I have been trying to put my thoughts into words for the entire week. Seriously, I have started typing a blog post, and then given up within a few sentences probably more then a million times, (hehehe) but I’M BAAAAACK.

God has taught me so much this past week. It actually blows my mind, but let’s be real here, God always blows my mind, and I am going to make sure that it stays like that.

Have you ever felt like you are just an old piece of battered scrap metal that nobody wants? You just sit there and feel like you can’t get back up again. You feel so far down, and wonder how anyone could want you, how God could want you? You want to make things better, you want to be better, but you feel that it is impossible, and if not impossible that it will be too much work and excruciatingly painful. Sometimes I feel as though my heart has been pulled out of my chest, blended, fed to a dragon, pooped out, where it was then fed to a giant, pooped out again, blended again, then grilled, and finally thrown into a freezer. Okay, maybe that is a little dramatic, but you get the picture. Sometimes life is just so hard! 

But seriously. Over these past couple of weeks I have forgotten about God’s grace, and ultimately forgot about Jesus. I think we so often get caught up in things we have done, or even worse things we haven’t done, and we forget that we are blameless in God’s eyes because we are covered by Jesus’ blood. We forget that he has made us new, and continues to make us new on a daily basis. For some reason I have had this allusion in my head that God made me new once, and ever since then, I have had to earn my grace. When that is obviously not the case. God continually renews our spirit, wipes away all of our sin, picks us up, and sets us on the straight and narrow path. He never leaves us or forsakes us. He never gives up on us. Sure life is painful, and getting to the place we want to be is hard, but with God and His amazing grace we can do ALL things. God can pick up our heart whether it is inside the dragon’s digestive system or being blended, and make it whole again. He can not only make it whole again, but make it better then it was before. We must allow God to work on our hearts. We must allow Him to use situations in our life to develop our character and teach us. We must not forget that God continually makes us new.

Now onto the blizzard. Here in Seattle it has basically been…well….Antarctica. Everything is closed, the streets are abandoned, people have lost power, trees are falling down, the city is basically CLOSED. Which is weird to me. Being locked up inside, God has really shown me just how important it is to spend time with HIm. To lay in silence looking up at my ceiling and just thinking, praying, and most importantly LISTENING. To blast worship music and sing at the top of my lungs in the shower. To read the Bible, read commentaries,  and read other Christian books. Not only be alone with God in solitude, but also talk about God with friends. See what He has been doing in their lives, what they are learning, and share struggles with them. ( if you’d don’t have friends you can do that with…STOP READING THIS RIGHT NOW AND GO GET SOME!)

I encourage you to take time to be with our Creator. It is so easy (especially for me) to get caught up in life, school, friends, expectations, working out, eating, sleeping, working, blah, blah, blah. I find that I am most at peace and filled with joy when I take time to be with my Savior, when I put the studying and papers on hold, and just sit in His presence. 

While sitting in His presence over this week, He has really convicted me on some things. It has been absolutely delightful (weird adjective). And this is where we talk about the clock. God has reminded me that He has given me this precious time on earth for a reason. I am not supposed to just sit here and be a vegetable, watch TV all day, wallow in my stupidity, and do nothing with my life. Especially in this season of my life where I have SO MUCH FREE TIME on my hands, I need to be using it wisely. I need to be learning as much as I possibly can about God’s word. I need to be building relationships. I need to be serving others. I need to be open to the Holy Spirit’s guiding, prompting, and convicting.

So this is me saying I WILL NOT waste the time God has given me here on this earth. I will pursue HIs will with all of my heart, leaving out nothing. I will not be lazy, I will pursue His dreams for me with all of my heart and I will do the absolute best I can. 

Let God mold your heart, and make it new on a daily basis. 

Be still with your Savior.

Don’t waste the time He has given you.

Be the best you can be.

Be the amazing, wonderful, beautiful, funny, inspiring, driven and hard-working person God created you to be, and don’t let anyone tell you that you aren’t any of those things. 

Don’t let anyone tell you that you aren’t capable, because through Christ we can do all things.

*please don’t judge my grammar :p