Changes.

So, this has been an amazing weekend.. Mostly Sunday.. Now, I do not use this blog to preach, but I am going to tell you what happened with me and God yesterday:

So, Sunday's AM service was amazing.. The title of the sermon was, "Behold, I come quickly.." So you know what it was about, right?
The thing that got me was this part: (Bro Kelvin speaking, of course)
" I pray that Jesus comes right now.. Before the invitation.. Before my next breath. Because I am ready to go!... Did any of your hearts just flutter?"

Well, let me tell you, mine did. The thing is, I have not been living the way I am supposed to live if I am going to proclaim to be a Christian. I am not so sure that these past few months if you saw me at school or around town you would know, without me coming up to you and saying, I am a Christian, that I am a Christian.

That is a problem.
See, I am supposed to shine with His Light. In the things I do and say, people should see Christ through me.

So there are some changes with me.

Sunday's PM service was equally amazing. Bro. Jagger Eastman, a SENIOR in high school, brought the exact message that my heart was in need of.. It revealed some ugly things about my life to me, but that was exactly what I needed. He simply preached on being committed. Every morning, when we wake up, whether we decide it or not, we are commmitted to something. But to what?

This morning, I woke up and said that I am committed to God. and tomorrow, and every day after that, Yes. Committed to God.

Now, I will make many mistakes. I will. I am human! However, I am going to do my best in living for Him and being an instrument for His praise and glory.

You know, whether you believe in God or not, that HE is WORTHY. Jesus said that even the rocks will cry out praises to Him.. Each of us will one day too; We will bow on our knees before the One who saved us, and the One who is HOLY and without SIN.. There will be no pride or arrogance when you see Him. None.. Everything on this earth will be forgotten.. All you will see is God Almighty. What a day!

" ¹⁷ The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life."  Revelation 22:17

So why not live like we are ready now? I pray, even now, that the Lord comes. Did your heart flutter?

For you, CJ!

Okay, so since I started this thing, which has only been a week (haha), I have told CJ Cavaliere that I would blog one day and devote it solely to him. So..
 For you, CJ!

Meet CJ Cavaliere.

CJ is 21, I do believe, and at ICC with Yours Truly. However, we will both be headed to Ole Miss next year! :)

Meet CJ's Family.

Here you have, from left to right, CJ, Mama Ashley, Daddy Paul, and Sissy Ivye. They're a beautiful family.

CJ is quite the choir nerd. NOTHING whatsoever wrong with that though!

 



In addition to choir, CJ is also a CenterStage nerd.

Or maybe, he is just a plain old nerd.

 

haha

So, I am just kidding about all that.. CJ is really extremely talented, and takes what he does very seriously. I love him like crazy!

Sadly, I don't have a picture with CJ, so I will leave you with the next best one:

:) hahahah Love you CJ!

(P.S.--Sorry I stalked your facebook and stole all these pictures. bahahahha and don't evaaa call me lame again! (: )

Beauty Marks

So, a few months ago, I studied Romans 12.. I really enjoyed it. I made these little notecards to read while I got ready that reminded me what a true Christian should look like.. However, I am human. I fell back and didn't quite live up to what I had said.. I am a work in progress.

I will share them with you now! If you have any comments or anything on it, PLEASE feel free to share them with me.. I am not a theologian, and I do not claim to know everything about the Bible.. This is just what I feel like God shared with me!

Beauty Marks from Romans 12

• Do not be like everyone else in this world. CONTRAST, don't compare! We are set apart. Seek out what is good in the will of God.
• Do not think more highly of yourself than others.
• Use what gifts God has given you to His glory!
• Let <3 LOVE <3 be GENUINE.
• Turn from evil; CLING to what is good!
• Love each other.
• Serve Him in everything :)
• Rejoice in HOPE, wait out the tribulations, and PRAY constantly!
• Help others when they're in need.
• Bless those who persecute you.. Don't be mean back! (That's what the devil wants to see.)
• Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.
• Don't be haughty or conceited. That's not pretty! Humble yourself.
• Be honorable; don't repay evil with evil.
• IF possible, live in peace with everyone.
• Don't seek revenge; God says He will take care of it! (Thank GOD!
• Love your enemies. Show them kindness! (Maybe they'll take note.)
• and my favorite-- Do not be overcome with evil; overcome evil with good! Kick Satan's tail!

In doing your part in advancing His Kingdom, fight with all you have! God is with you!

So, I am definitely by no means saying that this is easy.. it is not! But, hey, in the words of a pretty awesome guy..

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it!"
-1 Corinthians 10:13

We can do it! :)

Love you, and have a fabulous evening. 

21 down, 3 to go!

Wow.. So, this wedding is coming up fast now. Extremely!!
Don't get me wrong. I am STOKED.
21 months down, 3 to go! :)

So, this may seem silly, but in honor of today (haha), I am going to list 21 things I am thankful for in my life, and 3 things that I am ready for!

1: I am beyond thankful for my God. He is always there for me, and I owe Him my life.
2: I am so thankful for my family. They are my rock.
3: I am thankful for my Charles. He has been by my side through everything these past two years, and I don't know what I'd do without him.
4: I praise God for my best friends... I have way to many to name, but each of them know who they are.. You are my sunshines! :)
5: I am thankful for the opportunity I have had to receive a good education..Yes, I complain about going to classes with the best of them, but I am truly grateful for the chance to make something more of myself.
6: I thank God for my church and my church family! I have been so blessed at New Center Point FWB Church, and it will always be my home church.
7: I am grateful for my talents.. No, I do not boast of anything that I do on my own, because I do nothing on my own. God uses me as an instrument, and I am so blessed to be given the opportunity to share my gifts with others.
8: On a less serious note, I am thankful for whoever invented Scrabble.. I love that game so much. Like wayyy too much, I think.
9: To the creators of Glee- thank you.
10: I am thankful for ice cream.. Chocolate especially. It has gotten me through a lot.
11: I am thankful for Facebook.. That may seem crazy, but when I am not using it for less important things, I truly do enjoy being able to keep up with everybody that I love.
12: I love photographs. Thanks to the guy/gal that invented the camera... I love to see sweet memories captured.
13: THANK GOD for cell phones. Man oh man. I don't know what I would do without one! Sad.. I know.
14: I appreciate all of those people who are openly against sex trafficking, domestic violence, and abortion.. God laid those issues on my heart, and I wish I could do more to raise awareness of them..
15: I love mechanical pencils.. I can't stand a dull pencil.
16: I thank you for reading my blog.
17: This should have been numero 1, but I thank God for sending Jesus to take my sins away.. He knows I didn't deserve it, but He did it anyway..
18: I am thankful for the sunshine! It makes me happy.
19: I thank God for music.. It can be a way to communicate with someone who won't open up.. a refuge on a bad day.. A way to remember someone who you love..
20: I thank God for the soldiers who fought to make this country a safer place to live.
21: I thank God for the freedoms that we have in this country for now.

1: I can't wait to see how God is going to use us through our marriage.
2: I am so excited about the wedding and the honeymoon! :)
and FINALLY,
3: I am ready to spend the rest of my life with my best friend.

My love and me :)

Have a grand evening. :)

This is the day that the Lord has made!

Wow, what a day.
Today was.. whew. Here is a re-cap for you.

7:00am- Wake up.
7:15-8:00am- Morning rituals.. shower, teeth, hair, etc.
8:00-8:45am- "special day" rituals.. make up, perfume, etc.
9:00-9:25am- My fabulous roommate, fixed my hair up all pretty :)
9:45ish am- final run-through my audition pieces with Mrs. Davis
11:00am- Choir
12 noon-- headed to Oxford with my fabulous fiance!

(So I realize that this is boring now... But I gotta finish! haha)

bunch of time passes.... fast forward..
2:15pm-- my audition begins for Ole Miss.
3:15pm- I walk out with the biggest smile on my face ever.
Then a bunch more useless information.

Needless to say, I had a wonderful audition for the vocal department at Ole Miss today. It may not have been wonderful to them, but I was satisfied and left feeling confident. The only, ONLY reason that occured was because when I woke up this morning, God had my in the palm of His hand.

This is the day that the Lord has made!

I praise God for my family, friends, and Charles. Without you people, I would not know what to do!

But above all, I praise my Savior for the work He did through me. I was able to tell the instructors that God had this planned for me today, and that I was not standing before them alone; He was with me.
His presence calmed the storm of emotions/nerves that had been raging in my body and mind all day.

You know, only God can do that! Praise Him!

Reach for the stars..

Isn't that what they always say? Well, I am trying to with this Astronomy class, but it is not working too well. Stormin' Swanson (a.k.a. Bob Swanson, the singing weather man/meteorologist/my astronomy teacher) is going wayyy over my head... Don't you just hate that? When teachers think, "Well, I know this so you should know this." Eeesh. Because I will tell you right now, I don't know this. I took this class as an easy way out of a physical science credit, but goodness gracious..

Anyways, to brighter subjects.

I think you should know, which you probably already know, but I will tell you anyway:
My Charles got accepted into Law School at Ole Miss!
AHHHHHHHHHHH. What a relief.

We are so excited! I know he can do it.. maybe we won't have much of a social life, but you know what? In the words of good ole Dave Ramsey, "You have to live like no one else to live like no one else."

So I hope living like no one else will be fun. Charles will be with me, so it should be! Prayers are greatly appreciated.

Wedding stuff.. Fun. I never thought I would say this, but I am sort of ready for it to be over! Charles and I are getting married in May, and this wedding planning is stressing me out.. and not only that, it is making my family crazy and some of them are tired of hearing about it.. which I understand fully, but you know... It stinks sometimes.. I am just ready for it to be over.. But I am ready for it to be here too! Complicated.

I will say, that this blogging business is such a stress relief. I feel like I just dropped 28 pounds off my shoulders. Whew!

I hope you have a fabulous evening! And, reach for the stars! hahahaha

Okay, Here goes.

So this is my first blog.. Obviously.

If you know me, you know I love telling stories.. I actually just love to talk.. So I figured blogging might be the thing for me.

I hope I don't bore you.. I tend to ramble.. But you know, if you set out to read blogs, you are probably not looking for anything just too terribly interesting, right?

But since this is the first one, I think I will just tell you a little bit about myself, and leave it at that.

Okay, Here goes!
-I am a spelling freak. If you ever notice something misspelled on here, comment immediately, please. :)
-I love to sing.. Love it. I mean, I live for it.
-I am a hopeless romantic. I guess anyway, I have never really understood what that means, but I figure it is me because I love love.
-I found my man, praise the Lord! Now, just pray for him because he has to live with me for.. oh you know, forever.
-I can remember almost anything.. Example, I could probably tell you exactly what you were wearing the last time I saw you. Creepy, maybe, but I just remember things like that. I don't know why!
-I love my family. Sometimes when I think I am SOOOO ready to move out of there, I realize that these last few days are precious..
-I have been counting down the days til my wedding since the 400's. I am now at 94. Yes.
-I like blogging. :)

Have a fabulous day/evening. Enjoy this ahhhmazing weather!! :)

And yes, I know that was misspelled. It was for the effect.