Random Thoughts for the day!

It has been a while since I have written on here. I guess, I just haven't had anything worth saying. Lately, I have been thinking, what my purpose in life is. I had a great friend tell me the other day that I'm a nuturing person. I guess that word would work. Most of the time though I think of myself as a whining, emotional basket case. I have recently decided that I want to go in a different direction with my life plan. I have been feeling this way for a while, but I was too scared to say it out loud to anyone for fear of the thing I want to do, actually coming true. I know, how ridiculous is that? It was my rationality though. I want more than anything to serve God with my life. I do not feel as though I am accomplishing that where I am at in my life right now. We as Christians are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus. I want to be this so badly, but am so afraid. I have joked around about it many times, that I want to quit school and become a missionary, but I know that this is not the path that I am supposed to take. I feel as though my calling in life is to serve God through serving others. I know that having a college degree is not something that I have to have to serve God, but I think that it would help me along the way though.

I am not one to normally step out of my comfort zone and completely change my mind on something. It is time for a change. I have lived a life full of difficulty and hardships. I think of this not as a cursing from God, but a blessing! I know that the reason that I have had the trials in my life is because I am meant to help others with the trials in their lives. God gives us hardships so that we can help others to go through their hardships. Each person is a part of God's will. It has taken me 19 years to figure out why these "bad" things were happening to me. I am part of God's glorius and beautiful plan. In our eyes many time, God's will is not what we want, but that is because we can't see the whole plan. We only see what we want to see, not what God sees.

I know that I have jumped all over the place with this post, but it is because I have about a million thoughts going in my head right now, and I took cold medicine. lol

The whole reason I started this was to tell about this thought that I have been having the last couple of days. That thought is that I feel differently than most people. I don't mean like touching something. I mean like the way my mind works. Most people can feel for other people, but I feel as though I take on peoples pain, peoples happiness. I feel so deeply for people. This is a blessing from God, even though most of the time I am embarrassed by it. My friends, I'm sure always think "oh no, here we go again Allie is crying." or "ugh, Allie is really happy all of the time, it's so annoying." Well, it isn't anything I can help. I know when it is coming and there is nothing I can do about it. I cry when I'm happy, I cry when I'm sad. It's not that I like to cry, it's just that how my body copes with things. I feel things so intensly that sometimes it makes me sick to my stomach. I know that you make think that I am totally weird, but, it is me. I have learned that there is nothing I can do about it. The people who love me just accept me for who I am! Thank goodness there are people that love me!

If anyone reads this and would like to pray for me, that would be very much appreciated! If I can return the favor let me know.

-Allie :)

Legacy

My one wish for my life summed up in a song!!!!!! LOVE IT!

I don't mind if you've got something nice to say about me
And I enjoy an accolade like the rest
And you can take my picture and hang it in a gallery
Of all the "who's who's" and so-and-so's
That used to be the best at such and such
It wouldn't matter much
I won't lie, it feels alright to see your name in lights
We all need an "atta boy" or "atta girl"
But in the end I'd like to hang my hat on more besides
The temporary trappings of this world
I want to leave a legacyHow will they remember me?
Did I choose to love?
Did I point to You enough
To make a mark on things I want to leave an offering
A child of mercy and grace
Who blessed Your name unapologetically
And leave that kind of legacy
I don't have to look too far or too long awhile
To make a lengthy list of all that I enjoy
It's an accumulating trinket and a treasure pile
Where moth and rust, thieves and such will soonenough destroy
I want to leave a legacy
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love?
Did I point to You enough To make a mark on things
I want to leave an offering
A child of mercy and grace Who blessed Your name unapologetically
And leave that kind of legacy
Not well-traveled, not well-read Not well-to-do, or well-bred
I just want to hear instead
Well done, good and faithful one
I want to leave a legacy
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love?
Did I point to You enough To make a mark on things?
I want to leave an offering
A child of mercy and grace Who blessed Your name unapologetically
And leave that kind of legacy
I don't mind if you've got something nice to say about me

Overwhelming...

My life is, to say the least,overwhelming right now. Moving in with my grandparents, my car getting totaled, and just about anything else you could think of is probably happening to me. I promise this isnt going to be a huge long story whining about my problems. Yes, i have things going on in life that I wish I could change, but I've come to the realization that I can't. I can't change them, because this is the path that my AMAZING God is leading me down. God has a plan for my life and is slowly, even though I'm having a hard time understanding, revealing it to me. I need to take what He gives me and use it to make my testimony stronger and grow more and more in love with Him. I need not focus on this world, yet focus on what I can do in my life to glorify Him. He has given me air to breathe, an able body,and people who love me. And yet, I still ask for more. I haven't been in my Bible like I should be lately and honestly, I feel like when I am in it that things are a little easier to get through. The inportant thing to get out of that line I just wrote is that I didnt say that things were easier, I said that when I am in God's word, things are easier to get through. it's like the footprints poem.


One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there were one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord,
"You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during
the most trying periods of my life
there have only been one
set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most,
you have not been there for me?"

The Lord replied,
"The times when you have
seen only one set of footprints in the sand,
is when I carried you."
-Mary Stevenson

Whenever I'm going through tough things I think of this poem and how true it is. When I think I'm alone and have no one else, My God is right there carrying me! When I think about that it blows my mind. Why would He, the God of the heavens and the earth, choose me the lowliest of sinners? But He does choose me, He chooses to carry me when I need Him even if I haven't been the best I can be. I just felt the need to share, what God is showing me in my life right now so maybe I could courage someone else.

"you can have me" by the sidewalk prophets!

If I saw You on the streetAnd You said come and follow meBut I had to give up everythingAll I once held dear and all of my dreamsWould I love You enough to let goOr would my love run dryWhen You asked for my lifeWhen did love become unmoving?When did love become unconsuming?Forgetting what the world has told meFather of love, You can have meYou can have meIf You’re all You claim to beThen I’m not losing anythingSo I will crawl upon my kneesJust to know the joy of sufferingI will love You enough to let goLord, I give you my lifeI give you my lifeWhen did love become unmoving?When did love become unconsuming?Forgetting what the world has told meFather of love, You can have meYou can have meI want to be where You areI’m running into Your armsAnd I will never look backSo Jesus, here is my heartWhen did love become unmoving?When did love become unconsuming?Forgetting what the world has told meFather of love, You can have meYou can have meWhen did love become unmoving?When did love become unconsuming?Forgetting what the world has told meFather of love, You can have meMy Father, my loveYou can have me

Follow Me!

“Follow Me”, what if God came to you while you were going about your normal day, and said those two words to you? What would your first reaction be? What would you do or say? Matthew 8:34 says, “When He called the people to himself, with his disciples also, He said to them “Whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” God commands us to give up all that we have and all that we know to follow Him. For many of us, our answer to the command “follow me”, would be “but God, what about…” We could insert a million different things into that blank. As Christians we have to be ready at any time to get up and follow after Jesus with everything we are. In Luke 9:61-62, “And another also said, ‘Lord I will follow You, but let me firs t go and bid farewell who are at my house.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘No one having put his hand to the plow, and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Jesus is constantly telling people to come and follow Him, and their answers are the same as many Christians today would be. This verse inspires me to not look back on what I have but rather to look forward to what is waiting for me in Heaven. If we get up every day as though the first thing we hear is Jesus saying to us “Follow Me”, then maybe we as Christians could really make a stand for Jesus. My challenge is for Christians to live their daily live as though Jesus is walking in step with them throughout their whole day. “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” John 8:12 This is a promise from Jesus to us, if we will just follow Him!

GET OVER YOURSELF!

Get over yourself, I hear myself saying this over and over again. I say it about others and to others (in a joking manner of course),but I also say it to myself quietly. It never really hit me how powerful those three words really are, until I was reading through the book Crazy Love. I was recently talking to a friend and I specifically remember saying, “I wish they would just get over themselves”. Now that I think back on that night, all I can think is, who am I trying to kid, I need to get over myself. I wonder how many times in a day I say the word “I”, I have already said it 15 times in this small paragraph. What if I took that word and replaced it with the word “others”? Would this change everything about how I am are seen? Life is too short to constantly be worrying about “me” or “I”. If you truly have the love of Jesus in your heart, how can you not share it? We as Christians are called to serve God, and the biggest way we are called to serve is just to tell others about Him. Think about how you heard about Jesus, maybe you were raised in church or maybe you heard through a friend. Just imagine for a second that you had never heard or encountered that person. You would not be where you are today. What if you are supposed to be the person who tells that friend or random person on the street about Jesus. Would you just ignore the feeling, would you just tuck it behind and say “I’ll come back to that later” or “I’ll do it some other time”? I have found myself saying those 2 phrases many times before and I’m here to tell you, it’s just not working for me. Have you heard yourself say those exact same things time and time again? I have a solution for all of us in this same situation: GET OVER YOURSELF!!! We have a God who loves us unconditionally. Do you really think He would give us a task and not be there to support us in it 100%? Psalms 37:28 very clearly lays this out for us, “For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones…” If we serve God and quit worrying about “me” and “I” maybe, just maybe, there would be a difference in this world. I don’t know if it is just me, but doesn’t it make you worry when you are walking down the street, in a store, or in a group of friends and you have no idea if the people you are surrounded by are Christians. This scares me to death. I think it is time to take a stand for what we know is the Truth. We all need to get over ourselves and do what we are called to do. The God who gives us life, who gives us air to breathe, who has supplied us with more than we could ever think, ask, or know that we have, asks us to do this one thing: Tell others about Him. In the book Crazy Love, Francis Chan talks about how each of us are so tiny. Each of us will get a short time to show God what we did to serve Him. Chan says “We have only our two-fifths-of-a-second-long scene to live. I don’t know about you, but I want my two-fifths of a second to be about my making much of God.” Reflect on what that says for a minute. In the book of James the Bible tells us, “Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” So since we only have this short time here on earth, let’s get up go out and do God’s will. It is time that we all get over ourselves.

"Until the whole World hears" by casting crowns

Just thought I would share a song that has really been touchin gmy heart lately!

Lord I want to feel your heart
and see the world through your eyes
I want to be your hands and feet
I want to live a life that leads

chorus
ready yourselves
ready yourselves
Let us shine the light of Jesus in the darkest night
ready yourselves
ready yourselves
May the powers of darkness tremble as our praises rise
Until the whole world hears Lord we are calling out
Lifting up Your name for all to hear the sound
Like voices in the wilderness we're crying out
as the day draws near
we'll sing until the whole world hears

Lord let your sleeping giant arise
Catch the demons by surprise
Holy nation sanctified
Let this be our battle cry

chorus

we'll sing until the whole world hears
we'll sing until the whole world hears

Want to be your hands and feet
Want to be a life that leads
To see you set the captive free
Until the whole world hears
and I pray that they will see more of you and less of me
Lord I want my life to be the song You sing
Until the whole world hears Lord we are calling out
Lifting your name up for all to hear the sound
Like voices in the wilderness we're crying out
as the day draws near
we'll sing until the whole world hears
we'll sing until the whole world hears
we'll sing until the whole world hears
we'll sing until the whole world hears
we'll sing until the whole world hears
we'll sing until the whole world hears