Lift your eyes

School's out tomorrow 'due to inclement weather' and I couldn't be more giddy! :) I have a whole extra day to edit my paper for English--which is a whole other story--which makes me incredibly happy.


Over these past few weeks, I've really been struggling with handing over difficult situations and worries to God. It seemed every time I thought I had a handle on things, new doubts would return to my mind and my resolve would break. God is so much bigger than my problems and when I think about how little faith I really put in him when times get hard, it upsets me that I have so little faith.

Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: 

   Who created all these? 

He who brings out the starry host one by one 

   and calls forth each of them by name. 

Because of his great power and mighty strength, 

   not one of them is missing.

Why do you complain, Jacob? 

   Why do you say, Israel, 

“My way is hidden from the LORD; 

   my cause is disregarded by my God”? 

Do you not know? 

   Have you not heard? 

The LORD is the everlasting God, 

   the Creator of the ends of the earth. 

He will not grow tired or weary, 

   and his understanding no one can fathom. 

He gives strength to the weary 

   and increases the power of the weak. 

Even youths grow tired and weary, 

   and young men stumble and fall; 

but those who hope in the LORD 

   will renew their strength. 

They will soar on wings like eagles; 

   they will run and not grow weary, 

   they will walk and not be faint.

~Isaiah 40:26-31

 During Bible study tonight our leader was talking about the difference between realizing the sins in our lives and being sorry for them and choosing to be done with them and make a concerted effort to allow God to have full reign in our lives. God spoke to me tonight through the awesome leaders at this Bible study and I feel like this is the start of something great. I don't want anything to come between me and my relationship with God and for what seems like the past three months, I have allowed a rift to grow between us. But God has relentlessly pursued me through sermons, passages in scripture, even facebook statuses to get my attention to the fact that no matter how far it seems I've fallen, he is still my God and I am still his child. So tonight, I have decided to stop wallowing in self-pity because of the things I can't change and start being proactive about pursuing a genuine and real friendship with my creator. I can't fix everything that's wrong with me--which is a lot--but I can try and 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.' I won't be able to do any of this without His help. I intend to try my best to live in the freedom my identity in Christ provides. I choose to not live like a person with baggage to carry around with me everywhere I go. I don't have to live like that because I have freedom in Jesus Christ. I've been set free and starting right now, I am going to live like it.

God in my living

There in my breathing

God in my waking

God in my sleeping

God in my resting

There in my working

God in my thinking

God in my speaking

Be my everything

Be my everything

Be my everything

Be my everything

God in my hoping

There in my dreaming

God in my wathcing

God in my waiting

God in my laughing

There in my weeping

God in my hurting

God in my healing

Christ in me

Christ in me

Christ in me the hope of glory

You are everything

Christ in me

Christ in me

Christ in me the hope of glory

Be my everything

You are everything

Jesus, Everything

~Tim Hughes 

Day 31

Day 31

Day 30

Day 30

The amazingly delicious soup in a bread bowl from Panera. :)

Day 29

Day 29

Day 28

Day 28

Poor kitty :( She was recently fixed and now she has to wear the 'cone of shame.'

Note the similarities...

source

Day 27

Day 27

"And only you can see the good
In broken things
You took my heart of stone
And you made it home
And set this prisoner free"
~Bethany Dillon: Hallelujah

Day 26

Day 26

Day 25

Day 25

ABORT73: Where do YOU stand?

I recently discovered an organization called Abort73. I received in invite to join the Facebook group about a year ago. I glanced at the page, saw it was an anti-abortion group, and, being a long-time anti-abortion-er, joined it without really looking at the information on the site or mission statement. A few months ago, I went on  a wild t-shirt hunt. I wanted to buy some t-shirt with a cool saying. I looked around at some of my favorite music artists' merch pages, some Julian Smith shirts, and then I remembered Abort73 and wondered if they had any interesting shirts. I went to the Facebook group and was directed to the actual website. I did find a shirt that I ended up purchasing, but before that I read up on this group. Here's an excerpt from the Abort73 website which you can find here:

"High schools and universities go to great lengths to graphically expose the dangers of smoking, drunk-driving and STD’s, but take a pass when it comes to abortion. Abort73.com exists to tell you what almost no one else is, so please, don’t make up your mind until you’ve taken the time to examine the facts. You are standing on the threshold, so come a little further. We dare you to know."


What I like the most about Abort73, is that it doesn't shove its beliefs in your face with little to no factual evidence to support its claims. If you really take the time to poke around on the website, you will find some powerful information. As Americans, we are bombarded all the time with the pro-choice-ers' and the anti-abortion-ers' slogans and beliefs without really taking the time to educate ourselves on the surgical procedure of abortion. There is so much we do not know. Whether you believe abortion is right, wrong, or are unsure about the whole issue, you still need to know both sides to the story before forming an opinion. I've grown up in an environment that taught me 'Abortion in wrong.' I adopted this view because it was what I had been brought up to believe. After careful consideration, I've decided it is not enough to merely take what you are taught at face value and 'just go with it' because someone told you 'this is how it is.' Whether you were taught that abortion is wrong or right, I want to ask you: Have you personally taken the time to educate yourself about it? I don't mean reading slogans or phrases that support either side and reciting them when it's conversationally appropriate. I mean finding out the facts. Abort73 is a great resource and a good place to start if you have never taken the time to read up on this controversial issue. I encourage you to give it a glance. 


Abortion is not only a political issue, it is a moral issue, whether anyone wants to admit it or not. You may say you are pro-choice or anti-abortion, but if you have not taken the opportunity--because learning is an opportunity--to educate yourself, can you really say you support either side? 


The point of this post is not to convince you that abortion is right or wrong. I am firmly convinced that abortion is wrong and has no place in any society or nation. I believe this because I took advantage of the opportunity to educate myself. If you have a computer and can access the Internet, you can can seize this opportunity.  


Do you know where you stand and why you stand there? 


Before you decide, find out the facts.

I went a little crazy :-)

Hello all :)


As the title says, I went a little crazy last night. I'm subscribed to get daily emails from Writerly Life (a wonderful creative writing newsletter by Blair Hurley--check it out here: it's great!) and one of the posts was talking about a book she recommended called Make A Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time by Jordan Rosenfeld. I myself have been having difficulty lately trying to put together individual scenes in the current idea I've been working on so I bit. :-) I went to Amazon and put it in my cart. The thing is, after you put something in your cart, Amazon brings up a million suggestions; sort of like 'People who bought this book also bought these titles.' I put three other books in my cart and checked out before I could think twice. I'm very excited to read these titles. 

• One Year to a Writing Life: Twelve Lessons to Deepen Every Writer's Art and Craft by Susan M. Tiberghein
• Writer's Guide to Character Traits by Dr. Linda Edelstein 
• Creating Character Emotions by Ann Hood

On another note, I think I'm finally getting back into the swing of school. When classes started last week, I felt totally unprepared, physically and mentally. I had my tuition paid, books bought, and all that, but I was so comfortable staying up until 3AM watching reruns of 24 and Friends with my sister and sleeping in until 11AM. The thought of having assignments to do and material to read (I mean scholastic reading, not pleasure reading) was simply detestable! But now I'm doing a little better with the pace--though I've had to bid farewell to late-night Jack Bauer dates--and have gotten into the groove with most of my classes. I got so overwhelmed with assignments and deadlines this past Monday I decided to take a Facebook break for a week. I knew I wouldn't get anything done so I pledged not to log on until next Monday. These next few weeks are crucial to setting the mood for the rest of the semester, and I just know if I laze out early on, I will be lazy until May.

My English class is not at all what I thought it would be. I was under the impression that it was more geared towards composition and literature, but apparently the Department changed the core English courses to be more rhetoric-centric. The class itself is a little boring, but the professor has a dry sense of humor. My Spanish class is going very well; I'm enjoying it a lot. My professor is blind so almost everything we do in class is oral, which I think is good because practicing a foreign language out loud helps me learn it better than doing writing exercises. 

I'm also taking Political Science/American Government. There's plenty to read (and by plenty, I mean SO much) and it's pretty interesting. The professor is really interested in what he's talking about and that's always helpful in contributing to the relevance of a topic. My World Regions Geography professor is from Cork, Ireland and has a heavy accent. Being part Irish myself, it makes me happy to hear him talk. I feel like I'm going to learn a whole lot in Geography.

I have a feeling there are about to be some big changes in my life. I have been doing a lot of thinking about my major and what it is God wants me to do with my life. Right now, my major is English with a concentration of Creative Writing. I know that Creative Writing is not the most employable major out there, so I've been doing some careful thinking about possibly changing to a minor in Creative Writing and majoring in something a little more employable like Tech Writing or something of that ilk. I've considered teaching English. There are so many people out there who have not learned the basics of writing clearly. I think the best way to becoming a proficient writer is to start when you are young. If I was going to teach English, I would want to teach kids in the grade schools (Elementary or Secondary). I know teaching is no glamorous profession, but I believe in its utter significance. I am not married to any solid plans yet, but I am definitely giving the teaching field some serious thought. Honestly, all I want right now is to know what God wants me to do because what good could I possibly do if I am operating (or trying to operate) outside of His plan? Everything I touch will fall to pieces if what I'm doing isn't what He's told me to do. 


I'm unsure, I'm afraid, I'm insecure, I'm weary, I'm burned out. I will not give up. This world isn't my final destination. 


"...what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”" James 4:14b-15

Day 24

Day 24
My new favorite snack :-)

Day 23

Day 23

Day 22

Day 22
What can I say? I love my fuzzy socks. :-)

We, The Fallen

We, the fallen, have drawn attention to ourselves in order to make these, our best thought-out excuses: What's wrong with me is someone else's fault. I deserve this because I never had that. I am better than them. What I want is more important than what they need.

We, the fallen, walk with our mouths open and our ears closed. 

We, the fallen, are proud beyond all human comprehension. Even in our most secret and unknown subconscious, pride is what defines every word that come out of our mouths. Every movement we make. Every thought we think. 

We, the fallen, claim that we cannot know truth because we are afraid that when we find out truth, it will not conform to the way we want to live.

We, the fallen, are selfish. We preach conservation, and peace, and justice, but when push comes to shove, no one is more important than #1: ME 

We, the fallen, are entitled. Because we've done this, we ought to be given that. 

We, the fallen, are inconsistent. We say we want to change the world, when the truth is we want only to be comfortable.

We, the fallen, are thieves. We take what belongs to someone else and pretend that everything's alright. 

We, the fallen, are cheaters. We are dishonest with with our families, with our work, with ourselves; and we know it. 

We, the fallen, think we know what we need, but in the end this world leaves us empty and void of all joy. 

We, the fallen, are cursed. Cursed from the very beginning, to fail, to murder, to steal, to lie, to cheat, to hate, to disobey, to die. 

We, the fallen

We, the crippled

We, the damned

We, the dead

But God

God, the timeless, draws all attention to His perfect self to reveal to us His most perfect truth: "I AM that I AM." Exodus 3:14

God, the merciful, takes the dust out of our eyes and the clay out of our ears to tell us something: "God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1b

God, the just, sent His humble son, Jesus Christ, to this earth to be a servant to the proudest sinners who would reject Him: "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations." Isaiah 42:1

Jesus, the infallible, is the source of all truth, knowledge, and understanding. He is the creator of truth and all of creation must conform to it: I am the way, the truth, and the life..." John 14:6a

Jesus, the creator, is selfless: "...Who, being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, rather he made himself nothing." Philippians 2:6-7a

God, the holy, is entitled to all glory, honor, and submission from His creation: "Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods." 1 Chronicles 16:25

God, the unchangeable, is stable in everything he does. He has been, is, and will always be the same: "I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed." Malachi 3: 6

Jesus, the caring, is gracious. He has offered salvation--which none deserve--to those who will call on  His name: "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:7-8

God, the judge, is truthful with His creation: "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned." Romans 5:12 

God, the wise, knows exactly what we need to be filled. He knows that the only thing is this world that can bring true joy is a relationship with his Son, Jesus Christ: "But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves." John 17:13

Jesus, the forgiving, opens the eyes of the ones he chooses to His unimaginable grace. He has offered sinners a way out of hell and spiritual death. None deserve this gift, but God--because of His great love for His creation--has offered it, nonetheless: "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." 1 Peter 2:9

God, the Creator

Jesus, the Sustainer

God, the Just

Jesus, the Savior 

  

Day 21

Day 21

Day 20

Day 20

Day 19

Day 19

Take a minute and listen to this song.

Just turn up your speakers and close your eyes.

Day 18

Day 18
This cat is very lady-like :)

Day 17

Day 17

Day 16

Day 16

Day 15

Day 15

Day 14

Day 14

Day 13

Day 13

Day 12

Day 12

Day 11

Day 11
Edited on Picnik

Day 10

Day 10--my sweet little brother. Just look at those freckles. :-)

Day 9

Day 9--yay snow!

Snow Day!

Around 11:45AM this morning it started snowing! I made sure to get some shots of it before it melted--as of right now, the snow is dripping from the trees and the roads are one big slush pile. 

The grill was not too happy about being left in the snow.

The Lamp post--no fawns around, unfortunately.

Day 8

Day 8

Christmas Break Update #2

Hello all,
     I know it's been more than a couple weeks since I last posted on the goings-on of the break, but I've been super busy not being busy. :-) I have more free time than I know what to do with but unlike every other vacation, I'm actually doing something productive with my time.
     I went to Houston for a week to celebrate New Years. I stayed at my grandma's house with my family and we all had a great time. My sister, my dad, my grandmother, and I played 110 (the best card game you will ever play) almost every night and my grandma cooked Puerto Rican food and a great time was had by all. (Yeah, it was so good I had to write a run-on sentence to get my point across!) On the five-hour drive to Houston I continued reading Catcher in the Rye and finished it later in the week. I loved the book, although the vocabulary grated on my nerves a bit. I won't spoil anything for those who haven't read it, but the last twenty pages were some of the best I've ever read.
    
     The day after we got home I was pleased to see that my pictures from Shutterfly had arrived. That afternoon I opened all my new scrapbooking paraphernalia and didn't stop until 1:30 that morning. During that evening--only at the strong behest of my parents--my sister and I watched the ENTIRE mini-series of Battlestar Galactica. My parents are avid fans of the show and are trying to get us hooked, but I was not as impressed as I thought I'd be. It went so, if I may, frakking long! I decided to give the first few episodes of the actual show a try before I totally boycott it, though. :-)
     Yesterday me and my family went to see Tangled. I am in love with the whole thing! I loved the music and the graphics and everything. I felt the same way I did as a six-year-old watching Beauty and the Beast. The characters were so quirky and real in their own way. I think the horse and Eugene were my favorite characters. :-)
     Well that's all I've really been up to lately. My Spring 2011 schedule is finalized but I'm not quite ready to get back into the school routine just yet. I am, however, stoked to start choir up again this Sunday as well as AWANA. I've missed my kids a lot. :-)
  Thanks for reading!

      
  

Day 7

Day 7

Day 6

 Day 6

I turned the flash off and turned the ISO up to get the grainy, old-fashioned look for this picture. I messed with the tuning a little, but the camera did most of the work.

Day 5: 'Like an angry apple tree...'

Day 5


The lyric in the title is from the song Locked Up by Ingrid Michaelson. I think this picture gives off the same vibe as the song. You should check out the song. :)

Project 365 (Days 1-4)

Hey all,
I decided (about 3 days late) to start Project 365. Project 365 is where you take 1 picture every day for a whole year to improve your photography skills. I'm very excited about this and will be posting pictures on here frequently. Day 5 will be up later tonight and here are days 1-4. Enjoy!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

On another note, I am about to do a complete overhaul of this blog and organize posts a little better. I'll be posting a Christmas Break update soon! Thanks for reading. :)