Family

This semester has flown by! I feel almost like I have just sat and watched this last 5 months instead of actually live it. I feel so blessed to be where I am now and my family has been such a huge part of it. I honestly don't know where I would be without the love of my family. I owe everything to them.

First of all, I think I have the most wonderful mother in the world. I honestly don't even know how she put up with me for the last 19 years. Through all the knock down drag out fights we have had, she continues to still love me. She is such a trooper and such a stong woman. She has always loved me no matter what and I know she always will. I am so greatful for my relationship with her, even though sometimes I don't show it. She does everything she can to provide my family and I all that we need, no matter what the cost. She always fights for the underdog and loves everyone the way they should be loved. She is the biggest influence in my life and I would be nothing without her.

My Daddy, he is so loving. He works so many hours to make sure we have food in our belly and a roof over our head. He sacrifices his time to work, all day long, so that we can have nice things. He cares for the ones who are less popular and weak. He will always stand by you, no matter what wrong you have done. He is a great example of Jesus, the way he forgives and tries to help people though thier tough times. I have messed up SO many times. But for some reason he always takes my side and loves me throughout everything. He is the perfect example of someone who is so humble and he is a great man of God. He is an amazing leader of our family and a wonderful husband to my mother.

Both of my parents have worked their entire lives. Everything they own they have worked hard for. They have done everything in the world to provide everything my brother and I need, and try their hardest to give us everything we want. I didn't grow up getting all the newest toys and clothes, my parents could not afford them. I got hand-me-downs and thrift store toys. No I wasn't spoiled or rich... If you wanna call it that. I was rich in a different kind of way. Now that I look back on it, none of those fancy toys or clothes really mattered. What would they do for me now? What really mattered was the love and friendship my parents gave me.

No, my parents didn't graduate from college, no they didn't have a lot of money to spend on us, and they don't have the best high paying jobs. My parents went a different route. They fell in love at a young age, and realized that family was more important than all of that stuff. No, my parents are not perfect, but they sure do try their best to be, and they are perfect to me.

I am so greatful to be blessed with the wonderful family that I do have. I look up to everything that my parents are and only hope to be like them someday. They are the most amazing people I know and they have raise two children the very best they could, and that is amazing.

I only hope and pray that someday I can be a succesful person and buy them a house or a car or something. It's only a small amount of what I can repay them. Yeah that would be nice. But really, I know that is not what they want at all. The definition of succesful for them is not having a lot of money. It is trying your best at everything you do. It is running after God's own heart and taking every step necessary to further His kingdom and give Him glory for everything.

I am going to try my very hardest to do everything I can to make them proud of me. I am going to work my butt off to make good grades in college and I AM going to be a succesful person. Someday I am going to be an amazing wife like my mother and I am going to care for a family like my father, and through all that, further God's kingdom to honor Him for blessing me with the most amazing parents.

Thanksgiving, It's not about the food

Happy Thanksgiving! :)

Today I am so greatful and I have SO much to be thankful for! God has blessed my life in so many ways. I have the most amazing friends a girl could ask dor and my family are just the most wonderful people. Today is Thanksgiving day and it occurs to me to thank Jesus for all the blessings He has placed in my life. Why just today I feel so much more blessed than any other day in the year? I realize this is a feeling I should carry with me through out the year; this feeling of greatfulness. So I am going to try harder to do so.

Last night we made peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches and home made cookies and took them to the homeless people in the downtown OKC area. Let me tell you, if you want to go on a "mission trip", you don't need to look far for helpless people. We were there at night time, which is probably not the safest time to go. But that didn't stop us because we had a bigger mission ahead of us. We met people who were addicts, drug dealers, and people who were mentally ill. These three factors are the biggest reasons why these people are on the streets. We saw (probably a prostitute) two people sleeping together in a car in a dark alley, we also talked with people who were drunk; addicted to the alcohol, but drinking mostly to keep themselves warm for the night.




At the begining on the night I found myself complaining about how cold I was. It was about 35 degrees and I was wearing 3 layers of warm clothes, not to mention a nice warm scarf and hat. Walking through the streets of downtown I felt selfesh for even thinking I was cold. We were only sharing in a small amount of suffering that the homeless people we met go through every night.

We brought a few coats, jackets, sweaters, and blankets along with us to pass out. It astounded me at how unselfesh these people were. The first couple of people we offered a blanket to declined thoughtfully, and told us there were a few people down the street that needed it worse than they did. We told them we had enough that they could have one too, and they told us to just go ahead and give it to someone else who needed it. We also met a man who seemed ashamed that he was homeless and that we were helping him. You could tell he had never done the homeless thing before and seemed pretty sad. He was a very nice man though.

We later ended up right outside of the homeless shelter. There were SO many people there. It just makes you realize how fortunate you are for everything in your life. Not exaclty the material things God has blessed me with, but for my friends and family and the people who care about me. These people have nobody to care for them, and that is why that is our job.

We are just a few kids, with empty pockets. Yeah we might have a lot more than they do, but what we could give them was not money. As much as we might want to, that is not neccesarily what they need. These people who are on the streets are neglected, by America. Nobody gives them the time they need. The suffer from what we do not suffer from and they are not taken care of like they should be. They are not loved. We cannot give them money, but we can give them time. Jesus calls us to love the poor and helpless, and that is our job. That is what He did.

Also, after we ran out of sandwhiches, we ventured off to the bombing memorial. It is a very sad thing to see all the people who lost their lives and the family memebers who lost loved ones. But it also gives you a hope, and the memorial really shows you how much people care. There are so many who cared for the people in the bombing, including the fire fighters and the officers who risked their lives for others. And the people who gave what they could give; their prayers. It makes me thankful and hopeful, that if something ever happened to my family, that they would have good people to take care of them.






Today is such a beautiful day. OU's band is the the Macy's Thanksgiving parade! That is pretty exciting. This morining my best friend Kayla and I took some cookies and cake to the fire fighters at the fire station. It was really fun! I am thankful for so many things! I am so incredibly blessed, today and everyday!

"If I were in your shoes, I'd go straight to God, I'd throw myself on the mercy of God. After all, He's famous for great and unexpected acts; there's no end to his surprises. He gives rain, for instance, across the wide earth, sends water to irrigate the fields. He raises up the down-and-out, gives firm footing to those sinking in grief. He aborts the schemes of conniving crooks, so that none of their plots come to term. He catches the know-it-alls in their conspiracies— all that intricate intrigue swept out with the trash! Suddenly they're disoriented, plunged into darkness; they can't see to put one foot in front of the other. But the downtrodden are saved by God, saved from the murderous plots, saved from the iron fist. And so the poor continue to hope, while injustice is bound and gagged. "

Job 5:16

Have a wonderful day with your families! :)

Happiness

Yay for new blogs! This is my first time ever to use blogger!

Lately, I have been in a state of pure happiness. I feel happy allll the time. My friend tried to tell me that it is not possible to feel happy all the time. He said that there always has to be a situation to make you happy....Well, I think he is wrong.

Have you ever loved or liked someone or something so much that you are just happy and bubbly all the time? When you wake up in the moring and life is just better because they are in it? This is how I feel. I am so madly in love with Jesus Christ that I just can't help but to be purely happy all the time.

Don't get me wrong, there are times when I am brought down and mad or sad. But it's Christ that gets me through every situation. And I think that something good comes from everything. Christ wants us to rejoice in Him and glorify Him with our happiness. He created happiness!

I think that happiness is a sign of affection. When you love someone, you show it by being affectionate towards them. Well, Jesus is not here in a physical form, so I think happiness is one way of showing affection toward Him.

Weather it be being happy all the time, or clapping or raising your hands during worship, or by just being silent and meditaing in the word, it doesn't matter. What you are doing on the outside is not what impresses God. It is what goes on in your heart. But like I said, if you are truely in love with someone and you are glorifying God in your heart, it will show.

Anyways.... I am so excited to be home for a whole week! It's Thanksgiving break and I am in desperate need of a break from school. It is so nice to be back spending time with my family and friends. Last night Ashley, Tommy and I went on a little adventure and found a possum (or opossum). I just have so much fun being around them, and they have the joy of Christ in thier hearts too, which makes spending time with them so much fun. I have been blessed with amazing friends. I am so excited to spend a whole week here in Norman hanging out with them! :)