Count your Blessings

Count Your Blessings

I am BLESSED to have to buy GAS because that means I have a CAR.
I am BLESSED by ELECTIONS because it means I have the freedom to VOTE.
I am BLESSED to live in a country where OBESITY is a bigger problem than HUNGER.
I am BLESSED with SCHOOL LOANS because it means I am able to get an EDUCATION.
I am BLESSED by SLOW INTERNET because it means I have enough money for a COMPUTER.
I am BLESSED by JURY DUTY because it means I live in country based on DEMOCRACY.
I am BLESSED when the shower goes COLD because I started off with HOT WATER.
I am BLESSED when I am DISCIPLINED because it means I have PARENTS.
I am BLESSED by LINES at the store because it means that I can easily get FOOD.
I am BLESSED to go to WORK every day because it means I have a JOB.
I am BLESSED to have a BAD HAIR DAY when many are BALD from chemo.
I am BLESSED to hear my dad SNORING because it means he's still HERE.
I am BLESSED to get up EARLY for church because I have the FREEDOM TO WORSHIP.
I am BLESSED when kids DISOBEY me because it means their moms chose LIFE.
I am BLESSED by Facebook GAME REQUESTS because I have the opportunity of the INTERNET.
I am BLESSED when nothing's on TV because I have the ability to WATCH one.
I am BLESSED when the AIR CONDITIONER breaks because it means I have a ROOF over my head.
I am BLESSED when my brother hogs the SHEETS in the hotel room because it means I have a BED.

What blessings have you been forgetting to count?

Grandma and Grandpa's House

Of all my good childhood memories,

Very many are of traveling so far.

During both times of summer and freeze,

So many hours were spent in the car.

But it was all with a very good cause,

Because soon Nebraska we’d see.

Over to Grandpa and Grandma’s,

That is the place that we wanted to be.

Maybe we’d swim in the cow tank,

Or shoot some cans with a gun.

Perhaps we’d visit the pond bank.

No matter what, we always had fun.

Sometimes we’d get to ride a horse,

Or burn garbage in a square made of blocks.

In the woods, we would even build forts,

And we’d be surprised by gum in the mailbox.

We ate pancakes shaped as an animal friend,

And we aimed to catch the biggest toad.

It was so much fun; we didn’t want the time to end.

So, we’d try to chase our cars down the road.

But what truly made it all so great,

Was neither the sledding nor the farm.

It’s not the train tracks or the dinner plate,

That’s still not what gave it its homey charm.

The thing that is most memorable,

Is the grandparents that showed their love.

When things seem so unstable,

It is for them we thank our God above.

So thank you, Grandma and Grandpa.

Thank you for being there for us all,

Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa,

                                              Thank you for loving us, big and small.

The Costa Rica Mission: Preparing

I will be leaving for Costa Rica very soon so I thought I'd share some thoughts and some of the ways God has been preparing me to go. 

1. God has been teaching me to bathe my ministry and trip to Costa Rica in prayer. In the first chapter of Acts the apostles pray together over everything they do. They include God in their ministry and let him know what's going on. I know that seems silly, "Of course I'm including God in my ministry! That's what ministry is all about!" But I know so often, even though I'm doing something for God, I forget to let him be a part of it by putting it in his hands and asking for his help through prayer. So God has been reminding me to make him a part of Costa Rica and give it completely to him by praying about it! Acts 1:14 "They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers."
2. God showed me that "little guys can do big things too." In Acts 2, the apostles bring about 3000 people to Jesus in one day. That's huge! I think when people read the Bible they mistakenly think of the apostles as sorts of "superheros" of the Bible. But that's not the case. The apostles were just average people. There was nothing out of the ordinary about them. It was not by their own skill that they were able to do big things, it was through Jesus. So there is no reason that I can't do the exact same things they did. With the help of Jesus, I can bring 3000 people to Christ in one day too. After reading this, God reminded me that even though I'm small, through him I can do just as big of things as the apostles did. Acts 2:47 "Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day."
3. God has been showing me that if I step out in faith and follow him, he will provide. I had no idea how this summer would work out for me. I didn't know how long I'd be working, I didn't know when I'd be going to Costa Rica, I didn't know where the money for Costa Rica would come from, I didn't know how I'd get money to pay for school. But I raised more money than I needed to go to Costa Rica and I received an $8000 scholarship for school this next year. God has provided for me because I was faithful to his calling. He told me what to do and I followed and he took care of my needs. God is the provider.

So keep praying for me in this next week or so before Costa Rica. Pray that I will be brave and all anxiety will be gone from my heart. Pray for the people I am going to be working with, that God will go before me and prepare them and that they will be open to the gospel. Pray that I will be able to know when God is opening a door for me. And pray that God will be working in and through my ministry while in Costa Rica.

11 more days! =)

Clean Slate

I am going to be straight up honest with all of you right now. I'd really like to find a boyfriend, I'm anxious to meet Mr. Right and get married and have my "happily ever after." Because of that, the last thing I wanna do is wait on God's timing! But I know God wants me to wait on his timing and focus on Him, instead of a guy, in the meantime. I need to fall in love with my Creator! Not a guy right now.

Often when I'm thinking about this subject, I'm reminded of the goals I had set for myself when I was younger. When I was in middle school I had some very strong standards for myself. I wasn't going to date until I felt God had guided me to my husband, I was going to save my first kiss for my wedding day, and in the meantime I was going to focus on God and fall in love with him instead of boys. And to be brutally honest, I failed. I got my first boyfriend when I was fifteen, my second when I was sixteen, and my third when I was seventeen. I gave my first kiss away too quickly and easily to someone I wasn't even with very long. In later relationships I compromised on a lot of my other values and crossed many lines I had set for myself. I am a failure.

I am a failure. But I'm saved by the fact that I serve a God who's not! And I have a God who sent his son to die for me in spite of the fact that I'm a failure. Jesus knew how much I would screw up and fail, even before I did, and he still loved me enough to die on the cross and take that punishment for me. And through him, I have been made pure again. Which is why I have the ability to start all over again. Even though I've already been in a few relationships, kissed guys that aren't my husband, and compromised in other areas, through Jesus death on the cross I've been given a clean slate. Because he has forgiven me, it's almost as if I'm back in middle school and I can hold all of those same goals and values for myself.

Just because you mess up once, doesn't mean you might as well keep doing it because it's "too late now." There is always a chance to start fresh because Jesus forgives us and gives us a clean slate... a second chance.... Wow! I want to do things much differently than I have so far. I want to be head over heels for God before I'm head over heels for another guy. I want to wait to kiss someone again until my wedding day. I want to wait on God and let him guide me to the one he has for me. And I can do all of this without waste, because I have been made new and pure through Christ!

Why should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer. But this I know with all my heart, His wounds have paid my ransom.

My First Year of College

Wow! My first year of college is already over. Where did it go? I feel like I just started. College has been an amazing experience and I loved it. I have learned so much! Yeah I learned a lot about the Bible and other academic things, but I learned even more important things than that. 


In my first year of college I have learned:

• God is faithful to forgive me for all of my sins. Even though I have messed up a lot, he took me through a healing process and has made me pure.
• My relationship with God isn't about fixing myself to please Him, it's about love. First and foremost God wants me to focus on loving him, the rest will follow once I have done that.
• My actions and words will affect the way people view me, I can't assume everyone knows I am joking.
• True friends are a blessing from God and will stay close to you when you need them most.

I am looking forward to my sophomore year!

Personal Fasts to Achieve Higher Standards

As a Christian, I am called to higher standards than what the world considers "normal." And I am sorry to say that I have been failing at truly living up to those standards. Sure, I do better than some people but a relationship is NOT, by ANY MEANS something you go about and only put half of your heart and effort into. I don't want to just go through the motions as far as my relationship with God goes. I don't want to do just enough to get by and call it good. He has called me to so much more than that and I'm tired of failing to live up to his standards, which are also my standards.

My heart has been unsettled lately. I have been battling out some spiritual warfare and attacks from Satan and myself! I have felt these areas that I have been lacking in my heart but have not done anything about them. This has caused a lot of confusion and turmoil in my spirit. But God called me out on that tonight and after chatting with him for a while and letting him guide my heart, I came to the conclusion that a lot of much needed fasting is the solution to the confusion and slacking in my life.

I don't just mean fasting from food. During this week (at least this week, maybe longer for some things) I am going to be fasting from several different things that have become a distraction or obstacle in my life. This includes facebook, self-image, and one on one communication with guys.

• FACEBOOK: I don't really need to explain fasting from Facebook since so many people do it, and I'm not going to go on and on about it because I hate it when people make a big show out of quitting facebook. But I won't be on my personal facebook account because it is just too much of a distraction from spending time with God.
• SELF-IMAGE: You're probably wondering how I plan on fasting from self-image. Well I got the idea from a facebook event called, "Confidence Week." I decided that I am going to spend this week not looking in mirrors as much as possible, not wearing make-up or jewelry, and dressing simply. Why? I'm hoping that by doing this it will take my focus off of my own appearance to other people and it will be more on what's on the inside and whether or not what's on the inside pleases the only one that can see it.... GOD! I need to put my confidence in him and not myself!
• COMMUNICATION WITH GUYS: Lastly (I'm sure this one is going to be the most controversial) I am going to fast from communcation with guys. And not only romantic relationships with guys, but also friendships (no matter how innocent) with guys. This is NOT because I am a guy hater! This is because I can't trust my own heart not to betray God's will for me. And this is by no means a reflection of the guy friends that I have currently! This is only because my heart greatly desires to have a romantic relationship right now and I know that this is not in God's plans for my life currently. I can't trust my heart not go against God's will and so I feel the best way to be wholly devoted to God and truly focus on giving him my whole heart is to cut out communication with my guy friends for a while. This fast will probably last longer than a week (if it didn't, it wouldn't make much of a difference). This does not mean if I encounter you in person I am going to ignore you! This means that I am not going to communicate with you one on one via texting or facebook or phone calls or anything else. This means I am not going to hang out one on one with you. The only communcation will be in purely group settings. I hope you can understand that this is what I PERSONALLY need to do in order to devote my whole heart to only God without my heart entertaining or pursuing the thought of having a romantic relationship with a guy. I am not sure how long this fast will last but I will let you know when it ends. Please do not try to contact me during this time, I won't respond. Again, this is no reflection on you! This is what I need to do for me and my relationship with my God!

During the rest of this week of fasting I am going to devote random days to other sorts of fasting. For example, I will spend two days fasting from electronics in general, two days fasting from food, and one day fasting from speaking. (Why from speaking? To focus on listening and observing instead of saying the first thing that comes to my mind)

And what will I be doing in all the extra time I'll have from cutting the rest of this out of my life? SPENDING TIME WITH MY CREATOR WHO LOVES ME! (and homework..... but mostly God.... because he's more important!) That's the purpose behind all this fasting, to live up to the higher standards that God has called me to and to get my relationship with him back on track! Because all of the distractions in my life has thrown it off track.

PRAY FOR ME as I start this week of fasting and hold me accountable! I am anxious to see what God does in my life during this week and weeks to come. I firmly feel he has called me to these fasts so that I can live up to his standards. Thank you for your prayers.

Blessings,
Lindsey

Door to Door Evangelism in Pittsburgh

Some friends and I decided to go door to door in a local neighborhood over break. I had been door to door once before on a mission trip to Pharr, Texas but I was expecting that doing it around Pittsburgh, my hometown, would be much different. However, I was surprised to see that there were actually many similarities. We had many doors that were never even opened, either because they weren’t home or people were avoiding the scary evangelists at their door. When people did open the door, we told them what church we were representing and asked if we could talk to them, maybe ask them some questions. This brought forth a whole plethora of marvelous on the spot excuses. It seemed like half of the neighborhood was “on their way out the door” and it was odd that we only actually saw one or two cars leave from the houses we visited. Another lady told us that the dog would get in the way and then once we started leaving she put the dog on the leash outside and left him there. Seems contradictory, right? But one of my favorite excuses was, “No, that’s okay we’re Catholic. We’re good!” I’m sure they thought that was an excellent excuse.

            When we further questioned these Catholics by asking, “When you die? Do you know where you’re going to go?” This question made them more uncomfortable. One common theme we saw from the majority of the people we talked to was that is seemed none of them really knew for sure. We might get a response like, “Well… I mean I hope I’m going to Heaven.” Or there was the ever popular, “I’m a good person I do a lot of good things, so yeah… yeah, I think I’m going to Heaven.” When people expressed this uncertainty about their “final destination” we asked them, “Well would you like to know for sure?” After that we might dig deeper into the gospel story but we didn’t get into much detail with a majority of the people. A very common response was, “Well I don’t think anyone really knows for sure.” Those were the people that we eventually had to leave. My guess is that they were so scared of where eternity would take them and so uncertain of where they would go that they convinced themselves that nobody really knew for sure so it was okay if they didn’t know either. That was probably the biggest need that I saw in the people, the need to know for sure where they are going. It seems like there are so many non-Christian Catholics out there that don’t truly understand the gospel. I can’t imagine going to church every Sunday just hoping that it would be enough to get me to Heaven. The biggest need for the average non-Christian is to have the gospel clearly explained in a way that they may know for sure where they are going to go.

            While there were many excuses, the day wasn’t without its high points. At two of the houses we went to we came across very kind and encouraging Christian women who gave us enthusiasm to keep going. And at the very last house we went to, we talked to a couple who hadn’t been going to church but did believe in God. When we asked them if they would like assurance for eternity they said they would like to know for sure. I was able to explain the gospel to them in full detail. They made the decision to ask Jesus to clean the sin from their hearts so that they could go to Heaven. It seemed like they just saw it as the logical thing to do. We left them with some tracts and some basic instruction on how to further their relationship with God. We also got their name and encouraged them to get plugged into a church. It was a very uplifting and exciting end to the day.