Nov. 30, 2008 - GO NAVY BEAT ARMY!

Oct. 20, 2008 - It's been a little while since my last post. (3 months...that counts as just a little while right?)

Hello my HSBlogger friends. It's been a crazy few months. I have had a lot of things going on at once. It's been fun. I'll recap my summer and fall :)  I'll have  worked at Chik-Fil-A for six months next week. It's a blast. We have a great night crew ( I only work nights) Night crew has some of the strongest christians I know. We have really great philisophical, denomination and spritual conversations every night. I have been steadily saving money so I can afford to visit Percy (The Scarlett Pimpernel) and aliveagain13  Over Christmas break! It's a  go. So I'm really excited about it. 

I'm taking classes at PJC now and it is fun. I have a really Liberal instructor. She really got me fired up because she said during one of her Obama rants that quote "anyone who does not support Obama is a racist" Yeah.... I guess she considers me the head of the KKK I guess :) Oh, on a political note, I got to see Sarah Palin two weeks ago. It was really fun. We did however, have to wait in the rain for about an hour and a half to get in to see her. We were soaked to the bone but happy as can be!

I'm really stubbor (percy you know this well :)  I have been wroking out and doing cardio a lot the past three months.  Six days a week to be exact. Keep this in mind. Well, 9 months ago, halfway through last baseball season, my knee started hurting one day. I was catching six days ago, and weight lifting too. It hurt whenever I would do any sort of catching, running or lifting. I just played through it, but it got to the point where I was taking 800-1000 miligrams of ibrprophen before my games to kill the pain. Then after the gam my knee would hurt so bad I would go home, take all the ice out of the freezer, dump it in the bath tub, fill it with cold water and then sit in it for twenty minutes to numb my knee so I could go to sleep. Yeah Yeah yeah I know really stupid right? Well, It didn't stop hurting untill about three months ago. I stopped doing squats and went to doing front squats ( a variation of the squat) with a low weight.  It stopped hurting all together until two weeks ago. We began doing stadiums( running up the football stadium going back down and then back up again etc.) stadium miles ( running up and down the stadium on one side then running around the track to the vistor side doing stadiums on those seats then running on the track back to the other side( we did these four times making it a full mile) And finally we did 50yd suicides ( sprinting  to the 50yd line on the field stopping really fast and running back. All of those things made my knee hurt so bad I couldn't bend it. So I had to stop doing everything I was doing and rest my knee. I went to the doctor and he said it was severe stress/overuse tendonitis. He said to stay off of it and see a specialist. Well, it turns out the earliest i can see the specialist is in november, so I'm stuck not be able to do anything active until I can see the specialist. On top of that, my knee really hurts. So please pray for me if you wouldn't mind. 

Well, that's about it for now. I'll try to update more often now.

FutureDevilDog

Jul. 3, 2008 - Blog. Hmmm,,. such a funny word

Hello,

It's been several months since my last post. Lots of stuff has happened since my last post. I finished my Sophmore year of high school. I'm working at Chik-Fil-A, I got my license! Whoo Hooo! I get to do limited driving by myself now. Mainly to work and errands near my house. It's fun, and it gives me a sense of freedom that I've never felt before. It's exciting. I'm working on saving enough to buy a manual transmission pickup truck ( stick shift)  My Daddy want's to teach me to drive a stick, and I thin they're pretty neat. I almost have enough to buy a 1992 Chevy S-10 pickup. It's a little fix her up, but it's something me and my daddy can do together. Work is going great. All of my co-workers, and managers like, and I like them. There's rarely a dull moment. And I get to fellowship with a lot of great Christian individuals.I'm starting to work a lot now. I'm getting about sixty hours this pay period (two weeks)! Translated into about $380-400 after taxes. God is blessing me, and I'm happy to give back to him through my tithes on the new found wealth he has blessed me with! HAHAHAHAHA!  Baseball season is over, and I'm in the weight room and running everyday ( minus Sunday's)  I thought I would have the varsity spot as the starting catcher, but now I'm in competition with one of my good buddies for the spot. I used to stress about it and worry. But  Lord made me realize that nothing goes on apart from the Lord. God is in total control over every aspect of my life. The hardest thing I've ever done is completely surrendering my life to God. I want to run my life, but one of my favorite songs "I want to live for you" by Connersvine, the  chorus goes I want to live for you, I want to die to me. I've realized that I have to die to me and surrender my everything. My hopes, my dream, my schemes everything to God. It is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. But when I do it, God works through me, and it is incredible. It's a long learning process, but I've vowed to give everything to God.  That's pretty much how things are going right now. So this is FutureDevilDog signing off,

Semper Fi,

FutureDevilDog

Apr. 19, 2008 - Another Blog Entry

Hello fellow bloggers, ( namely TheScarletPimpernel and AliveAgain13)

It has been some time since my last post. I haven't had very much time to do anything the past few eeks. Baseballl season is almost over. Three games ago I was put on Varsity permanetly. I started last saturday. My first at bat of the game I hit a line drive to right field. It hit the top of the fence and bounced back into play. I missed a home run by a mere three or four inches. I got a double though. Two at bats later I hit another potential home run, but this time to the opposite field but the left fielder made a great play and robbed me of a home run. I was a little dissapointed, But God allowed me to hit the ball hard.  We are going into districts on monday. We will play our cross town rivals Gulf Breeze. It will be a good game. 

This school year is coming to a close, and I can almost glimpse summer approaching. It is so close, I can almost grasp it. I have struggled in Geometry, but I am working overtime to bring my grade up. I am doing fine in every other subject. This summer will be an exciting one. I can't wait. The first two weeks of june I will spend in the class room taking Driver's Ed so my Daddy can get a discount on the car insurance that will go throught the roof when I get my license. Primarily because I am a male under 25.  I will be helping pay for the insurance. How you might ask? With the money that I earn while working at my new job! I have quit my old job as a private contractor ( I was his hardest worker, and then my hours were cut to almost nothing because my boss let his grandson take my spot. So needless to say I felt hurt by what he did I did not feel that I could continue to work for him any longer) I have however, been hired by the local Chick- Fil- A  and I will start in just a little over a week and a half. 

I will also be the starting Varsity Catcher for my team in the summer league we will play in through June. I need to hit the weight room harder this summer, because after disticts on Monday, I will be the Catcher for varsity hopefully for the rest of my high school carreer.  Right now, when I throw somebody out trying to steal second base, it takes about 2.3-2.5 seconds for the ball to reach 2nd base. That is considered average for a catchers. God has given me a little bit of  talent to play baseball, and I want to be the best player I can be. An exceptional catcher can throw throw somebody out in 1.9 seconds. Now  .6 of a second difference doesn't seem like much, but it makes all the difference in the world.   I will try to bulk up in the gym a lot more this summer ( naturally, no steriods :) Hahaha!)  I bench 225lbs right now, my goal back next baseball season is 300lbs max. Another improtant lift for me as a catcher is the squat. Right now my max squat is 350lbs, my goal by next season is  450lbs.  It will be REALY Hard to reach this goal, and a lot of people told me I can't reach it, but I enjoy proving people wrong by showing them that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. In fact I wrote that verse in the bill of my calf and the instep of my cleats.  It's my personal goal, and I believe that with GOd's help, I can reach it.  I also have a few goals for running as well.  I run a mile in 6:23 ( that's minutes not hours, shame on you for even thinking that :( HAHAHAHA!  My goal is to run a sub 6;00  mile.  My coaches told me I wouldn't be able to run a sub 7 minute mile, because I'm such a tall person, not really built for speed, but with God's help, I proved them wrong. 

The last thing I plan to do is to finish my Eagle Project. I've been playing with a few ideas for over two years now, and I think that God has shown me the one which he wants me to do. I am going to build a memorial at my school for a fallen Marine an alumni of my high school and he  went to my old church. I think it's a fitting way to honor him. It is a large project, and it almost seems impossible to do, because of the costs involved and the amount of labor to accomplish it, but as God has been showing me these past few months, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD! I am going to dothe best I can, and leave the results up to him.

When I write this, I feel like I am presenting myself as one who doesn't falter in his walk with GOd, but I am far from it. I am an ordinary person, and a falter and trip up so many times. I like Paul "alway seem to do the very things I hate."  Everytime I turn around I find myself doing the very things I hate. and no matter how hard I try, I always fall short. Each time I falter, I feel ashamed, I can hear Satan telling me that I'm no good, that I'll never amount to anything, that because of what I do, I will never be anything, that I am a worthless pig. I feel like that a lot, untill I fall to my knees and cry out to God ashamed at what I've done begging for his forgiveness. Each time I do that, He reminds me that I am forgiven, that he has purchased me through the blood of his only Son, and I feel whole again.  God has paid the penaltry for my sins and has adopted me into his family.

Everyday  I am reminded that Nothing is Impossible with God.

Semper Fidelis,

FutureDevilDog

Mar. 21, 2008 - My Surrender.

Whew! It's been a long week. "It's finally Friday, free at last" Okay that's from a country song that I hear every friday on the radio. In some ways I'm glad this week is over, but in others ways I wish it wouldn't end. This week, I have grown in my walk with God. He has made himself known to me on so many occasions, I can't even count them all.  Last sunday, I watched a movie called Flywheel. It was the precursor to the movie Facing the Giants. Flywheel had all of the original cast from facing the giant in it.  The movie was about a used car salesman, who pretty selfish and dishonest. His life began to fall apart. His marriage was on the rocks, and he was on the brink of losing his car lot because of unpaid bills. He hit rock bottom. The entire storyline goes from there. He hit rock bottom, and that is where he began to listen to God. He rededicated himself to God. He turned over his entire life to God, and began to put his full trust in him. While I was watching the movie, the verse he repeated throughout the movie was. I forgot where it is found(I really need to find it) but it goes  Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding and he will give you the desires of your heart. This verse really sunk in to me. Several weeks ago, I rededicated my life to Christ, because God helped me realize that my life wasn't  entirely about him, I was doing things for the glory of myself, not for the glory of God.  That day I realigned my priorities, and put christ back in his rightfull place on my list. Number One.  Flywheel only helped to encourage me. This week, I have tried to put my whole trust in the Lord.  There were a couple thing sthat I have really been wanting lately. I was talking about them with God. I decided to trust him about the things that I wanted. I didn't  outright ask for anything, but I said that  what ever was in his will to give or not to give me; I would praise him no matter what.

 I 've been in a hitting slump for a few weeks. In fact, last week, I didn't even get a hit . This was pretty disheartening after I had dedicated my performance on the field to his glory.  Like I said, I talked to God about it. I said that I would really like to hit the ball, but it was up to God whether  or not I would.  It is pretty amazing what GOd can do. In three games this week, I have gone 4 for 9. Which equates to a batting avg of .444. Which is an amazing improvement from the previous weeks.  Not only did God allow me to hit the ball,  but he also allowed my defense to get better( including throwing out three runners trying to steal in one game), just because he could. God showed to me that nothing is impossible with him. 

God also showed me that he is faithful. For about three month, my ROTC instuctor has been promoting all lot of people in my class.  I did not recieve a promotion. I believed that I was fully qualified and that I deserved a promotion, based not only upon my performance in the class, but the extra effort that I put out  day in and day. I work really hard in my ROTC class, and I was really hoping that my SNSI (Senior Naval Science Instructor) would see that and promote me. Well,  like I said I keeped waiting and hoping for that big promotion. It never came. In it's place was a constant stream of criticism from my SNSI.  Several times I almost lost my temper with him for the things he said.  I became really discouraged, and was contemplating whether on not I would continue with ROTC. I finally realized that I was doing ROTC just to get that promotion. I was doing it for my own glory. WhenI dedicated my performance on the baseball field, I also dedicated my performance in ROTC for his glory as well. I didn't worry about trying to get that promotion anymore, and just focused on doing my best for the glory of God. Several weeks later, still no promotion. But for the first time, I was at peace about it, and it didn't bother me anymore.  I just told myself that God would let me have the promotion, whenever GOd wills it.  On wednsday, more promotions came, but none for me. I was pretty dissapointed, but  I began to pray. I told the lord that I would still praise him even though I didn't my promotion. After that, I felt a sense of peace, a sense that God was in control.  Then believe it or not, with three minutes left in ROTC, the CO realized that he forgot something. That something was a promotion for me!  I was hoping to be promoted to a Cadet Chief Petty Officer. On wednsday, I was promoted to a Cadet Ensign!  My promotion ended up being three ranks high than I orignally wanted. What makes what GOd did ever more impressive, is that it is rare for a sophmore to be an officer. Right now, there are only to sophmore officer. Myself and another girl. God is just absolutley amazing. He gave me above and beyond what I wanted, just because he could.

This week, I realized that WITH GOD, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!  God is AMAZING. Not only does God provide me with all of the things that I need, he also gives me some of the things that I want just because he can.  I am a sinner, I am corrupt in every part of my being, and putting my full trust in God won't be easy all the time, but I can't imagine doing anything else anymore. Jesus Christ is my personal Savior. He died for my sins. He loves me, and he loves you too.

Semper Fi,

FutureDevilDOg

Mar. 16, 2008 - First Blog!