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. :)

Courage in the face of the.. Itsy Bitsy Spider?

It seems as if courage is a trait more abundant in the younger years.  Before reality fully hits them and they still have their innocence.  Today I was patiently helping Jordan with her reading homework, when Sydney runs in wearing my dads shoes and holding a broom.  "Will you kill a spider for me?!" Her frightened facial expression gave me a heads up before anything came out of her mouth.  "Sydney I'm sure you're fully capable of killing that spider, how big is it?".  With hand signals, she showed me exactly how big the spider was.  Or at least, how big she wanted me to think it was.
"Sydney, you can kill that by yourself."  "No, I don't want to" "Sydney, with living in the country comes, being able to kill bugs." Or rather.. 'Arachnids'. "Will you please do it for me!!?".  Jordan, my 6 year old sister, obviously got tired of the persistent arguing and said, "I'll do it!!".  She stood up, grabbed another pair of my dad's shoes and shuffled from the room.  She's not really a big fan of spiders either but she walked confidently forward to the place where the spider was presumed to be.  She stopped, crossed her arms,  and said, "where is it?". By this point, Sydney was on the table pointing to where it was. Let's just say, we had to squint to see that thing.  Jordan raised the shoe in battle position and charged!! Just killing this spider obviously didn't suffice for this 6 year old.  She didn't stop until she had completely mutilated it.  

When we are younger, we're almost fearless. As we get older we are exposed to more and more of the world causing us to become more afraid.  I watched Jordan smash that spider with every inch of strength she possessed.  She seemed fearless.  As she gets older, she will take in more of the world, giving her more things to fear.  While killing a spider is a measly example of courage for some, it was a moment of panic for Sydney and moment of courage for Jordan.  As she gets older, there will be more things that will cause her to fear. I pray she will approach them with the same attitude of fearless innocence, and a mindset that will empower her to conquer the world.

The only difference is, when we get older we become more aware, this makes us more or less afraid depending on the attitude we possess.  If you let the world scare you, it will.  But if you choose to enter this world like it's the spider and you're carrying a shoe, there is almost nothing that can stop you.  Let God be your shoe.  With God, what do we possibly have to fear?  Yes, as humans we will still become afraid at times, but there is a difference between being afraid and being in constant fear.  Remember, there is a God who is watching out for you no matter what!  You can feel safe and secure because he loves you too much and he will never present you with something you can't handle.  Be strong! And be fearless in the Lord!

There's a first time for everything

I was excited when my mom informed me last night that our Friday trip to Six Flags was being moved to today.  I haven't been to the park in about a year (Due to a then 4 year old who wouldn't find following me around all day, roller coaster after roller coaster, appealing). So this was great!  There is something about roller coasters.  I love them!  What can I say?  My soon to be 12 year old sister, on the other hand, does not.  Until today, she had been fine with the "little coasters".  Much to my dismay, this choice often left me riding alone.  But today, my friends, was the day, she had dared herself to ride at least one scary roller coaster.  She even posted it on Skype with hopes that her buddies would keep her accountable.  After about the first 30 minutes of being there we located the roller coaster of choice, the Boomerang!  We got in line (A long line at that, no thanks to spring break) and waited until it was our turn.  After about 25 minutes in that dreadful line, we crossed a certain point and I took it upon myself to inform my sister that now.. there was no turning back.  She was getting on the roller coaster if I had to drag her kicking and screaming.  She gave me an amused smile and the wait continued.  Finally! It was our turn.  While most people prefer the front of the ride, I raced to the back.  (If you've ever seen the Boomerang, you'll understand)  The back gets the highest drop, and you know what this means.. more drop- more butterflies!

Well,  human emotions can change in an instant!  We were buckled in and the sloped ascension began!  On the way up I made sure to remind the happy go lucky 11 year old next to me that the drop was steep.  (Just to make sure she was prepared) And she just smiled in bliss. "Oh boy" I thought, "She has no idea".  We soon reached the top and without warning.. It dropped!  Well, her smile vanished and was instead replaced with continuous screams of "I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!" throughout the entire minute long ride. While she continued to scream I just smiled, but not with a look of  I told you so!  Because frankly, I didn't really tell her so. I rode with a look of contentment.  After a few turns, being dangled upside down and riding backwards, the ride came to an abrupt halt.  All three of us exited and headed out, occaisonally stealing glances at the poor people still waiting in line and deciding whether or not the ride was actually worth the wait.  We concluded that yes, it was.  Sydney turns to me, hugs me and says "Thank you Conner, I love you!".  Remember what I said about human emotions and their capacity to change quickly?  All in about five minutes, Sydney goes from hating me to loving me.  Awhhh! Well I guess that's what amusement parks are for! Right?  And like I said, There's a first time for everything.

Why do things like this happen?

Yesterday morning I was enjoying my daily, "read current event articles and drink coffee" time when I came across an article concerning Japan.  By the time I had gotten through the article and examined all the attached pictures; my heart was heavy.  My heart grieved for those over seas trapped in these abysmal circumstances; men, woman and children.  Water engulfed houses and buildings, debris and parts of random objects flowed through the streets in murky water.  As of right now, the situation looks hopeless.  The economy they had spent forever building, crumbled again in seconds with no guarantee it would ever be the same again. 

Which prodded me to ask the appropriate question, why do things like this happen?  Why does God allow such things to happen?  I think the fact that 'God is in charge' sometimes slips our minds.  We can't think of any reason this would happen, but God knows exactly why this would happen.  And although this is hard for us to understand,  we have to be faithful and trust in Him.  Do you think Job, from the Bible, asked this question when everything he knew was taken away from him? Yes.  Do you think it was hard for him to understand why God would allow these things to happen? Probably.  But did Job ever lose faith?  Never. Job never lost faith in God's overall magnificent plan. 

While we must send out prayers to those in Japan throughout these terrible circumstances, we also need to trust; trust that God knows exactly what he's doing.

{The Great American Sophism}

Sophism- A fallacious argument, esp. one used deliberately to deceive. 

As Americans, and also as humans I think we can find many things that fit perfectly with this definition.  But when I ran across this definition there was really only one thing that came to mind.  The great American lie: That we are not good enough.  Although, it's not always openly voiced, we can't deny.. it's seen everywhere.  Don't believe me?  Go stand in line at any grocery store and read the front cover of every magazine.  They will often say things like, "Do this for amazing hair"  or "10 ways to get your best body for summer." This not enough?  Flip through a few pages and you'll find articles on how to make yourself better, get more attention from guys, or step by step instructions to improve your love life.  The reality is, we're not good enough for the world.  In fact, we will never be good enough for the world.  And trying to keep up with it's constant trends will help you achieve nothing but emotional exhaustion, and often times; low self esteem.  The more you try to please everyone, the more you (without realizing it) degrade your self esteem, until you are doing nothing but hiding behind a plastic smile.  The sooner we realize that our identity comes from God and God alone, the better. 

For a few long agonizing years I tried desperately to improve myself in the eyes of others.  I wasn't free, I was being held captive to what the world thought about me, and I found my self esteem slowly withering away.  Until, I could find nothing nice to say about myself at all.  I would be a different person around different people, depending on who I was talking too.  And I hid behind a smile, in fact I became very good at.  No one ever suspected a thing, but I could feel everything.  It was emotionally straining.  Till I realized something, It was one of those Aha! moments.  Basically, why do I seek to please a world that I'm never going to be good enough for, when I already have a God who has told me exactly who I am in his eyes.

{Psalm 139}

When you accept Christ you are given a NEW identity.  Something that won't change.  No matter how much the world changes. What He thinks about us won't change.  And that is a promise.

You are more than the choices that you've made.
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes.
You are more than the problems you create.
You are more.
You've been remade.

This is not about what you've done..
but what's been done for you.
This is not about where you've been..
but where your brokenness brings you to.
This is not about what you feel.. 
but what he felt to forgive you. 
And what he felt to make you loved.

{You Are More- Tenth Avenue North}

When Two Different Worlds Collide: A look at Love

love  |ləv| (n)-  An Intense feeling of deep affection.

The other day I had the pleasure of going to the Daily Grind for some coffee and blogging (The Daily Grind is a small coffee shop in Boerne, for those of you who do not dwell here.)  And as I was sitting there I was confronted with two different scenarios.  At one table in the small coffee shop sat a family of three; a mom, a dad and a teenage boy about 15 or 16.  they talked together and they prayed together.  From what I could see, they seemed very close knit.  My writing was interrupted by another table in which a girl sat with her father.  She yelled at him while he tried desperately to settle things without too much disruption.  She wouldn't give him any chances to talk, and when she did, she quickly interrupted him.  After about 10 minutes of this she got up and stormed out, towards her car I figured.

I sat there, overcome with thought and realized that this would be a great blog entry.  But what would be the moral of this story?  I couldn't figure it out.  So I pulled out my trusty Macbook and quickly typed some things.  I decided I'd put the blog on hold (Or saved it as a draft, whichever you prefer to say.)  And pray about it.  Well, today is the day of valentines and as I was heading over to the Daily Grind.. Again..  It hit me!

Looking back at those two instances, I noticed that one of the lacked what the other one possessed; love.  Of course, I don't know how that girl actually felt about her father, but at that moment, all I saw was bitterness and feelings of betrayal.   While, in the other family, I could see the Love.   And since today is valentines day, or the day of Love I thought I'd write a few lines on it.  Real Love is a very powerful bond, that is a huge helper in the preservation of families.  But I'm not talking about that kind of Love that only, well, loves for selfish reasons.  I'm talking about selfless Love that allows for sacrificing between people or in families.  That girl wasn't sacrificing a whole lot for her father.  She was overcome with selfish ambition.  Selfish love will eventually bring destruction while selfless love preserves unity.

So with that thought for the day, Hope everyone has a fantastic Valentines Day!

Quote of the Day:

Regret looks behind, Worry looks around and Faith looks upward. 

Yes, I know this sounds somewhat philosophical, and for the sake of intelligence, I will say it is.  But if you really stop to ponder what this means you will realize how truly simply it is to comprehend.  Let me be the first to say this quote does an outstanding job of pointing out my humanly flaws.  First, I am one of those people who likes to cling to the past, although I shouldn't, I tend to find myself regretting one thing or another.  And when I regret things in the past, it normally changes my attitude for the future.  I also have a habit or worrying, OR maybe I just over think about things way to much? Anyway, the point is, worrying does not add a single day to your life.  The only thing it really does to you is either make you 1) really paranoid or 2) Mr. or Mrs. Negative.  And neither of these are very attractive character qualities.  But what about the last part of this quote?  Faith looks upward.  Notice, faith doesn't worry, faith doesn't regret, faith doesn't try to make something from nothing; faith simply looks upward.  I think there are two realizations that we need to come to. First, the past is called the past for a reason, the past is to help you learn from mistakes, not make you constantly regret them.  Instead of worrying about and regretting the past, we should be living in the present and anticipating the future.  Also, we need to remember that GOD holds the present and the future. . . why worry?

"Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to your life?  Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you. . ."

God is in control.  So what do we have to worry about?  Now, that we have canceled regret and worry, we are left with the last.. Faith looks upward.  Let us look upward with faith!


On Saturday I had a really close friend of mine come over and we sat on the trampoline talking about "Just girl stuff"  And as we kept talking, the conversation began to evolve into something more deep.  We talked about the past, and how we both have serious issues with 'Just letting go'.  The past is an awesome thing.. but it's the past for a reason.  We can't do it over, so why spend time thinking about it constantly?  We both agreed that we needed to let it go and anticipate the future as a field for accomplishing God's will.  Don't regret.  Don't worry.  Simply. . . Look upward.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

It’s that time of year again. Time for cold weather, Christmas shopping and the ‘guilty face’ you have to give your daughter when she innocently asks ‘what were you doing at toys-r-us?’.  Yes, it’s hard not to love the Christmas season, unless of course your one of the following people:

1) The Grinch
2) Ebenezer Scrooge

 But as this is doubtful, lets carry on.  The other day I was in Wal-mart and my eyes fell upon one of those flashy screens with the sole intent of catching your attention and keeping it.  “Give her Joy all year long with the new Ipod Shuffle” the words read and as I stared at it I realized how silly this ad was.  Treating this new and improved piece of technology as if it were the answer to all our problems.  I would first like to ask you this question: can earthly things really give us everlasting joy?  Let me be the first to say no.   I, myself, have relentlessly begged for things, claiming I would ‘never ask for anything ever again’ and assuming I would be given never ending joy.
Sure, I was content for a while until..  Something new came out.  Yikes!  It’s difficult to be constantly bombarded with new paraphernalia and not want it.  This is where real joy enters to picture.  Real joy?  Is there such thing?  Yes, real joy comes as a result of living your life completely for Christ, or ‘dying to self’.  Think about it, it is our selfish nature that gives us a desire for all of these ‘things’, so if we ‘died to ourselves’ we wouldn’t be affected by this insatiable desire for new stuff.  We would be content in spiritual joy and fulfillment.  So what does it mean to die to yourself?  In my view, it means to give yourself completely to the Lord, and ridding yourself of your selfish desires.  God is the only person we can get this joy and fulfillment from, often times we search the world for things that will satisfy us and like always, we are never truly satisfied.  We should search to completely follow Christ and seek our complete and total joy from him and him alone.   On that note, I will end with this seemingly relevant song: ‘Tis the season to be jolly fa la la la la la la la’.

Have a very merry Christmas and God bless!

A Thanksgiving Tribute

And again, Thanksgiving has come and gone, but just because the day is over doesn't mean the spirit should be also.  We may not 'chow down' on turkey everyday but we can still choose to be thankful everyday.  We should take every opportunity to show gratitude.

What did we do this Thanksgiving?

We left early Thursday morning, about 8:30.  A little later than I had originally hoped but hey, we're the Liberto's remember?  I should've expected nothing more.  Anyway, we were out by 8:30 and we started traveling to Houston.  I was content, we listened to Narnia in between reading and listening to music, and the trip just flew by!  Although, for us yearly Missouri travelers, the trip was nothing.  We were supposed to eat about one o' clock and in hopes of not getting there late, we were racing against time.  Don't worry though, no speed limits were crossed.  We arrived just in time, about 12:45 actually, were we lucky or what!  And get this, we didn't even get lost!  This was a big thing for us.  Those maps are pretty complicated, believe me.  Well, the food was absolutely delish and I ate a lot, as always on Thanksgiving day. After this we all went outside to enjoy the weather, I was patiently waiting for it to get colder.  And just my luck, it starts pouring rain.  But this was the fun part!  Running back to the house, occaisonally taking refuge under large trees. I took refuge under Stephen's 40 dollar hat. :)  Don't worry, It didn't last very long at all and we headed back out over to the fake, manmade lake.  I believe 'Unswimmable' is an accurate term for it.  We hung out there for a while and then in the car and off to Huntsville!  The remainder of the trip was more than fun, I had recieved the cold weather I wanted and I spent the rest of my Thanksgiving break with people I really enjoy being around.  We made fires, watched movies, went bowling, jumped on the trampoline with sleeping bags and made tons of unforgettable memories.  I realized how grateful I was to have such awesome friends and I hope we will continue to be friends.  Thanks, guys, I love you all. :)

Thanksgiving comes only once a year, but this doesn't mean we should set aside only this day to be thankful.  We should wake up everymorning with an 'attitude of gratitude', we always have something to be thankful about, even if we don't realize it.  I can say I'm thankful for my family, my awesome friends who never cease to be there for me, my education, my life.  The fact that I have a bed to sleep in at night and food to eat in the morning.  But most of all, The unescapable fact that I have Jesus, who cares for me so much that he would die the most excruciating death for me.  This is what I'm thankful for; and I try my best to express my thanks as often as I can, although this can get tough.  It's can sometimes be hard to act thankful when the circumstances are giving you no reason to be thankful.  We have to steer away from finding our happiness in life alone, when we start to find our joy through Christ we will find there are many things to be thankful for.

Be thankful and I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving day!