Reason to Hope

" This I recall to my mind therefore I have hope. Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed because His compassions fail not . They are new every morning. Great is Your Faithfulness.

The Lord is my portion says my soul therefore I hope in Him. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. " Lamentations 3:21-25


This scripture has been on my heart all day…well all morning it's in the middle of the afternoon right now. Sometimes in life we're forced to deal with circumstances that have no logical answers and may look like there's no hope in sight. My life is filled to the rim with those kinds of circumstances. And the enemy tries so hard to get us to think that there is no hope or even no reason to hope.

And that's when we need to remember that there is a reason to hope because the Lord's mercies are new every morning…no just when things are going great and I feel God's presence all around me…but even when my whole world is spinning around me and falling apart… and it feels like God is a million miles away…His mercies are still new. And His compassions for us never fail…even if everything around us fail us…He never will.

So that is more then enough of a reason to hope.

Becca

Life Lessons Part 2...The Quilt

Recently i shared something at a women's meeting at my church and i thought i'd post what i shared in hopes of encouraging someone else. One of the themes of the night was "the quilt"...how God takes the most difficult things we go through and make something good out of it.

When i was first asked the share, automatically my mind went to the time when i had to first go on disability. The prior 10 months had been extremely difficult for me and having to go on disablity just was the straw the almost broke the camel's back...so to speak. At first it was ok ..i did need a bit of a break but after a month it was starting to get old real quick. I found myself becoming jealous with my friends because they all had good jobs, in ministry or on the mission field doing what God had called them to do....and here i was not being able to do anything. I felt like God had put my life on hold. When i was first diagnoised with the heart condition i was 25 an age where the average person could do whatever they wanted. I couldn't see how God could ever use this season of my life.


It was during the season that i learned how to crochet and i ended up making blankets for the children's hospital. And now i'm able to volunteer there and bless the families there.

But even more then that.. I'm starting to see how God can take the seasons of our lives that we think are the darkest times in our lives, and make them into something beautiful. The past 6 years has been one big dark valley but God keeps giving me grace to push through it. And I'm finally starting to see the bigger picture..well at least a tiny part of it.

Becca

Victory

I was looking through my journal and came across a quote that seems to fit the current season of my life right now.

"Victory is when I'm pushing through the pain that tries to feed me lies, that i won't reach the end."

For Those Who Wait

"This is for those who wait

Another day another waiting game
A little different but it’s still the same
I am here but wheres the One I’m longing for
I’m having troubles feeling all alone
When my heart find a home
I want to hope but sometimes I just don’t know
I know I’m not the only one

So you sing a lullaby
To the lonely hearts tonight
Let it set Your heart on fire
Let it set You free
When you’re fighting to believe in a love that you can’t see
Just know there is a purpose
For those who wait

I want to open up my eyes
I know that I’m in need is time
I’m growing stronger every single day
God, I’m gonna lead them to You now
Letting go all of my fear and doubt
I can’t do this on my own so I’ll give You control
I know I’m not the only one

So you sing a lullaby
To the lonely hearts tonight
Let it set Your heart on fire
Let it set You free
When you’re fighting to believe in a love that you can’t see
Just know there is a purpose
For those who wait

The pressure makes us stronger
The struggle makes us hunger
The hard lessons make the difference
The pressure makes us stronger
The struggle makes us hunger
The hard lessons make the difference
And the difference makes it worth it

So you sing a lullaby
To the lonely hearts tonight
Let it set Your heart on fire
Let it set You free
When you’re fighting to believe in a love that you can’t see
Just know there is a purpose
For those who wait

Set your heart on fire
This is for those who wait"
(For Those Who Wait by Fireflight)


I was just introduce to Fireflight at Winterjam. I've never heard of them before then and had no idea what to expect...but i really like their sound and most importantly their lyrics really come from their heart. This is just one of the songs i heard at winterjam that i could relate to and was encouraged by. God has a purpose for the seasons in our lives where we find ourselves having to wait.

Ninety Days with David

About a month ago i started a new devotional/ bible study.. it's Beth Moore's "David: 90 Days with a Heart Like His". So it's been amazing and has challenged me alot. It basically takes you through David's life. And the questions that Beth Moore asks in each devotion are extremely challenging and sometimes i can't just answer the question right away cause i have to take some time and really think about it. There have been a few of them that i've had to take like a week and think it over. I started last month and i'm only on day 8. My 90 Days with David might just end up being like 365 days. But that's okay cause i'm in no hurry.

For The Good

" When darkness is surrounding me
By Your Spirit Lord help me see
You are working all things out
Lord i really need to hear You speak
Remind me in the waiting
You are working all thing out

For the good of those who are called by You
For the good of thsoe who are in love with You
That's why we sing

Holy God of light
I lay down my life
Holy is the Lord even in the storm
Be glorified

We like to take the blessing from You
Shall we not take the trouble too
You are working all things out
For the good of those who are called by You
For the good of those who are in love with You
That's why we sing

Holy God of light
I lay down my life
Holy is the Lord even in the storm
Be glorified
( For the Good by Shane and Shane)


I've been sitting on my bed listening to this song, and it really hits home with me. The first verse could really describe how i feel about my life right now, and has become my prayer. This season i've been going through has had it's ups and down...( more downs then ups) and has often made me feel so frustrated. Especially this week cause there just seems to be no answers to some major things that i'm dealing with. But it's during these times when i just really need to hear from God and need to remind myself that He is really working out everything for my good and has everything in His control.

Guestbook and other stuff

It's a new year so i'm changing up my blog a little bit. I've added a guestbook to the bottom of my blog...so if you visit my blog leave me a note. I'm going to be better at blogging more this year so there should be plenty to read.

Black Friday Madness

Madness is the best way to describe what i saw in some of the stores this morning...but i had a blast with my sister and 10 yr old nephew Riley. My day started at 2:15 when i woke up to get myself together to meet my sister at 3 at her house. The funny thing was i only had slept a few hours and woke up actually not tired. Anyway i got to my sister's around 3 and texted her when i got there....to my surprise she didn't text back. So about ten mins go by and it's the time she wanted to leave...so i texted her again...still no response. Then decided to go in through the garage...once i got in the garage i realized that i was locked out. So here i am in the dark cold garage. So i texted again a few times and still no response. ten more mins later got back in my car and left cause i figure that she had changed her mind.

But her alarm didn't go off in time, and her phone was on silent. On my way home i get a text saying they were still going...so back i went. And my sister finally got my texts...so we were laughing so hard. I think she'll probably blog just about the series of texts i sent her.

So off in a hurry we headed to the first stop Hhgregg...which we didn't have any luck at. Then Target where we stood outside for about twenty mins before they opened...brr it was cold!!! Sarah found some stuff there....then we got starbucks. And Riley tried his first Peppermint Mocha (decaf) and like it. Sarah might have a coffee lover on her hands...haha. Then we went to home depot... lowes...the christian bookstore...walmart..and the other christian bookstore.

So i got home around 8 and went back to bed for a few hours.

Volunteering

Today i had my interview with the director of volunteers for Levine's Children's Hospital (LCH). So now i'm an offical LCH volunteer!! I have orientation on in a few weeks, then will start my training in the surgery waiting areas in october. And i'm also on the waiting list to volunteer in the NICU. That position is the most popular one and is filled right now. But i'm still excited about helping in the surgery waiting areas cause i'll be helping the patients and their families.

For those of you who don't know why i decided to do this...here's the story. I was watching an Extreme Makeover Home Edition one night about a year and half ago and my heart was just really gripped while watching it. It was about this family whose daughter had cancer, she was 6 when she was first diagnoised. She was cancer free for several years, then it came back. Instead of focusing on her self, she focused on how she could help the other kids (patients) that were in her ward at the hospital. She made sure every child had a teddy bear. Anyway it was amazing the difference that the little girl was making by just doing such a simple thing. So i immediately started to think what i could do, cause i really wanted to do something. Then i thought of crocheting blankets. And i went to several websites and finally got on LCH's site. And i got in contact with them and have been making blankets for them ever since.

Everytime i go in to drop off the blankets, the director tells me another story of how the blankets are making such a difference. It just about brings me to tears when i hear it. It has been so amazing. So i can't wait to start being more involved.

Fantasy Lake

Last Weekend we took our youth group to Fantasy Lake Waterpark in Fayettville. I never heard of it before our youth pastor told us about it. But this place is really neat. It this waterpark based on this man made lake and has all kinds of waterslides and some other extreme things to do in the water. For example they have a jump tower..where you climb up this tall ladder to the top and then just jump into 10 feet of water.

Then they have Tarzan Swings, which are these long rope swings that are up really high. And once you climb up the ladder and get to the platform..


.you grab the rope jump out ..



you start swinging across the water and then jump off.


It sounds and looks pretty easy right? Well I thought it did, so i decided to be brave and give it a shot. Climbing up the ladder was almost enough to do me in. Then once i stepped on the platformed and looked down and saw how high i was ..i had second thoughts. And then realized that the only way down at this point was to either go through with it or just jump off the platform cause you couldn't go back down the ladder. So i jumped and grabbed the rope..unforunately i jammed my finger in the process of grabbing the rope and couldn't get a hold of it again...so down i went....falling..crashing into the water. I don't remember much just that i think i did a back flop in the water. I was lucky enough to have just sprained my finger and not injured myself anymore.

Kitties

This week i get to watch my neighbor's kitties while they're away. They're the cutest kitties ever... Bach and Beethoven. And they're so beautiful! So far it's been fun and exciting watching them cause you never really know what they're going to do or what you may find when you walk through the door. Yesterday they were pretty hyper and were wrestling and chaseing each other around the house. Another day they knocked over a plant so i cleaned it up, they ended up playing with the dust pan for an hour. And today when i came in i found that they knocked over a lamp in the living room...i think i was able to fix it. And right now they're taking cat naps next to me as i type this. So here are some pictures of them...

this is beethoven


This is Bach


playing with the blinds


it's amazing that they can be amused with the simplist thing...a dust pan


Cat Napping




Bach sleeps with his mouth opened..so funny


And this is what they're currently doing..

Life Lessons..part 1

When i decided about three years ago to learn how to crochet, i never thought that i would learn so many things about life. That wasnt my goal. My only goal was to learn a new hobby that i could do during all this "free time" i have since being on disability.

The first major lesson i learned was to never give up but always keep trying. If you are determined to do something and you keep trying inspite your mistakes and failures...you will eventually accomplish it. I know that this isn't something profound, and we probably all already know it. When i first started learning how to crochet i was so excited abotu my new found hobby. I actually thought it would be a piece of cake and i would have no trouble learning. Well after a month, my excitement quickly turned into confusion and frustration. I felt like i would never figure it out. Then i stopped for awhile and picked it up again later. This time i was determined to learn and so eventually i did.

There are times in life when we're faced with a challenging situation. Maybe at first we're encouraged and feel strong enough to face it and fight through it. But then nothing seems to be happening or maybe our attempts don't work..or maybe the situation just drags on. And that's when we eget so frustated that we want to give up. Sometimes we just need a break from it ...a chance to catch our breath or get a second wind. Maybe we need sometime to step back and get a different view of it, and refocus. Once we're refocused, we can take it on again...and this time we can accomplish it.

Stay tuned for part 2

Youth Last night

Last night i got to help with worship at youth. This is something that i've been wanting to do for a long time. I've been praying that God would give me opportunities to play keyboard and it's fianlly happening. So i was really excited when our youth pastor asked me to help with worship. We were only going to do a few songs, but i ended up playing for over an hour. Halfway through we ended up breaking the youth up in groups to pray for one another. And they spent a lot of time going after God. It was awesome to see God moving through them.

Beautiful day to walk through a garden

Yesterday after a fun filled Nemo bday party for my nephew Scotty, My mom and me went to the daniel stowe botantical gardens. It was such a lovely day that we didnt' want to go home. So here are a few pics from the gardens....

Talent Night

Last night we had a talent night at youth. I'm so amazed at how much talent there is in our youth group. We had everything from playing instruments, skits, singing songs to balancing a soccer ball, painting and cooking. I even played the keyboard and sang a few songs myself last night. The youth were awesome. And we had a lot of people come out to support them...it was great. So here are a few pics i took from it. one the youth took some really great pictures last night so i might be posting more after i see hers.

This is Brett playing with his band The Paper Cities...


The Paper Cities did 3 songs ..Evie plays the bass and sang the first song, Brett plays electric guitar and sang the second one, and Benj is on the drums



And this is Dylan playing an amazing guitar solo


Paige did sing language to the song "Give Me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath. She's studying to be a Deaf Interpreter.


Here's Jana doing a violin solo


And Haley and Stephanie sung a duet

Snow Day!!!

Last night it finally snowed here and got a real snow day. I say "real" because usually here in charlotte they close the schools even if it's only an inch or less of snow. And everyone acts likes it a blizzard. It's actually quite funny to me. Especially since i found myself soo happy that we got a whole 4inches of snow over night. Where i grew up that's not consider major snow, i used to blizzards, but here it is. So some of my roommates had their friend over and we stayed up past 2 in the morning.

We were all so excited about the snow last night and spent alot of time taking pictures of everything when it first started. The snowflakes were soooo big at times...it was really cool.


Here's a bunch of paw prints from the dogs...i think it's so cute. They were really funny when they went outside...they couldnt figure out why this white stuff kept falling on them.


This is the side of our house. Early we had a small pond and river running through the side of the yard because of all the rain we had over the last few days. And now it's all frozen and covered with snow.


I just thought this tree looked really cool in the snow, with the big snowflakes falling


Whenever we get a decent snowfall, Crystal likes to make snowcream. She used to do this when she was a kid. So it's a tradition. Basically it's just snow mixed with milk, sugar, and vanilla...and you used the very top part of the snow. We used the snow from our table. It's taste pretty good but is very sweet.


And as part of our snow celebration...we played Dutch Blitz. I was really excited cause i hadn't played in awhile. This game ended up being the longest game i think i've ever played. It took us almost 2 hours to finish, i think it was around 1 am when adrienne finally reached 100. You win when someone reaches 100...well i actually broke a record last night. Instead of reaching 100....i scored -202. As my roomies said last night, i won twice in "opposite land". I'm not that good at the game cause it's really fast, and it hard for me to go through my cards that quick, but i have fun anyway cause usually the games gets really crazy.

So like i said before we didn't go to bed till after 2 this morning. And then i slept till about 9 this morning. We were all awake by 10. And Adrienne made us chocolate chip pancakes, and i made us plenty of peppermint coffee. So we had a yummy roomie breakfast. And now i'm laying in bed, watching the snow melt outside of my window.

Cruise highlights part 2

Here are some more cruise highlights.. when we stopped in Port Cavnaveral, Fl the Disney Wonder ship was docked next to our ship. It was neat to see them get the ship ready to sail. And we finally got to see it leave at sunset.


That night we decided to get dressed up. And it just happened to be when the water got really choppy..which made it hard to stand and even harder to walk around the ship. So in this picture i'm holding onto the piano cause i didn't i would of fallen over. By the way this is my dream piano...it's so beautiful.



Our last night they had the chocolaholics chocolate lovers chocolate buffet..where there was every kind of chocolate you could dream of..and chocolate sculptures. here is my little plate..i coudln't even finish most of it but i did manage to finish the big chocolate covered strawberry

Cruise Highlights part 1

I'm finally getting around to posting something about my cruise.It's probably going to be one of the top vacations i've ever been on. here are some pics...

We left on saturday evening and spent Sunday at sea cruiseing to our first stop Great Stirrup Cay..NCL's private island. So in the afternoon while my mom was taking a nap i explored our ship. And i was so blessed to watch an amazing sunset.






Our first stop was Great Stirrup Cay...which was a small but pretty island where my mom and i had massages on the beach (one of my favorite things of the whole cruise) The water was crystal clear and freezing but i managed to get all the way in even though it took me 20 minutes...but i did it.





This the massage hut where we had 25 minute massages..


Our second stop was Nassau, Bahamas...where we went to the Atlantis Resort for the day. We spent the day going through the lazy river (which is so big it takes 30 mins to get through), i went down a few water slides, swam in some of their many pools, saw their aquariums, and walked around the grounds.

$25,000 a night suite



This manta ray reminds me of the one from "Finding Nemo"..

Me with my fishy friends..