Jesus, the Cross, Resurrection and... bunnies with eggs?

Before we begin I have but one very important question for you all:  why is it an easter bunny? Who came up with this idea and did they not realize that bunnies don't lay eggs?  I would like to see someone dress up as an Easter Duck or maybe an Easter Chicken next year. 

With that said..

Every Easter at our church we have a group come in called Teen Challenge.  Basically it's a program for troubled teens and young adults.  About six or seven of their students come in to sing and give their testimonies in front of the whole church. 

Now what is Easter?  Good Friday, as most of you probably know, is the day our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified for us; so that we may live.  Three days later, (otherwise known as Easter) he rose again.  With this act of selfless love came a choice for each and every one of us, which will we choose? Heaven or hell? I look at it this way: Jesus died for me, so I'm going to live for him.

Every single one of those young people that stood on that stage Sunday morning were a new creation in the eyes of God.  As Jesus was being beaten and spit on and laughed at; and as he was hanging on that cross; he held the sins of the world on his shoulders.  So that we may be washed clean and made a new creation.  So that now, I can go to Heaven with Christ and live there eternally with him.  These people came from all different backgrounds, but they all ended up there, with a new hope.  They came from struggling addictions and depression, to now, a new creation in the eyes of God.

Sometimes I feel so ungrateful.  My sinful nature really gets to me and I forget that sacrifice that was made.  He died that way so that I don't have to.  And I complain?  He has made a covenant with us.  Because Jesus Christ died for us, we have been called to live for him.  To go out and stare this world in the face.  Shining the light of Christ to a hurting world.  Because why?  Because we are new, and because one day we will be able to see our God face to face. 

While today is a day of fun, it's also a day of remembrance.  It's a day of forgiveness and a day of true agape love.  YOU are a new creation!  Now go out and live it!

Friends.. can't live with 'em and you can't live without 'em

Well I've had an eventful last few days.. to say the least.  Wednesday I worked at the church all day.  Doing what, you ask?  Millions and millions of water balloons.  Okay not really, it was only about four hundred and something, which is not nearly as bad.  I was there all day making water balloons with my best friend.. and her brother.  Of course we couldn't start this adventure until we had eaten, so to Taco Cabana we go! I was thrilled. An excellent way to start the day.. mexican food!  Well, not really.  

As we were nearing completion of our third bucket we got a little distracted and our 2 year old sides really came out in full blast.  We started fighting.   Now, as hard as this may be to believe, I did not start this fight.  She threw a water balloon at me and I had no choice but to return the cold favor.  So I filled one up and threw it back. Next think I knew we were wrestling with the hose, soaking wet.  We were in the church parking lot  so basically, we were like "Live Idiot T.V" to anyone lucky enough to drive by.  I'm sure, in between these people's snorts of laughter they were probably inquiring why a 2 teenage girls were having a water fight.  My response to these party poopers would be, "Ya know, you only live once.  And you are never to old too have water fights. Don't hate."  And then life would proceed as before.  This was really quite fun and so it's hard to believe that anything bad could possibly come out of it.  Have you ever tried walking around the rest of the day with wet jeans?  If you have, then you can only imagine how uncomfortable this was for me.  Especially when we went to go get ice cream and the world stared at us as if we were freaks or something, oh please. You're just jealous 'cause you don't look like me right now.  Actually this is probably not true. In fact, it was I who was jealous of them.. and their dry pants.  However, I did get to truly experience what it's like to be a gangster.  How did you experience this? You ask.  Well after I got my jeans wet they became like 5 sizes bigger and began to sag.  All I will say to this is, thank goodness I was wearing a belt 'cause I sure didn't want my "pants on the ground".   In the end, I didn't care that I looked like a wet hobo, I was extremely happy.  I'm very blessed to have such an amazing best friend, who will still have water fights with me.  Someone I can count on and talk to whenever.  The moral of this story is: Keep your friends close and the water hose closer.  

On a more serious note, don't take advantage of those people God puts in your life.  I can assure you they are there for a reason.  They should be a blessing to you.   My friends are definitely a blessing to me.  And also, don't go through life as a boring person.  Sometimes crazy is good. ;)

This One's For The Girls.

Sometimes, it's hard to be a girl.  Honestly, it's hard to be anyone in a world like this.  The world can be so stressful in the way it presents itself.  Does the world enjoy making itself so appealing to us girls? Only to make us feel even more insecure?  I've sometimes found myself giving in to the desires of the world, I can be easily tempted by it's "beckoning calls".  I know I shouldn't but sometimes, it's quite hard too.  The world gives us an example of something it thinks we should resemble and then tirelessly struggles to convince us of it.   It throws us magazines and billions of MTV t.v shows that promise "perfection", Yeah right! The reality is that this standard of perfection isn't even.. real.  What we are expected to look like are a bunch of girls that either starve themselves or practically look like barbies after hours of digital editing.  Is this real?  Is this realistic?  Is this truth?  The sad thing is.. I sometimes strive for something unrealistic without always realizing it.  As Hannah Montana so annoyingly said: "Nobody's Perfect." However truth deprived Miley Cyrus may be, this saying has a lot of sense to it.  Nobody is perfect. We all have our share of insecurities no matter what we look like.  If we are seemingly "perfect" or have many noticeable flaws, we are all made in the image of God.  Isn't that real?  Isn't it beautiful?  No one is ugly in God's sight.  How can we be?  We were made in his image!  Not the worlds image. Contrary to what people may tell you, you are fearfully and wonderfully made {Psalm 139}.  And this is something I'm still trying to learn myself.  I understand fully what God says of me but it's difficult to think on such things when the world constantly tells me otherwise.  In the end, it's nothing more than a fruitless pursuit. It will only drain us emotionally, spiritually and also physically.  Read Psalm 139 and be blessed by these words of unchanging truth.  Have an awesome day!

The gorgeous capital building of Texas.

We praise Him when we win, and we praise Him when we lose.

Small side note before we begin: This is my second year of Speech and Debate.  Now, moving on.

At the beginning of this competition season I really only had one goal, and that was to make it to Regionals in something.  With this is mind, I began preparation.  Over the summer I had read "Do Hard Things" and from this book came my inspiration for my next Persuasive speech.  I wrote the very first draft this summer in a speech and debate camp, and presented it there.  After getting a lot of good compliments and feedback on this speech I decided it was a keeper.  I competed with it in the first STOA tournament of the year in New Braunfels. I ended up placing 8th with it and this is when I knew that this.. was the speech for me. 

At the beginning of the new year we had the first NCFCA tournament.  Most commonly referred to as the Houston January Warm- Up.  Here I actually qualified for Regionals, and I was totally amazed and completely grateful.  To be honest, I thought my qualifying for Regionals would be much harder than this, so you can imagine my surprise.  Over the course of the next few tournaments I found that I continued being successful with my speech.  This is when I realized that this speech had been for a reason, the Lord had given me this initial idea for a reason.  I haven't gotten 1st place with it, 2nd place or even third place but that's not what I'm concerned with. The Lord helped me to achieve my goal, and that's all I asked for.  I know that there are people who need to hear it, and to be the person who gets to present it to them is incredible.  I feel so very blessed.

But I wasn't just gonna give up.  Yes, I had reached my goal but now I was going to try to make it in other things. More specifically,  original oratory.  I had an okay topic,  and I wanted to advance in this speech too.  Well before we continue let me just point out something to you, this will aid in understanding of the story as we continue.  I like to procrastinate.  Well I guess I shouldn't say like, because I don't like too, but I do have a terrible habit of doing so.  I would compete with my speech, and I would get a lot of great feedback and every time I would get soooo close to making it, but not quite.  I knew I needed to make some changes but I kept putting it off because, frankly, I just have a lot of stuff to do.  Now this is where it gets really stupid, I finally decided to work on it 3 days before the last qualifier of the year.  I realized that this tournament was my last chance with this speech and so I got to work.  This is the sad part.. I attempted to memorize it on the way there.  Now, let me just say that It was basically down.  Parts that I didn't know, well, I just acted like I did know them and no one suspected a thing.  But the last round,  I wanted to break so badly that I became really nervous, in turn making me totally blank out.  Fortunately I was able to get back on track and finish out strong.  But I knew that I wasn't gonna break now, there were a lot of OO's and although mine was not a bad speech there were probably other people who also had good speeches and also had them memorized!! I was upset over not breaking, but I can't say I was surprised.

Afterward, I really couldn't do anything but praise God.  This had been an amazing year and he had given me the strength and the perseverance to achieve my goal.  Not only did I qualify for Regionals, but I also qualified for STOA Nationals.  And that is amazing!  I can give no one credit but the Lord, He is awesome! And now I can't wait for regionals!

My weird life as a Speech and Debater. (Note: This post has no moral value whatsoever)

Let's just say every time I go to a tournament it feels like I'm practically moving out of my house.  My mom comes out with things I don't think she needs, and I'm right behind her with stuff I know I don't need.  I'm in my suit most of the time so I'm not sure why I insist on packing a ton of extra clothing.  The funny thing about speech and debate is that everyone else thinks we're so nerdy.  But we think we're super cool.  Which I think I will have to agree with, for the most part.  We are awesome.  What can we say?  For about 3 days we're stuck inside a building surrounded by debate boxes and suit jackets, and we lose all contact with civilization.  In fact, after the third day, when we walk outside to leave, we fall to the ground screaming, "Ahh! The Light! It burns!".

Actually, this isn't entirely true.  We do see the outside world once in a while.  The notion that all homeschoolers are anti social needs to be destroyed.  While I will agree that some are I think it's very much incorrect to assume that we all are. Our being schooled at home means NOTHING. I felt like a true nerd when I got excited about.. wait for it.. suit shopping!  It was before our recent Austin tournament.  I desperately needed a new suit and mom finally gave in to my constant reminders of this fact.  So off we went to go suit shopping.  And I was excited!  I still don't understand this but maybe I never will.  I live off of Starbucks and after about two days my feet feel like they are about to fall off.  I can't wait for the day they decide to have it in a church with accessible escalators.  On a serious note, running around in heels all day long is NOT on the top of my "I love" list.  At the beginning of the day I feel really businesslike and professional, towards the end of the day my attitude on this issue is more like: Forget businesslike.. get me some socks.  I'll go barefoot if I have to! Well, it's 8 in the morning and I'm running out of things to talk about.  So I guess this is it. :)