A friend shared this video with another friend who posted it on Facebook, and it was like a brick to the head for me, one of those "AHA!" moments that we talked about in Confirmation class.
"God, I'm doing the best I can! But..."
"I'm doing the best I can! But..."
"The best I can! But..."
"But..."
We start with the right intentions, but a few failures will leave us with nothing but ourselves and excuses to quit. When we're left with nothing except "buts" we lose our God-focus, and see imperfection after imperfection, failure after failure.
But what happens when we go the other way?
"God, I'm doing the best I can! But..."
"God, I'm doing the best I can!"
"God, I'm doing the best!"
"God,"
And it's then, when rather than going from the beginning to the "but" that we go from the beginning to the "God" that we have reason to keep on going. No, we are never going to be perfect, that's how it is, but when we focus on the "God" part, rather than the "but" part, we find the strength to continue God's work, rather than the excuses to quit.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
A Tribute to My Girls
My friends and I are at the age when we are going to Sweet 16 parties practically every weekend, and tonight I was at one of those parties.
Going from middle school to high school was, well, difficult, to say the least. It still is tough at times, mostly because of how much I hate change (I'm working on it, I promise). It seems like everything is entirely different. Classes, people, scheduling, weekends, homework, friends, everything. But tonight I felt a little bit of the past at the party with us.
We sat around and talked, we danced, we sang, we laughed at each other, we laughed at ourselves, and we laughed at things that weren't even remotely funny. We had a genuinely good time. And it was in these moments, dancing as though nobody was watching, laughing so obnoxiously loud but not caring, that I realized how much these girls and I have been through together.
I've been together with some of these girls since elementary school, and some since middle school, and together we made it through all of the trials that came with our different phases. It was with these girls that I played tag on the playground at recess in elementary school, these girls who I studied and laughed with in middle school. We would find each other crying in the bathrooms at school, and immediately know what was wrong, we would comfort one another. We stayed up into all hours of the night giggling over magazines and boys, playing truth or dare, eating whatever we wanted at sleep overs.
We taught each other how to do cart wheels in the sixth grade when we decided that we were going to try out to be cheerleaders, we walked for hours together at Relay for Life all three years of middle school, we laughed until our stomachs hurt at lunch. We passed notes during boring classes, and we (accidentally) threw an open water bottle across the room in eighth grade Social Studies (maybe that's why the teacher didn't like me, heh heh), we were brutally honest with each other, and we cheered when casts finally came off.
We claimed "countries" when friends started to fight (I've been Switzerland since fifth grade. Switzerland is mine ;).), we went through phases when we listened to one song on repeat for months, we made countless "movies" in each others houses, each with countless costumes and plot lines.
Now, don't get me wrong, we've had our share of arguments, but we've always made it through them together. We've been furious with people that we haven't even met for hurting our friend, and we've seen each other's personalities change and develop, and we've learned to love each other for who we are at any given moment, not who we've been or who we'll become.
Together, we're cooky and crazy, we're loud and obnoxious. We're ready for anything, because when elementary and middle school brought us together, we were brought together for good. So, thank you to My Girls for being one of the few constants in an ever changing life <3
Going from middle school to high school was, well, difficult, to say the least. It still is tough at times, mostly because of how much I hate change (I'm working on it, I promise). It seems like everything is entirely different. Classes, people, scheduling, weekends, homework, friends, everything. But tonight I felt a little bit of the past at the party with us.
We sat around and talked, we danced, we sang, we laughed at each other, we laughed at ourselves, and we laughed at things that weren't even remotely funny. We had a genuinely good time. And it was in these moments, dancing as though nobody was watching, laughing so obnoxiously loud but not caring, that I realized how much these girls and I have been through together.
I've been together with some of these girls since elementary school, and some since middle school, and together we made it through all of the trials that came with our different phases. It was with these girls that I played tag on the playground at recess in elementary school, these girls who I studied and laughed with in middle school. We would find each other crying in the bathrooms at school, and immediately know what was wrong, we would comfort one another. We stayed up into all hours of the night giggling over magazines and boys, playing truth or dare, eating whatever we wanted at sleep overs.
We taught each other how to do cart wheels in the sixth grade when we decided that we were going to try out to be cheerleaders, we walked for hours together at Relay for Life all three years of middle school, we laughed until our stomachs hurt at lunch. We passed notes during boring classes, and we (accidentally) threw an open water bottle across the room in eighth grade Social Studies (maybe that's why the teacher didn't like me, heh heh), we were brutally honest with each other, and we cheered when casts finally came off.
We claimed "countries" when friends started to fight (I've been Switzerland since fifth grade. Switzerland is mine ;).), we went through phases when we listened to one song on repeat for months, we made countless "movies" in each others houses, each with countless costumes and plot lines.
Now, don't get me wrong, we've had our share of arguments, but we've always made it through them together. We've been furious with people that we haven't even met for hurting our friend, and we've seen each other's personalities change and develop, and we've learned to love each other for who we are at any given moment, not who we've been or who we'll become.
Together, we're cooky and crazy, we're loud and obnoxious. We're ready for anything, because when elementary and middle school brought us together, we were brought together for good. So, thank you to My Girls for being one of the few constants in an ever changing life <3
Monday, January 16, 2012
Fiftieth Post: Two Posts Too Early
When I started this blog way back when in May of 2009 I had no idea what it would become. It started as a "Read it and Weep" type of diary that I had given up on after maybe three or four entries. Then, over a year later in November of 2010, I deleted those initial posts and began a Gratitude Journal, figuring that that's what this blog would be. Now it's a web page that God is using to use me in this world. It feels kind of crazy.
This was the kind of post that I hoped to write as my fiftieth post, not my forty eighth, but I think that it's time for me to write it now. God has used this simple blog to change my life. Sounds crazy, doesn't it?
Since I began blogging I've grown so much closer to God, and I've learned so much about Him. He taught me to always have my eyes, ears, and of course my heart, open to what He wants me to hear and to share. God has taught me that He can use me to reach other people, even in simple ways. Can you believe that Abby's Abstracts has had 1,998 page views since creation? I can't.
Every post was a lesson that God sent to me, and a lesson that I may not have learned if I didn't process it while writing a post. And you know what? God has blessed me with each of you who read this blog, because it's very likely that if nobody ever read what I wrote, I wouldn't bother writing it after a while, and I would have missed out on all of the lessons that God had in store. So thank you, and thank God!
This was the kind of post that I hoped to write as my fiftieth post, not my forty eighth, but I think that it's time for me to write it now. God has used this simple blog to change my life. Sounds crazy, doesn't it?
Since I began blogging I've grown so much closer to God, and I've learned so much about Him. He taught me to always have my eyes, ears, and of course my heart, open to what He wants me to hear and to share. God has taught me that He can use me to reach other people, even in simple ways. Can you believe that Abby's Abstracts has had 1,998 page views since creation? I can't.
Every post was a lesson that God sent to me, and a lesson that I may not have learned if I didn't process it while writing a post. And you know what? God has blessed me with each of you who read this blog, because it's very likely that if nobody ever read what I wrote, I wouldn't bother writing it after a while, and I would have missed out on all of the lessons that God had in store. So thank you, and thank God!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Passing on the Advice: Dating
For Christmas the leaders of the small group I attend at Church gave each of us a gift. It was a book, "Girl Talk With God" by Susie Shellenberger. This book is full of modern day conversations between a teenage girl and God. They are real, contemporary, and oh so easy to connect with. Though I haven't quite gotten through the entire thing yet, there is a lot of advice and a lot of truth in this book, some of it we don't want to face. It's from this book that I'd like to pass on advice about dating and relationships.
As a teenage girl, I am no stranger to how dating relationships work, and to the fact that they are all around me. I see couples all around me, happy couples, angry couples, good couples, bad couples, and a few just plain weird couples, and it is easy to wonder why I'm not involved in this dating scene, and I'm sure that I am not alone in this. I know that I would rather be with no guy at all than the wrong one, but often times I find myself wondering why that right guy, at least the right guy for this point in my life, hasn't come along. Why am I so different than so many of my friends?
This book, "Girl Talk with God", spells it out wonderfully. God is pointing out to the girl in the book that this boy that she's dating is not the right one for her, not for that moment in her life, and certainly not to marry, and He asks her to trust him with her love life. God says: "Trust that in My perfect timing, I will bring exactly whom I want in your life."
This goes for anything, not just dating relationships, or marriage, this goes for all kinds of relationships and scenarios. God has things under control, I promise you. He knows what He's doing, and even though sometimes we don't understand it, we have to do our best to trust that He is going to lead us in the right direction.
As any teenage girl, or any person, for that matter, the girl in the book responds to God conflicted. She wants to trust Him, and she knows that His timing is perfect, but, as she points out, God's timing isn't always as fast as we wish it to be. And to this worry, God replies simply: "But I'm never late."
Like the previous quote, this applies to practically everything in our lives. God knows what He's doing, and even when we wish He would hurry up with His plan, He is never, ever late. So take some time to breathe, and to trust in our Lord, that He has our lives under control, even when we think that all we do is wait.
God: "You don't have to do anything except be totally in love with me." This can be tough for some of us, taking a step back and allowing God to have total control, especially in a thing such as our love life. This means that we do not need to be constantly looking for a boyfriend, or girlfriend, because when God wants to bring someone into our life, He will, He doesn't need our help. God will handle it all, our only job is to fall so deeply in love with God that another person has to seek Him to find us.
This one last piece of advice from "Girl Talk with God" is probably the most difficult one to follow. God asks the girl: "What if I choose not to share you with a man?" and the girl replies: "I can't understand that, God." God: "I know. But with My strength you can accept without understanding." For many of us the idea that maybe God isn't planning a marriage for us can be scary, and as the girl points out, not easily understood. We won't understand everything that God has planned for us, it's likely that we won't understand most of what God has planned for us, but we aren't meant to.
So if God doesn't put someone in our lives, that doesn't mean that we are any less than someone who has a boyfriend or girlfriend, or than someone who is married. It simply means that He has a different plan in mind. Accepting that is difficult, and not possible to do by ourselves, but with our Lord's strength, He has made it possible. God loves us, and even when we don't understand, and even when we are waiting for what seems like forever, He hasn't forgotten us, He hasn't left us.
As a teenage girl, I am no stranger to how dating relationships work, and to the fact that they are all around me. I see couples all around me, happy couples, angry couples, good couples, bad couples, and a few just plain weird couples, and it is easy to wonder why I'm not involved in this dating scene, and I'm sure that I am not alone in this. I know that I would rather be with no guy at all than the wrong one, but often times I find myself wondering why that right guy, at least the right guy for this point in my life, hasn't come along. Why am I so different than so many of my friends?
This book, "Girl Talk with God", spells it out wonderfully. God is pointing out to the girl in the book that this boy that she's dating is not the right one for her, not for that moment in her life, and certainly not to marry, and He asks her to trust him with her love life. God says: "Trust that in My perfect timing, I will bring exactly whom I want in your life."
This goes for anything, not just dating relationships, or marriage, this goes for all kinds of relationships and scenarios. God has things under control, I promise you. He knows what He's doing, and even though sometimes we don't understand it, we have to do our best to trust that He is going to lead us in the right direction.
As any teenage girl, or any person, for that matter, the girl in the book responds to God conflicted. She wants to trust Him, and she knows that His timing is perfect, but, as she points out, God's timing isn't always as fast as we wish it to be. And to this worry, God replies simply: "But I'm never late."
Like the previous quote, this applies to practically everything in our lives. God knows what He's doing, and even when we wish He would hurry up with His plan, He is never, ever late. So take some time to breathe, and to trust in our Lord, that He has our lives under control, even when we think that all we do is wait.
God: "You don't have to do anything except be totally in love with me." This can be tough for some of us, taking a step back and allowing God to have total control, especially in a thing such as our love life. This means that we do not need to be constantly looking for a boyfriend, or girlfriend, because when God wants to bring someone into our life, He will, He doesn't need our help. God will handle it all, our only job is to fall so deeply in love with God that another person has to seek Him to find us.
This one last piece of advice from "Girl Talk with God" is probably the most difficult one to follow. God asks the girl: "What if I choose not to share you with a man?" and the girl replies: "I can't understand that, God." God: "I know. But with My strength you can accept without understanding." For many of us the idea that maybe God isn't planning a marriage for us can be scary, and as the girl points out, not easily understood. We won't understand everything that God has planned for us, it's likely that we won't understand most of what God has planned for us, but we aren't meant to.
So if God doesn't put someone in our lives, that doesn't mean that we are any less than someone who has a boyfriend or girlfriend, or than someone who is married. It simply means that He has a different plan in mind. Accepting that is difficult, and not possible to do by ourselves, but with our Lord's strength, He has made it possible. God loves us, and even when we don't understand, and even when we are waiting for what seems like forever, He hasn't forgotten us, He hasn't left us.
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