My Struggle With OCD

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4 (NIV)

It was before a big production in my theater class. I was talking with one of my friends, Alex, while another friend was working on setting up the chairs. Finally, both feeling guilty, we went over to help our friend set up. To our surprise, which we both got a kick out of, he was determined that they be set up a certain way. We both teased him, in a friendly sort of way, but deep down, I knew something.

That I wasn’t all that different.

It probably formed early in my childhood, as I remember lining up crayons by color in elementary school, and to this day, I organize my clothes by color and type (though they don’t stay that way for long!). It also causes me to be prone to anxious thoughts, fearful of drinking out of a cup that isn’t clean, and make sure everything is just right when I leave the house. For instance, a simple thing like “is the blowdryer unplugged?” becomes check-it-two-hundred-times-because-if-it’s-not-the-house-will-burn-up-and-we’ll-be-homeless.

I can’t tell you exactly what the root of this is, or exactly when it showed up, but I can tell you that this is my struggle, as each person battles something. Maybe it’s a physical disability that you battle, like diabetes or having to be in a wheelchair. Perhaps it’s something psychological like my OCD. Maybe it’s an eating disorder, or self harm, or an ongoing situation with bullies and drama.

I don’t know what your situation is. But I do know that you’re strong enough to overcome it! Just as I know that I’m strong enough to manage my OCD, I know that you’re strong enough to deal with whatever your facing.

Philippians 4:13 says “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.” (NKJV)

You have the strength to eat right…Through Christ who strengthens you.

You have the strength to put down that razor…Through Christ who strengthens you.

You have the strength to keep your head held high when they try to bring you down…Through Christ who strengthens you.

We are warriors, because the one who overcame death lives inside of us, and is “ever present help in times of trouble.” (Psalm 46:1) So put on the full am of God and keep fighting (Ephesians 6:10-11). Even when we don’t feel strong, we have His strength to keep us going.

We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. 

Because nothing that we’re facing is bigger than the God that we serve. ❤️

 

 

Reflective Essay

Hi everyone, this is an essay that I wrote for my english class about my year. I thought I’d share it with you. 😃

Reflective Essay 

Have you ever looked back on your life, and realized that everything; every pain, every joy, and every ounce of beauty, has led you to where you are today? This has been my experience this year, as I look back on the past four years of high school. There have been times that I’ve felt like I was on top of the world, and there have been times when I felt like I’ve hit rock bottom, but I wouldn’t be who I am today without each and every valley that I’ve gone through. This year has been a wonderful experience for me, and I believe that I’ve grown spiritually, socially, and academically because of it. I’ve accomplished goals and have grown closer to my friends, feeling more like the real me than I ever have before.

This year, I’ve had the opportunity to sing a song that I wrote in a talent show, a dream that I’ve had since freshman year. It took lots of hard work, as dreams often do, but I finally managed to accomplish that goal after years of hard work and dedication. Recently, I was chosen to sing Walk on The Water by Britt Nicole at my high school graduation, which I am very much looking forward to. Both chances to sing on stage have been blessings from God that I am very much thankful for. I have also had more opportunities to share my faith through the internet this year, as I started a blog and a twitter account, giving me a chance to be heard and hopefully, make a difference.

Socially, I have grown closer to my friends, and have realized that God is truly faithful to provide close friendships in your life when you least expect it. A couple of years ago, I dealt with a situation where I lost some of the people who I considered to be my closest friends. I felt really alone and wasn’t sure that I’d ever have friends that close again, but God has provided me with amazing new friends who have proved to stand by me through thick and thin. One of the things that I’ve always loved about the Gospel is how Jesus calls all believers a family. Though I’ve been raised in my household as an only child all of my life, I can truly say that many of my friends are like brothers and sisters to me.

Lastly, I believe that I’ve grown immensely spiritually and as a person. Just a couple of years ago, I was incredibly shy and struggling in my faith more than I let on. Now, standing here today, I’ve become confident in myself, outgoing, and have never felt more alive in my faith. I used to think these things would all come at once, but they’ve come slowly, as God has helped me grow a little more each year. And, I’m all the better for it. I don’t claim to have it all figured out, because I’m still learning, but I’ve come a long way since I was that 9th grade girl walking through the doors of her high school career. I have developed in my hobbies of singing and writing and have learned how to use them for the glory of God. I’ve made new friends, and have grown closer to old ones, as we’ve navigated this thing called “high school” together. I’ve taken a theater class for three years, and have laughed until my sides hurt with many amazing, talented peers. I’ve lived through four years of high school and realized that I never could have dreamed it would turn out this great.

This upcoming year, I’m starting college. I know it will be new and in some ways, quite different from what I’m used to, but I also know that I’m strong enough to handle it. I would like to close with a thank you. Thank you to my friends, to my classmates, to my teachers, to my family, and to all of you who have forever affected my life. Times change and years pass, but memories forever remain, and I believe that these four years are a time in my life that I’ll always remember; a period of my life that I’ll never forget.

 

 

Summer Playlist

Hey everyone, summer is in the air and you know what that means! Beach trips and summer vacations! Thus, I decided to make a playlist of some of my favorite upbeat Christian songs to enjoy the summer with. I hope you enjoy! ❤

  1. Ready Or Not by Britt Nicole
  2. Sunshine Girl by Britt Nicole
  3. Shine by Salvador
  4. Heaven by Salvador
  5. Waiting For Tomorrow by Mandisa
  6. If You Say Go by Blanca
  7. Turn Up Your Light by V. Rose
  8. Light For You by Anthem Lights
  9. Free To Be Me by Francesca Battistelli
  10. It’s Your Life by Francesca Battistelli
  11. Starry Night by Chris August
  12. God Is On The Move by Seventh Time Down
  13. Origional by Royal Tailor
  14. Making Me New by Royal Tailor
  15. Dive by Steven Curtis Chapman
  16. Save Your Life by The Newsboys
  17. Live With Abandon by The Newsboys
  18. Show Me What It Means by Meredith Andrews
  19. This Is Not A Test by TobyMac
  20. Backseat Driver by TobyMac
  21.  I Feel So Alive by Capital Kings
  22. Fireblazin’ by Capital Kings
  23. What Are You Afraid of By Kerrie Roberts
  24. Closer To Your Heart by Natalie Grant
  25. The One by Brandon Heath

 

Stewardship

Each of you has received a gift to use to serve others. Be good servants of God’s various gifts of grace.” 1 Peter 4:10

Stewardship is a concept that has been around for years. It’s earliest origins trace all the way back to the Garden of Eden, when God placed humans as stewards over the land. Many churches have taught courses by Dave Ramsey and Larry Burkett and if you’ve been in church long enough, you’ve heard the “tithe talk”. But, is stewardship only limited to finances?

I used to see it that way. Admittedly, the past, when I’ve heard the word “stewardship” I’ve let out a bit of an internal exhale. As an extreme right-brain-creative-people-person, things that pertain money and numbers tend to make my brain feel like it’s going to spill out of my ears. I have a lot of respect for people who are interested in finances (after all, without them, we’d all be in trouble) but for me personally, financial terms tend to sound a lot like gibberish.

But, recently, God has helped me realize something: stewardship isn’t just a financial word. It relates to every single thing in our lives. Even if we’re young enough to not have much of an income, we can still be good stewards of our resources.

Our time? Stewardship.

Our relationships? Stewardship.

Our spiritual gifts? Stewardship. 

Our dreams? Stewardship.

Stewardship, in short, is basically offering everything we have back to God as a gift. Psalm 24:1 says “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” If your best friend asks you to look after her dog while she’s out of town, you’re going to take good care of that dog; you’ll feed him, take him outside, and make sure he doesn’t escape. This is what God wants us to do with everything that He’s entrusted us to.

Use our time well.

Invest in our relationships.

Share our talents for his glory.

Chase our dreams in a way that points back to God. 

God calls each of us, from the wealthiest to the poorest, to be a steward.

We are each called to steward different things, just as Jesus teaches through his Parable of The Talents, but we all have gifts that God wants us to steward. Stewardship, in short, is a call to obedience and wisdom. A call to wisely let our blessings overflow in a way that blesses others. A call to live, love, and give to the fullest.

How can we, in each of our unique places of life, steward our relationships, our dreams, our talents, and our time in a way that points back to the Creator of all of these things?

So brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to him, which is the spiritual way for you to worship.” Romans 12:1. ❤️

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Get To Know Me Tag

Hey everyone, I just got tagged by my online buddy Mfon from Dainty M. Thus, I’m going to answer this awesome questionnaire and tag  some people to pass this on to!

So let’s get to it!

Vital Stats

Name: Courtney

Nicknames: None, although one time my theater class decided to create nicknames for each other based on the last letters of our names. Thus, my nickname in that class was temporarily “Ney”

Place of Birth: The East Coasts of America

Firsts

Best Friend: Mikaela. I haven’t seen her in years but I’d love to get back into contact with her!

Award: A participation award in a science fair and some kind of Webkinz trophy (Remember that craze?)

Sport: Basketball

Real Holiday: A beach vacation near home.

Concert: A concert at a local mega church for Steven Curtis Chapman, the Afters, and Josh Wilson. 👏

Favorites

Film: God’s Not Dead, Do You Believe, and Lemonade Mouth

TV Shows: Boy Meets World, Full House, Who’s the Boss, and Friends. (Nineties TV was the best!)

Color: Blue

Song: Right now, I’m really into The One by Brandon Heath and anything by Blanca Callahan, but I’ve also always loved Ready Or Not by Britt Nicole and I’m a huge fan of Fight Song by Rachel Platten.

Restaurant: Chilis. Their fries are amazing!

Books: The SouledOut Sisters by Neta Jackson, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and The Bailey Flanigan series. For classics, I love the book To Kill A MockingBird (Spoiler-It doesn’t actually have anything to do with mockingbirds).

Currently

Feeling: Half asleep, lol!

Single or Taken: Single

Eating: Nothing at the moment, but I’m going to have breakfast soon!

Wearing: Pajamas.

Watching: The letters show up as I type them (stole this from Katie but I find it very descriptive!😀 *I’m going to use Mfon and Katie’s answer here*

Future

Want Children: Way too far in the future to think about right now, lol!

Want to Get Married: Dito.

Careers in Mind: Writer, lyricist, and educator

Where You Want To Live: My current state, but I want to visit New York one day.

Do You Believe In

God: Absolutely!

Miracles: You bet!

Love At First Sight: Yes in the movies, but no in real life. *Again, taking Mfon’s answer here because I agree with it.*

Ghosts: Spirits, yes. Ghosts, no.

Heaven: Yes!

Hell: Yeah, but because of Jesus we have the opportunity spend eternity in Heaven.

Kissing On The First Date: No.

Yourself: Yes, God’s helping me to become a little more confident each year. 😃

Now for the new nominees!

Fearfully Wonderfully Me

Christian Song Meaning 

Agape Love For You

Aschulting 

Anyone else who reads this and wants to answer it!

That Post About Being Healthy

“Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” 3 John 1:2.

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Health. Though it is something that we know we all want and need, it can often conjure up interesting images in our head of crazed exercise trainers and extreme diets. As I’m writing this, I’m remembering an episode of Friends where Monica goes completely crazy training Chandler. Rest assured, that is not what I’m advising in this post.

What this post is about is being all-around healthy. This means taking care of the temple that God has given us and making smart choices to feel great from the inside out. We were made for something great, and we can’t accomplish God’s amazing plans for us if we feel like dog-poo. Because the Holy Spirit is literally living inside of us, it is our job to create a good home for Him. When company comes over, we take care to clean our homes and make them look nice for our guests, so how much more effort should we put into the place where God resides? Thus, here are some tips for living healthy and being healthy! 

  1. Eat well-Few things can affect our physical well being more than the fuel that we put into our bodies. This isn’t just about adding fruits and vegetables (Though that’s important too!) but also knowing what your body can and cannot handle. Some people have allergies and intolerances to certain foods; which could either require a cutback on those foods, or a complete cut-out. Recently, I found out that I was gluten intolerant. It’s not severe, like an allergy, so it took me a while to figure out that it was causing problems. At the beginning of this year, I noticed that was sluggish, having trouble concentrating, and generally feeling down. One morning, I had a gluten-free waffle and realized that I felt better than I had in months. From there, I began cutting gluten out of my diet and have felt much better since then. And, they make gluten free desserts like cupcakes and cookies so this doesn’t mean that I have to give up my sweet tooth! 🙂
  2. Exercise-This is probably this most difficult one for me. If you’re the kind of person who would prefer a book to a day at the gym, exercise may very well feel like a drag. But, there are other ways to get exercise besides typical working out stuff, like swimming, playing a sport, or dancing. Basically, the point of exercise is to get moving, feel good, and stay healthy!
  3. Be spiritually healthy-I cannot stress this one enough; honestly, it should be first. Staying spiritually important means staying close to God, reading your Bible and praying. Admittedly, I’m not always great about keeping up with daily Bible reading, but I’d like to get better! Being spiritually healthy also helps you stay emotionally healthy, make good choices, and have good relationships with others!
  4. Be emotionally healthy-This means enjoying and savoring the life that God has given us and taking care to work through problems rather than letter them fester. Some things that can help with emotional health are enjoying a good book/movie, spending time outdoors, listening to music, and spending time with family and friends, with brings me to my next point…
  5. Surround yourself with family and friends-It is so important to have close relationships with other people. God didn’t create us to be cut off from others, that’s why He created both Adam and Eve. That doesn’t mean that everyone has to get married, but it does mean that everyone needs people. Even the most introverted person needs friends. Take the time to invest in your friendships and keep them strong. There are few blessings greater than the people that God has placed in our lives!

How about you? What do you do to stay healthy? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section!