Market

Yesterday was the Thursday Night Market in downtown Chico.  (Now, I simply love going to these markets, there are so many things to enjoy or look at.)
As my mom and my Gramma and I waded through the sea of diverse people I could help but contemplate on the large variety of people out there that night.


Young teenage girls wearing almost nothing at all, others girls wearing things that I believed they believed made them look 'cool', but only made them look like they where trying too hard.


There where teenage guys, some wearing 'emo' style, others trying to look 'cool' and <personally> they where pulling it off rather well ;)
Some had long hair down or in ponytails, others short and spiked. It made me wonder what went through their mind when the ones with long hair put it up in a ponytail everyday.


And then there where the adults. Some where holding small children or walking with friends. Others where out alone, now as adults they looked rather normal, but it is impossible to be walking downtown in Chico and not see the oddball adult, and I did see a few! I walked down the stalls looking at the sweet, juicy red strawberries, I look around and see a woman holding a small child girl, smiling at her and kissing her cheek, to her right a man in a black suit with a bright red [bow]tie, long hair and boots. As I continue on on I notice a small group of teenage girls, one talking loudly and stringing the 'f' word into her sentence, I cringed at the word and felt sorry that someone barely older than me felt it necessary to use language like that.


We keep walking, and I keep watching all the people, the college students handing out flyers or pamphlets on some concert playing or a charity event. I am eager for the day a group of friends and I can come out here on a Thursday night and walk through all the stalls, looking at the homemade jewelry, pottery or even chairs.


We reach the corner of a block and of course, we just have to go into Powell's, the best 'old-times' candy store ever. There where over forty people crowded into the store, mom and Gramma stopped for some Gelato ice-cream and I went farther to the back to get a candy stick for my brother and sister. I also had to get a swirled lollipop for me. I am not usually a 'lollipop' kind of person, but it looked good and I wanted something sweet :) Finally after paying, we squeeze out through the crowds and move on.
We keep walking, then stop at a stall where my mom buys some kale, the English man working the stall calls her 'love' in his endearing accent. I grinned and mom smiled :)

We continued on, my mom and Gramma wanting to hurry, as they where getting tired. I wanted to walk the entire Market, but we had only come for vegetables. We had almost reached the end of the block we where walking along, we drew near to the park where I rock band was playing and hundreds of people mingled about going about whatever they had come that night for. I saw many boy and girl couples holding hands, some kissing. And I wondered if they had any idea of the risk they where taking together like that, did they even care? I couldn't help but wonder where the majority of these people where going.

I love going to the Markets, I love to see the produce, and I love watching the people. (You can tell a lot by what a person wears to places like these.) As we started to leave I wished again college wasn't a whole year away, I wanted to be one of the teenagers in these groups I saw walking about downtown. I do recognize the extra dangers going to college can present for a Christian, the temptations you can fall into. But I always pray that when the time comes that God will give me the strength to stand for what I believe, and to stay pure. I know the time will come when my faith is put to the test, and I will trust in the Lord to pull me through and be by my side always. I am still looking forward to college and the new and strange life it carries with it, but I am willing to wait. To let my faith grow stronger <and my brain ;P>


P.S: A very good special friend of mine {:)G} is going to college in a few months, and I want her to know she will always be in my prayers :)

Days like Today

Today I had the feeling I have been experiencing more often lately again.

I was out in Chico with my mom and Gramma, going on errands and perusing the Health Food Store. Listening to them talk about this and that, the ingredient in this brand over that brand, the cost of this type over that type. Smiling to myself, eager for the day I will stand by my mom and decide whether the cheaper price for the less healthy peanut butter is better than the higher price for the healthier stuff. Of course, I already do this, I am my mothers 'right hand gal' as she likes to call me. And I cherish this position. It's my personal job and responsibility, we talk about what to make for dinner, whether we should put this seasoning in or maybe this other one. We plan out shopping, if we need more carrots or more celery instead. And I love doing this with her, beside the special 'time' we get together, it makes me feel like I'm growing up even more. Where my mom trusts me and looks to me to help her decide something when it comes to our food, or what brand to get. You know, things like that.

I guess the way I would describe the feeling was a kind of desire, or longing. I longed to be the grown adult walking down the rows of food items with my mom and my own cart, looking at the ingredients on a bottle of syrup then setting it back in disgust when I see how much sweetener is in it. (yes mother, I blame you for making me notice that all the time!! I love you :)

I had the great desire to have my own paycheck. So I could be shopping for myself, choosing between two things that I need, consulting mom on which one I should get. Maybe I feel this way because I think it will make me even closer to mom, she's been teaching me so much. How to keep myself and others healthy, how to cook and season just right. I love learning all these things from her, she's teaching me how to be a mother. I think that is the perfect way to describe it, my mom is teaching me how to be a mom, and I love her for it.

I look to my mom as a figure that I wish to be someday, with my own family, my own husband and kids to take care of. Someone I can call on a bad day and talk to so she can make me feel better, or call when I'm just not quite sure about something. I want to be able to pass on this small promise of purity ring to my eldest daughter someday, and be able to make her understand what it means. And how it used to be her grandmothers before she gave it to me. I can't wait till the day where I can be home with all my kids and my mom is over, spoiling them like all grandmothers do :) Me standing in the kitchen remembering how I used to be the kid sitting there smiling at my Gramma.

Days like today make me realize what a great mom (and Gramma :) I have. I am blessed with a mother who cares about who I will be someday, who cares enough to teach me the things a good Christian mother should know. And I know, when I am married and have my own kids (if that is His will) I will always be able to count on my mom to be there. God really blessed me with someone like my mom, and I thank Him for her every day. I love you mom :)

Cinquain-Thursday [1]

I Am,
Sad and hurt, cry
Trying to stay strong now
Hoping, praying, for strength to stand
I Am

Driving

Well, today is exiting, thrilling, amazing, humbling and scary all at the same time. Today I go to the DMV to get my permit so I can begin the driving process, finally, after years of waiting. I finally get the one thing almost all teenagers long for in their teen years. A license, well, what is so special about a small piece of plastic that is going to spend almost 99% of it's time in your wallet or purse? It's a sense of freedom, it's almost like the last step to adulthood, and you are finally deemed responsible enough to drive out on the open road. You can go places on your own you never would have been able to before, do errands for your mom, drive to school on your own. But with these few cool things you can do, you are also taking on a great responsibility, you are putting yourself and others at risk if you do not take this privilege seriously. I'm not sure whether I am more exited and ready for this new bit of road in life that has been opened to me, or more scared about what I may face on it. I have always been so ready to grow up, eager to go ahead to college, but annoyed I'm still stuck in the last years of High School, I have always wanted to be independent, to go out and drive around where I wanted to, or to go somewhere on my own. But now that I am almost 'grown up' I'm not sure if I'm ready, do I want to lose this last bit of the kid in me? Then I begin to go through the mental list of how being 'almost an adult' will help my mom and dad. When I need to go to work, I can drive, and mom won't have to take me every time. When mom needs a couple things from the grocery store, I can get them for her, she won't need to. Or when I need to go check in at all the places I applied for a job, she doesn't need to take the time to take me, I can do it myself. I am looking forward to all these things, I am happy I will be able to help my mom out in more ways than I already do. But the cons of growing up are also dangerous, I could cause an accident. Or hit someone crossing the road, no matter whose fault it would be. I could get hit by a car as well. I came to the conclusion that growing up and taking on new responsibilities is a good thing, I'm learning to be mature in new things. And that almost all things I will begin to do in the next two years will all have cons, or some kind of danger. There is a danger in everything we do, to some degree. And maturing and growing up is all a part of life. I am ready to do this, and I can always count on having a solid rock at my side, always there watching over me, keeping me safe if that is His will. Or involving me in something that may get me hurt or someone else. To teach me a lesson, or to test my faith in Him, or even to save someone else through me. I don't know what life is going to bring with my being able to drive, I don't know what is in store for me, or what may come of all this. But I am ready, and no matter what happens, good or bad. I will always trust in my Savior.

Sometimes Life can be Hard

Sometimes life can throw you for a curve, your driving along fine, until suddenly, you hit a really deep pothole. And your tire is blown. well, I felt that way this week, I still feel like that this week. I have been in pain, I have had some bad headaches, and I have been very emotional for some reason that I have yet to determine. I had a small breakdown this morning, things where all crashing down on me at once, it felt like I was trapped under a wave, loose in the ocean. I have never been one where pain affected me much, I have had a very high tolerance for pain my whole life, and I have had to deal with some serious headaches my whole life. So why should today be the day it all seems to be so much worse? I don't really have an answer to that, but sometimes you feel like the whole world is out to make you miserable, to make your life even harder than you feel it already is. Of course this is utter nonsense, the world isn't really out to get you, there is no boogy man of emotion watching your every move, waiting for the opportune moment to strike when it see's you at your weakest. We all will end up at our weakest sometime in life, but I knew I needed to remember, even when we are weak, He is not. We always have a source of strength to lean on when we need it, or even if we don't need it. 
Pslams 46:1-2
"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah"

A Poem A Day-Monday

Beating so hard, so fast

My heart hits my chest

Butterflies swarm in my stomach

My feet tap the floor

The stage is so bright

The eyes are so many

I step to the front and prepare myself

I open my lips

Out comes the sound

They all came to hear

A melody flows across the seats

The faces are awed

I sing my song

I say my words

The butterflies leave and my heart smiles

I sing

Limerick Friday

I once met a girl named Daisy

Who wore a dress like paisley

She was young and pretty

With a friend named Lenny

I once met a girl named Daisy

Limericks where meant to be nonsense :)
One of my favorite Limericks is,

There once was a boy named Hall,
Who fell in the spring in the fall
         'Twould have been a sad thing
         If he died in the spring
But he didn't-he died in the fall.


Makes me laugh every time :)
The first one is mine, the first I had ever written.

A Poem A Day-Thursday

I see here now

The perfect sight

Of beauty and glory

The Creators hand.

Our Little Adventure

This has been a very eventful day and morning. Well, to begin my story; we are all <as in my family> sitting in our living room watching TV, the time reads 9:45 pm, and suddenly my dad gets a call. Not good. Well, it turns out Cal-Trans needed a new water pump to replace the one that had broken down, though they described it as 'exploding'. So they needed a new one. Now. And would you care to hazard a guess where they needed this water pump? For those of you who didn't guess correctly, it was in San Jose, down below San Francisco. Four hours away.


Well, I volunteered to go with my dad to keep him company and awake. I am glad I did, but the story is only beginning.........first we start out going down to his work place and hooking up the new water pump to the hitch on his truck. Then we climb in and off we go, (mind you that it is now 10:00 at night) we are tooling along at a pretty good pace considering we have a 1,000 ib. pump trailing the truck. We're singing to our songs, making annoyed remarks at the stupid drivers on the road, and making up words to a Sugarland song. Finally we get all the way down to San Jose at around fifteen after 1:00 in the morning. So it's back up, turn here, turn there, back up again, and finally we have the new one positioned correctly and we again, back up, and hitch up the busted one. Then my dad walks down to the Cal-Trans workers to see where they needed him to leave from, (the freeway traffic had to be cut off for the time it took to do all this) I am in the truck sitting....sitting.......fidgeting.....squirming........sitting, for thirty minutes I do this, while waiting for dad to come back up to the truck. Well, a little more than thirty minutes later he does, and tells me that the workers can't get the thing to suck in the water. They needed it to do this because of flooding that was a risk to the road.

And so the Cal-Trans guys didn't want us leaving yet until they got it working, so we wait some more. Dad goes back down to see if he can help, but another fifteen or twenty minutes later he comes back and says we can go. But they still haven't got it to work right. And they didn't see a reason to keep us there any longer, so off we go on our four hour drive home. It is now 2:48.

We were both rather hungry and needed some coffee, so we stopped off an exit about five minutes away from our previous position. There were two gas stations and two fast food joints, all, of which were closed. Slightly annoyed we leave and get off at another exit, where we find some more gas stations and a McDonalds, these too are closed. Now really annoyed and joking about how it just 'wasn't meant to be' we go to yet another exit where we find....yes, more closed gas stations and fast food joints. So finally, almost steaming and needing a bathroom and a good hot cup o' joe, we make it  to another exit, were we find an am-pm, delighted to find it open, (with a bathroom) and four different selections of steaming hot coffee. So getting our coffees( I must say, that was a good cup of joe) we picked up a snack, sweet tarts for him, butterfinger for me.

Now we are finally back on the road after getting gas, for the truck and us. It is now 3:40 am, and we are enjoying ourselves. The roads are almost empty and the city lights are twinkling like a sea of stars, it's quiet and we're sitting comfortably in it. But remember, coffee doesn't last forever, neither does caffeine. So about an hour later dad is dead tired, and still hours to go. It isn't easy for him, since he was up by 6:00 am the day before and hadn't slept since, I am also very tired, so it wasn't a simple task trying to keep him awake and alert. (much to my unhappiness) There really wasn't anything I could do to help, beside starting to sing, and I'm afraid that would have done more damage than good...................

So now it's about 5:23 and we only have about forty-five minutes to go till home sweet home. But dad gets a call saying that they never got the pump to work right, they said they stepped to the left, stepped to the right, turned around and did the hokey poky. But that didn't work either, not sure yet how it all will turn out. And finally, we get home at 6:00. But six is when dad has to go to work, so he had to drop me off at home and go straight to work. I would have had to get up two hours later anyway, so I never went to bed, if I had I would have been a zombie all day. So here I am writing this all down because I though it would make an amusing story. I can hear the house quietly and slowly waking, the birds are beginning to sing, Hannah is rustling under her covers and Ben is shifting. The cats are playing and the sun has begun to rise over the hills. 

A Poem A Day keeps the Blues Away-Tuesday

The Sounds of Life

Crickets chirp, birds sing

Out my window it goes on

The bustle of people

The sounds of life I hear

Outside my window

I see people and animals

Cars and bikes

All going about their usual lives

I hear the children laugh

And the parents call

Mail hits the box

The sun shines though the glass

It lies on my pillow

Warming my face

Music drifts though the air

A melody lilts soft and sweet

Whispering through the winds

Drifting, rising and falling

It sweetens the air

A melody plays

Children and parents

Cars and bikes

Birds and crickets

Sun and song

I love the sound of Life

Not my best............

Theres something about a new Notebook

Today I got my order from Amazon, three small pocket notebooks for me to carry around, and scribble down each passing thought I think I can turn into something good. You see, I have a serious notebook obsession, I love all notebooks. Big or small, leather or cardboard, though my preference is small/medium sized leather bound or moleskine notebooks. There's just something about opening a brand new notebook, the smell of the paper, and the clean crisp white of the pages. Laying the tip of my pen against the lines and watch the small dot of ink spread and become larger. Now, sometimes it takes me forever to finally use the new notebook, because I don't want to soil the nice clean sheet of paper. That is ridiculous even in my eyes, but that is just the way I am :)

(<.< My absolute favorite type of notebook)

In my bedroom is a very large wall-to-wall desk, on the left and right are shelves; which are completely filled with my personal library. Below are drawers, half of which are filled with useless paraphernalia that I probably will never use, but am still not sure whether I want to throw it all out yet. In the middle is the actual desk, which is covered in school, and, can you guess? Notebooks, and an unhealthy amount of pens and pencils, graphite and markers. I am an 

artist, so why should this be strange? Well, that in and of itself is not strange, but I have an entire box filled with pens and pencils. Of course, I use almost every single one, but sometimes it seems kind of sad that one girl needs all of these drawing and writing accessories. 

Almost all of my notebooks are covered in stickers, most of which are American flags<I am a die hard Patriot> and cars. <I have a thing for old cars> Something about the 'Eco-friendly' notebook is that they have nothing on their covers, so you can easily design and draw your own cover. Well, lets just say I am a big fan of notebooks of any kind, but I favor the smaller pocket sized leather bound notebooks. And to further this I have a stack of them by my bed as well............But I justify all of this by using every single one of them. Some are filled with poetry, others songs or snippets of a half written song. Well, as a writer I do need something to write on, and if I started using my walls I'm rather afraid of where that might lead.<image of me curled up in a white room with the walls covered in writing and nonsense.> Ya, I don't want that either.

To all writers out there<G.> keep writing!!!!!
 

The Dude in the Demo

Does the title confuse you? Well, it may confuse you, but it amuses me :)

Once a year, our Home-school Group, gets together in April for a Progressive Dinner. Ages 14+, now two weeks before the dinner we have an Etiquette Class, where all the Dinner attendees must must learn how to be lady-like and gentlemanly. Now at this class two people have to volunteer for the 'demo', so an 'acquaintance' of mine<yes I'm talking about you my G.> volunteered to play the girl <yes she is a female!!> And volunteered yours truly to play the dude. Now do you understand the title? I bet you do. So now on Friday I will be acting like a dude for the entire class as I demonstrate how the guys must act and treat the ladies of our group.

Now, of course, I have no problem helping out! No, I enjoy helping in any way I can. But as you can see, I am a girl playing a dude. You can tell how I may have.........how shall I put it......concerns.... in all this. But strange as it may sound, I am looking forward to it!!! I know, you are thinking, "OK, she is officially weird" And I of course understand your sentiments, you are not the only concerned one here my friend. Well, I get to dress up in my jeans and a button up shirt, and I may even wear my brothers fedora :) 

And I believe the most fun I will have is acting like a 'gentleman' to my best friend!!!!!! And I will of course, live up to my reputation and act like a goof-ball the entire time. Silly faces behind her back, bunny ears when she's not looking. Oh dear, I just realized she reads my blog, hehehe, well, she'd do the same!! :P

Allergies

Aren't Allergies just the worse? They sneak up on you, then POW!!! You're knocked off your feet for the whole rest of the day. Now, a few years ago I did not have allergies, but then one sunny morning I was outside and I began to sneeze......one sneeze..........two sneeze...........and look, a third sneeze, all in quick succession. I felt my head begin to fill up with cotton and my eyes start to itch and water. And from that fateful moment on I have had bad, bad allergies.


It's just horrible, you feel like you should be curled up in bed, drinking a hot cup of coco with the rain pouring down outside. But Oh no!! The sun is shining and the birds are welcoming spring, and the wind is blowing gently carrying those hateful balls of pollen right into your open window. And you are trying to see through the tears and sneezing while trying to watch your World History teacher tell you that it was in fact not James I but Charles II who caused a civil war in England. But can you retain all this while sneezing up a mini storm and trying to wipe away the allergy induced tears running down your face? No.


One day I was sitting in church listening attentively to my Pastor preach when I suddenly....can you guess? Yes, I sneezed, and then I sneezed again. So now I had tears running down my face, and my eyes where beat red, it looked like I was having a bit of an aneurysm. And it also looked like what my Pastor was preaching on making me cry in guilt, only what he was preaching about at the time was more of a study. Not something that would make me cry, and for some reason I felt so embarrassed, like I was bawling my eyes out in public.

Right outside my window is this one tree that blows wispy, swarm-like clouds of pollen through the air. Our car is covered in a layer of the yellow stuff; it looks almost as if it is wearing a blanket...........

                             

Clouds of Yellow                        

                             Thick and fat

Breeze on by me
                             And I sneeze

Writing and Poetry

About three months ago my library organized a Teen Poetree Meeting for the teens who volunteer at our library.<I being one of them> At this 'meeting' we have poetry books scattered across the tables, for about twenty minutes we all <there are about 10 of us> look through and pick poems we like and then read them out loud. But we can also bring our own. <I am always bringing Christina Rosetti> Usually all of us have at least two to share. Sometimes there are short and sweet poems, sometimes short and witty, maybe there would be a long and silly one or a long and interesting one. My best friend Sarah really knows how to read aloud, she had all of them smiling and listening with rapt attention as she read Frog by. Christina Rosetti.


Although it never takes very long to do all this, we are usually there for hours, though most of it is taken up by snacking on cookies, slurping up soda, and playing tennis on the Wii!!! I completely enjoy the time we spend on it, but I do wish we could take longer, there are so many wonderful poems out there!! Many of the teens find the shorter funny ones that make everyone laugh, I tend to like poems about life, and death. Some of them don't have the right views on either of those things, but Christina Rossetti writes some beautiful poems on death. I understand I might sound kind of morbid, but for some unknown reason I have yet to discover I like poems like that. Her favorite of mine is Remember. The last two lines read, 
It is better by far you should forget and smile,
Than that you should remember and be sad,
I loved the wording she used, but I agree with it as well. I would rather after I am gone, that my family and friends forget me and smile, enjoying life. And rejoicing in the knowledge of where I have gone, I would much rather that. Not to remember my death and always be sad. I don't know, it may just be me :)

My Poems

I wrote these poems awhile ago, I don't think their very good though. I need practice :)

If I Leave

If I leave my friend

Gone without a choice

Know that I wish that with you

I could stay, with you forever

If I go, with a sigh and a tear

Know that I love you, you alone

If I could stay, I would with you

But I am gone, here no more

I am not but a shadow

Fading away, falling away

The light has gone dark

I have gone away

^.^ This one is OK, one of my better ones I think, I'm not sure, I don't have anyone to tell me.

This one is one I made when I had been saved, I felt like writing one about after death, where I will go. And I am rejoicing to say Heaven!

My King

I lived, I walked His path

But now I have died

My life is ended

I am drifting away, away

Oh, but I see a face

One so Glorious it shines

Shines with a perfect beauty

He is come to take me

To lead me Home

Where I will be forever

Home, Home with My King

Writing can be Tough

Well, I am a writer and I am currently writing a novel and I am 12 chapters in so far. I have hit my second writers block in 2 months. And I am really rather annoyed, I have sections throughout the entire book written out, I have the whole ending sitting on my desk waiting for the rest of the book to join it. Still yet, my character has come to a standstill sitting on the floor crying wondering why her parents where killed. Yes, sounds kinda bad, well, it's not. My novel is about Charlene 'Charlie' Stewart, a 17 year old girl trying to find the truth behind her parents death three years earlier, her struggle to rediscover who she is after being in the car crash that killed her family, and also took away part of her memory. She is tough, smart and determined. And I am stuck at a this heart wrenching part, not sure how to proceed. Normally I will be lying in bed at night and various thoughts and phrases start to flow, clips of a conversation here, snippets of a sequence of events there. Why is it that all of my best ideas come to me while I am dead tired and need sleep? while the owls are out and the birds are silent? And finally I have found the solution to this problem; of course, I still get all my ideas at night. But now I leave a small notebook by my bed, so when an idea comes to me I can simply role over and scribble it down. Sometimes without even opening my eyes or turning on a light. I found this very helpful when I'm lying half asleep and an idea for a chapter I haven't even written yet blossoms in my mind then turns into an entire chapter, I can write it all down. But when the idea turns into a whole chapter I have to get up and write out the entire thing<laptops are just great for this> so I don't forget any of it, and it itches in my brain until I do write it down. To me writing is art, I was never one for describing things, I couldn't describe to you the color of my own eyes without messing up and stumbling over my own tongue!!! But when I write, I can fill a whole page describing something useless, I could write a whole paper on the front grill or brake calipers of a 1967 Mustang. Sometimes when I write, the words just flow out of my pen, covering page after page with my thoughts and my imagination. I also enjoy writing small one or two paragraph long bits about Love, Family, God or even just about something I had seen that day that made me smile. In my eyes writing can open up a whole new world to you, it can help you understand something you may not have when someone described it to you. Well, good luck to me!! I hope I get my book done in the next year or so, keep trying I guess. And if this writer’s block doesn't go away in the next few days I'm goin' at it with a hammer..............not sure how that will turn out :P

One Step Forward Two Steps Back

It's been an emotional week. But also very interesting, I am sixteen and my life is now really starting to blossom. I am getting my licence, looking for a job, and also trying to live my life as Godly as possible, striving to show in my actions and words that I am a child of God. I have changed so much since I accepted God into my heart, and my deeds and actions have shown this to me and to others. But the other day I stumbled, I was having a bad day and I let that be an excuse to be in a bad mood, I was having a hard time keeping myself from snapping at one of my siblings, and I knew in my heart I shouldn't be acting this way, was this the way a child of God acted? Sullen and grumpy, no, and I knew it. And what happened later that night was no help, it was my turn to clean the kitchen and the dishwasher was full and hadn't been started, and the counters piled high with what looked like the entire contents of our cupboards. Standing there staring I felt simply like curling up and crying, I was hurt because of the indifference of my siblings that I had to clean up the mess they left behind them and that fact I was going to be washing a lot of dishes. For almost half an hour I stood at the sink washing dishes and grumbling in my heart. Then I suddenly was hit with a sense of extreme guilt, I was acting like a child, and had cleaned the kitchen before when the entire contents of the counters really had been piled on the counters. I was acting immature and ungodly, so after realizing this I began to sing Amazing Grace quietly to myself. Still feeling a connection to that song as I am still a young new believer. So switching between a few of my favorite hymns such as, How Firm A Foundation, It is Well with my Soul, This is my Fathers World, and Holy, Holy, Holy I began to feel my spirit lift, I squashed the anger and discontentment and smiled again. I praised God in my heart and in my words for the rest of the time I spent in the kitchen, my entire attitude changed simply from the singing of hymns and praying silently to myself. It amazed me at how the quiet praise and prayer could change someone attitude and demeanor. God taught me a lesson that day, and just a few hours before at our church my Pastor had preached about how God will send trials. He will test our faith and our strength. Though the simple job of cleaning the kitchen may not sound so much like a trial, it was an ongoing one for me. I had never liked cleaning the kitchen and I dreaded doing it, and God used my specific dislike of something to test me and show me that I can always find strength in Him to do anything, even something as small as a home duty. "Praise the Lord Oh my Soul......."

Patience is a Virtue

I really realized yesterday how much being saved and having the Lord in your heart can change you. I have a very bad temper, smoke out of the ears, clenched fists, seeing red, the whole kit and kaboodle. But I have really realized since I asked the Lord into my heart how much I have seen a change in me. And others have seen it as well. When my siblings are being stubborn, childish and immature, I simply do not respond. Or I do not engage them or yell like I used to. The Bible says that when you have become a saved that you are no longer the the same person you where before, who you where doesn't have any control over you. But we still have our sinful nature, but it is no longer the reigning power over us. And it is amazing how much the 'new man' has changed my life, I can look back at the way I was, in the yelling, sharp tongue and impatience with my family. And I can see the change and enjoyment I get out of life now. The relationships being repaired. The Bible says in Romans 5:3, "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience" 1 Timothy 6:11 "But thou, Oh man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness" James 1:3-4 "Knowing this, that the trying of your Faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing" The Bible clearly says in even more verses that Patience is a virtue of the Spirit. Sometimes it's hard in everyday life, at work, or at home to have patience. People may yell at you, you may not do something right the first time, or your siblings are simply being siblings. You always have to remember you are Gods child and you must act like one. Patience is one of the fruits of the Spirit and must be held close always, because as Romans 5:3 said, life will give us trials, it will test our faith and our patience. So always trust in God to give you the strength you need, and always be on your guard, to keep your tongue, temper or actions under control.

Acts 17:34 A Woman Named Damaris

One day I read a book titled A Woman Named Damaris by Janette Oke. This is my 4th favorite book because of the way J.O. describes Acts 17:34. The story is about a young teenage girl named Damaris who escapes from her abusive father and poor home life. She travels to a city where she finds a shop with a seamstress, for months she works for this woman and is taught the Word and the sovereignty of God. And after awhile Damaris tells the seamstress, Ms. Dover, that her mother had always told her that her name was in the Bible. Damaris had never read this book before and longed to find where her name was in this Bible Ms. Dover spoke so highly of. After months of reading along with Ms. Dover she almost gave up looking, until one day while working Ms. Dover gave her a slip of paper with the words 'Acts 17:34' written on it. So rushing home after work she reads the passage, it read "Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed, among which was Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them." Devastated at the small, almost non-existent mentioning of her name Damaris fell asleep with tears in her eyes.


The next morning she sat at her machine alongside Ms. Dover and tried not to mention the passage, but later, before she could leave Ms. Dover asked her if she had read the it. Damaris answered that she had, but didn't understand it, and expressed her disappointment. Her eyes glowing Ms. Dover exclaimed, that it was 'one of my favorite verses' Damaris not understanding asked why. Ms. Dover answered, saying that the Damaris of the Bible, though only mentioned once, was one of the most brave and amazing woman of the Bible, simply because she had Believed, she had given her soul, heart and life over to Jesus, to lead her on the path preordained for her. Damaris went home pondering what Ms. Dover had said, and as she lay in her bed that night she finally realized what Ms. Dover had meant. And she suddenly felt the Holy Spirit enter her and save her where she lay. With tears of joy she went to sleep with the understanding of the verse and the love of her Saviour in her heart.


A Woman Named Damaris is one of my favorite books simply because of the way J.O. described Acts 17:34, Damaris was only mentioned once is a very small verse in the entire Bible, but the context and what she did in that verse told us everything we needed to know about her. That she had been open and brave enough to let the Holy Spirit guide her for all eternity. This book is one I would recommend to all girls, old and young. And I hope that you would see the same message in it as I did :)