Happy April!

As I wrap up my first full month of blogging my heart is filled with peace. There is no other way to describe it. The weather, with all its ups and downs, certainly parallels my April. There were times of snow... times when I didn't think I was going to be able to get up for even one more day. There were times of rain, difficulties/struggles/nagging thoughts about school and other to-dos. And of course, my saving grace, were the sunshine days. Days where nothing got me down. No word or course of action could change the joy that I had in my heart.

It's interesting that we so much desire to be joyful all the time. We are called to "rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice" (Phil 4:4) This means that no matter what trials we may be facing, no matter what mountain we are climbing, no matter what valley we are walking through, we are called to find JOY in the Lord. Do not confuse this with happiness, for happiness is a fleeting feeling, while joy should be apart of who we are. We have been given the gift of salvation, God has a plan dear sisters! He will guide us through the hardships. He would never bring us this far to leave us. So let's rejoice. Let's dance and sing for our Father. Let's run and fly. Let us be bold. Let us DO HARD THINGS. I'm learning that when I push my doubts, insecurities, troubles, etc. to the side and focus on the people around me, or at the very least focus my attention on God, it doesn't seem all that bad. Perspective is a jewel. Figuring out what's really important, that's a diamond!
I'm learning that to be a woman of God I must be modest in so many more things than just my dress. I'm learning from you, my dear sisters, about ways to prepare for my future as a wife and mother (God willing.) You all have blessed me so much, you have no idea. Thank you for an amazing April. All of your blogs, all of your insights, all of your troubles and triumphs, they have helped me. As I've began to get to know each and every one of you I feel completely blessed to have this amazing tool, the internet. For without it, I wouldn't know any of you, not one. And some of you have become an important part to my life, so I thank you for your blogging friendship :) I thank you for your acceptance to the blog world. I thank you for your wisdom and most of all, for your prayers. You are all beautiful young women of God, and I can't wait to see where May takes all of us!!

Speaking of May... tomorrow (for me) is May 1st!! A mere hour and a half from now sparks the beginning of the National Day of Prayer. I will be praying for all of you :) I encourage you all to take the time out and pray, for five minutes or for five hours. Whatever you can manage. God calls us to prayer, it may be hard and not yet quite part of your routine, but man... is it worth it :) God is amazing my dear sisters, let us devote some of our time to Him, let us speak to Him and let us hear what He has to say back. Prayer is powerful!

I love you all and pray this post finds you in good health and spirits!!
-Samantha

Sometimes I feel like running into a wall...

Not enough to cause any serious damage, but maybe just a concussion that will knock me off my feet for a few days ya know? ;)

And of course, I will never do this. But I miss the days where I could come home from school and RELAX instead of going 55 miles per hour to finish my homework and scholarships and chores before flying off to work for five hours. BLECK.

Being back at school this week is proving so far to be rather torturous. I'm completely ready to graduate now. I just want prom to come, and then graduation. Who needs all that stuff in between anyway? But I know God wouldn't want me to be rushing ahead of Him, so I'm trying to remember that each day is a lesson and a blessing and to take each breath as if it could be my last. (IT'S HARD!)

I bought my laptop for school the other day. It's fairly basic, but will do all that is necessary and it was on sale, yay! :) I got a cute bag to go with it. I feel so "mature" typing on a laptop that I purchased with my own money (albeit, tax money, but it's all the same...) It reminds me so much of the fact I'll be leaving in a few months for COLLEGE :) YAY!

Last night at work, these "gangster" dressed teenagers (about my age actually) came in and bought a safe. I knew one of them, and I know he's into drugs. My manager told me that groups come in like that all the time. They buy these safes to store their big shipments of drugs and then they try to return the safes after they've sold all the drugs. It's truly DISHEARTENING to see people of my generation, kids my age and SO MUCH YOUNGER partying, doing drugs, sleeping around. And then I think about it and realize it's only going to get worse and my heart breaks even more for my own kids. I know it's bigger than me and things have to get even worse before The End, but... it's still sad. Prayer is powerful though and I just have to remind myself of that.

Sorry for the schizophrenic post, I feel like I haven't been on in months as opposed to days. I hope you all have been well!! (: You are in my prayers!!

With His Love,
Samantha

MMM Prayer :)

Recently I've been reading a series of books called The Yada Yada Prayer Group. These are fairly popular among Christian Chick Lit so perhaps some/many of you have heard of these books. Well, a character named Nony is always praying scripture. For example, taking a psalm and applying it to what is happening in her life, or someone else's life in the prayer group.

For some reason, I had never done this before. Until two days ago. Wow! It's POWERFUL. I'm not so sure why prayer keeps seeming to be this novel idea to me. I know in my mind prayer is powerful, but I'm finally understanding in my heart how powerful it is. God really is listening. Jesus died so I could have this open communication with Him and the Father at all times. And when words aren't there? The Holy Spirit intervenes for me. That's love if I've ever known any kind of love.

I delight in discovering new things about this Christian walk of faith. Being saved only 1 year and 10 months is such a blessing. I still am in awe of many things. I hope I never lose this. So many of my friends and family always remark upon how me becoming a new Christian revitalized their own faith as they saw me living out my new faith. That's encouraging :) and I never want to stop being that light for people. I never want to feel that any part of this walk is "old" and I'm too "above it."

Even on the cloudiest of days, the sun is still shining up there, we just have to find it (: