A Christmas Card to Remember

"Amanda- Merry Christmas! I wanted to let you know how grateful I am to be working with you. Out of all of the co-workers, I think I've had the most opportunity to chat with you- and I really appreciate our conversations. It's evident that you love people. Not that you are just extroverted and get excited around them but that you really care for people. I see this with your kids so often. You are always coming up with such fun ideas so that they will learn and be challenged. You genuinely care for them and want them to grow. You pour yourself out for them, sacrificing much for their good.
It's really self-less and is such an encouragement to be around. Thank you for that example- loving unconditionally and doing your job with all of your heart!
I cant help but think about Jesus at Christmas. How we were hopeless and lost, but God had so much love for us that he sent his Son into the world to die for us and reconcile us to him. To me, thats the ultimate example of unconditional love- and I can attest personally that knowing Jesus better has helped me really understand what it means to love God and others. I'm grateful when I see examples of that love- and I see that example in you. I pray you too would be encouraged and drawn to Jesus this Christmas- that you would be filled with love and joyous peace from knowing him. Appreciate you!"

I often tell others (generally through a card or note) how their personal relationship with God and involvement in Church has helped my faith and relationship with God grow. Not very often do I receive something that says the opposite, how I show examples throughout my life.

I received this note in a Christmas card a few years ago from a fellow co-worker. I was so touched and honored that they put a lot of thought into a simple card around a big holiday when a lot of times society may stigmatize it for revenue and presents. To know that they sat down and put effort into this note, means so much to me still. I keep the card in my Bible and read it when I am feeling discouraged. It is a great reminder of why I do what I love and that ultimately God is the answer for everything in my life.  He showed the greatest example of unconditional love and we can learn and lean on that example.

Being Carried

I am extremely busy right now and have had to really structure my time to get everything done. My amateur photography business is going well and I am constantly either snapping photos or editing them. I also am in the middle of a quarter for my OTA program and it is absolutely crazy. I thought they were trying to kill us the first year and now I know that is so not what they are really preparing us for. On top of school and my business I am also considered a head teacher in my classroom at the daycare I teach at. I share the responsibilities with another teacher and I have been super busy preparing for our Halloween Party. My brother is also getting married this weekend and I am planning a trip to Rhode Island for the AOTA Student Conclave in November. So yeah, my life is BUSY!! However, this past Sunday while attending church I knew the sermon was going to be important because I actually fully listened to what the pastor was saying. Usually going to church I sit there and look through my planner or watch things around me (it's not that I don't like going to church, because I do but sometimes just being there makes me feel better). Anyways, I knew this week was going to be important because I read the verse (silently) along with the pastor and really payed attention to what he was saying. The title of the sermon was "God's Chisel" and the verse we read was Ephesians 2:1-10 "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Following the reading we watched a video that portrayed a man talking to God. God appears to him to explain the Ephesians bible verse. He does this by "chiseling" all the bad away from man to create his masterpiece. This movie really stuck to me because at the end the man says to God "I have let you down" and God replies "No you didn't, you never carried me. It is I who carried you." I have known this all my life, but I can't even count how many times I have felt like I have let God down myself, never once did it dawn on me that I never carried him but he carried me. I think about this all the time and it is definitely something to consider. If interested check out the video here: http://youtu.be/AhfUzodLRvk

There's an Opportune Time.....

There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
When I began to really put my faith into action this was the first Bible verse I fell in love with. Actually not this single bible verse but Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 and it has become more and more prevalent in my life recently. Ask yourself this: In the past month has there been an event or a thing you wanted to do, thought about doing, or was going to do and it got cancelled or something came up and you couldn't go? Did you think to yourself there was a reason I wasn't meant to go?

This happens to me all the time and when I cannot do something or when I don't have the money to do something someone has invited me to do, I think there is a reason and I am not meant to do it. This also happened to me this past weekend. My person was coming down from Cleveland to see me for the weekend. I was going to surprise her by driving her to South Bend, IN to visit another friend of ours that we have not seen in over a year. Unfortunately timing did not work out and we cancelled the trip. However in doing so I was able to help another friend out who had come up from KY and needed a place to crash.

See there is a reason for everything! :)

There's an opportune time to do things,
a right time for everything on earth:
A right time for birth and another for death,
a right time to plant and another to reap,
a right time to kill and another to heal,
a right time to destroy and another to construct,
a right time to cry and another to laugh,
a right time to lament and another to cheer,
a right time to make love and another to abstain,
a right time to embrace and another to part,
a right time to search and another to count your losses,
a right time to hold on and another to let go,
a right time to rip out and another to mend,
a right time to shut up and another to speak up,
a right time to love and another to hate,
a right time to wage war and another to make peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 The Message

The Lenten Season

So for starters I just want you to know that you will be proud of me :) I went out and bought the Clinique's Redness Solutions Mineral Powder and so far I like it. I have not been red enough to try it yet (when I was, I was so busy I could not stop to go put some on) but so far so good.

The second thing I wanted to write about today was the season of Lent. With my faith, I believe that during the Lenten season it is important to either give up something or work hard at doing something. This reason is to remind us of the sacrifice that our God and his son made for us. So with that said, I had a hard time of thinking of something that I could either give up or do that would be a constant reminder to me of the Lenten season so I decided to the do the simple giving up of pop and candy. I did not think it would be hard and the forty days would go by in a flash. Well, reality hit me in the face last night when I was working for my parent's at the Bingo they run every Tuesday night. I was helping them and I saw this guy walk in to the room with a Dr. Pepper, my favorite type of pop. I thought 'mmm, I want a Dr. Pepper.' Halfway down the aisle, I stopped dead in my tracks realizing that I cannot have a pop or the candy in the candy jar that sits on my mom's desk until Easter. I also realize this is going to be harder than I thought.

Today is also the anniversary of the passing of my Uncle. He died in 1998 of brain cancer and was only 29 years old. I still think a lot about him since he passed and this is why: 

Before he passed away, he was talking to my grandma, his mom, and told her that whenever we were in need he would be there through the sign of a penny. 

There have been multiple occasions of me finding pennies throughout these past eleven years and I keep almost everyone of them in a jar dubbed the pennies from heaven jar. And to be honest with you, he also always come when I needed him or I would find a penny right before something would happen to me. I am not the superstitious fool that assumes every time I find a penny something bad is about to happen, but typically when I find one I pick it up and say thanks for being here and then I go about my day. 

I will also pick these pennies up anywhere an everywhere. For example, my hair is naturally curly so I straighten it often. When it rains outside if I get my hair wet, it does when hair does and curls so I am typically the girl sprinting from the store to the car or vice versa. However, if I see a penny on the ground I don't care how soaked I am, until I get the penny. 

Recently my sister and I were talking about my uncle and an interesting fact came up in our conversation. My sisters have sometimes forgotten the anniversary date until my mom reminded them of a way to remember it. My uncle passed away on the only day of the year that is a command. Do you see? If not here: March 4th= March forth. Being a catholic family and having a strong faith, isn't it interesting to say the least?

Praise Ye the Lord

This week at church it is our Vacation Bible School and I am in the nursery. I love babies and children of all ages and I love seeing all these kids come together for VBS. Even though we do not do any lessons or anything like that it is still fun to be with the church family and get close to everyone again. So far we have had 5 regular kids for the past two days and we play in the room, then we go listen to the opening ceremonies, do a little teeny tiny craft, get a snack, then go outside. We have so much fun that our time flies and we don't even realize it. I think that it is very healthy for children and all alike to have some sort of faith. When I was away at school (granted I only live a half hour from my local church) I did not attend church as often as I liked. Not because I couldn't make it or didn't want to, I just thought that I did not need the sevice because I prayed during the week. Little did I know that after having an extremely stressful month and attending a service one day, I realized that I still needed to go to church because it just made me feel good and I felt different after attending church. No matter what faith you are baptized as, it is okay to attend a church of a different faith. For me, I was baptized Catholic, but attend a Methodist church. I am not sure if I will stay Catholic or not but for now I think that it is important that I have a faith and believe in my faith.