Tag: Christian

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge #2: Day Twenty-Two

Courtney2 Comments

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Day Twenty-Tw0: What do you collect?

In all honestly, I don’t really collect much at this point of my life. When I was little, I collected rocks, and I’m pretty sure at one point, I collected buttons, but within the past few years, I’ve mostly stopped collecting things. But, there is one thing that I still collect.

Memories. 

As I’ve been searching for a job and procrastinating CLEP tests, this is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. At this point in my life, I have both middle and high school behind me—two stages of life that I believe a person grows the most—which has given me a chance to do a lot of reflecting. What has shaped the person I’ve become? What made me who I am today? How is my past shaping my present and future even as I write?

Recently, I read a book by bestselling author, Karen Kingsbury, called Remember. In short, the theme of this book was how our memories shape us, and how our pasts help us move into the future. Remembering how God has walked with me through tough transitions in the past gives me faith for the future—faith that in the midst of the confusing college years, God will work everything out in the end. 

God has been faithful to me throughout my life. He brought me from an insecure preteen to a confident young adult, and from an experience that jaded my faith to a freshly ignited faith. He’s brought me this far, and I know that He has more planned for me.

Growing up is never easy. Oftentimes, it seems that once we figure out one stage of life, it’s time for us to move on to the next. Just as I was starting to get a grip on being in middle school, it was time for me to move to high school. Likewise, just as I was figuring out how to be a high schooler, I graduated and moved onto college. Change is inevitable, but holding onto memories, while learning into the moment, can help us remember God’s faithfulness. 

No stage of life is too big for God. Like the lyrics to the old Britt Nicole song, All This Time, God has been walking with us throughout our whole life. He has never left us and He never will leave us.

All this time, from the first tear cried, to today’s sunrise, God was there. He was always there…He’s been walking with us all this time. 

If we remember this truth, we can get through anything.

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[a]
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:31-39

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge #2: Day Twenty-One

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Day Twenty-One: My Cell Phone 

Like most millennials, I’m the bona-fide owner of a smart phone. Also like many people, I have a tendency to look at it way too often!

It can be so easy to retreat to our phones sometimes—between games, apps like Instagram, and the luxury of escaping awkward social situations, it can be hard not to develop a slight phone addiction. It can also provide the comfort of being able to contact friends at any given time, through texting and social media. Nonetheless, one thing that I’ve found is it can also be a distraction from the world around us. Far too frequently, I find myself looking at my phone when I should be engaging with the world around me. 

Cell phones aren’t a bad thing. They provide us with many great things that would have been unthinkable just a couple of decades ago. I remember back in the early 2000s when cell phones were barely a thing—during the times when they flipped up and could barely be used to text. The joys of being a nineties child!

Like most things, cell phones were meant to be used in moderation. I believe that like with everything else, God wants us to steward our use of technology. Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.” With technology at our fingertips, we have so many choices on how to use it. Will we use our spare minute to read a quick devotional or read angry twitter wars? Will we use our minutes on Facebook to rant or say something that may actually be productive? With so many choices, it’s important that we use our time wisely.

To put it shortly, What Would Jesus Search? 

Time is the most precious gift you have because you only have a set amount of it—Rick Warren 

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge #2: Day Twenty

Courtney2 Comments

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Day Twenty: Describe the best day of your life to date

Truth be told, I’ve had a lot of really good days in my life. I can remember clearly days that I first met the friends I have now, accomplished dreams, and faced fears. Nonetheless, the greatest day of my life—the day that many of my good days have hinged on—is the day that accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

I was young-ish when it happened—past the age of Veggie Tales but too young to have any major mistakes or regrets in my past. I was eleven years old and I was reading a tween series called The Ponytail Girls (Each book came with a free scrunchie!) and at one point in the book, it talked about accepting Jesus into your heart. By this point, I had been going to church with my mom for about two years and was beginning to learn a good deal about the Bible. I knew that I wanted Jesus, so I kneeled down on my bathroom floor, and prayed the prayer.

This was my come-to-Jesus-moment—with a teeny-bopper book and a  shower right next to me. No joke. 

Considering the seemingly ordinary nature of the moment, it may seem strange to some that I would point to that day as my greatest. Nonetheless, I believe that many of our stories have small beginnings. The decision to accept Christ was the start of my journey as a Christian, washed in the blood of Jesus. It was my way of saying that I’m all in—if having Jesus in my heart was the way to have Him walk with me through my days, than accepting Jesus into my heart was what I was going to do.  

That moment was the start of one of the greatest adventures of my life. I have the peace of knowing that God holds my future and that He has a plan. I’ve had a sense of stability through some of life’s hardest moments—from heartbreaks to friendship drama. Most of all, I have the assurance of eternal life with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

If you’re reading this and have never made the decision to accept Christ, than I strongly urge you to do so. All you have to do is confess that your a sinner in need of a Savior, ask for forgiveness, and accept His grace. 

You may just look back on it as the best day of your life. 

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge #2: Day Nineteen

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Day Nineteen: If you could spend fifteen minutes with any celebrity, who would it be and why

I’ll be honest, when I first starting thinking about this challenge, I had no idea how I was going to approach it. I have a couple of celebrities who I like and admire, and just a few short hours ago, I was planning to either write about Britt Nicole or Tim Tebow (Both awesome people, right?). Nonetheless, just now, God revealed to me who it is that I would most like to meet and who I would like to talk about in this post.

Jesus. 

If I could spend fifteen minutes with literally any person, I would spend that time talking to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Could you imagine what it would be like, getting to talk to Jesus Christ—in flesh and actually have a conversation? To me, that would be a dream come true.

There are so many things I’d ask HIm. I’d ask about my life. I’d ask about my family line, and those who came before me. I’d ask about my future, and my past—all those I’ve encountered over my years on earth. I’d ask what it was like, coming to earth as God in flesh, and living His life, knowing that He’d die in the worst possible way.

 Most of all, I’d stand in awe of Him. I’d stand taken back by the fact that He created the world, and knows each of us by name. How He created everything from nothing, and how He’s written each of our stories before we were born. I’d thank Him for all He’s blessed me with—my family, my friends, my life. It would be an experience too overwhelming to even write about.

The lyrics to the old song by MercyMe, I Can Only Imagine, sum it up best.

Surrounded by your glory

What will my heart feel

Will I dance for you Jesus 

Or in awe of you will I be still?

Will I stand in your presence 

Or to my knees will I fall?

Will I sing Hallelujah?

Will I be able to speak at all? 

I can only imagine

I can only imagine…

How about you—if you had the chance to spend fifteen minutes with Jesus, what would you ask Him? What would you say? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below! 

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge #2: Day Sixteen

Courtney3 Comments

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Day Sixteen: Your Dream Travel Destination

It’s funny how the older we get, the more dreams we acquire. Like many young adults, I keep a bucket list, which includes everything from career goals to getting up the courage to finally ride a roller coaster. This year, I’ve added a new thing to my list.

Visiting a Passion Conference. 

Years ago, back when I was a young teenager, I vaguely heard of something called “Passion“, when my church showed an apologetics video featuring Louie Giglio (A video that you really should watch here when you get the change). Nonetheless, it wasn’t until this year that I learned what it was.

The Passion Conference is basically an event for Christian young adults, where believers from across America worship, learn, and meet together in one giant building. From what I’ve gathered, it seems that it’s usually held in Georgia—a state that’s pretty close to the one I live in. Various admirable people have spoken there, including Christine Caine, Andy Stanley, Beth Moore, Lecrae, Francis Chan, and many others. Plus, these speakers are often accompanied by some of Contemporary Christian music’s biggest names, such as Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman.

Hopefully, someday, I’ll be able to gather together a group of friends to bring with me on a road trip to Passion someday—an event that I know would be a time to remember.

How about you? Where would you like to go on vacation? I’d love to hear about it in the comments! 

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge #2: Day Fifteen

Courtney4 Comments

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Day Fifteen: Something I miss

Life is an interesting thing. Sometimes, when we’re younger, certain needs are so easy to fulfill. When you get older, you have to actively search them out.

This was a bit of a difficult prompt for me to come up with, but after a lot of thinking, I’ve figured out what it is that I most miss right now: Fellowship. Throughout my faith journey, I’ve nearly always been able to find fellowship one way or another, but lately with college and the lack of programs for people my age, it’s become ten times harder to find fellowship among fellow Christians.

When I was in middle school, I was heavily involved in a youth group that I loved. It was fairly small for a youth group, with a handful of students who were unusually close knit. Every Wednesday night, I got to see a group of friends who I quickly bonded with, after only a couple of meetings. I enjoyed going and saw this youth group as my primary means of fellowship. I’m still in contact with some of these old friends today, through Facebook, Instagram, and texting. 

When I was in high school, a lot began to change at my church, and I sort of lost this close knit group. Nonetheless, during this time I was involved in Christian honors classes three days a week, and ended up with another group just as close as my old friends from youth group. Many of the same students came back every year, so I got to see some of my closest friends throughout my week and grow up with them. These are some of my best friends to this day.

Now that I’m in college, it’s a lot harder to find this fellowship. Many of my friends are busy with classes and it’s a lot harder to keep regular contact. I’m still in touch with everyone through email, social media, and text, but it’s not quite the same as seeing practically all of my friends over a period of three days. Nonetheless, tonight I’m attending my first night of a local Christian college group near my house. Thus, I believe and hope that God will bring back regular fellowship as I both meet new friends and keep my old. In addition to this, my best friend is starting a Christian group called “CIA” (Christ In Action), with a group of her friends, which should be launching soon. Between these two things, I should be seeing more fellowship within the next couple of weeks and months.

How about you? Has it been hard for you to find fellowship? If not, how have you found it in your life? I’d love to hear from you in the comments! 

Blogger Recognition Award

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Hey everyone, I have some big news for 1 Timothy 4:12 Girl! I was nominated for a Blogger Recognition Award by afcrocks99! Big thanks to this girl and an apology for not posting sooner.

The rules of this challenge are 

  • Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
  • Write a post to show your award.
  • Give a brief story of how your blog started.
  • Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers.
  • Select 15 other bloggers you want to give this award to.
  • Comment on each blog and let them know you have nominated them & provide the link to the post you created.

How my blog started – Truth be told, a number of things motivated me to start a blog—and a series of events seemed to indicate that this was God’s will for my life right now. I’ve always loved reading and writing, even from childhood, and during my junior year of high school, I got really into reading blogs.

During this time, my faith was going through a lot of turmoil and I wasn’t attending a particularly healthy church. I had a couple of close Christian friends who helped me stay afloat as a Christian during this time, but I was struggling with my faith in a big way. Nonetheless, my faith was largely revived through reading a Christian blog that felt admirably real and authentic. The vision that this blogger presented for life was something that recharged my faith in God and humanity—it was about restoration, hope, and community in Jesus—a vision that I soon began to adopt in my own writing. It helped me own my faith in a way that I previously struggled to do and shaped my view of God and life.

Also during this time, after a few months of reading blogs—and soon thereafter, Christian magazines, I found out that a close friend of mine had a blog, after he told my mom and I about it. You can read it here if you want to check it out for yourself. That same afternoon, I launched my first post on 1 Timothy 4:12 Girl. It’s all been downhill from there.

Advice I’d give to a new blogger – If I had to give a new blogger two pieces of advice, I’d tell them to write from their heart and get plugged in with like minded bloggers. In blogging, staying true to yourself is vital—it’s the thing that makes your blog stand out from other blogs and draws others to your writing. I believe that everyone has their own voice and their own story that God has blessed each one of us with. Our stories are likely filled with both ups and downs, but it’s through those times that character is formed and we find out what we’re made of.

It’s also important to make connections in blogging. As unlikely as it may sound, I believe that friendship is nearly inevitable if you’re an active blogger and make a conscious effort to explore other blogs. For the Christian blogger, the WordPress blog-o-sphere is literally filled with fellow believers, and through forming connections, we can grow alongside fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Definitely be sure to take advantage of this opportunity.

The people that I would like to nominate are

Dainty M. 

Fearfully Wonderfully Me 

Saved By Grace 2009 

Sapphire Life Writer

Papberry 

Julian For Jesus 

Wally Fry 

Passion And Pixels 

Ready. Set. Write!

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge Returns: Day Fourteen

Courtney2 Comments

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Hey everyone, I’m finally back after a far too long hiatus! 

For those of you who have been wondering, everything is totally fine on my end. There haven’t been any illnesses or catastrophes of any sort—that is, unless you count the absolute frustration of writers block. For a while, I have been completely stumped on the prompt I’m about to answer today. I have had plenty of problems in the past, but I wasn’t quite sure which to use. Nonetheless, after talking with my mom about it, she gave me an excellent idea:

Talk about the transition from high school to college. 

As some of you know, this has been my first year out of high school and I’m currently in the process of transferring to Liberty University—a college that I believe will be the best fit for my future career. Nonetheless, before I decided on Liberty, I was attending a local college near my house—and the year of 2015 may be one of my rockiest years to this date. 

For a while, I have avoided writing about the fact that I was homeschooled on this blog. I wasn’t ashamed of it, but I was worried it would conjure up stereotypes of an anti-social, socially awkward girl in her room doing math problems all day—which is far from my actual experience. Nonetheless, because I strongly believe in the process of being real and sharing your stories with others, I have recently began to write about it—especially since I believe it had an effect on my high school experience and my subsequent transition to college.

Contrary to the stereotypes, I wasn’t raised in a church—but began attending with my mom during late elementary school. Nonetheless, because many homeschool environments (though not all) are run by Christians, I’ve pretty much been in that subculture for my whole life. College was the first time I was ever in a school that lacked faith. 

Because I was well aware of this, my best friend and I spent long hours talking about what college may be like and all-but planning an escape plan in the case of a God’s Not Dead scenario. When graduation night came, I felt more terrified than anything. What did the next chapter hold? What was my life going to look like? From the summer of ’16 all the way through the end of the year, I began experiencing weight gain, acne, and other physical stress syndromes.

During my time at college, I faced both internal and external conflict. I began to think about life after high school, and experience almost paralyzing fears about the future. I wondered if my unusually close friendships would survive into adulthood and if I would end up as the little personification of the crazy cat lady. I also worried about my career, missed my high school classes, and tried to figure out what the heck I wanted out of my life. I had a basic idea, but my career path changed during my time at college from teacher to journalist, subsequently affecting my degree and college choice.

At college, I was faced regularly with dramatic clashes of ideologies. I heard things that never, in a million years would have been taught in any of my high school classes. Friendship and family ties were all but mocked, prayer was seen as unimportant, an obnoxiously loud sociology teacher in the next room over taught that sex was between two or more people, and that rape was simply inconvenient, and I met a fellow classmate who was a self proclaimed witch. I felt like I had entered an alternate universe and all but emotionally shut down. 

Nonetheless, as difficult as this time was for me, God managed to teach me a lot and bring good out of bad. He taught me to depend more heavily on him and open up to wise Christian friends and mentors. The more stressed, anxious, and depressed I became, the more people God brought into my life to help me. It’s easy to follow God when things are going well and you feel like you’re on top of the world, but it’s a lot harder when you feel like everything you know is crashing down all around you. This experience taught me to trust and fully lean into a God who’s a lot bigger than myself. 

I also became more aware and humbled by the fact that everyone has a story—and that sometimes, we have to learn to simply love people where they’re at. It can be so easy to disregard people as some kind of giant agenda or conspiracy, but there’s always more to people than this. I learned that one of my professors, who I had a huge personality clash with had a much more difficult life than I had originally thought, and learned to have compassion through hearing their story. I also learned that the classmate who practiced wicca really wasn’t a “bad person“—just a lost one, who also had a difficult past.

Now, that season is finally behind me, and I couldn’t be more excited to start at the university I believe God is leading me to—but I don’t regret a moment of my time at my first college. I learned valuable life lessons and I believe I’ve become a stronger, more compassionate Christian and person because of it. If you’re going to college this fall for the first time, I’m not going to lie and tell you it will be easy. It will likely be a challenge—a grueling one, even—at times. But you’ll survive it, just like I did. Trust in God, lean into friends and mentors, and don’t let fear control you.

God has a plan for you even in the midst of your hardest battles. 

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-4 

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge #2: Day Thirteen/ #MLKDAY Post

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Hey guys, it’s day thirteen of the blogging challenge! It’s also Martin Luther King Jr. Day—and because today’s topic is “Someone who fascinates you and why” I decided to make this  post a dedication to the civil rights activist whom this day honors. 

As you can probably guess by the name of my blog, I was born long after his death. Nonetheless, even as a girl who’s skin fries after an hour in the sun, I’ve been impacted by this man’s legacy. Few people can take claim to an annual holiday, or have made such a huge impact on the world that we live and breathe in today. Few people have had the courage to follow a dream in the face of nationwide opposition. Few people have had the courage to risk death for their ideals. 

I also find it interesting to know that he was a Christian—a minister, in fact. In addition to doing world-changing work in the area of racial equality, he was consistent about speaking out about his faith. I would imagine that he’d be an outstanding pastor to listen to, with memorable quotes such as the one below.

“We need to pledge ourselves anew to the cause of Christ. We must capture the spirit of the early church. Wherever the early Christians went, they made a triumphant witness for Christ. Whether on the village streets or in the city jails, they daringly proclaimed the good news of the gospel.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

The things he fought for were integral to to the message of the Gospel—absolute unity in Christ, as God’s beautiful creations. God never meant for us to be divided by things like race or gender. God’s dream for humanity is unity—something that Dr. King fought for until the day he died. If it weren’t for his legacy, we may never have met close friends, family members, and neighbors who were previously kept separate simply because of their outward appearance. It is very improbable that without his legacy, and the legacies of those like him, that we would ever have friends of a difference race or ethnicity.

God has a dream for each one of us. Martin Luther King found his in bringing greater racial reconciliation to America. Ours may be in any number of vocations—from ministry, to advocacy, to teaching, to raising a family. It’s very likely that God has plans for us in a number of different ways, as He uses His children a little bit closer to Himself and to each other.

Today, let’s continue to honor Martin Luther King Jr. and live fully into God’s plan for our lives.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” – Hebrews 12:1-2

 

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge #2: Day Twelve

Courtney2 Comments

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Hey everyone, I’m finally back for the blogging challenge! 

Nonetheless, I’ve found that with what I have going on right now, I’m not going to be able to blog every day. I will continue with this challenge, but it may be a little more sporadic than I had originally planned. Like my friend Emily at Fearfully Wonderfully Me, my life has gotten a little busy lately.

Now, today’s challenge is about my favorite movie. Truth be told, like with TV shows, I have a lot of movies I like. Because I can only talk about one movie that I like, I’m going to review a movie that I saw just recently called October Baby—which is easy one of my new favorites.

The story opens with a girl named Hannah, who has been dealing with various health problems over past nineteen years. After collapsing in a play from an unforeseen seizure, she finds out the truth: She adopted, and the survivor of a failed abortion. This news leads hr to unimaginable turmoil, as she tries to make sense of her life in light of this new information. Who is her birth mom? Where did she come from? What are her roots?

Before long, she’s faced with the opportunity to find out about it all—after her Jason invites her on a spring break road trip with his friends, where they’ll pass through Mobile Alabama—the place she was born. Despite her parents advisory not to, Hannah joins her friend on the trip, where one event leads to another, sending her on a full on search for her birth mother—finding hope, redemption, and forgiveness where she least expects it.

This movie had various emotional scenes, as well as a couple of comic ones, and an awesome soundtrack. It’s a movie that’s not primarily about adoption or the emotions surrounding it—it’s about redemption. Throughout the movie, messages are weaved subtly, so it feels authentic rather than forced. Many female viewers will also appreciate the subtle love story between Hannah and her lifelong friend, Jason. All and all, I’d give this movie five out of five stars and recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good inspirational story. 

You can find the trailer here, if you want to get a sneak peak into the content of the movie!