fairytales.

Hey :]

well, first of all...soccer was actually fun. I'm really feeling the practice right now (yay for muscles I didn't even know existed!) but we don't have another one until Tuesday, so that should give me time to recover. I'm really excited about it...thanks for the prayers!

As you can probably see, the title of this post is fairy tales. except without the space. Anyway, it's called that because of a conviction I've had lately in my life. As a Christian, I've realized that I have expected life to be a fairy tale. No major troubles to speak of, eventually marrying the perfect guy, and driving away from the wedding, off to a mansion of immeasurable riches and happiness, where (of course!) we would live happily ever after. Well, REALITY CHECK for me! That's not always how it happens. In life, there ARE troubles, and every girl doesn't always get married in a fairy tale wedding. In the world around me, there's so much of a push and a longing for a happily ever after, with perfect relationships and no more pain of frustration. Last weekend, my great grandma died, and today was her funeral. At the burial, the pastor said, "Now, we are burying a body, but this is not Caroline. Caroline is in heaven, celebrating with her Savior and Creator. She's not here, she is with Christ!" I was suddenly reminded of the fact that I am not living in a perfect world. Things don't always work out, hearts are broken, and pain and irritation is everywhere. But someday, we as Christians are going to be able to celebrate in the arms of our Creator, completely whole and made perfect in His glory. I am so excited for that! Isn't it such a reassurance that "our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." (2 Corinthians 4:17). The real question is...are you going to be there, taking part in that eternal glory?

Em.

Soccer!

Today was a lovely day. I had a good day (unlike yesterday!) and we certainly needed the sunshine that was ever so conveniently paired with the beautiful blue sky outside. The one thing that slightly...freaked my day out was when I actually agreed to doing spring soccer at my school. For any of you who know me, it's rather obvious that I'm not a sportsy sort of person. I enjoy volleyball, but that's about it. I used to play soccer, but not any more...at least, not until today. Today I said yes. I am BEYOND nervous about the first practice tomorrow, but I'm most likely over-thinking it and it will be totally fine. So, if anyone has a few seconds to spare and wants to send up a quick prayer for my state of mind and my physical stamina, that would be ever so lovely! Mom and I are going to pick up some of the things I'm going to need, like cleats, shorts, and socks/shin guards! :]

Anyway...other than that, I had a totally fabulous day, despite the HORRID math test that was trying to ruin this sunshiny day...it did not succeed. No worries. I'll hopefully let all you guys know how it goes tomorrow...wish me luck! AH!

:] Em

P.S.

Go check my Tumblr...I have an app for my phone, and so I can update while I'm on the run.

emilyelizabeth20.tumblr.com

ACT.

Ugh. I'm sitting at school, bored out of my mind in my third hour class. Apparently a bunch of juniors I know are here, but I haven't seen any of them yet! AH! I can't get to my locker, and the school feels extra warm because of all the closeness with the students...I can't say this is really enjoyable at all. Wow. I'm such a complainer...I apologize to everyone who read those last few lines. Let's see...I think that a little scripture quote would help my boring day along! :]

1 John 4:7-8
"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

What a fantastic reminder- loving others is not one of my strengths, and I will certainly be trying to work on that! On a happier note, my math test is postponed until next week, and my Bio presentation isn't until Thursday. I guess today might not be so bad after all...good luck to all you juniors!

Em :]

Oh! and there's sunshine and not much snow left. Ohh yeah, today is a good day. haha :]

Hallelujah!

So I recently discovered this song called "All I Have is Christ". Google it. Buy it. Listen to it. I love it. :]. Here are some of the lyrics...

"I once was lost, in darkest night,
yet thought I knew the way,
The sin that promised joy and life,
had led me to the grave.
I had no hope that You would own
a rebel to Your will,
and if You had not loved me first,
I would refuse You still.

Hallelujah! All I have is Christ!
Hallelujah! Jesus is my life!"

So...that's one of my favorite songs right now. I love the "Hallelujah! All I have is Christ! Jesus is my life!" I've really been challenged with that saying, because I'm not sure if I'm in a place in my walk with Christ that I could actually say "Hallelujah, all I have is Him, and He is enough!". That's my little mini challenge this week...well, not so mini, I guess.

Also, on a not-so-hallelujah note, this week is ACT and MME week, so I wish good luck to all you juniors, and I'm sure you'll do totally fabulously. At our school, they blockade off like...half of the school, which includes my locker, which means you can't get to those classrooms/lockers until Friday morning. FRIDAY. Which means I have to lug around all 1,000,000 pounds of junk that usually exists inside my locker and I will probably end up with a broken back. My kind friend Katie is letting me put my things in her locker, which is SUPER generous, so I'll hopefully be a little bit less encumbered. Wish you all well! Hope this week goes aboslutely swimmingly!

Em

SPRING! (PUPPIES!)

So I realized all I post about is my thoughts...never any pictures or anything exciting like that. Last week, our dog Holly had puppies, and so, I will now attempt to upload a few pictures of the adorable little guys. :].

I really could just watch them all day...just being cute.

Aww, yeah. I love puppies.

Anyway, sorry about the fuzziness in the photos...the little guys are still a bit wobbly, and getting them to hold still is certainly a trick. We have 8 boys and 3 girls, and they're just as cute as can be! Hope you guys have been absolutely wonderful since I last had a chance to talk to you...love to all!

Em

Friend? Best friend?

A friend is defined (by ever-so-reliable dictionary.com) as so: "friend (noun)- a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard." I define it as someone I can rely on, someone loyal, someone trustworthy.

Trustworthy. There's a cool word. Worthy of my trust. So often I find that I trust the "wrong" person with a secret- it always seems to end up spiraling back to me. Something I've realized in my own life is that I'm often so ready to trust the other mortal humans around me- those who are just as flawed as I am, and yet I'm holding myself back from trusting Christ, almost as if I don't or feel like I can't be sure that He is worthy of my trust. Why don't we treat Christ as someone who is worthy of our trust? Has He ever failed us? Has He ever given up, decided our case to be hopeless, walked away in disgust? No! He has not, and He never will, like it says in Deuteronomy 31:6, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." Did you catch that? NEVER leave. NEVER. In fact, He goes with us. That, my friends, is quite the promise.

Something else about our friendship with Christ is that it's the best friendship we can ever have. Seriously, if you think about it, a best friend isn't that uncommon. But a best friend who would die for you, even when they knew everything about you, even when you'd given up and turned your back on them before? That's true friendship. And friendship like that can only be found in our relationship with our creator, Jesus Christ.

Phil Wickham!

I'm not someone who really enjoys change. Let's just make that clear. I also don't like making decisions that involve anyone other than myself. So yeah...I tend to sick with old routines and habits, along with styles, favorites, ect...you get the picture. Because of this, I don't usually update the music on my iPhone. I tend to get some music on there and just stay with it, partially because I'm perfectly happy with what I have and also because once, when I was attempting to update my phone, I cleared it of all data. Yeah. Not a happy camper. :[. So I now try to avoid changing it around if I can. Anyway...last night, my brother had just gotten all this new music, and I *really* wanted to put the new music on my iPhone because I was sure I'd get a chance to listen to it throughout the week. (For all of you who don't know, public school tends to leave you with a TON of time in class to do whatever you want. Seriously.) I plugged my phone in, and several...mishaps...later, I was happily removing my iPhone from his computer, very proud of the technological achievment I had just completed. I had downloaded 2 new albums from a "new" artist (new to me), Phil Whickham.

Wow. That's all I can say.

This Christian artist reaches a depth in his songs that I find missing in a large majority of Christian media today. Let me post for you some of the lyrics from my current favorite, After Your Heart..

"Let's be the revolution that lives for holding nothing back, nothing back,
We're after Your heart, after Yourr heart,
all of the walls now, are breaking apart,
live like we see it, love like we mean it,
this is the start, we're after Your heart."

And then...

"Love with no conditions,
It lives for holding nothing back, nothing back"
"We're after Your heart, we're never going to stop, untill we reach You."

This song, along with "Home", really grabbed my attention. All of the songs are fantastic, it's just that those two happen to be my favorites :].

So please, go check it out! Honestly some of the best Christian music I've heard in a long time.
http://philwickham.com/

Emily