Jesus Lives by Sarah Young

Jesus Lives by Sarah Young is an awesome devotional book. It is uniquely written, is Biblically based, and talks about topics that can really be applied to your life. Sarah Young wrote this book in a writing style that I have never seen before. Each of the one hundred and eighty devotions is written as if from Jesus to us. Every devotion is based on the Bible, (which is important because we all need to be feeding on the word every day), and she includes several verses that apply to each topic. My favorite thing about this book is that all of the topics really do apply to my life. The topics include: Adversity, Control, Depending on Him, Desiring Him, Endurance, His Faithfulness, Fear, The Future, Heaven, Grace, Prayer, and Renewing your mind. One of the devotions that I found to be really true is the one on fear. “Fearfulness is a form of bondage. … People are born into a world in spiritual bondage, including bondage to fear. Because you inhabit both a fallen world and a fallen body, it isn’t easy to break free from fearfulness. However, the spirit of adoption can help you in this struggle, enabling you to see yourself as you truly are: a much-loved child of God!” Isn’t that true? Through these devotions (and many more) Sarah Young addresses real questions and problems that you and I face in our everyday lives. As a result of tackling these real life issues, spending time in God’s word and in prayer you grow in your relationship in Jesus.

My Family

My sister-in-law recommended that I blog about my family so that is exactly what I'm doing.

I must admit that my family is far from normal, but that is one of the reasons that I love my family so much! In my immediate family I am the youngest of three. My brother is 18 years older than me and lives in Florida with his wife and (who I mentioned earlier and who gives great advice.) and three children (who are all adorable!). My sister is 16 years older than me and lives next door (approximately 80 steps from my front porch to her back door.) with her husband and six children. Two of her children are biological, one is adopted from Russia and three are adopted from Ukraine and have been here just a little over three months. Despite the fact that they have only been here for a little while we all love them like they've been here forever! My parents are wonderful! And because they are older (but by no means old!!!) they have given me a unique perspective. I have an appreciation for the little things (as cliché as that may sound.). I notice the trees as they bud and bloom and I marvel at the magnificent array of colors displayed on the trees in the fall all because my mom and dad point them out to me. My mom homeschooled my brother and my sister and now she homeschools me (yes, I do have friends. No, I don't wear floor length denim skirts.) and I love being homeschooled! This is just a "bare bones" account of my immediate family (and one that I hope does them justice.) and I plan on writing more about the family members already mentioned and telling about the rest of my family soon.

Ella's Escapades

This is the tale of Ella, the miniature schnauzer:

One day Ella was minding her own business, just sniffing around like all dogs do when happened upon a piece of ABC (Already Been Chewed) gum. So, Ella decides to chew the bright pink gum because it smells so good and looks so strange. Little did she know just how sticky gum is. When the gum was tangled in the fur around her mouth and even stuck to her paws she came to me. I had to hold in my laughter at the sight of her because she had gotten herself into quite a mess. I snatched her up and marched her to my mom. I was planning on shaving all of her fur of, but mom said she could get the gum out with peanut butter. Ella thought that was a great idea and had the best time licking the peanut butter off once we had gotten all of the gum out of her fur. Just a few hours later Ella asked to go out in the back yard and so I let her out. Ella was just minding her own business again when this time she found BBQ sauce and grease all over the grass under the grill. Jack had been grilling and apparently the grease trap is missing so all of the grease ended up on the ground. It was a long time before I realized Ella hadn't returned. I went out and called for her and then I came back in thinking someone must have already let her in. I still couldn't find her so I went outside again and soon I found her. She was covered in grease with her white fur stained brown. She was sticky and smelled like BBQ. We quickly gave her a bath and had her all nice and clean. We thought that we had seen the end of our troubles with Ella at least for the day, but no, apparently the combination of peanut butter and grease had wreaked havoc on her stomach and she threw up. After cleaning that up we went to bed. In the morning I let Ella out into the back yard like I always do and Ella came back covered in grease again! So, after another bath I am hoping that I have seen the end of Ella's escapades.

To My Wonderful Parents

I have always known that I am lucky to have parents who love me so much and who love each other and who love the Lord but it really touched me for my mom to tell me just how much they loved me. She was telling me how long they waited for me and how excited they were when I came into the world. So, Mom and Dad, I just wanted to say thank you for everything that you do. For loving me unconditionally, for loving each other, for loving the Lord, and for raising me with Godly values. I know that I can be rebellious, argumentative, and generally difficult to be around at times and I want to thank you for putting up with me during those times and for gently correcting me. I thank you for encouraging my love of animals, nature, reading, and writing. You will probably never know how much it means to me to have your approval and support. Thank you for being quick to forgive and slow to anger. You are both such great role models for me. Mom, I want to have your patient and encouraging heart. Dad, I want your prayerful spirit and love and compassion for people in need. I just wanted to let you and everyone else know how much you both mean to me.

Love,
~Beth

Forest Halls. A Poem.

The trees of the forest conceal great halls
Their trunks and branches form the walls

Leafy limbs reach over head
Lush green moss makes the bed

Delightful dances here commence
The dancers are creatures no one can place in a fence

The air, perfumed by petals so sweet
Intensifies with the mid day heat

As tempting as this place might be
My destination is calling me

And as I trek away from here
I promise to return some other year

Easter

I know that it's a little late for the typical Easter post, but I believe that Easter is something to be celebrated all year long.
Easter is my favorite holiday and it's about a lot more than some eggs, candy and a bunny. Easter is the day that represents our day of salvation. It is the day that the son of God rose from the dead after being in the grave for three days. But let's rewind. Jesus was born sinless (of a virgin), lived a perfect life, spent his time teaching the truth, healing people (both physically and spiritually), and Jesus did many miracles. Then he was betrayed by one of his own followers and then the son of God who was sent to save us was put to death by us (Don't worry God planned it this way). Jesus hung on a cross and even as He died He forgave us. Well, our lives would be pretty depressing if not for Easter because here we would be eternally separated from our Creator, but God didn't leave us that way. On the third day (Easter) Jesus rose from the dead and later ascended to heaven, but He left us His spirit, The Holy Spirit to work in our hearts and lives. Jesus did all of this in payment of our debt because we should have died. For our sins the perfect son of God died for us. He died for us. This is our hope and our salvation. This is why we celebrate Easter.

What Makes Good Characters

I love to read and I love a good under-dog-down-and-out-come-back-making protagonist, but every time I read the sob story or back ground of my favorite character I want them to get a little recognition for their acomplishments, relish in their success or take a little wallow in self pitty. I guess that's because if I were in their position I would want to. Amazingly they never do. And I think that's why I like those characters so much. Because even when they have the right to do nothing or the right to do what they want they don't. Instead they sacrifice something or everything without asking for anything in return. That's the kind of person I would like to be. I want to live such an unselfish life. Wouldn't it be amazing to be someone who does great things for a bigger purpose than just "me"? And I can't think of a bigger or better purpose than God's.

Anger Management

I didn't know that I could be so mad at a group of people in all my life. Just a few days ago, what at this time seems like the beginning of the end of America as we know it was passed by our government. I'm not even going to go into everything that I think is morally and constitutionally wrong about this healthcare bill-made-law, but I am going to delve into my reaction to the news in order to make my point... Well, I was filled with what I considered "righteous" anger. So much so that that I thought my chest might burst with because of the rage inside of me. I lashed out at the T.V. and all of the turncoat "conservative" democrats that voted to let the bill pass. But then bam! God hit me with a Bible verse that I had read earlier. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His plan." Romans 8:28 I was comforted by these words because they mean that God is in control and that no matter how bad things seem now He will work them out for my good (even if good isn't good by worldly standards.) After rereading the verse I decided to let go of my anger, but I knew that I couldn't do it by myself. So, I prayed and asked God to take the anger and the hatred from my heart and to through it out. You would not believe the imediate relief that I felt! To be clicé it was like a weight had been lifted off of me. It is always best to go to God first and to hand over worries, problems, questions, and runaway emotions to God first.

Neglect and a New Direction

So, as you might have noticed I've been neglecting my blog, but it's not just that, I've been neglecting a gift God gave me. A while back God pointed out to me that writing was one of my strong points and I really believe that He had been sharpening my ability when pride got in the way of me using a gift for God's glory. I started a blog with zero expectations. I thought that just family and friends would read it and that thought was some what freeing. I could write whatever and expect only praise and constructive criticism, but then the stat counter I had installed started to show that a lot of people from all over were Reading my blog. That planted a seed of pride in my heart. I would write a post and instead of thanking God for the skill and words He had given me I would read it and pat myself on the back. Eventually my pride led to selfcontiousness and my blog began to lose the transparency I had loved and my words sounded hollow and "preachy" even
to me. All of this ended with my not writing anything at all. Now I am rededicating my gifts to God's glory. Because of this rededication I am not going to restrict the blog by only making certain kinds of posts. I'm going back to the basics and the genuine writing style that I used to have. I also feel called to make a commitment to write something every day (even though I'm not sure how much of it I'll post) because it's like a wise person recently told me, "Gifts are like muscles, if you don't use 'em you lose 'em."

Gardening

It's that time of year again! It's time to start gardening! Right now is the stage between the changing seasons... It's after the coldest, shortest days of winter, but before the warming, blooming days of spring. Yesterday I bought some seeds for my herb and flower gardens and today I planted the first seeds! I stated the planting process by pulling weeds and stones from one of our garden boxes. This task was more difficult than I had first thought it would be. It was cold outside and I had no gloves so by the time I was half way through my fingers were numb and covered in dirt. Once I had cleared my enemies (the weeds) from the battle field (the garden box) I went inside to thaw my fingers. After warming up I dug shallow little rows, placed the tiny poppy seeds carefully, gently covered them with dirt, and then covered them with straw to keep the rain from washing the seeds away. The work has just begun. I'll have to thin out the plants once they sprout and I'll have to keep the weeds at bay. Gardening today reminded me of our relationship with Jesus. It reminded me of how we have to prepare our hearts by pulling the sin from our lives, how we have to read God's word daily and bury it in our hearts, and how we have to continually weed out the sin in our lives so that we will bloom and make God's name famous.