Saturday 9

Well everyone, I have found what I'm going to post on Saturdays:D The "Saturday 9." My mom told me about the website on which I found this nifty little survey. For some really great blog quizzes or little things to post, go to thedailymeme.com. So anyways, here's the little quiz:D


1. When was the last time you cried? This past Tuesday

2. If you could wake up tomorrow with a new talent, what would it be? I don't know if being mulitlingual is a talent, but I would want that! If it's not, I would love to have the talent that artists have.

3. Who is someone (other than yourself) would you like to go back into your past and talk to and why? The little boy I met a Pigeon Forge. I would have loved to learn more about him, where he was from etc., so that I maybe could've tried to find him again someday.

4. What is your favorite meal eating out? Ooo that would have to be eating at a Mexican restaurant! I looove Mexican food! And I always get the chicken salad in the tortilla bowl.

5. Do you feel energized or drained by being in a group situation? If the answer is "it depends," on what does it depend? I have an "it depends" answer. If I am helping organize it, I feel drained. If I'm able to concentrate on just having fun because I'm not helping organize it, I feel very energized.

6. What word do you use far too frequently? I use the word "like" waaay to much!

7. What’s a word you’ve invented? (alternate question: What needs a word but doesn’t have one yet?) I think I invented "Crunk" lol I'm not sure tho....I use it a lot:D

8. Pick out one of your favorite songs. Go to Song Facts and tell us about the song's history.
One of my very favorite songs is by Casting Crowns. It's called "Praise You In This Storm." Here's what songfacts.com has to say about it:
Singer Mark Hall explained in the liner notes of Wow Hits 2008: "This song came out of a relationship that we formed with a family early on. Their young daughter, Erin, was battling cancerous tumors all throughout her lungs. Her mother began including us in emails that she was writing to her group of supporters. They were constantly going back and forth to doctors and hospitals for treatments. I still have most of them. The journey this mom went through was just amazing. There's no way I'll ever be able to understand what she was going through. These emails described the journey of her faith and what her worship would look like. One day it was, 'We're going to be okay. We have faith God is going to do this.' And then another would be like, 'What is the deal? Is he even here?' She passed away earlier this year. We decided to subtitle the song 'Erin's Song' in her honor."

9. What is your absolute favorite piece of furniture you have and why
That would probably have to be a couch cuz it has many faces. You can sit or lie down on it:D

Letting Go

Well, I'm back to my very "experienced" *ahem* advice giving:D This time though, it's a personal lesson that I've learned that I think everyone needs to learn. This lesson is about letting go.

For this blog post, I'm going to address letting go of people, but I know this can be applied to a lot of other things. Letting go of anger, bitterness, sometimes letting go of dreams that aren't meant to be....the list goes on and on. For my personal experience, I've had to let go of some people.

Once upon a time, I had this friend who we'll call John. I met John at a time in my life where I really wanted to have a guy friend. I didn't want a boyfriend or anything like that, but I was just really wanting to have a friend that was a guy. Since there aren't very many guys in my church, and the ones that are in our church aren't my age, I had no guy friends. To some it may not seem like a big deal, but there's just something special about having a guy friend that doesn't have crazy girl emotions and drama.

So anyways, I met John. We were the same age, with the exception of about a month and a half, and we quickly became very good friends. I understood him, he understood me, and he put up with all of my randomness and meaningless babblings. After about 8 months, I realized that are friendship was not what it had been. We no longer treated each other the way we had when we first met-I was quick to get upset and he was quick to have a sharp word or be rude to me.

After a while it began to wear on me. I didn't want to talk to him, I was usually upset with him, and I just didn't want it anymore. I kinda gave myself a pep talk about it. I told myself that I didn't deserve to have someone treat me badly, and I shouldn't constantly have to be on guard to defend my playful picking and joking. I didn't want that emotional strain all the time. I realized that some people come into our lives for a season. Not everyone that we become friends with come into our lives to stay. Sometimes they come into our life for a season. I realized with John that he was there to temporarily provide friendship for me. He wasn't meant to stick around forever. If I were to try to hold on for him, and believe me I did for a while, it would be worse for me. Now, I occasionally talk to him, and when I do it's very pleasant:) I guess the saying, "Familiarity breeds contempt" is very true:)

There's just something about trying to hold on to those "seasonal" people. If it's not meant to be, it will only drag you down and hurt you. I once heard it said that "saying good bye is another way of saying 'I love you'." It's so true! If a relationship whether it be friendship, or a more serious relationship, sometimes when you really love someone, you will be willing to say, "I love you enough to realize that I'm not what's best for you, so I'll let you go."

I hope I wasn't too redundant in this blog post, but I wanted to share my knowledge with other people:D Letting go is sometimes the best thing...better for you, better for the people around you, better for the other member of the relationship:)

Clear the roads!! Wait no, clear the sidewalks! Warn everyone that a dangerous threat is about to arrive!! "What is that threat?" you might wonder. The threat is....

This girl is turning sweeeet 16 tomorrow!! And with those numbers also comes the privilege of getting my driver's permit! Oh yeah!!:D


I figured in honor of my birthday, and in realizing that I am becoming more wise with each year *ahem*, I should post some things I've learned in life thus far:D


1. Make sure to carefully read recipes when you're cooking! If not, you may end up with 8 teaspoons of salt, watery Velveeta shells, very, very doughy snicker doodles, or 6 cups of Crisco! (YES I did this! I thought that bars of Crisco were measured the same wasy as a stick of butter, and the recipe called for 3 cups of Crisco. It was fixable tho. I only had 5 sticks in-unblended- so I took two out:D)


2. ALWAYS do a full-body clothing check before going to church!

(One night as I was down praying at the altar, I reached behind me to adjust my blazer and make sure it was pulled down all the way. To my absolute horror I discovered that the jumper I had on under the jacket was all the way unzipped. Thankfully, it wasn't very noticealbe, and was easily fixed. I can only imagine if I hadn't had the jacket on!!)


3. That the words for a very common church song aren't, "I won't sell it for smoke," but actually, "I won't settle for smoke!"

4. Hairspray is a Pentecostal girl's second best friend. The first is Jesus:D But yes, hairspray is wonderful! Many times my hair has been rebellious, but I whip it back into order with a spritz of hairspray:D

5. Those girls who walk around the mall in very, very tall heels are absolutely C-R-A-Z-Y! It's been my experience that after walking in high heels for about 10 minutes, my feet begin to yell at me to just STOP it! If I don't listen to the yelling, they give me HUGE amounts of pain! And I continue to suffer after I take them off because there is a muscle in my foot that sometimes pulls after walking in heels. So, my advice, do NOT walk around the mall in heels! Ever!

I have learned a couple of more serious lessons. I'm not completely ditsy, just a little:D Sometimes my mind starts working and the house gets a little smoky from all the work going on:D

1. It's a saying as old as the hills. "Never judge someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes." This is soo true! Something that you be able to deal with and come through easily may be the biggest trial of another person's life. And something that may be meaningless to them would be the biggest trial of your life. The Bible also has something to say about judging other people. I like Matthew 7:1 in the Amplified Bible. "Do not judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judge and critized and condemned yoursleves."

2. What goes around truly does come back around. If you're mean and nasty and spiteful towards others, they're going to be mean, nasty, and spiteful back to you. If you show love and kindness to other people, they're going to show love and kindness to you. Isaiah 3: 10-11 of the NIV Bible says, "Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds. Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them! They will be paid back for what their hands have done."

3. Respect will get results. If you disrespect someone, don't expect them to be nice and do something for you or listen to what you have to say in return.

4. Things do not last forever:) I used to be pretty high-strung. Then one day, I was thinking-yes the smoke was filling the house- and I thought to myself, "You know, nothing lasts forever. Will this matter in eternity?" That's pretty much how I view things. In life, accidents happen. Things get broken, words are said that shouldn't be said, feelings get hurt, but they aren't going to last forever. That's not a free pass to insult people and be hateful, but if you do accidently hurt someone's feelings, apologize. You might be embarrassed, but it's not going to last forever. If you don't apologize and cause someone to stumble, that may last forever:) So, let's humble ourselves. I don't know why I added that because it really doesn't have anything to do with being high-strung:) But, I've discovered that life is too short...we need to enjoy it while we can:)

Well, that's the wisdom I'v gained in the past 16 years:) Well, not really 16 cuz I didn't discover that when I was a few months old. Anyways, I'm babbling. I hope you all have a wonderful day/evening/whenever you read this:) I love you all! Thanks for being faithful blog-readers:D

Domestic Violence part 2

Well everyone.....it's here! Part 2 of my thoughts on domestic violence.

In my last post I gave a couple different examples of domestic violence. I hope that maybe it brought to light something you've never thought of before. Maybe it stirred up a desire in you to help stop all of the abuse that goes on. Or maybe, if you're one of the people that has been abused, you've decided that you're going to get out of the mess you're in.

The first line of hope that I'd like to extend to you if you are the one in an abusive relationship, is to let you know that you are loved. I can guarantee that you that you have many people in your life that love you very, very much! Maybe it's your kids or maybe a brother or sister. Maybe it's your parents, or even a co-worker or neighbor. Whoever it is, someone loves you, and if they know or find out about your situation, they want to help you out. So, my question is, how can they help you if they don't know or you won't let them??

Someone else who loves you is Jesus. I know you've probably heard it before and sometimes it's so simple that it's hard to accept, but Jesus loves you. He really does care about Y-O-U.
1 Peter 5:7 says, "Casting ALL your care upon him; for he careth for you."

You, my dear person, are a wonderful creature that was hand-fashioned by God, and you were not meant to live a life of misery and abuse. You owe it to yourself to get out of the abuse you may be living in and to start fulfilling the plan of God:) I encourage you to please reach out and let someone know what you're going through! Maybe you're afraid if you tell a friend or family member that it will get back to your abuser. I urge you call the hotline for domestic abuse.
There are two different hotlines that you can call: 1-800-799-7233(SAFE) or 1-800-787-3224

For those of you who aren't in an abusive relationship but maybe you're wanting to help someone who is. The worst thing you can do is tell their abuser. Do NOT go to the abuser! The victim will be the recipient of a lot more abuse if you do. In my last post I stated that many people fear death because they have been threatened with it. This is a reality, not just a half-hearted threat. These people may suffer death for telling you about their situation. If you are one of the people that is honored enough to have an abuse victim talk to you, please, do not regard what they tell you as a joke or an imagination. This person is taking a huge step in telling you what's going on! Don't tell them that you wouldn't be there, or if they had done something different they wouldn't be there. This is not their fault.

Since I've not been a witness to a lot of situations in which abuse was an issue, I really don't know a lot of the things you can do to help, except for get them out of the situation if at all possible. Be their friend. Encourage them. PROTECT THEM! Most cities have a shelter so if you would like to do something to help a mistreated person you could volunteer at a shelter and maybe your local soup kitchen. Both places will be VERY thankful for your help, I'm sure of it!:)

Below I've posted the link to the national domestic violence hotline. It's a good way to see if maybe you're the one being abused, or if maybe someone you know is being abused. It's a VERY informative and good website:)
http://www.thehotline.org/

I hope that these two posts have some how made you aware of a little piece of the world around you. There are sooo many more things! There are a LOT of different instances of abuse that are not domestic violence, but still abuse. One of which being trafficking, but that's a topic for another time.

Domestic Violence part 1

Even though I haven't been the recipient of abuse, I've been told first-hand stories of it, and I hope that we can all be a little more aware of the abuse. If the people who are not being mistreated can be aware of abuse, we have more of a chance of helping someone out of that life style:)

After my experience with the little abused boy in Pigeon Forge, I've become very aware of abuse. When reading the news online, I get sick to my stomach while reading stories of abuse. Actually I try to avoid them if at all possible, but sometimes I read the stories just to remind myself that life isn't all pleasantness. The life of joy and freedom that I enjoy is not enjoyed by all. There are people who suffer and hurt, and they're all around us. I'm positive that many of the people we see everyday are miserable and hoping that someone sees their pain, and can provide a lifeline out of their situation.

Along with child abuse, abuse in the marriage is also very, very common. More often than not, we hear about a woman being abused by her husband. Many women are afraid to tell their friends or someone that can help about the abuse for various reasons. I know that one reason is because before the physical abuse starts, mental abuse takes place. A man will sometimes manipulate his wife and play with her emotions until eventually, she has no self esteem left. When the physical abuse begins, the woman may feel like nobody will ever love her again or that she is too ugly, fat, etc. for someone to love her, so she has to stay with her husband. Another reason is because she really does love the man. She loved him before the abuse started, so she continues to love him. And a last, very extreme reason that women keep quiet, is they are afraid of death. They've been told that they WILL be found and killed if they ever leave or speak out.

Now I'm going to bring up a situation that many people would scoff at, but it's very, very relevant to our society. Many men are also abused. We would think that a man being abused would be ridiculous. Men are stronger than women, right? They could defend themselves? That's true, but a lot of men are true gentlemen and wouldn't lay a hand on a women, even if she's not a lady. In my opinion, I think a man wouldn't want to tell someone about his situation, or make a move to stop it, because they're embarrassed to admit they're being abused by a woman. But what other word is there for the slapping, hurtful words, and manipulating that many women use to control their husbands?

Since we've discussed the downside of abuse in this post, I want to offer a little bit of hope and comfort in my next post:) Stay tuned for part 2!