2 more days and I'm headed to Florida to see my family. I absolutely CANNOT wait to go!!!! I will get to see 3 of my big brothers and sister in laws and my nieces and nephews and good old friends from good ole Lake Wales, Florida.
Central Florida is probably one of my favorite places to be. I have so many memories there that I cherish...a little piece of my heart is there. One day I wouldn't mind living there.
This year is coming to a close...there are 7 weeks left of school and counting. Life is getting very busy for me with our end of the year Chorus performance coming up May 12. If you didn't know already, this is my first year teaching. I'm having fun being creative for this performance....making it how I want it and trying my best to make it how the Students want it as well... As far as I can tell the Students are enjoying what we are doing. It's an elective so It needs to be fun. And It's the last 2 periods of the day so it doesn't need to be boring....These poor students need a break to have some fun...I hope that's a little bit of what Chorus has been this year. I have enjoyed it and I hope they have as well.
Next year I have the responsibility of Chorus and Drama.....I don't know how in the world I'm going to do that.....I guess we shall see.
But I am ready for Spring Break!!!!! I have a feeling that after next week, I won't want to come back to Georgia..........
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
"God is Always Good"
"When Life doesn't go the way I thought it should...Sometimes it's because God is Good. And when plans fall apart though I never dreamed they would.. Sometimes it's because God is Good."
This is part of a song that is on John Waller's new album. It's really been ministering to me and opening up my understanding to the reality that God truly is always good in every situation and in every season. Man makes plans in his heart, but the Lord directs his steps. All too often I complain all the way through the trials and tests that I go through, almost certain the Lord is upset with me or that the Lord has left me alone and I don't know why. I forget that it is in these times of testing the Lord says "Rejoice.....JUMP FOR JOY"....really, Lord? Jump for Joy? Is that really what you meant? Do you see what I'm going through? It hurts and I don't understand why you are putting me through this! How can I have any kind of Joy? After listening to my faithless, untrusting thoughts for long enough the Lord is beginning to have grace on me...
I read the book of Job the other day. I started reading it because it was in my schedule to read the Bible in a year and I was behind...I was only going to Try to read a few chapters, but once I began, I couldn't put it down and ended up reading it all. God began to speak into my own faithlessness and doubt. God is Always Good. It's his nature. It's simply who He is. God knew that Job was blameless and innocent. In fact, God was the one who made Satan notice him. God was the one who allowed all that happened to Job to happen. Why? Because God is sovereign. Job kept complaining saying that He wanted to present his case to God. Job wanted to tell God that he had done no wrong, that he was not in sin and not deserving of all this. Job knew it was God's hand all along. This opened my eyes to myself.
I like to plan ahead. I have to have my planner or I don't know what is going on. If I lose my planner, I'm totally lost in this world....not really but almost. I like to figure things out too. I like to figure out situations and outcomes...especially my own. Recently, I had an experience in my life where the outcome was very different than I thought it would be because I thought that I had figured out what God was going to do. After all, I had been simply waiting and watching the Lord do what he was already doing, so in my mind I thought that I knew what the outcome would be. As you have probably already figured out, the outcome was very different than where I thought the Lord would bring it.
I was not shaken. But I was confused a bit. I told the Lord, "I trusted You, And I watched you work. I saw Your hand. What did I do wrong? Was I really not trusting? Was I just wanting my way? But I know You were there. I don't understand why it went this way. Was I decieved? If I was, Oh how easily I was....But I trust you still I know you have a plan and purpose."
And the Lord said to me, "You did trust me, my daughter. And you are right. My hand was in it and I was working. However, Your ways are not mine. I am sovereign. Although there is pain in trials, don't you see that's right where I am...That's where I fellowship with you the most.That's where Your Joy comes from because that's where my Son is. I wanted to see if you really trust me. If you would take my hand and let Me lead you and walk beside you in those trials. Don't Give up. Keep trusting Me. I never left you once."
All of the AWFUL things that happened to Job and yet God's hand was in it. God allowed it....For Job's growth. God is sovereign and always good! Always! We don't understand everything He is doing in our lives. How can we? He's God and we aren't! It is in the valley where we are refined and where we meet with Jesus. Where He allows us to fellowship and partake in His massive suffering.
It was in the hardest struggle of my life before my dad had his heart surgery a few months ago that I experienced REAL JOY that comes from the trial's of our faith (James 1).And these trials will never stop. We will never stay on the Mountain long. We are people of the valley. It's how we respond to them and Who we meet there that's important. I'm so thankful that God chose me to be apart of His Mission!
Wherever You are in Your life...If you are on the Mountain, enjoy it while it lasts, but Don't expect to stay there. The valley is where we are refined...it's where we are made more like Christ Jesus. It's where we really experience and get to know who He is. Don't give up! He is with You! And He won't ever leave! I promise!
In all things, GOD IS ALWAYS GOOD!
This is part of a song that is on John Waller's new album. It's really been ministering to me and opening up my understanding to the reality that God truly is always good in every situation and in every season. Man makes plans in his heart, but the Lord directs his steps. All too often I complain all the way through the trials and tests that I go through, almost certain the Lord is upset with me or that the Lord has left me alone and I don't know why. I forget that it is in these times of testing the Lord says "Rejoice.....JUMP FOR JOY"....really, Lord? Jump for Joy? Is that really what you meant? Do you see what I'm going through? It hurts and I don't understand why you are putting me through this! How can I have any kind of Joy? After listening to my faithless, untrusting thoughts for long enough the Lord is beginning to have grace on me...
I read the book of Job the other day. I started reading it because it was in my schedule to read the Bible in a year and I was behind...I was only going to Try to read a few chapters, but once I began, I couldn't put it down and ended up reading it all. God began to speak into my own faithlessness and doubt. God is Always Good. It's his nature. It's simply who He is. God knew that Job was blameless and innocent. In fact, God was the one who made Satan notice him. God was the one who allowed all that happened to Job to happen. Why? Because God is sovereign. Job kept complaining saying that He wanted to present his case to God. Job wanted to tell God that he had done no wrong, that he was not in sin and not deserving of all this. Job knew it was God's hand all along. This opened my eyes to myself.
I like to plan ahead. I have to have my planner or I don't know what is going on. If I lose my planner, I'm totally lost in this world....not really but almost. I like to figure things out too. I like to figure out situations and outcomes...especially my own. Recently, I had an experience in my life where the outcome was very different than I thought it would be because I thought that I had figured out what God was going to do. After all, I had been simply waiting and watching the Lord do what he was already doing, so in my mind I thought that I knew what the outcome would be. As you have probably already figured out, the outcome was very different than where I thought the Lord would bring it.
I was not shaken. But I was confused a bit. I told the Lord, "I trusted You, And I watched you work. I saw Your hand. What did I do wrong? Was I really not trusting? Was I just wanting my way? But I know You were there. I don't understand why it went this way. Was I decieved? If I was, Oh how easily I was....But I trust you still I know you have a plan and purpose."
And the Lord said to me, "You did trust me, my daughter. And you are right. My hand was in it and I was working. However, Your ways are not mine. I am sovereign. Although there is pain in trials, don't you see that's right where I am...That's where I fellowship with you the most.That's where Your Joy comes from because that's where my Son is. I wanted to see if you really trust me. If you would take my hand and let Me lead you and walk beside you in those trials. Don't Give up. Keep trusting Me. I never left you once."
All of the AWFUL things that happened to Job and yet God's hand was in it. God allowed it....For Job's growth. God is sovereign and always good! Always! We don't understand everything He is doing in our lives. How can we? He's God and we aren't! It is in the valley where we are refined and where we meet with Jesus. Where He allows us to fellowship and partake in His massive suffering.
It was in the hardest struggle of my life before my dad had his heart surgery a few months ago that I experienced REAL JOY that comes from the trial's of our faith (James 1).And these trials will never stop. We will never stay on the Mountain long. We are people of the valley. It's how we respond to them and Who we meet there that's important. I'm so thankful that God chose me to be apart of His Mission!
Wherever You are in Your life...If you are on the Mountain, enjoy it while it lasts, but Don't expect to stay there. The valley is where we are refined...it's where we are made more like Christ Jesus. It's where we really experience and get to know who He is. Don't give up! He is with You! And He won't ever leave! I promise!
In all things, GOD IS ALWAYS GOOD!
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Love Is Waiting
This song speaks volumes to me....I get 2 different yet similar meanings from the words "Love is Waiting". The first being that I am "saving" my love to give to whoever it is that God has intended me to be with. The second is that Waiting is a definition of love. I am showing my future husband that I love him by my Waiting.That's what love does...It Waits. I have listened to this song a hundred times over the last few years. It is still ministering to me and encouraging me.
Let none that wait on the Lord ever be put to shame.
This is where I am... <3 Sharon
p.s. I highlighted my favorite lines. She is such a brilliant writer.
Here are the Lyrics:
In the autumn on the ground, between the traffic and the ordinary sounds
I am thinking signs and seasons while a north wind blows through
i watch as lovers pass me by
Walking stories - whos and hows and whys
Musing lazily on love
Pondering you
I'll give it time, give it space and be still for a spell
When it's time to walk that way we wana walk it well
I could right a million songs about the way you say my name
I could live a lifetime with you and then do it all again
and like I can't force the sun to rise or hasten summer's start,
neither should I rush my way into your heart
Let none that wait on the Lord ever be put to shame.
This is where I am... <3 Sharon
p.s. I highlighted my favorite lines. She is such a brilliant writer.
Here are the Lyrics:
In the autumn on the ground, between the traffic and the ordinary sounds
I am thinking signs and seasons while a north wind blows through
i watch as lovers pass me by
Walking stories - whos and hows and whys
Musing lazily on love
Pondering you
I'll give it time, give it space and be still for a spell
When it's time to walk that way we wana walk it well
[CHORUS]
I'll be waiting for you baby
I'll be holding back the darkest night
Love is waiting til we're ready, til it's right
Love is waiting
I'll be waiting for you baby
I'll be holding back the darkest night
Love is waiting til we're ready, til it's right
Love is waiting
It's my caution not the cold
there's no other hand that i would rather hold
the climate changes, im singing for the strangers about you
dont keep time, slow the pace
Honey hold on if you can
the bets are getting surer now that you're my man
there's no other hand that i would rather hold
the climate changes, im singing for the strangers about you
dont keep time, slow the pace
Honey hold on if you can
the bets are getting surer now that you're my man
I could right a million songs about the way you say my name
I could live a lifetime with you and then do it all again
and like I can't force the sun to rise or hasten summer's start,
neither should I rush my way into your heart
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Called to the Nations
In the Summer, I will be going on my first mission trip. I, along with Staff and Juniors and Seniors at Lafayette Christian School, will be traveling to the country of Honduras. I am very excited. God made the way for me to go on this trip and I believe he has a special purpose in store for me...
I feel like It will be the beginning of my adult ministry to the nations. God has called me to be a worship leader. He has gifted me with an anointing that only He can give and that humbles me every time I open my mouth to sing. I know that my voice has been given to me by God to be used for HIS GLORY ALONE. My one desire is to sing TO Him and FOR Him for as long as I live. I believe that part of God's plan for me is serving with a worship team to impact this generation and the next and traveling to wherever God may lead to spread the gospel.
I am coming to an understanding now that the dreams that God has placed in my heart that simply seem impossible, are the ones that I need to not be afraid to go after anymore. After all, God put them there. They aren't silly! They are divinely possible!! I have surrendered all control of my life to him...I work at this everyday. My prayer is that He will have His way! All I desire is to Please Him!
So as I go to Honduras in the summer, I ask that God would give me more of an understanding of what He has called me to do. I will be leading spanish worship songs at a church. I am so excited!! Im my heart I really don't believe this is just another mission trip. I'm looking for the Lord to change me...and He already is! Other ways we will be serving are in an orphanage, teaching english in a school, and cooking food for a village. I am so thankful that God has made the way for me to go! I can't wait!
I feel like It will be the beginning of my adult ministry to the nations. God has called me to be a worship leader. He has gifted me with an anointing that only He can give and that humbles me every time I open my mouth to sing. I know that my voice has been given to me by God to be used for HIS GLORY ALONE. My one desire is to sing TO Him and FOR Him for as long as I live. I believe that part of God's plan for me is serving with a worship team to impact this generation and the next and traveling to wherever God may lead to spread the gospel.
I am coming to an understanding now that the dreams that God has placed in my heart that simply seem impossible, are the ones that I need to not be afraid to go after anymore. After all, God put them there. They aren't silly! They are divinely possible!! I have surrendered all control of my life to him...I work at this everyday. My prayer is that He will have His way! All I desire is to Please Him!
So as I go to Honduras in the summer, I ask that God would give me more of an understanding of what He has called me to do. I will be leading spanish worship songs at a church. I am so excited!! Im my heart I really don't believe this is just another mission trip. I'm looking for the Lord to change me...and He already is! Other ways we will be serving are in an orphanage, teaching english in a school, and cooking food for a village. I am so thankful that God has made the way for me to go! I can't wait!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Help Me See..
Have you ever thought you knew for sure what God was doing and wanted to happen in your life? It seemed so clear because You weren't doing anything and that He was making it all happen? All you were doing was waiting on Him and pleading for him to have his way and as you waited you saw prayers answered right before your very eyes? The posture of your heart was one of surrender and submission? All you wanted was for him to be pleased and knew for sure that he was blessing you for your obedience in waiting on him and letting him work?
I am finding that when It seems like I think I know what God is doing, I need to take a step back and make sure my expectations are not on what I know, but just simply on ...God Himself. Every time I start to feel like I understand, God throws in another variable to my life that makes me question what He is doing....because I thought I had finally figured it out.
But His ways are not my ways. And His thoughts certainly are not mine. But they are being conformed to his little by little, day by day. I need so much more wisdom and understanding of Who he is. Our God is unsearchable and to quote a song by Misty Edwards, "I will waste my life. I'll be tested and tried with no regrets inside of me just to find I'm at Your Feet."
Here is song I wrote a few days ago that these thoughts inspired:
Help Me
Verse 1:
In the midst of this rollercoaster
How can I believe
That you are in Control
And that you’ll never leave
Because I feel that you have left me
Left me all alone
My heart feels so far from you
I can’t stand this anymore
Verse 2:
This test just seems too hard to bear
How can this be your plan
This all just seems so unfair
How can I understand
But somewhere deep in my heart
I know that you are there
Causing me to want you
And to cry out in deperate prayer
Chorus:
Help me to see through your eyes
Save me from the lies
Oh Help me to understand
Help me to hear with your ears
Cast out all my fear
Oh Take me in Your hands
Bridge:
Your ways are Higher than mine
Your thoughts are so unlike mine
You are God eternal
Lord Immortal
You are everything
More than all I need
I am finding that when It seems like I think I know what God is doing, I need to take a step back and make sure my expectations are not on what I know, but just simply on ...God Himself. Every time I start to feel like I understand, God throws in another variable to my life that makes me question what He is doing....because I thought I had finally figured it out.
But His ways are not my ways. And His thoughts certainly are not mine. But they are being conformed to his little by little, day by day. I need so much more wisdom and understanding of Who he is. Our God is unsearchable and to quote a song by Misty Edwards, "I will waste my life. I'll be tested and tried with no regrets inside of me just to find I'm at Your Feet."
Here is song I wrote a few days ago that these thoughts inspired:
Help Me
Verse 1:
In the midst of this rollercoaster
How can I believe
That you are in Control
And that you’ll never leave
Because I feel that you have left me
Left me all alone
My heart feels so far from you
I can’t stand this anymore
Verse 2:
This test just seems too hard to bear
How can this be your plan
This all just seems so unfair
How can I understand
But somewhere deep in my heart
I know that you are there
Causing me to want you
And to cry out in deperate prayer
Chorus:
Help me to see through your eyes
Save me from the lies
Oh Help me to understand
Help me to hear with your ears
Cast out all my fear
Oh Take me in Your hands
Bridge:
Your ways are Higher than mine
Your thoughts are so unlike mine
You are God eternal
Lord Immortal
You are everything
More than all I need
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Speaking the Truth in Love: some food for thought
So tonight I heard a sermon on some verses in Ephesians 4... The context is the Unity of the church.
In verse 14 Paul is telling the people that we are no longer to act like children in our faith being tossed to and fro being carried away by false doctrine...He goes on in verse 15 to say that we are to always confront these lies and speak the truth in love : "But speaking the truth in Love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." KJV
I looked up the words Speaking in truth in the Lexicon in the back of my Bible.
I am still studying... goodnight
In verse 14 Paul is telling the people that we are no longer to act like children in our faith being tossed to and fro being carried away by false doctrine...He goes on in verse 15 to say that we are to always confront these lies and speak the truth in love : "But speaking the truth in Love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." KJV
I looked up the words Speaking in truth in the Lexicon in the back of my Bible.
- not only referring to speaking the truth but referring to presenting an action as truth and not counterfeit.
- Benevolent Love, however, it's benevolence, is not shown by doing what the person loved desires, but what the one who loves deems as needed by the loved one.
I am still studying... goodnight
Friday, January 21, 2011
Songwriting
I have picked back up with my songwriting...I am really enjoying it. I used to wait for inspiration to write a song, but a friend of mine who is a songwriter for a living shared with me that it is best to use your tool regularly and write as many songs as you can as often as you can. I am not much of a writer...God helps me alot :), but I do enjoy songwriting. I am going to work diligently with the time God has given me and hopefully prepare myself for what God has planned for me in the future.
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