TY

I haven't blogged in a while but I feel compelled to. I am just really happy because I can see and feel how God is working in me. I couldn't really think of anything specifically to blog about right now, but I just want to give all the gratefulness and glory to God right now. So...I'm just going to have a quick brain dump of some things in my mind that I'm thankful for. I definitely encourage you to do the same if you ever feel stuck in a rut. It's freeing actually!

Things I'm thankful for:

• My dad who always brings joy and simplicity to every situation. 
• My mom for showing me the example of striving for improvement and showing me the attitude of following Christ. 
• My sister for the closeness we have now and the honest advice she gives. 
• My brother because he's my brother (haha) and is always passionate in helping me with tech issues.
• My wonderful friends for listening to me, supporting me, and bringing me so much laughter. 
• My home 
• School and the ability to study
• My jobs 
• Gifts to serve God with
• Passion for basketball 
• Having the luxury to eat out
• To have clothing 
• Being able to connect with and care for others
• Good health
• Being chosen by God to be a Christ follower. 

God, thank you!!!

Faithfully Yours

Do you ever ask yourself the question, "How can we still be faithful when we don't see how God is working and we don't know what his plan is"? What if we feel like our prayers are unanswered?

Sometimes we ask God something and we just want such a definite answer. Yet, we still don't get one...

I want to share the story of Joseph with you. Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and sold to slavery. Later on, as a slave, Joseph was falsely accused by his master's wife causing him to be imprisoned for years. Facing all this adversity, you can imagine what Joseph would feel - perhaps anger, loneliness, doubt, and the list could go on. In these times, Joseph could have blamed God for all these events, but he did not. Instead, he continued to faithfully serve God, faithfully love God, and faithfully honour God DESPITE his circumstances.

I learned that I should not just read the Bible, but rather take it as my own story. God is faithful, and like how he never left Joseph, he will never leave me or you. Now, let's strive to be faithful to God - we want to be faithfully yours.

Come

Jesus became one of us so we don't have an excuse to tell God, "You're up there and I'm down here". There is nobody too lost to be found. There is nothing that you could have done that will push God so far away that he can't reach you, if you let him. You don't have to do things...it's a gift.

Grace is something you can't pay for, but something you freely receive. 

Something amazing happens when you open your heart to Jesus. 

Just come and fill our hearts God. We want to be just like you.

CHOOSE

Ever since this summer started, I literally felt like I had a whole mentality shift.

At times, we are placed in difficult situations in which we have no control over. Things Happen. Things sometimes don't go our way or how we expected it to pan out. And the problem is, it's so easy to dwell on the negative.

"Why is this happening to me?"
"I don't know what to do now..."
"Why aren't things going the way I planned?"

It's so easy to come across these thoughts. And what these thoughts do is that they bog us down even further, they make us feel crappier, and they ultimately allow us to feel sorry for ourselves.

I realized that no matter what we do, sometimes we just simply can't change the situation. The only thing we CAN change, however, is our ATTITUDE. I quit feeling sorry for myself and wow what a great change.

I feel like I'm so much happier with whatever's in front of me. I realized that I really had two options:
A. I can look at a situation, be negative about it, and feel even worse about it by complaining :( OR
B. I can look at a situation, identify that I CAN be negative about it but I CHOOSE to be positive despite this situation happening because I know that will help me and the people around me cope with this problem even better.

Yup it's that simple WOOO! This mentality shift has definitely blessed me with a happier life so I definitely encourage you to try it! :)

What does love look like?

What does love look like?
Did you once believe that it was romance?
Did you once believe it was only for the lucky or the beautiful?
Did you once believe it was a momentary bliss?

If all of life comes down to love
Then love has to be more than sentiment
More than selfishness and selfish gain

Then He looked at me
I could not escape those beautiful eyes
And I began to weep and weep and weep...

He had his arms wide open, a heart exposed
Arms wide open; He was bleeding, bleeding
Love's definition was looking at me.

Powerful Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2ZCIp0HiRo

Not just "I Can't"

I posted this picture on my Instagram about a week ago and since then, I've been trying to think about the "I can't" situations in my life. I realized that there's not a big difference between "I can't" and "I'm scared". It is so easy to simply give into our fears and use the excuse of "I can't" to walk away from our challenges. I can label many situations where I feared failure so I automatically resorted to the "I can't" attitude. In reality, it is possible. 

Phillipians 3:14 states, "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength".

ALL THINGS - that's pretty amazing.

So let's clear our minds of "I can't",

Skim by the idea of "I can",

And land on the mentality and attitude of "I will".

WOO!

Values

Sometimes I wake up in the morning feeling discouraged - I feel so unaccomplished. I felt like I lost a sense of direction which affected my idea of happiness. I asked God. I took some time to reflect on my values which are to love God and my family, to be honest, to be generous, and to have a sense of compassion.

I think it's important to write your values down or tell yourself verbally because it's so easy to be distracted and be lead away from them. What am I doing right now to work towards these values of mine? Am I spending time with my family? Am I being generous? Am I honest with myself? Where is my compassion?

I highly encourage you to reassess and reflect on your values. I believe the successes and failures of certain tangible goals should't deem our happiness. What I mean by that is that I realized we are never satisfied with where we are at. If we face a failure, we automatically develop this fear of feeling rejected once again. Or when we face success, we just keep wanting more. When are we truly happy?

I realized that when I carry and satisfy the values that are genuinely important and significant in my life, it actually brings greater joy, comfort, and a closer proximity to my identity. Fulfilling these values most definitely brings that happiness back.

:)