Becoming a Godly Person

Lately I have been thinking hard. The group of kids I am with, just recently named the Sojourners, have been daily challenged to watch our emotions (mainly anger and fear). When I got this homework from Abba, I thought I was going to die. However, I survived to tell the story! It was an amazing experience and I challenge myself to do it everyday. It opened my eyes to how much I can easily get annoyed with my siblings, with my friends, and how easily I lose patience and grace. I cannot say I am fully changed because of it but I can say that it has deepened my perspectives and showed me my weakness. I found this poem I had to memorize when I was in 5th or 6th grade and it turned out to be very helpful. Here it is:

If   By Rudyard Kipling                         

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;

If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings -- nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run --

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!

Hopefully, this can encourage you as well! This poem is one of my favorites and I am working on myself with this day by day. It is hard but I think that in the end, not only will you be a woman or man but you will be a Godly person and someone God can trust. I look forward to the day when I become a full grown godly person in Christ!

Experiencing/Seeing God

June Conference was awesome!!! I really got to experience being pulled lots of different ways at once; that was because not only was I helping with food, but also practicing four dances I was to perform that weekend. The dances turned out so beautifully and I am grateful that I got to be in them. Have you ever gone outside at night and danced in the moonlight? It is such an unforgettable experience! For all of those who do not get to see the moon that much, you have no clue what you are missing. It is beautiful beyond words can describe! It is amazing getting to live in the country because, well... nothing compares to it in my mind. I wake up to the birds singing in my front yard and go to sleep with crickets and frogs humming me to sleep at night. Anyways, about the moonlight dance. When I got back from Rhode Island, that is what I did for the first few nights. It was almost like the crickets were singing for me and I just couldn't help the love and gratefulness I felt inside! God fills me up so much living here in Rose Creek Village that I could never wish to live anywhere else. Not for all the money in the world! We, my friends and I, got to experience seeing God among people who really love Him and it was breathtaking. It was like we almost got to see through the veil and into another realm... Have you ever been able to see God intimately? Truly if Miss Tennessee could experience it, our state would feel God come so close that they would stop and wonder what happened...

God's Beauty- don't you think about it?

I do not know about everyone else today, but I am just in love with God all over again! He is so wonderful to me and His beauty surrounds me all the time! I could not have asked for a better place to grow up. I have loving parents, who are together in everything and love me unconditionally, and a wonderful house to live in! We just had someone move in with us not long ago and I am enjoying getting to know her. Her name is Grandma Anavah and I constantly see... well,.. the spirit of God shining through her eyes everyday. It makes her so beautiful! My two younger sisters are so beautiful and their joy is contagious! Noelle makes me laugh all the time and she looks so innocent...unless you count the fact that she is a little devil in an angel's costume sometimes. My younger brother tries acting so macho it gets funny. He is bigger than me, and for good reason, but I got a chance to laugh at him when we were ducking low branches while leaving the Pink Palace in Memphis. He is just a big boy...and I mean big! I am just blessed to live in the Kingdom of God and could not wish for anything else (besides the opportunity to go out abroad again!). I am going to be very busy soon and wanted to write a good post before missing a few weeks. I am helping with Rose Creek Village Conference food and baking for the Village Coffee House in Selmer.

A father had a family of sons who were perpetually quarreling among themselves. One day, he told them to bring him a bundle of sticks. When they had done so, he placed the bundle into the hands of each of them in succession, and ordered his sons to break the bundle in pieces. They tried with all their strength, but were not able to do it. He next opened the bundle, took the sticks separately, one by one, and again put them into his sons' hands, upon which they broke the sticks easily. He then said, "My sons, if you are of one mind, and unite to assist each other, you will be as this bundle, uninjured by all the attempts of your enemies. But if you are divided among yourselves, you will be broken as easily as these sticks."

I read this fable of Aesop's and thought it very true. It makes me think of how when people are united together to protect and love one another constantly, they cannot be broken apart. It is only when we are alone and separate that the Devil can break us. This is an amazing example of the life of God and how important unity is. 

p.s. sorry this got out so late... I was trying to figure out how to put another post back on!

Have you ever thought about what empowers people to do good? Is it the love of God or the fact that they know that that is what they are suppose to do? In my mind, I would think that it is the love of God that compels us to do good. I have been reading about missionaries, such as Amy Carmichael, Father Damien, Mary Slessor, and C.S Lewis, Hudson Taylor, etc. Their stories are amazing and remind me of the goodness of God. God's goodness and love are always there for us Christians so that we know He will catch us should we fall. So, now that I have revealed what is on my mind, what is on yours? What do you think empowers people to do good?