Growing up

I only have three quarters left of my high school career. Can the last day of my senior year come soon enough? Not a chance. Do I really want leave this old place behind? It will be tough. 

There are days that I loath another day of being trapped in the walls of my sunless high school. Then there are some days that I think on all of the people I have gotten to know. Are there any chances that I will see them after I leave? The answer is no.

While most of my days are spent daydreaming about my open future and what adventures I will have there are some days that I fall into despair over what I will lose. I will lose the comfort of home. The companionship of my friends. The worry less life I lead. I will have to gain responsibilities of having to pay bills and manage money. 

The downsides of growing up do seem intimidating but they are also far outnumbered by the promises of what I can do with the life I will lead. I can hardly wait to make new friends and meet people who sweep me away with their love of life. I can't wait to learn everything I can. The promise of adventure excites me. And the number of trips I dream of taking is overwhelming and exciting. The places I want to live, the things I want to do, and the passionate life I want to live all run through my mind daily. I want to make a difference, I want to stick out, I want to blend in and observe, I want to live life to its full capacity. I will not live long enough to experience all of the living I dream of. 

My only fear in life is not being able to do all that I dream. The only comfort I have in knowing I will choose the right adventures is Christ. God knows exactly what I will do with my life and because of this I must remind myself to always go His way. I must strengthen my faith in The Lord so as to not get lost in the storms of life. And through the perils of life with Christ I will know I am on the right path and that I am living out what I was made for.

The years I have spent growing up are all I have ever known and when I leave them my world will change. But a change for the better is all that can be promised from God. So, am I excited for my future? Yes. Will I miss my past? Yes but that is life. Do I worry about my future? No. My life is The Lord's.

This is a touchy subject, of that much I am aware.

I recently had to write a paper on my opinion of the very controversial subject of sexual orientation. If you don't agree with my opinion, let me know, I would love to hear other peoples outlooks on this topic.

Gay rights have become a subject that everyone seems to have a opinion on. It seems more and more people are coming out of the closet. In my opinion being sexually involved with the same sex is wrong. I do not agree that same sex marriage should be legalized or given the advantage in workplaces and in society. People are too caught up with being discriminated against these days.

I disagree with same sex marriage simply because the Bible names it to be a sin. It is wrong for a man to lie with another man. At the same time we are all sinners therefore I will love the sinner and not the sin. I am very accepting of the person who is gay, just like Christ would be, but I am sure to make it clear that I do not agree with their sinful nature.

If a person is gay, fine, but if they are sexually involved with someone of the same sex I find it completely unacceptable. Marriage and sexual involvement is for man and woman to enjoy together, not man and man or woman and woman. If this “coming out of the closet” things is kept up at the pace that people are coming out now I can very easily see the population going down causing problems in our society. With the lack of children coming into this world, workplaces would suffer by not having enough workers and the economy would drop at the lack of a work force.

If a person is adamant on being attracted to the same sex then I think there are many ways for them to avoid sin. The Lord says in the Bible that He loves it when a couple gets married and works together to do His will, it pleases Him immensely. But at the same time He admires the person who decides to stay single and dedicate their entire lives to Him. I think the gay person could go down the path of non-marriage. They would not be sexually involved and, just like every other Godly individual they would steal away their minds from adulterous thoughts. They would be sexually pure, and though they would not be completely sinless, none of us really are.

God is a forgiving God who hates sin but loves every single one of us sinners, whether we have given our lives to Him or not. He would not love the gay person's sin of yearning for sexual interaction with people of the same sex, He doesn’t love any of our sexual yearnings.

Basically, I do not support being gay at all. Man and woman were meant to be together, not man and man or woman and woman. I have no problem with being friends with the person, I am by no means “homophobic.” But if I were to ever be friends with a person who was gay or lesbian I would make it known to them that I do not support their being gay. I feel like too many Christians are unkind to people with confused genders and if gays are shunned by people who are supposed to reflect God’s love than the person would not feel any love for Christ.

Recently there was the disagreement between the CEO of Chick-fil-a and gays. The Gay Rights leader sat down and had a couple of talks with the Chick-fil-a CEO. The leader of gay rights said that he did not feel discriminated against by the CEO, they sat down and had great talks and the CEO came to understand the gays side of things and the gay activist learned the CEO’s side of things. They are now reportedly friends.

I think a relationship like this is a great way to treat a person you disagree with. They know that you disagree and you know they don’t feel the same as them but you both understand each other's sides and can look past the differences.

I do not believe that people are born gay, I think it is a choice. This is my opinion and though 

people may not agree with me, I will stick strong to it. Everyone should be loved, despite their sin.

Rapturing Regret

Everyone has regrets. It could be something as small as wishing you said hello to the stranger you felt compelled to say hello to, but didn't. Something as meaningless as choosing the wrong movie or choosing the wrong phone case. Something where at the moment you stand faced with a choice and you choose the item that you reasoned was best and when you finish the movie or whatever you chose you wonder if that was really the best choice.
Then other times it's something a little larger. What if you had turned on a different street that day? What if you had chosen not to go on that walk? What if you hadn't craved that white mocha coffee? These regrets are what we could call the "what if regrets."
Lastly, we have our large regrets. For me it's wishing I would have continued ballet, I hate myself for being so stubborn. My Mom pushed and prodded but nothing could get me to go back to my beloved ballet classes. My Mom's big regret is not continuing piano when she was younger. For my Dad it is the fact that he quit making a habit of working out in college. These regrets tend to be the ones that plague us for the rest of our lives.
As I stated earlier, everyone has some sort of regret, big or small.
Here is my kicker, if we followed every poke and prod of God's would we have any regrets at all? Whether you have formed an opinion or not, hear me out, please.
God is a sovereign God, He is an all knowing God. In Jeremiah chapter one verse five He says:
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations"
God knows exactly what we will do in the next five minutes, He leaves the choice up to us but He knows what our choice is going to be. He knows what kind of impact we will make upon this world, big or small. He is using us all, whether we touch only a couple of peoples lives or millions of people. He has His plans.
So, if He knows all, if He is omnipotent, why don't we turn to Him in our choices? I have often been compelled to smile at a person, say hello, start a conversation, sit by a stranger, and so much more. I feel nudges from God to do simple things that could make a huge difference in a persons life. Sometimes I obey God's request and other times I think about everything that could happen and I talk myself out of it. Ironically enough, every time I don't follow the little urges I'm filled with regret, but when I do commit the little act I am filled with a feeling of great happiness because most of the time the person is relieved by me doing whatever it is I did. God obviously knows what needs to be done, why must we have a hard time trusting that God knows what He is doing?
Same has to go with large decisions. My Dad has very recently taken on a new job. This a big milestone in his life. You can bet that this decision was made with countless hours in prayer and also listening to what the Lord wanted us to do. Big decisions are always what people think about when they pray about being lead by God. But it's our every step that needs to be guided by Him.
If we lived with our hearts and our lives totally devoted and dedicated to God and followed His every urge I think we would live without regret. Of course, we are sinners, we will always let Satan work his way into our minds and convince us that we are too timid to ever step out and do God's will. God knows all so, why not give our all for Him? No matter what.
It takes 30 days for a habit to be ingrained into a persons mind so, for the next 30 days every time you feel led to step out of your box, go for it. Live your life God's way and live without a worming regret! You will mess up, accept that! We are sinners, we are fallen people, we are imperfect. That is why we have Jesus. God knows we mess up, it breaks His heart, but He forgives.
So, make a habit of stepping out of your box! Have a never ending conversation with Him, He will lead you the way He wants you to go!
Live life without regret, live life God's way!
Abbie

Living life God's way

Happy faces, rosy cheeks, shouts of glee, the scraping of metal against ice, the holding of hands, and the falling on bums. I'll bet you can guess where I was today!
I laced my feet into a pair of figure skates and became the dreamer of skating dreams. It took me awhile to warm up but ten minutes in I was skating like a pro.
I spent this lovely day with my Aunt, Uncle, Cousins, and Grandparents. Out of our whole group my two year old cousin was the most ambitious. In the beginning she wanted nothing to do with the ice but after seeing her Cousins and Mommy and Daddy skate, she wanted in. She took to the ice like a fish to water and after seeing a couple of other little kids skating backwards while holding a grown ups hands she let go of my Uncle's hand and grabbed both of mine. She then says "I want to skate backwards."
I think we can all learn from my cousins bravery. I once read that as soon as a child worries about the future is when childhood is given up they start to become an adult. Like any child my cousin did not worry about falling, she saw something she wanted to try and trusted that I would not let her fall.
Why can't adults and adolescents be like that? Why do we worry about what will happen when we want to do something. Now granted, it's a good to think about the consequences. You don't just do, say drugs just because you want to. Most people know not to do drugs because they thought through the consequences.
I'm talking about things that we know the consequences wouldn't be too grave. I'm talking things that God approves of, things that God says, "I want you to do that." Why can't we just trust that God would never have us do something that wouldn't shape us into the person He wants us to be? Just like I wouldn't have let my cousin skate backwards if I thought she would be hurt from it.
Why can't we just go head long into any adventure God okays for us? It could be the adventure that we tell our grandchildren about at our knee someday. Do you want to miss that opportunity? Just like how Bilbo Baggins said yes to his adventure, after much prodding, but thankfully he went along, otherwise we would have no Lord of the Rings and he would have no story to tell.
Ignore the fact that I just referenced LOTR if you have never seen the movies or read the books (you should really watch/read them though, they are great!) But I want you to understand what I am trying to say here. Adventure is meant to be had and life is meant to be lived to glorify God. So, jump in, don't be scared, if God approves you would be crazy not to hurry on your way and do His bidding. Think of how amazing this world would be and how interesting people would be if everyone allowed their every step to be guided by God Himself. It would be a lovely world.
So, next time you feel God urging you to do something unexpected, big or small, I challenge you to go out on a whim and grab life by the horns and go for it!
Abbie

So, you don't think God is great? Read this.

I've always found it crazy that people don't believe that there is a God. I know there are probably millions of posts out there very similar to how this one is going to be, but Imma do it any way!

I went on a walk this morning. I always enjoy admiring The Lord's creations so I kept my eyes wide open, as not to miss a single thing. Only two humans were spotted on my little adventure and towards the end of the walk my chin was feeling the nip of Jack Frost, despite my giant knitted scarf. Giant snow flakes were drifting to the ground, anxious to kiss old snow hello. As I walked into the wind I was careful to keep my chin tucked against my chest. But as soon as the wind wasn't slapping my face I allowed my curious eyes to wander over the white landscape.
How can a person not believe that there is a God? I mean, the snow flakes. It's said that no two flakes are the same, they are all made with a different design by the hand of God. Crazy, right? It's hard for me to fathom that it's even possible, I mean, how many years has it been snowing? Thousands of years and there is not a single design repeated in any flake. This has to take a lot of creativity, creativity that can only belong to a God who made the earth.
On my walk I also noticed many other things. How the birds still chased each other in circles around trees even though it was freezing and the three squirrels that played tag on the trunk of another tree. Am I the only one who thinks it's crazy that they can play on the trunk of a tree and not fall to the ground? Squirrels were made that way and I'm not going to be one to question how amazing God is. But still people believe that this all exploded into being? Even the simplest things scream, THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE MADE ME!!!
I once read somewhere that bumble bees defy all of scientists expectations. Their body's are supposed to be too big for their wings to support them. Scientifically bees aren't supposed to fly, but they do. If you don't think that is crazy then take a step back and take a different look at it. Bees, though they scare most of us, are mandatory for our living. Bees pollinate plants, so the plant can reproduce. Without a bee's flight nothing would get pollinated, causing plants to wither and die without producing offspring. That would mean no wheat, corn, barley, and any other plant. Everything we eat originates from a plant, no matter how processed. Now you say meat, we can eat meat you silly girl. Well, where does a cow, pig, or any other animal's food come from? That's right, plants. So, without a bee's flight, anything of any kind would not exist. I'm sorry if that doesn't blow your mind, I really am. Let me try once more to blow your mind on this concept. Bee no fly, you no live, no worry, bee do fly. Okay, sorry that was a pathetic attempt at humor. But this really is AMAZING, the bee is not expected to fly but God saw what the world would be like if the bee didn't fly, even though man doesn't seem to think it should be possible, with God all things are possible. Now don't try to tell me that bees morphed into being able to fly, that's silly.
There are so many crazy things that God wove into creation. There are 284 individual muscles in the caterpillar's head. 284 in the head alone. Caterpillar's heads are tiny!! The earth was placed the perfect distance to the sun, a tad bit closer and earth would be way too hot for life to live on, a little further away and it would be too cold. And people think that the earth exploded into the perfect spot. It's okay if you are just as confused as me.
I also looked up some facts about our planet that are crazy. The earth travels at the perfect speed around the sun, about 66,000 miles an hour. Faster and it would be an icy wasteland, slower and we would be pulled toward to sun and would burn up. Also the average distance between the stars within our galaxy is about six light years apart, that's about 36 trillion miles. To me they seem so close together when they shine in the sky. For more facts and to see theses facts visit: http://voices.yahoo.com/10-really-cool-facts-our-universe-5815702.html
I dare you to go on a walk, no matter the weather. I've gone on walks in the rain and snow, and you should too!! It's quite the adventure. Go alone and open your eyes, look around and notice the world around you! Ponder things and watch in awe as the world around you does it's thing. The Creator made this world for you to explore, so go on, get messy and learn about your surroundings!
Happy adventuring,
Abbie