Oh To Truly Live...

I don’t want to be like everyone else. I want to be one who stands out of the crowd, not because of how I look, or what I’ve achieved, but because of who I am and Who I represent. I want people to know  that I follow Christ just by looking at me. By the way I walk, talk, treat others, smile, and the glimmer in my eyes, the way I live my life. I want to leave a legacy of hope. Something that when people look back on my life,  they will know that there is something worth living for, and that 'something' is Christ (“for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”). I want people to start thinking about the hope they can have in the Lord by seeing the way I lived my life. I need to make a change in my life. I need to sit less and walk more. I need to go out and do.  I need to prepare. I need to be disciplined in the way I live my life and every aspect of it. I need to stop caring about what I want and start thinking about what God wants. I need to take risks for my King. I need to stop  worrying about how I’m going to make things happen and finally believe that God has it in control. I need to stop taking things into my own hands, and lift them up to God. I need to pray more, I need to read more, trust more, listen more, say yes more, serve more, be open more. I need to leave fear behind because my God has already won, He has conquered death, He has saved me from death and brought me to new life! He has made me  free and I need to take advantage of the freedom and use it for His glory! Finally, I need to step into the life  that He has created me for and I need to do it in faith. It's there, He's waiting, the life I have always dreamed  of is a 'yes' away. I am choosing to say yes to God. Though I am human, and perfection is not mine to have,  I know the One who IS perfection. Lord, Abba! Please help me in this life You have given me. I choose to  follow You for the rest of my life! From this day forward. I belong to no one and nothing but You.

Whatever Lies Ahead...

Life as I knew it,..well, has never really stayed the same since my family packed up and moved back to Winkler, MB. Since living here, there has always been a constant shift, change of pace or new development to keep me occupied. Not to say that constant change is bad, because I think it can be very good. Where I am at now thought, I have started to become obsessed with finding out and or/ planning what lies around the next hill or turn in the road. I am open to whatever is out there...but it just can't be in Winkler...hehe...just kidding. Strangely, I am even open to that option as well. Though it will take much more work to put my all into remaining here, I know that if this is where God wants me, I can do it with His help. I feel as if I have not left the classroom since I left Briercrest at the end of April, but have stepped into a much different and more challenging school of thought and have come across many different types of 'exams' so to speak (or write). I have come across new challenges, friends, family, and I have also crossed bridges I never thought I would gain the courage to attempt. Yet, as I write these things, I am coming to the realization that these are all apart of God's plan for my life and who He is making and molding me into. I am me, and I always be, but I want to be more and more of a being who belongs fully and completely to Christ. I want to think like He does, love like He loves, and forgive like He forgives. I know these things are impossible, yet I can't help but to strive to be more like Him and to try with everything in me to follow the example of Christ. I don't quite know what I am trying to say here, other than I can never be ready for anything; but as I learn to seek the Lord every day and as I grow in my faith and trust in Him, I know without a doubt, He will never fail me; and that "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength." (Phil 4:13) As I was talking with a friend on the phone the other night, He reminded me not to be afraid to dream because as it reminds us in Jer 29:11, the plans God has for us are not to harm us, but are to give us hope and a future. Also that all things work for the good of those who love God (Romans 8:28) and that 'All things' doesn't exclude anything. I have nothing, NOTHING to worry about. Please pray that I remember that.