Undeserved

Today is the start of a very important part of the Church year. The beginning in fact. Ash Wednesday is the start of Lent. A time when we, as Christians remember and rest on the fact that we are sinners in need of a Savior. 

By ourselves we are enemies of God. Completely separated from Him. The sad reality is that that is what our sinful nature strives for. If you ever wonder why we can't just stop sinning, it's because that is who we are: sinners. However, God calls us to be perfect in His sight ( Matthew 5:48 ) , but how can we be if we are corrupted with sin? Does God even understand that? Even if we think we are 70% perfect and that that is a good amount, that is like saying we are good enough, we don't need a Savior. It's a constant circle; sinning again and again, becoming desensitized to it and lying to ourselves and thinking we are "good enough".

Despite our arrogance and disobedience to God, His love for us surpassed that and He chose to send His Son, giving Him the job of dying on a cross. Think of that; living to die for those around you. Does that appeal to you? Would you die for your enemy? Someone who lied to you, made fun of you. I know my answer would be no. I will straight up honest about that. Luckily Jesus did. Imagine that! Just rest on that love for a moment.....Isn't that the most amazing thing you have ever heard!? It's still hard for me to comprehend. So when we do sin, we repent. That shows our love for Christ and what He has done for us. Repentance is a fruit of our faith, the biggest evidence actually. 

I hope you enjoy this season of Lent. So not be wary in your sin but repent and rejoice in the never failing forgiveness of that you Lord and Savior grants to you each and every day.

Blessings!

Mel :) 

Stuck

Finally posting something! This will probably be a mess of a post, but I pray that it will still be a witness of Christ's love to you all :)

Life is not an easy road, but who ever said it was? Compared to a ton of people, I have been blessed beyond belief. I know that the devil attacks my mind to think otherwise. He drags me away from the joy and contentment I have in Christ and pulls me towards all the little things in my life that are not going to plan. When I let him get to me, anxiety comes in and comes fast and hard. Today is one of those days. Everything in my life, stress, drama, guilt all haunt my mind and torture me. My stomach churns inside making me feel sick. I have no drive, no joy, no Jesus. I wallow in the stupid things that with the help of Christ I can overcome. But instead I rest on them and wonder when I will feel better. When those energy and joy-draining thoughts and feelings will deteriorate. 

When and if you ever feel this way, I pray that you will remember that Christ knows what you are feeling. He has felt the weight of stress and fear. So much so he cried tears of blood. Because of His perfection, He went to His Father ( who is ours too ;) and asked that if the debt was not His to pay, that the weight would be lifted off by His Father's power. 

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

You Got a Choice

It seems as if people are in a constant state of unhappiness and dis contentedness.  Their attitude towards things are always negative. I feel bad for them, to a certain extent because I know that they have the potential of a life where the blessings are what they focus on.

The fact is, no matter how hard our life might seem, we have a choice in how we look at that problem and situation in life. We can either think "wow, this really sucks and you no what? I am just going to pout and whine about it because that seems like the easiest thing to do." This is actually what I have been seeing. People making the choice to be negative.

I am not trying to pat myself on the back or anything, please believe me in that, but I have been asked why I am positive the majority of the time. That is because I try to choose to be positive and to not take the blessings in my life for granted. It's not as easy as being negative and pessimistic and there are days when that is all I want to be is negative, but life is SO MUCH BETTER when I choose joy and remember that I have a Savior who created me and loves me everyday and enough to die on a cross for me! If that is not enough reason to be joyful, I don't know what is. 

Choose Joy!

Mel :) 

Vocation Here and Now

One of my favorite things to talk and think about during Christmas, is Mary, the Mother of Jesus and her complete submission to God and His plan for her. 

I, myself have a really hard time trying to figure out what God's plan for me is. The great thing though, is I do not need to figure it out. God already has it laid out in front of Him since the beginning of time. I would like to share some details about my struggle with Christ's plan for my life. Of course it deals with relationships, so I am sorry for being redundant, but I hope this is something that some of you could relate to.

In the course of about four years, I have very seriously liked 3 guys. Pathetic I know.  Each time, I invested way too much of my emotions and thoughts into them, so in turn my heart was broken and it got worse each time. My biggest desire in life has always been to be a wife and a mom. I want to be able to keep a lovely home for my husband, to love and cherish him, to support him and encourage him in his walk with Christ. Eventually, I would love to do the same with my children and drown them in love and teach them the even stronger love that Christ has for them. But when I look at my history with guys, and how so many of my friends have boyfriends or a plethora of guys talking to them when they are not even interested in marrying for a long time, it really hurts. I wonder if I am ugly or weird in some way, too preachy or to flirty or anything else that is unattractive. After I figured out the last guy I liked clearly didn't feel the same way and after a period of dealing with the heartbreak, I decided that I am now too scared to like anyone for a very long time. I am sick and tired of my heart getting broken and all of the drama and stress that comes with liking someone. It took so much out of me. I know that God has not revealed the right man yet, but I trust He will.

So in the mean time, I am learning how to fully submit to Christ and trust in his plan for me. Just like Mary, His plan might not be what I would like, but I know His plan is more marvelous than I could ever imagine. I need to focus on today and what Christ is calling me to do today and that is to be a student, daughter, sister, aunt, friend and witness for Jesus.


²⁹ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰ But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High....³⁴ “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”... ³⁷ For no word from God will ever fail.”
³⁸ “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her."

Luke 1: assorted verses

Joy and blessings this Christmas! 

Mel :) 

Flawless Beauty

Hello beautiful people! Hope this post finds you all doing well, lavishing yourself in the joy and peace our God grants us each day :) 

Earlier this week, my town had it's first big snow. It was so beautiful, coming down continuously and smooth. It definitely was beginning to look a lot like Christmas :) The ugly, dead and brown grass was slowly covered by the pure white of the thick snow. The woods behind my house turned from a creepy, dirty, dead place to a winter wonderland. 

This snow-covered scene is a perfect picture of what Christ has done for us as sinners. He came to a sin corrupted world as an innocent baby. He lived a life of perfectness and took our place on the cross and endured the most excruciating pain that there was. 

By Jesus' death, we are made righteous, (right with) and holy, (set apart) in order that, by the grace of God, we might enjoy eternal life with Him in a perfect paradise. He takes all that is dead and dirty in us and covers it to make us as white as snow. 

“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. - Isaiah 1:18

Enjoy being clean and free from your sins this day and always! 

Mel :) 

His Presence

Good afternoon! Hope everyone has had a good week so far :) I am so excited to share with you today in hopes that it will give you comfort and peace. 

At my school, we have chapel every Tuesday and Thursday. It is always something I look forward to. It gives me joy to worship and learn with my friends and peers. Well like I touched on yesterday, I had a rough day. My heart was broken and I was having a tug-of-war battle between feeling stupid and being angry towards another. I was mad one minute and the next was balling my eyes out asking myself what I did wrong. 

Sadly, before I turned to the peace and strength of Christ, I relied on myself and ended up inflicting myself with physical pain to numb the mental confusion and pain. Now I have a mark to remind me that I cannot handle life on my own, but only by the grace of God am I going to come out of the storm. Because I relied on my own, failing strength, I didn't feel God presence. I shut Him out and I fell as a result. Later that night I prayed he would enable me to trust in His plan and to give me peace and help me through and to turn to Him as a first option. 

Well today He really spoke to me. Like literally. Chapel today was about restoring relationships and praying for God's guidance in our relationships and trusting in His plan for our lives even if it is not what we had in mind. Once again I started to cry, however this time it was tears of joy! I felt Christ there with me. He knew I was struggling and he cares because He loves me forever. He wanted me to know His presence in my life to never give up on Him. It gave me so much peace and I know I constantly need that reminder because I continually forget. 

Christ is there for all of you and He will never leave you. He cares about every hair on your head and He has you in the palm of His hand until eternity. 

Happy Advent!
Mel :) 

Answers

To start off, I would like to apologize for not posting in forever! To be real, I just didn't have any good content and I didn't want to be repetitive. Finally today, the Lord has placed something in my heart that I think He would like me to share. It stems from something very personal that I have been going through. It is heartbreak. Real joyful and positive I know right? Well, eventually it will turn out joyful. I am sure of it!

During the season of Christmas, a big thing on our minds is gifts. What we should get for our family and friends and what we want from our family and friends. We kind of do the same thing with God sometimes. We ask Him for things. It could be something materialistic, or it could be something like peace, joy or comfort. Those three in particular are things I pray for a lot. Sometimes, though, we receive answers that we don't want. Like "no" or maybe the answers never come at all. 

Recently I received the answer "no". It was extremely hard and I blamed myself for even asking or wishing for what I asked God for. It caused my heart to break and streams of tears to run down my face. I thought to myself " you idiot! why even consider that a possibility!". I didn't thank God that He gave me an answer at all. It was all about me. What I did wrong instead of what God was doing in my life. My mom put it this way " God gives us one of two answers: yes or I have something better. Which, if you are more pessimistic, you can think of that as no, or you can be optimistic and anticipate and trust that God has an amazing plan in store! 

This is also fitting because it is the season of Advent, which means the "coming". So as we wait for the coming of our Savior, Jesus, so we wait on those answers and trust in whatever God has in mind! 

Blessings to you this Advent Season! 
Mel :)

Contentment and Awe

It's hard to be content. That is just a reality that everyone faces. We always want more and what we have is never good enough. For some it might be they need the newest technology, for others it might be achieving that 4.0 grade average, for me it's learning how to be content with out a significant other and waiting for the perfect one God has in store. 

But what are we supposed to to while we wait for that special man or women, or instead of whining that we can't afford the new iPhone 7? Well today I found contentment in the world and people around me. For English we sat outside to write a description of what we saw, felt, heard and smelled. It was so fulfilling! I looked around and ultimately felt God right there beside me. I was in awe of His creation and how beautiful everything was. 

I can be content because I have so much! Why rest on the one thing I don't have when I have a thousand other blessings? I am in complete awe of my Savior when I look at those blessings, big and small. I am not missing out. I can see the evidence of Christ providing for more than my daily bread when I focus on the positive. 

Look around you today and see everything that God has given you! 

Blessings to you all! 
Mel :) 

Emotional Wirlwind

Being a teenage girl is hard enough when I have to deal with the ups and downs and trying to decipher what are real emotions and what are just part of growing up.  

About a week ago I had one of the most insane emotional whirlwinds I have ever had. My mind felt like it was filled with slush and it was sloshing around and I couldn't think straight. I was fighting against my emotions. I felt guilty about some of them and I just wanted to silence my mind. My body ached and I had streams of tears coming down my face in the middle of English class as my friends watched me and wondered what was going on. 

I honestly didn't care at the time that I was crying in front of my class. Now as I think back on that day it is totally embarrassing and I don't know what was going on. One moment I was crying all over my A&P notes and the next I was laughing at a joke my teacher told. 

To be real, I haven't completely gotten over some of those emotions. I don't know when I will get closer to the answers that I want, but I do know that the Lord is leading me where I need to go. It might be a scary ride, but He is holding me in His hand through it all. He won't leave me and He won't leave you. Christ the Lord has a plan for you. You might have to go through some pretty intense storms, but it's going to be worth it! 

Blessings to you this week!

In His peace, Mel :) 

Pursued

Gosh it has been a hot minute since I last posted and today I am just going to run away with my thoughts. I'm sorry if some or any of this does not make sense, but I hope I can get my thoughts across to you all.

As some of you might already know, I have a passion for learning and teaching the purpose of dating, how to do it in a God-pleasing way and how to enable it to fit to each individual. I hope I can not only sympathize with some of you but also empathize with you too.

I know from personal experience that it can be hard to let someone pursue you and by someone I mean letting a guy pursue a girl ( if you are a guy and you are reading this, do not leave! You can learn from this too). I have been taught my whole life that I should never chase after a boy but instead let him chase after me. Well let me tell you, that's a lot easier said than done. As soon as I felt a guy reaching out to me in a "more-than-friend kinda way ( or so I thought), I would go right after that. It was exhausting and frustrating and it usually ended up in me scaring the poor guy away.

What could I expect from approaching the situation that way? Of course guys wouldn't like us girls coming right after them. God created men and women to be very different from each other. Part of how He created men was to desire have to "catch the girl", not to have her run right up to him with her eyelashes fluttering.
That is not the way to go about things. Instead we, as young women need let ourselves be pursued. If a guys really likes us and wants us he will go out of his way to make us feel special or to pay attention to us. 

It's the same when it comes to us and God. We don't need to do anything to be wanted by Him. He already does love us and He gave up His Son to make His love known to us.  I love the passage in Ephesians 5 that shows husbands and wives how to love like Christ and His church love. ²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing^[b] her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸ In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 

Hope this passage spoke to you and blessed you. 

In His love, Melody

Everything is Poop...Say What?

Good evening lovely people! I would like to share some thoughts and expand on the Bible study I enjoyed while at the Youth Gathering. We studied the book of Philippians and I have to say I absolutely LOVE that book! Man so much great stuff packed in there!

I am going to focus on chapter 3 verses 8-9.
     " Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. "

In our world, having stuff is a big deal. The more stuff you have, the cooler you are. It's a fact and sadly it's normal. I deal with dis-contentedness ALL the time. I see what my friends and others have and I want it. I think I need more and more. We as Christians, though, need to count earthly things as loss because they will not last. They will not come with us to heaven as much as we want them to. 

Our worth is not in what we own, but in Who owns us. We are Children of the Heavenly Father! Heirs to the Kingdom of heaven. God loves us so much that He sent His only Son to endure a horrific death so that we might be with Him in Heaven ( John 3:16) When we except His love and forgiveness we can boast in that. We are works of the Ultimate Creators hands. What other evidence do you need to prove that you have worth?

In this chapter Paul describes what he owns here on earth as rubbish...in Greek terms that means dung or poop. Wow, some language there! The point is He wanted to get HIS point across. Without Christ we are nothing. But the good news is, We DO have Christ!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is SO much joy in those words. I pray that, not only for me but for you who read this, realize this as you grow in your faith. That if we lost everything we ever owned, including our loved ones, we would still have joy and hope in the Lord and His promise of Salvation. Just think about Job and how the devil attacked every aspect of His life. He lost all of his riches, his family and even became deathly ill. But he STILL praised God. I pray that we can also do that too :) 

To finish this off I want to point out verse 9. We do nothing to gain Christ. He has done it for us. We don't have to stress about how much good or bad we have done in life. Because if we did that, we would all go to hell. JESUS took care of the cost. Don't make his sacrifice seem like not enough by trying to get Salvation on your own. Rest in peace that it's taken care of. All you have to do is follow.

FYI a lot of these thoughts are from the leaders of the Bible Study. Though some are my own. Just a disclaimer.

Choose Joy this day!!
Mel~

Unexpected Experiences

I have to apologize for not posting in about four months. Here I thought that during the summer I would be writing a post twice a week. But I back and I am excited to be sharing how The Lord has been working in my life this summer.

Typically I like to hang out at home and not really travel. This summer though the majority of July was spent away from the comforts of home. One of the places I went was New Orleans for the National Youth Gathering for Lutherans.
I was really excited to finally be a part of it! I was hoping to grow in my relationship with Christ and to be refreshed! Well The Lord had a different plan, as almost always. Instead of being uplifted, I was   frustrated and annoyed. Instead of getting advice through the seminars that I could apply to my life, none of it seemed to really apply to my situation. I was so upset with how the week was going. I tried to put my motto of Choosing Joy to action and to hold my tongue when I could have said a lot of nasty things.

But now as a look back on what happened that week, The Lord really had a plan to teach me some things. He taught me how to hold my tongue and how to be a positive witness among those who were negative and whose actions were of the world. Through some of the mass events, Christ spoke directly to me and made me bawl of happiness and relief. Oh how I felt the loving arms of my Savior around me during those moments!

The fact is, we all know we all have flaws. It a part of the whole sin package. But The Lord knows we can't overcome those flaws on our own. We need his forgiveness and his grace and his love. Without those things we are dead to sin. I thank God for the unexpected experience I had on the trip. It has strengthened my faith more than I could have known!

Your sister in Christ, Mel

A crazy bunch of things

So I have decided to kinda just let my thoughts out about life in this post. I was inspired by some Tumblr quotes. So here it goes.

I thought he was the one. The guy the Lord had picked out for me. I even prepared to give part of my heart to him. But I already had. Because when he stopped talking to me, my heart broke like we had actually been together. I asked God to intervene if he wasn't the one, but when I got the answer, I was mad. That's not what I wanted. Why can't I have that special someone in my life. I'm ready for it. Or am I? Maybe I wasn't and that's why I got the answer "no". What do I need to do to be ready? Is it my maturity? Is my faith too weak? Do I even need a guy? No, not really. I am fine and confident without one. He wasn't worth my time anyway. I deserve better. Yet I feel like there isn't any better than him. But I need to focus on other things. God will bring the right guy in the right time. I need to focus on school, friends and family. It's not like those thing make life any easier. I know I'm blessed beyond belief but sometimes I just can't handle life anymore. I just want it to freeze. Nothing to worry about. Just me and Jesus. In prayer and song. No homework to worry about. No social drama. No tears, no stress. God why can't you just give me a break, because that's what I think I will do: break. Give me strength and comfort. Protect my faith as I get older. Help me to rely on You in all of this. In the long run it means nothing. In time all these questions will be answered. People and stress will be forgotten. Homework will be done. And You, You will remain the same. You will never leave or forsake me, for I am Yours.

Open Your Eyes

I want to start off with apologizing for not posting in such a long time. To be honest, I haven't had good ideas for a post. I am really excited for today's post though! Hope you enjoy it :)

I went on a mission trip to New Orleans last summer with my youth group. Our main mission was to open our eyes to the people around us. Even though Hurricane Katrina came over ten years ago, there is still a lot of hurt and damage in that city and that week we saw a lot of it. Some of the worst.

You would think that our mission would be to help and change others who were in need there. In a way it was, but I changed as a person that week.

I started off the week by just wanting to help. I looked down at the people we saw and worked for. I felt pity on them, yes, but I also felt superior to them. I thought I had it better and I never wanted to imagine being them for one minute. 

I couldn't picture being without all of my nice things: having a safe place to lay my head at night, knowing that I would go to school the next day, be fed at least three times a day and to have more than enough clothes to wear. 

The more we talked as a group, though, each night, the more each day I changed my outlook on the world. Instead of judging or feeling superior, I felt equal to them. We are ALL children of God. Sinners in need of a Savior.  

The truth is, the people that I encountered each day were amazing people. They had so little, yet they were some of the richest in joy and contentment. By the time the week ended, I didn't want to leave. I didn't want to go back to a world were nothing was enough. Where everyone was self-centered and rude and discontented. Where negativity is the normal way to respond. 

That week in New Orleans, Christ opened my eyes to the people around me; His people, people just like me. People just like you.

Have a great week! In His love,
Melody :)

It's over and done

Today is Good Friday. The day that Jesus was beaten, nailed on a cross and died as a crucified Savior.  Today was the day when all of our sin was washed clean. Forgotten. Forgiven. Forever.
 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”  Luke 24:7  

This is what had to be done for our salvation. For the Son of Man to be lifted up and offered as a perfect sacrifice for many. His sacrifice was out of the love He had for us. The pain-for us, the blood-for us.  This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.  Matthew 26:28. 

Our salvation has been paid for. There is nothing left for us to do except to take Jesus into our hearts as our Savior. 

In His promise, we have the hope that just as He rose from the dead, so too will we along with our loved ones who have gone before us be raised.
We have the occurrence that on the Last Day we will be with Him in paradise. 

Sorry this was a shorter post and that I haven't written in a while. I don't think this message really needs a lot of words. It's simple. Jesus loves you, He has a plan for you. Part of that plan was to die for you.

Blessings to you all this Holy week,
Melody :)

The Power of Prayer

So it's been a little bit of a crazy and overwhelming week. It seemed to me that life was getting a little bit easier for me and I had been more happy and joyful then I had been in a long time. Then all of a sudden, the hard news started rushing in.

On Monday night my Aunt called crying. My cousins had found my Grandma lying on the floor. She had fallen the night before and couldn't get up. She is paralyzed on both sides. I was in shock and since we didn't know how bad it was ,we (my family) hoped that she wouldn't live through the night. 

I couldn't picture being without my Grandma so soon. I didn't want her to leave yet, but I knew that if Jesus wanted her home, that's the way it had to be.  
Being so scared for my Grandma's life, I did the only thing I could think to do and that was to call my best friend Bekah. I barley said anything and she told me she was on her way over. She ran in my room and hugged my hard. She didn't say much, but what she did say was the best thing " have you prayed yet?". She was right. I immediately started to pray and so did she. I could hear her whispering to not take me Grandma yet. Exactly what was in my mind. I know that God used Bekah for me that night.  

I felt a peace after we prayed. I knew that Jesus heard me and He had me and my Grandma and my whole family in His arms. Everything was going to be alright. 

Then on Tuesday I found out that a dear women in my life has cancer. Nothing can really be done and  there is no telling how long she will live. I couldn't understand why God would allow all of this hurt and sad news to fall upon me in such a short amount of time. Then my mom told me the attitude of my friend. She was joyful and content. She knew the Lord would take care of her, even if that meant to take her to her eternal home.

I thought to myself that if she, the one with cancer could find joy, certainly I could. I prayed that I could trust God to give me peace through the rough stuff. He did. 

Lastly, before Lenten worship last night I had one of my lows. I leaned over to my mom to tell her that I was about to cry and I didn't know why. I started balling in the church balcony. Church was about to start and the devil decided he didn't want me to worship my God. So my mom prayed over me. She prayed for peace and comfort to come on me, for me to find joy in worshiping my God. Again I felt peace. I wasn't all fine and dandy after the prayer, it took sometime to be OK again. But I knew the Lord was hovering over me and I was in the palm of His hand.

Prayer is such an amazing gift God has given to us all. We can talk to Him about anything at anytime. We can have a one-on-one conversation with him anytime we want. Go to God in happiness, sadness or stress. He wants to hear your voice and help you.

Your sister in Christ,
Melody :)

Dating-It's Purpose

So it's a little ironic that I would be the one to write about the purpose of dating and how to date because I have never had a boyfriend or really gotten too close to having one.

I have had my fair share of crushes over the years and some were definitely more serious then others. But I have been taught valuable lessons from my parents and siblings as well as observing my friends who have been in and out of relationships. 

Dating now a days is definitely very popular and it can distinguish what kind of person you are; if your popular, pretty, sporty, smart etc. Dating almost places you in certain levels on the social status. If you aren't dating someone, that can bring you down. You might think to yourself "What's wrong with me? Am I ugly? Do I need to work out more? ( that one is me for sure) Do I need to bump up my grades?". Tons of things come to mind when we do or don't have that significant other.

Sadly, one thing that rarely comes to mind when people are looking for a relationship is the purpose of that relationship: to find the person God has called you to be with, serve and serve with and love and to cherish for the rest of your life. 
Dating has become a game to see if we can get the hottest, sportiest, smartest boyfriend or girlfriend in school. Or worse yet, who can we get in bed with the fastest. What fun is that??

Datings ultimate purpose is for finding that spouse that you will be with till the day you die (no pressure or anything). We should be discerning in who we choose to date. What are they like? Do they meet what is the most important to you. Moreover, are they a Christian?? 

It's hard to not say yes to anyone who wants to go out with us. But think about it; do you want fast, or forever? (shout out to the eHarmony commercial :) ) 

So make a list of what you want in a spouse, and don't settle for anything less!

Have a Great day! God's blessings :)
Melody

Shared Emotions

While I get ready on Sunday mornings, I like to listen to Christian praise music to prepare my mind for worship. Today an interesting point was made that I heard. Christ has experienced every emotion we have and in some cases, more serious.

This is really good to think about in this season of Lent as we dwell on what Jesus has done, is doing and will do for us. Because of everything He has done, He has had to face hurt, anxiety, sadness and happiness. 

Jesus faces hurt every time we choose to go against Him and He cries for us. But He rejoices in us when we repent from that sin and with His happiness He forgives and completely forgets. 
Jesus cries over us. In John 11:35 all it says is "Jesus wept". He wept for His friend Lazarus. Even Jesus dealt with loss as many of us do. 
In The Garden of Gethsemane, while Jesus prayed, He was so scared that He prayed to His Father that He might not have to give Himself up. ⁴² “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” ⁴³ An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. ⁴⁴ And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. 

Even on the days when we feel like Christ won't or doesn't understand how we feel and can't help us get better, remember that He has felt the same way as you have and He wants to give you His joy and peace every chance He gets!

Blessings to you on the star of another week
Melody :)

Broken Become Stronger

Sometimes it's hard to understand why we go through hard times. Times that we feel like we will never be able to get through. We feel week and helpless and it just seems like Christ is standing on the sidelines.

I think most people have heard the saying "sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me" or the famous song by Kelly Clarkson "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger". One of those sayings are true and the other isn't. Can you guess which one isn't? The "Sticks" one is false. Words can hurt us the most. 

But Kelly actually has a good point. The struggles that we face day-to-day can really make us a stronger person, especially when we rely on the Lord to help us get through it and to heal us from the hurt. I heard a fact once that when you break a bone, it becomes stronger after it has healed. Isn't that amazing! We can think of us going through a time just like that. We break a little, but once we ask Christ to help us, He promises to not only heal us, but make us stronger in our faith and reliance on Him.

The Lord might let us go through some difficult times so we can break, but then heal again through Him. He calls us back to Him reminding us that we can't do life without Him. Christ does not make the bad things happen, He only allows them to happen to us. 

So if you are going through a hard time right now, maybe think of it as Jesus saying "come on back to me! I love you <3"

Blessing to you this day!
Melody

Our Father...

This past weekend I attended a youth retreat at my friend's church. It was a wonderful experience that I have been blessed to have for the third time now. It is filled with church services, morning noon and night. Bible studies, fellowship and classes. It was the spiritual refreshment I needed!

Because of being in worship lots over the weekend, I spoke the  Lord's prayer many times. It's something that can be said so mindlessly because it is so often used in church or in the home. But have you ever really dug into it? It's the most beautiful thing! It's the prayer that the Lord asked of us to pray.

So I will break it down a little bit and share with you what it means to me.

Our Father, Who art in Heaven...
Just this in itself is beautiful! He asks us to call Him our Father! He is the ultimate Father to us even when we don't have a good earthly one. He provides for our needs and cares and loves us with all of Him, His life! Now if you are His children and He is the king of the Universe/Heaven, we are heirs to Heaven. Heaven in our eternal home. Not here. 

Hallowed be Thy Name...
His name is holy, perfect and just. It is different then any other name. It is then name of our Savior.  It describes who He is: Emmanuel-Savior of the World. 

Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven...
Earth is not forever. This is only the beginning. There is a whole eternity in Heaven to come. To praise, worship and thank the Lord for all He has done. In the mean time, we ask that only His will be done. We need to leave our lives up to Him. Let Him determine who you are. Don't let the sinful world or your sinful self do that. For heaven is holy and perfect. It is the Lord's home. Who wouldn't want it to be like heaven on earth?

Give us the day our daily bread...
This is my favorite part of the prayer. You know why? because it forces me to focus on THIS day, not the days ahead. To not worry about what will come of this day or any other. Jesus provides for the here and now and that's all we need to think about. We need to put our trust in the Lord's providence. Rely fully on Him and His perfect plan for our lives. 

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us...
Daily we should come to the Lord with our confession and sins. He will never withhold forgiveness with repentance. He yearns to forgive us. He wants, so desperately for us to repent, turn away from our sins and start new again with Him at the center! Likewise we should not withhold forgiveness from others

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil...
The devil's goal is get us to believe his lies and to tear us apart from the Lord and His truth, for He IS truth. The only way. We can't fight the devil on our own and I have learned that the hard way. Only with Christ's name and power can the devil be defeated for us day after day. But that's just it: he is defeated. We don't just try. Christ succeeds. He is the Victor and we with Him.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever...
His kingdom never ends, it will never go away. His power and glory have been, are and will be never ending and always here. He will never leave us.

Amen.

Where I was this weekend: http://higherthings.org/