7-17-11: Something I learned (prt. 2)

Hello once again!
So this post was supposed to happen yesterday, but it was pretty crazy over here.

A quick recap and then we will continue!!
1. God loves us! - He gave the ultimate sacrifice for us... his Son. And He always will love us.
2. Love ourselves - In a non-proud way. God created us, He loves us and he sacrificed a lot just for us. We must be special :) And, it is impossible to give love if you do not have it.

Alright! Here we go!

• Loving Others

1) "The only way this world will ever see God until His return, is through our love."
This is very true. We as Believers need to strive to show love to everyone around us. No matter their race, religion or where they stand socially. This is hard, I know. In my life I do have people that irk me, and if it were up to my human conscience I most likely would not show them love, but thankfully it is not. Here is where my next pointer comes in really handy.
2)Love is a choice!
I know what you are thinking, "we've all heard that, Kayla... we now Love is a choice, this isn't anything new."
Are you sure it isn't??
We are not committed to a feeling, we are committed to a choice.
Think about this; when you find the man/woman of your dreams, and you marry them... are you committing to a feeling alone? Sure, obviously you will feel some physical attraction to the person, but if that is all you are basing your marriage on, let me tell you it will not last. Looks don't stay forever. We need to choose to show love, even when we have our bad hair days, or just our bad days. Just like everyone else in this world, married couples will fight!(Gasp! I know... strange huh??) But, if we choose to love the other person, it won't matter if you fight over what TV channel you watch or if you buy 1% or 2% milk at the grocery store. Love is a choice, and we need to choose to love everyone.
3) Love is shown by actions, not words.
Sure, you can tell someone you love them, I'm not discouraging this at all. Those three little words mean a lot to a person. Even if they are just coming from a family member or a friend. But, love is even more powerful if you show a person that you love them.
If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. ( 1 John 3:17-18 NIV)
You can tell someone you love them, and yet turn away when they stumble and fall. But, what really shows love, is when you get down beside them, reach out your hand and help them to their feet.
4) Love will always be rewarded
Think on this:
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. (Galatians 6:7 NIV)
This is true is it not? If you plant a seed, what do you get? A tree... well I'm pretty sure a tree is much more than a tiny seed. We need to sow love into everything and everyone we come across, because we will always reap more than we sow.

We really need to start loving people! Here are some of the ways that Mike suggested we do that...
1. Stop gossip
2. Stop judging people(Matt. 7:1-2)
3. Start accepting people
4. Show kindness
5. Pray for people (THIS IS MORE POWERFUL THAN ANY OF THE OTHERS!)
6. Meet people's needs
7. Forgive people

Are these steps easy? Of course not... God never said it would be easy, but he did say it would be worth it. :)

(Other helpful bible verses for this topic - Matt. 22:37-39 1 Peter 4:8 1 John 4:7-8 John 4:12
1 John 4:20 James 2:8 1 Cor. 13:1-3 1 Cor. 14:1 John 13:34-35 Matt. 10:42 Luke 6:31)

• Relationship love

Alright, here it is... the big L.
In our society, love has been twisted, manipulated and totally changed from what our Heavenly father created. He created it to be this special thing that only happens between one man, and one woman. Not with a high school partner, college partner, and then finally your marriage partner. Or even multiples of these. God designed love to be saved up, not thrown away at the first chance we get.
Again, I know what you are thinking. You've heard all this before too... and maybe even you are saving yourself for marriage(Which my readers, is GREAT!) BUT... there is more to just waiting until your wedding night to keeping yourself pure for your future spouse. You guys already know this, but one of my all time favorite verses was used during this talk, and I'm happy to share it with you again...
Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you,
by the gazelles and the wild does of the field:
do not stir up or awaken love
until the appropriate time. (Song of Songs 2:7 HCSB)
We are called to wait for love! To live for God while we are waiting, (1 Cor. 7:33-34)!
Though, when it is time... (and that time will come! Trust me!) there are some things that we really should take to heart.
1) Involve some of your mentors!
I know this is really hard to wrap around your head but (gulp!)... adults actually know what they are talking about! They have been there, survived it and, in most cases(I hope especially with your youth leaders) overcome it! When you meet the person you feel like you are meant to be with for the rest of your life, have people you trust, and who have a strong marriage to come along side you and talk to the both of you, together and separate. Pray with them, ask them questions about how they make their relationship work. This could maybe be your parents, a youth pastor, a small group leader or someone else entirely. But involve strong believers in your relationship even before you are engaged. Let them come along side of the both of you and help you!
2) Keep the physical side out of the relationship
In our society today, it is thought to be impossible to do this. How can you have a relationship without the physical? Isn't it just a friendship then? Well... yes and no. Let me share something with you that Mike shared with me and 441 other students two weeks ago...
90% of your marriage foundation will be your friendship!
You and your spouse should be best friends! Not just a couple, but best friends.
3) Set boundaries! (Eph. 5:3)
I have chosen for myself that my first kiss will be on my wedding day. I've also said that I will not hold hands with any guy unless we are most definitely headed for the isle, to not be alone in a room with a guy, and long, tight hugs are just a no until we are at the very least engaged. Now, these might seem strict to you, (I mean... no hugs?! [I'm not saying that btw... just not long, tight ones]) but I am a people pleaser. Am I proud of this? No. But I am, and if I give in some areas, they will lead to larger, more dangerous areas that I want to stay clear of until marriage. So, to just skip out the temptation, I'm setting my boundaries high.
I'm not going to tell you that these should be your boundaries... that is something you need to pray about, and really talk to God about. Read scripture about this, pray and pray and pray about it, talk to your mentors, and question yourself, what do you think is a good boundary line? Also, if you are in a relationship, talk to the other half and ask them what they think... is it hard to be in a room alone together and stay pure? A great tip I've heard over and over again is to use the shoe-door method. If you ever come to a situation where you are alone with a guy/girl in a room... place a shoe in the doorway so it stays propped open.

God's boundaries are here to protect you. Not take things away from you. He is the creator of love and relationships, why would he want to take something away from you, if it was designed for you? He loves you and wants what is best for you!


I hope that some of this has maybe tugged on your heart even just a little. It moved me in so many ways that I cannot describe it in words. God is fantastic, and I am very, very proud to call him my Savior.
1. God loves you!
2. Love yourself
3. Love others
4. God: The creator of Love
If you would like to hear from Mike these messages that changed my life, you can! Check out his website and go to his store. I encourage you to maybe buy them with a friend, or ask your youth pastor if they would consider purchasing them for your youth group... or any of Mike's work. God works through him in ways that I hope someday he will do so in me.

GOD IS GREAT!

7-15-11: Something I learned (prt. 1)

Hello again, :)

So I've told y'all a little about my mission trip, but not much. I thought today I'd expand just what I learned that week, :) But, since I learned a lot I'm actually going to spread this our over two posts. Today I'll share with you the first two days, and then tomorrow I'll give you the other two.

Every year TeenServe has a theme. Last year was Restore and Rebuild, this year it was Love re:action. And our verses were 1 John 3:17-18. Here is what it said...

If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

Something we really expanded on that week was how to love not with our words, but with our actions. Now, it is a little easier to do such a thing on a mission trip when you are "forced" to go out and serve from nine until four... but when we come back home? Not so easy.

Every night we had a different topic that Mike Guzzardo(our AMAZING speaker) would speak on. I don't think I could pick a favorite, so I'll just share a little bit of each night with you :)

• Our first night was God's love, and how much he loves us.

This is how he started off the program. He told us, "Understand God's love for you is the most revelational piece of knowledge you will ever possess." Well, why you might ask? I did too... though he was quick to explain. When our complete identity is defined by God's love, then we have nothing to fear! We don't have to worry about what others think of us. When our complete identity is defined by God's love, our behavior changes, and our attitude changes... all for the better. Something that I found absolutely fascinating was that God is thinking about me(and you!) 2,970,758,233 times per second! Now, I don't know about you, but I think that the only way someone could think about another someone that much would be if they loved them with all their hearts. Pretty cool right?
Another little pointer Mike told us was this, "God will never love you more than what he does right now, but sometimes we let things(pride, guilt, fear, ect.) block out his unconditional love." You know, sometimes we all thing, "If I did this, maybe God would love me more." Or maybe, "Oh no, I did this so God now loves me less"... well that is not true. God loves us with an unconditional love. The only thing that changes, is how we accept that love, or deny it.

• The next day we talked about loving ourselves.
  

"You cannot love others, unless you love yourself."
For some people, loving themselves comes easy, others... it takes so much effort that we just say, "forget it... I'm not worth loving.". But that is a lie. Just like we learned the night before, God loved us so much, that he sent his only son to die for us! And I'm sure that took a lot of effort for him, he loved his son, he did not want to put him through all those trials, through all the pain, but he did so anyway. If we don't have love, we can't give it. You cannot give what you do not have.
But we know this, right? And yet we still fall into this lie. How? Well... most people(I'm in this category, though I am climbing out!) find their identity in comparison. Ladies, we especially do this every day. Don't try and deny it. We go to the grocery store and we see maybe a friend, or a classmate, or just a complete stranger and we just start comparing ourselves to them. "Well, her shirt is cuter than mine... my shoes look nicer than hers... her hair is way better than mine..." all this nonsense, and unknowingly, we are knocking not just ourselves, but that other person as well down. Satan loves this. Comparison is his number one tool to get us to stumble. So when we find our identity in that, it is very hard to love ourselves, which makes it impossible to love others. So what do we do? We need to switch the source of where we find our worth. Have you ever heard of a car company that, when they make a car they take it to a rival manufacturer and has it critic their work? And then when they say something discouraging, the company says, "Oh... well they don't think it is good so obviously it is not." Yeah... no. They will defend their car, saying all the good things about it, building it up, they don't really care what others think about it. They believe in it... and that is all that matters. God is our manufacturer. His opinion is all that matters. God made us each fearfully and wonderfully made.

We need to stop comparing ourselves because you know why? We were each made to do something differently. Well, now you're thinking to yourself, "yeah, yeah Kayla... we know that. We've heard that our entire life. So what?" Well, what if you think about it this way. Paul did some really terrible things before he turned his life over to Christ. He pursecuted Christians, killing them mercilessly, and did not loose an ounce of sleep at night. Surely if anyone had a reason to dwell on their past, and compare it to the people around him, it was him. But he didn't. Imagine if he did though... we couldn't have half of our New Testament. So many lives would not have been changed because he couldn't stop comparing his past. Paul was an incredible man with a heart so for the Lord... imagine if he'd stopped and really thought, "I can't live this life. I've done terrible things, I cannot change." How different would our lives be if he didn't follow the path God had for him? Well... it could be the same for us. We need to stop comparing, stop trying to be like everyone else, and just live our lives with an identity found in God's love alone.

Every night we sang one song, and I just cannot get enough of it. It still gives me chills when I listen. Here it is...



This was an extremely long post, and for that I do apologize, but I hope that maybe God has said something to you. If he did, and you are comfortable sharing, leave a small comment. Even it is just something like, "I need to stop comparing" or "God does love me!" or maybe even, "That song gave me goose bumps!". I'm praying for all my readers daily, you guys are important to me and I hope that this year y'all are learning to run into Christ's arms, and your hearts sing no other name than JESUS!!

Have a fantastic weekend,

7-8-11: Four days late...

SO, I feel really, really, really, really, really, really, really terrible about this. Our nation's Independence day was just the other day, and well... I forgot to post :( BUT today I'm going to be doing an extra long post to attempt to make up for it :)

All gave some, but some gave all

Freedom never comes Free

America, Home of the Free
Because of the Brave

So, the main reason why I didn't post on my absolute favorite Holiday(after Christmas... it is really hard to beat out my Savior's birthday) was because I wasn't near a computer. I woke up early to walk in a parade(pictures below) and then after that my aunt picked me up, taking me to our annual 4th of July party/papa's birthday party. My fam was already there, so I had to hitch a ride from someone else :)
And then, when I did finally get home, I couldn't keep my eyes open. I don't remember anything after turning off my light. I slept through a firework war(Our neighborhood and the two across the street were seeing who could have the biggest show) and booming music across the street(late-night party). Apparently the house even shook... good thing a bomb didn't go off right?? lol

My summer has really started to get on a roll now :) I also just got back from my mission trip!!! It was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did not want to leave :'( I did cry... and I'm still wearing my red bracelet. (If any of you have ever done TeenServe before, you'll know what I mean... and if not, it is like a water park wrist band thingy... it lets ppl know that I'm with TeenServe)

But currently I do have a small break :) Though in just a few weeks I'll be teaching VBS at my church! I'm excited to see just what God has planned this year!

Alright, so here are some pictures from the 4th, and there is one from my mission trip(sorry ppl, I didn't get around to taking pictures...)

The Giant Fish!(Not a whale... the tale is turned the wrong way)

Leaving FOR the parade(Carpool!!)

Half day! On Wednesday we only worked until just after noon, then, for a few hours we got to go hang out with our youth groups! It was a blast and definitely a highlight of the trip :)


Oh, and one more thing... here is my Top-Twelve Patriotic Playlist :) (Not in any order)

1. Old Glory - Phil Stacy
2. If You're Reading This - Tim McGraw
3. Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning) - Alan Jackson
4. Just a Dream - Carrie Underwood
5. Soldiers & Jesus - James Otto
6. Real - James Wesley
7. All American Girl - Carrie Underwood
8. I will Not Say Goodbye - Danny Gokey
9. He Ain't the Leavin' Kind - Rascal Flatts
10. Made in America - Toby Keith
11. American Solider - Toby Keith
12. God Bless the USA - Lee Greenwood
    

7-27-10: A Mission trip story

Hey everyone!
Well, since on my last post I told you that I had tons of stories to tell you about my mission trip, but didn't actually tell you any, I thought I'd tell y'all some now. :)

Wednesday:
On Wednesday, it was our half day. We would work from 8:30am to 12:30 am... giving us about three hours off. Everyone was excited because the rest of the day we would spend with our youth groups, just bonding and telling stories about the past few days.
But, my (awesome!!!!!!) crew (crew 10!) finished WAY early. On both Monday and Tuesday we had worked super hard to finish this house we had. We were doing mostly interior, but we had to paint a porch and also do a sealing coat on the roof. We would have finished this house on Tuesday, but we had run out of paint for the porch. ( :( ) So, we ordered more paint and it was waiting for us on Wednesday morning.
My crew was made up of six people. Me, three other teens and two crew leaders. We only had to paint one wall, and we only had to do one coat.
We got to work as soon as we arrived and we were done just a few minutes after nine. We called TeenServe, the organization that we were with and asked if they wanted us to go help another crew, since it wasn't even 9:30am yet. But, they said no... no one really needed help, so we could just go back to the school we were staying at and hang. We were kinda upset about it at first, mostly because we were really wanted to serve, but then we realized that we could sit in the AC and just relax. Then we decided it was okay. (lol)
We got back to the school around 9:30 and we all headed into the cafeteria. We had brunch and we did our devos. I shared my testimony with my crew, it was really fun. I've never really told anyone my testimony before this trip, I did it a lot throughout it though. :D
After that our leaders disappeared and the four of us decided to play cards. We played cards from about, 10:30am until 12:25pm. Nearly two hours! It was amazing bonding time. We really got to know each other in that short period of time. I was kinda upset when everyone else started to show up... I didn't want our alone time to end! And the rest of my crew didn't either. We were really starting to become great, close friends.
I'm happy to say that right now I'm still in touch with all of my crew. It's been nearly two weeks since that time we had alone in the cafeteria. I cannot believe that my trip went by so fast, I really want to go back. It was an awesome experience, and I hope to one day see my crew again. Who knows... maybe next year. :D

Well, there yah have it. A mission trip story. :D Have a great day!

I'm BACKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey y'all!!!!
I'm BBBBBBBAAAAAAAAACCCCCKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And I'm so happy to be home! Well, okay... not really, but I did miss my family and friends that didn't come with me on my mission trip. :)
I had SOOOOOO much fun! I did not want to leave! I made great new friends, and our jobs were AWESOME! I absolutely LOVED the speaker and band that played and spoke to us every night, they were amazing!!!!
I'm not going to tell you everything I did, because then this post would be MILES long, so here are just some pics...

This is the card that my residents gave our crew on Friday, the little kids decorated it and it was just SO sweet of them!

This is my crew!(Minus our crew leaders and me) They were awesome and I miss them all SO much!!

These are two of my friends, on Wednesday we had a half day, in the later afternoon all the youth groups went and did something together, ours went and played lazer tag!!! It was SO much fun!!!

This is the room where the girls from my church stayed in, it got REALLY cold at night! But, we always had fun talking and laughing as late as they'd let us! lol

Well yeah, those are the pics... hope you enjoyed! I've gotta run, but have a great week!

7-9-10: No posting...

Hey everyone!
Alright, I just wanted y'all to know that I'm not going to be posting for awhile. I'm leaving on my mission trip and will have no access to a computer or internet while I'm gone. But, I'll hopefully have pictures to show you when I get back. :)
Have a wonderful next few weeks!