Dec. 20, 2009
I've been to the year 2009. Not much has changed, but they lived underwater...
Well, the year 2009 is almost up. For me, 2009 was full of fun times and many lessons, and I thought that I would share the highlights of my year with you all:
January 1st: I wrote a letter to myself about areas that I wanted to grow in over the year. These included learning to better share my faith, learning to build new relationships (as opposed to staying with my comfortable old ones), and learning if songwriting was something that God wanted me to pursue.
January 28th: I finished my Driver’s Education!
February 28th: I conquered my fears on a FIFTY-FOOT swing!!! I also wrote two songs, one about trusting God enough to let go of your comfort zone (entitled “Free-Fall”), and one about how we as Christians are called to be lights in this dark world (entitled “Meant To Be (A Light)”).
March 28th-April 5th: I went back to Orofino, Idaho on my Youth Group’s second Mission Trip there. In addition to having a great week full of service projects, Bible Studies, and sharing God’s love with people, God taught me a lot. He showed me some sin that I needed to get rid of, and He began to show me a big part of my spiritual gifting (but I didn’t realize it at the time. I’ll talk more about this later).
May 15th: I got my Driver's License!!!!!!!!! :-D
June 16th(ish): I finished my first year going to a community college!
Summer: Over the whole summer I was busy working as a Junior Intern at my Youth Group’s Whitewater Rafting Camps. I had a blast the whole time, rafting, hanging out on the beach, doing Bible Studies, working my tail-end off, sleeping under the stars, etc. God used these weeks to teach me many important things: what True Humility looks like, that all self-love is sin, that I had an idol I needed to get rid of, and that a big part of my spiritual gifting is to listen. God showed me that I don’t always need to talk (even when I really want to), that sometimes people just need someone to listen and empathize with them, and He showed me that I’m meant to do that.
August 26th: I changed my blogging strategy (although it didn’t seem to help me blog more, it did help me to straighten out things in my mind and to encourage other people more).
September 21st: School started back up, (yippie!) (that was half-sarcasm, half-true).
October 3rd: I officially became an “adult”!!
November 5th-8th: The Youth Group from Orofino turned the tables and came here for service projects! I had a WHOLE lot of fun seeing them all again, as well as getting to serve in my own community alongside them!
December 17th-18th: Mini-Retreat for those in Bible Read-Thru. I got to get to know two of my friends a lot better and Rob (our Youth Leader) led us all in two great “rap sessions” (kinda like Bible Studies, only focusing more on a question that one of us had).
December 20th: I looked back on my fun year and now I feel almost sad to see it leaving me, but I also feel really excited about this next year approaching me! Merry CHRISTmas and Happy New Year, everybody!!!!! :-D
~SeaChel
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Wednesday, December 16, 2009
The Day's Expected Happenings (in a nut shell)
It's cold today. I could tell while I was laying in bed because I woke up cold. That means the wind is coming through my drafty attic bedroom. I'm just thankful the snow isn't. I still haven't gone out for chores. I haven't found the guts to yet. I brought my boots in the house so at least they're warming up with my indecision. I'm halfway done with school for the day, at any rate. :P
We were talking about going to Chupp's today. That's the somewhat local Amish supply store. They have all sort of stuff there. But, we go for the food mostly. I'm not really sure how the weather will be getting there though. I was told that we could still go but wouldn't be setting any land time records.
So, yeah, that's about the extent of my day today. Nothing all that exciting. I really should be making Christmas cookies but...*nervous giggle* yeah :P.
Speaking of Christmas cookies, I finished making about 7 dozen galaxy cookies yesterday. That's only a million more to go :D.
We were talking about going to Chupp's today. That's the somewhat local Amish supply store. They have all sort of stuff there. But, we go for the food mostly. I'm not really sure how the weather will be getting there though. I was told that we could still go but wouldn't be setting any land time records.
So, yeah, that's about the extent of my day today. Nothing all that exciting. I really should be making Christmas cookies but...*nervous giggle* yeah :P.
Speaking of Christmas cookies, I finished making about 7 dozen galaxy cookies yesterday. That's only a million more to go :D.
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Tuesday, December 8, 2009
A Bah-humbuggers Delight
Last night we went caroling at a nursing home. I was playing with Matt's camera so hopefully I'll have some pix later :D. They were sweet old ladies and there was only one fight this year :P. But, as we sang the traditional Christmas songs, I realized how much some of them annoy me. Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer for instance. Nobody liked him so he bought their love with an amazing feat. Santa Claus songs. As if it's not bad enough that he already is god-like with *he knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows when you've been bad or good* but on our local radio station they're inviting kids to call in to talk to "Santa" so they can tell him all the bad things they did so they can still get presents. Since when is he in the sin forgiving business? There are definitely plenty of Santa songs. One as messed up as the next. Take "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" for instance. How crazy is that situation?
Now, you may thing that I'm just another bah-humbugger for making comments like that. It's not that so much that those songs and stories are so repulsive, but more that is draws away from the more important feature we should be celebrating this Christmas and everyday of the year, for that matter. Jesus Christ came to earth, born a little innocent baby to a virgin mother. But, more importantly, he then took on our sins and died the most painful death on a cross, naked and filled with shame.
So please, remember the reason we celebrate. Sure, talking and dancing snowmen are cute, but are they going to love you with an everlasting and unconditional love? Have they gone to prepare a place for you? No, I didn't think so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdyj5F6oqGs&feature=related
Now, you may thing that I'm just another bah-humbugger for making comments like that. It's not that so much that those songs and stories are so repulsive, but more that is draws away from the more important feature we should be celebrating this Christmas and everyday of the year, for that matter. Jesus Christ came to earth, born a little innocent baby to a virgin mother. But, more importantly, he then took on our sins and died the most painful death on a cross, naked and filled with shame.
So please, remember the reason we celebrate. Sure, talking and dancing snowmen are cute, but are they going to love you with an everlasting and unconditional love? Have they gone to prepare a place for you? No, I didn't think so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdyj5F6oqGs&feature=related
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Monday, December 7, 2009
Another day, another blog post. Ok, so this isn't exactly an everyday happening for me. I really should start blogging more. I have contemplated moving to a different server. Perhaps one with more traffic. But, I'm still not sure. This site is so easy to use that I hate to leave it. But maybe something new would help my enthusiasm. But enough of wishful thinking.
My life pretty much consists of school. I started a lifepac program of consumer math. I really like it. O_o Yes, you read that right. I like math. Don't get too used to that phrase though. It's not likely to stay :P. I also have aspirations to start menu planning. I enjoy that sort of thing. I can't wait to start experiment with different whole foods and cooking methods. Oh, and methods of getting my family to eat it, short of force feeding ;).
My life pretty much consists of school. I started a lifepac program of consumer math. I really like it. O_o Yes, you read that right. I like math. Don't get too used to that phrase though. It's not likely to stay :P. I also have aspirations to start menu planning. I enjoy that sort of thing. I can't wait to start experiment with different whole foods and cooking methods. Oh, and methods of getting my family to eat it, short of force feeding ;).
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Friday, November 27, 2009
So You Don't Have To Work
“Almanzo asked Father why he did not hire the machine that did threshing. Three men 
had brought it into the country last fall, and Father had gone to see it. It would thresh a man’s whole grain crop in a couple of days.
‘That’s a lazy man’s way to thresh,’ Father said. ‘Haste makes waste, but a lazy man’d rather get his work done fast than do it himself. That machine chews up all the straw till it’s not fit to feed stock, and it scatters grain around and wastes it.
‘ All it saves is time son. And what good is time, with nothing to do? You want to sit and twiddle your thumbs, all these stormy winter days?”
- Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingles Wilder, pages 307/308
After reading the book Farmer Boy by Laura Ingles Wilder recently, I came away with a renewed realization of the work ethic from her time (late 1800’s). In my world, I have many... read the rest of my thoughts
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Nov. 10, 2009
Up and an Update
Howdy
Well, a lot has happened lately. Last Monday, Bear and I got our ears pierced at Claire's. I can't take them out for 5 more weeks (about a week before Christmas), and then I have to keep some kind of post in for 6 months. If anyone tells you it doesn't hurt, their lying. It still hurts a little when I clean them.
I also got a haircut! I haven't had it this short for YEARS! I did get bangs, and long layers around my face. I like the bangs and the front, but the girl put alot of layers in the back too. It makes my hair not so thick (It's normaly super thick). I used to complain about it being so thick, I couldn't do much with it, and even now that it's not so thick I still can't. gr.
Today Mom took me and I got my drivers permit.
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Mark 12:29-31 " 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
God seems to put a lot of emphasis on love! The most important things to do in following Him are to love Him with everything you have, and to love other people more than you love yourself. Why is that? What is so important about love?
1st John 4:8 "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
A definition I’ve heard for wickedness is “the absence of God”. If God is love, then we can replace the word “God” with the word “love” and still have the same meaning, right? So wickedness is “the absence of love”! Wow, I guess that might be what’s so important about love, huh?
1st Corinthians 13:1 "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."
The tongues of angels…I wonder what angels talk about? Well, they are constantly in the presence of God, right? I’d like to think that because of God’s awesomeness, the angels can’t stop talking about Him! He’s just so amazing that everything they could talk about pales in comparison!
So, if we spoke the way that angels speak (talking about God) to other people (as we’ve been called to do), but don’t love those people that we’re talking to, we’re not going to make any impression on them at all! All we’re going to do is be the stereotypical “hypocritical Christian” who is just telling them something to get brownie points from God! A clanging cymbal that everyone just wants to be quiet!
The only way we’re ever going to get people to listen to us when we tell them about God’s love for them, is to show them His love through us!
Matthew 24:12 “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.”
This verse sounds a lot like what’s going on today to me. Love is being distorted by the world around us, even by Christians! All that the world tends to see when they think of love is s*x, or something that is there through the good times, but leaves when the storms of life come. This is a horribly distorted image of love, so much so that we can no longer see the very definition of love (God) in it anymore!
And Christians have similar problems. We “love” others by not telling them about God’s love for them. We say, “Oh, but I don’t want to offend them” or “They’ll think that I’m weird, and that will give them a bad image of Christians”. But really, how can we say we love our friends when we won’t even tell them about the most important thing in our lives? Is it really loving to let them walk blindly through life and then find themselves in hell when they die? No! No, that is not loving at all! That’s the opposite!
Dear friends, I struggle with this too. I am not a “super-Christian” who has brought many to Christ. In all honesty, I’ve never brought someone to Christ. I’ve helped someone rededicate their life to Him, and I’ve been there when someone accepted Christ for the first time, but I’ve never been the one to go up to someone and tell them the good news of Jesus. I think “Oh, they’ll see it in the way I live and if they’re interested they’ll ask me.” And while it is very good to live a life that shows Christ through it, that is not enough. This is something God has convicted me of recently, and I am trying to get better at it, because, as I said, that’s what true love is. It’s caring enough to do the hard things that could offend people, but it could also save them or at least plant a seed in them.
1st Corinthians 13:8 "Love never fails."
But without love you are sure to fail.
~SeaChel
Nov. 9, 2009
Thoughts On Love
Mark 12:29-31 " 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
God seems to put a lot of emphasis on love! The most important things to do in following Him are to love Him with everything you have, and to love other people more than you love yourself. Why is that? What is so important about love?
1st John 4:8 "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
A definition I’ve heard for wickedness is “the absence of God”. If God is love, then we can replace the word “God” with the word “love” and still have the same meaning, right? So wickedness is “the absence of love”! Wow, I guess that might be what’s so important about love, huh?
1st Corinthians 13:1 "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."
The tongues of angels…I wonder what angels talk about? Well, they are constantly in the presence of God, right? I’d like to think that because of God’s awesomeness, the angels can’t stop talking about Him! He’s just so amazing that everything they could talk about pales in comparison!
So, if we spoke the way that angels speak (talking about God) to other people (as we’ve been called to do), but don’t love those people that we’re talking to, we’re not going to make any impression on them at all! All we’re going to do is be the stereotypical “hypocritical Christian” who is just telling them something to get brownie points from God! A clanging cymbal that everyone just wants to be quiet!
The only way we’re ever going to get people to listen to us when we tell them about God’s love for them, is to show them His love through us!
Matthew 24:12 “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.”
This verse sounds a lot like what’s going on today to me. Love is being distorted by the world around us, even by Christians! All that the world tends to see when they think of love is s*x, or something that is there through the good times, but leaves when the storms of life come. This is a horribly distorted image of love, so much so that we can no longer see the very definition of love (God) in it anymore!
And Christians have similar problems. We “love” others by not telling them about God’s love for them. We say, “Oh, but I don’t want to offend them” or “They’ll think that I’m weird, and that will give them a bad image of Christians”. But really, how can we say we love our friends when we won’t even tell them about the most important thing in our lives? Is it really loving to let them walk blindly through life and then find themselves in hell when they die? No! No, that is not loving at all! That’s the opposite!
Dear friends, I struggle with this too. I am not a “super-Christian” who has brought many to Christ. In all honesty, I’ve never brought someone to Christ. I’ve helped someone rededicate their life to Him, and I’ve been there when someone accepted Christ for the first time, but I’ve never been the one to go up to someone and tell them the good news of Jesus. I think “Oh, they’ll see it in the way I live and if they’re interested they’ll ask me.” And while it is very good to live a life that shows Christ through it, that is not enough. This is something God has convicted me of recently, and I am trying to get better at it, because, as I said, that’s what true love is. It’s caring enough to do the hard things that could offend people, but it could also save them or at least plant a seed in them.
1st Corinthians 13:8 "Love never fails."
But without love you are sure to fail.
~SeaChel