Just a good quote!

Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.

3 easy ways to get patience in 5 minutes! Guaranteed!

Ever heard that slogan before? Maybe not with the word "patience" but with something? There are ads all over the place online and in magazines telling you that you can gain what you want in just a few easy steps or a few easy minutes. And half the time they try to convince you that no effort is required in achieving your goals.

But that's the world's system. God works in an entirely different way. He allows us to go through long trials and struggles to teach us patience. We are so used to the quick and easy methods of getting what we want in life, that we hate waiting for the Lord. But there is no easy or quick way to learn patience. It is a very long, sometimes very difficult process that God uses to conform us into His image.

But it is very much worth it. No matter what goes on in our lives, God is using it to build patience in us. Take your trials to the Lord and leave your burdens at the Cross. He wants you to trust Him in this difficult situation, and He will use it to build you up and draw you closer to Him.

Remember that no matter what you're going through, there is no need to fear, when God is on your side. Let Him build your patience.

Make today count!
Always,
~ Amanda ♥

Broken hearts

God sometimes uses the strangest circumstances to break us and mold us into what He wants us to be. This whole past year He has been teaching me over and over how important it is to just trust Him when I don't understand. He has a plan for everything in my life and I don't have to understand just why He does what He does.

Sometimes God has to take the nearest and dearest things closest to our hearts away from us. Sometimes it feels like we are falling apart at the seams and we don't understand why He is taking away the things or people that we love most. Sometimes He has to break our heart so that He will fit inside of it.

We love something else too much. It becomes too close to our hearts and we are not walking with Him like we should. When He takes away the things that are between us and Him, He becomes only closer and more dear to us. He can't fit in our heart if we are full of something else.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prayer is one way that we walk with God. Being in a class that focuses on prayer has really been a blessing this semester. I'm learning so much about praying and how close I can stay to my God when I am praying all the time.

To me, walking with God is like a treadmill. When you're on a treadmill, you have to stay at the exact speed it is going at. If you go too fast, you will run into the front of it. If you are going too slow, you will fall off the back.

I think it's the same way with God's will for our lives. We have to be walking perfectly in step with Him or we will run into trouble. We can't get ahead of Him or go faster than He wants His will to unfold and if we drag our feet, we are in just as much trouble with that. We have to walk directly in step with Him.

Walk with your God today. He loves you and is waiting for you to trust Him with those close things in your heart that you can't tell anyone else. He will listen and only He can do anything about them anyways.

Love the Lord with all your heart and make your life count for Jesus!
Always,
~ Amanda ♥

Love Your Church

Only one month till I return to my college and all the people I miss so much!

Its almost a little bit sad though....I have to leave my home church. Sure, I love North Valley (nvbc.org) but it just isn't the same.

I have had the unique privilege of growing up in a very small church. All my life I have been involved in something and was expected to help with whatever was going on. It was never an option whether or not we would be helping when the church had a workday. No, actually most of the time we were the ones scheduling it.

I've talked to so many people that simply don't have time to help at their church or to really be a part of a ministry. I think that is so sad! I honestly cannot imagine my life not being involved in some kind of ministry at my church. I think that's part of the reason God has called me into full time Christian service.

Bloom where you're planted. Take advantage of where God has placed you and do everything you can to love your church and help wherever you can. Love your pastor, support him and encourage him in whatever way you can. Those of us that have never been in that position cannot possibly imagine the pressure that comes with it. We aught to do everything we can to support the man of God and lift his burdens. Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses and encouraging the pastor can be anyone's ministry.

Got to head out the door to church now! God bless you as you continue to serve Him faithfully!

Make today count!
Always,
~ Amanda

It's Been One Year!

It doesn't seem possible that it could have already been one year since I started this blog!

God has been so good to me in the last year and has changed me in so many ways I can hardly begin to count them. I am overwhelmed with His goodness to me and His care for me over the last year.

If I had to give one big lesson I've learned over the last year, it would be that God always has a plan and sometimes we just have to trust Him with it. There is ALWAYS a reason for what is going on in my life and He is working through me.

Thank you to everyone who has read and followed this blog. You are a blessing and encouragement! May God bless you this Independence Day and may He bless America!

Make today count!
Always,
~ Amanda

God has a plan

I wanted to share a little bit of my heart with you today. God has been teaching me a lot these days about trusting Him and leaning on Him for strength every day.

Everyone has difficult things that they go through. God gives all of us different challenges that He uses to grow us emotionally, spiritually, and personally. He prepares these trials perfectly for us and guides us through them. If we trust Him and run to Him when our hearts are overwhelmed, He will carry us through them.

What an incredible thought! He prepares a really hard circumstance for us to go through, and then when we are struggling, He carries us through it! "Truly he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." He has felt our pain and knows exactly what we need, when we need it.

Even knowing all that, sometimes life is just hard..... We don't understand what good could possibly come from this situation but He knows. Perhaps someday He will share it with and maybe not. I think we get the idea sometimes that if we just wait long enough, we'll understand, but ya know what? That's not always true. Somethings we will never understand and only God will ever know the reason why.

"There's always a light at the end of the tunnel....." That's what people say. But is that always true? I really don't know.

This one thing I do know though. God has a plan. He has a reason and He will get the glory in your tribulation and trials if you turn to Him with your shattered dreams and throw your broken heart at His feet. He is waiting to take your burden from you and carry it Himself.

So if He is waiting for us to cast our cares upon Him, why do we so often insist on carrying them ourselves? Why do we assume that we can do a better job and act like nothing is wrong?

Psalm 62:8 gives a beautiful invitation to those who are hurting:

"Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us."

Pour your heart out to God and lay your burdens at His feet. Because God always has a plan.

Make today count!
Always,
~ Amanda ♥

At Home

OK, I promise that I'm not going to tell you how many days it is until I get back to CA. No one likes to hear it, except of course, all the people waiting for me to get back there :P.

Summer has been good and very relaxing. The pace is so much easier and I enjoy not having 10,394,823,587,123,409,832,520,495,734 different things begging for my time. It is very nice to be with my family and I have to get "stocked up" on their hugs and such to last me over the coming semester.

To answer your question, yes, I am going back! I will be leaving August 21st to get back to GSBC. Because the Lord has blessed me with an office job, I have to be back a week earlier than everyone else. I really don't mind in the least though because it gives me a chance to get unpacked and well adjusted before everyone else arrives. Of course, I get the privilege of staying on a near-to-dead campus for a week lol :P. But I'll live :)

Thank you so much to everyone who has prayed for me while I've been at school and for the lovely cards and thoughts and emails, etc that I've gotten while I'm there. I love getting mail and such from back home and it always brightens my day, unless of course, it's already so beautiful and bright that it couldn't get any better.

Bible time with the family is calling now! Until next time...

Make today count!
Always,
~ Amanda ♥

The end is in sight!

So the end of the year is coming. Finally! Speaking of that, this is finals week.

Not that I necessarily wanted it all to end. It's weird, because I'm pretty sure I was a lot more anxious to go home for Spring Break than I am now. But I am really excited for the change and I know this summer is going to hold lots of good things. I'm going to be so incredibly busy it's not even funny.

One thing is for sure though, I only have a few more days to spend with these people that I have grow to love in the last year. I could never have guessed how much they would mean to me in just two semesters. I will miss them so much and it will be very hard to leave.

This makes it all the more important to treasure the time that I have left here. Some of these people are seniors that I will most likely never see again. Or if I do, it will certainly never be the same. But it is God's plan and His ways are perfect! :)

I'm going to add a poem that fits this blog post exquisitely well. I wrote it quite a while back, but I don't think I've posted it before. I hope it is a blessing! :)

Moments

Treasure the moments with friends

That make life so worthwhile.

When a friend asks you to walk with them

Walk not a foot, but a mile.

Love and friendship

Are what make sweetest dreams.

The memories that last a lifetime

Are the moments hardest to leave.

Treasure each moment of life

You don’t know how long till it ends.

But this is true, along life’s way

Time’s always sweeter with friends.

Give all your best, and give all your love

You never know what treasures you’ll find.

Give your best, spend time with your friends

And leave some footprints behind.

Make today count! 

Always,

~ Amanda ♥

The Lives You Touch

Tomorrow is the start of College Days at GSBC and it has made me reminisce about last year at this time, when I first visited this amazing place. I was so nervous. I knew without a doubt that this was where the Lord wanted me. Happiness was not going to be the issue. But I didn't know just how well I would fit in. What would the people think of me?

I've talked to several people about it, and gotten their opinions on what they first thought of me. I was so backward! I didn't have a clue what college was all about and I was not prepared. From my dress to my mentality, I wasn't ready for what hit me when I walked on campus.

Now I've acclimated to it so much, I can hardly remember being that way. But one thing is for sure.

I really remember how I felt.

I was so scared! This tiny campus seemed huge and I was continually getting lost. Mixed up was a constant state of mind, but I wanted to act like I knew what I was doing so I rarely asked for help. Sure, it was a pride thing. I wasn't a stupid high schooler that everyone had to look down on! Ok, so maybe I was.

Guess what? I made it. I had a good time, and everyone was so splendidly nice to me. I loved being here and literally counted down the days until I came here for school.

One thing is for sure, the people here never realized how much they changed my life just by accepting me the way I was. Backward and all, they loved the person inside instead of the shell outside, and made College Days a fun experience. If they had scorned me or laughed at me, I most certainly would not be in the will of God today.

I wonder now, whose life is it my turn to influence? I could never have imagined that people I only saw from a distance would be some of my closest friends on earth. Who is coming tomorrow that will change my life? And will there be someone whose life I can change?

It's such an incredible thought. Sometimes we overlook the most important things in our lives. Actually, we do it quite often. We are so worried about our papers, and all the things that have to be done that we overlook the really important part....

People.

Real, living, breathing, caring, feeling people.

They are watching all the time. There is someone out there who watches you when you don't know they are there. You are unconsciously touching their life. You are shaping who they are and you don't even realize they exist.

To the world you may be one person, but most assuredly, to someone, somewhere, you are the whole world.

Whose life will you touch? You may never get another change with that one person. Don't waste the opportunities that God gives you.

Make today count!
Always,
~ Amanda ♥

Prayer

I am feeling kind of overwhelmed these days.

It seems like every time I turn around, there is a message, a class, a devotional, a special verse, a challenge or SOMETHING that is talking about prayer.

I've always heard that when you truly start to have a prayer life, it will revolutionize the way you see your walk with God and how you live from day to day. Of course, I believed what they said. These are great men and women of God! But very similar to my ideas of God as a young child, belief does not mean reality. And this was more of an abstract idea than a real truth. 

But after countless heartaches, trials, bad days and tripping on the stairs, I've learned something.

Sometimes you have to DO to understand.

Now, I fully understand that for most people this is not a stunningly new concept. Of course you have to do something to really understand it, right? I mean, doesn't everyone know that? That's what hands-on learning is all geared towards!

But that's not really what I mean. 

Take prayer for instance. You can hear every great message in the world about prayer and you can believe what everyone has said, and yes, even desire it for yourself. But until you actually DO what you've made a decision to do, you'll never really understand. 

Prayer really changes things! I have seen so many random blessings and amazing answers to prayer in my daily walk with God. It was truly incredible to see some of the things that God has taught me, and it humbles and thrills me at the same time. On the one hand I can hardly believe that God would be so good and gracious to me when I've neglected my daily walk with Him so many times. Makes me feel so small.......but on the flip side of the same coin, I almost stop breathing with joy when He shows me things in the Bible so clearly. He is always answering my questions exactly as I ask them.

The other day, I was really struggling with a burden the Lord had laid on my heart. I don't think I could even go back and tell you exactly where all the verses were that He used, but I fired all my questions at Him, and He answered them exactly every time through His Word! Don't tell me that the Bible isn't alive and tremendously powerful today because I know that it is!

This has been one of the most revolutionary times in my life as I learn more and more about Who my Saviour really is and how much deeper I can go and still not find the depths of His love and greatness. He is truly awesome and there really are no words that adequately describe His love for me.

I'm truly overwhelmed.

Make today count!
Always,

~ Amanda ♥

Disappointments....

You know when you look forward to something for a long time and then it doesn't turn out quite like you hoped that it would?

Yah. That's really rough stuff.

It hurts the worst when its something that you've been looking forward to for a long time.

Yes, disappointments can be really hard to deal with. But the most important part of handling those let downs is your response to them. You can give up and assume that life isn't worth it.... Or you can pick yourself up, brush off the dust of depression and face the next victory with your head held high.

You can't face another tough challenge with the baggage of your last, most recent loss. You can't hang your head and let yourself get beat, but you can pick up your shattered dreams and make a statement about your determination to do better next time.

"One's best success comes after one's greatest disappointments." - Henry Ward Beecher

Make today count! It's always worth it in the end to give everything you have!
Always,
~ Amanda ♥