blood has washed my guilty life. In your presence God I'm completely satisfied." His declaration of love that paid for me and all of my stupid choices just so that i can live and go to heaven and spend the rest of eternity in paradise.

God i am not worthy of your unfailing love
or your never ending grace. Thank you for the cross.
Amen