Things I Learned in 2013

Over this Christmas break I've been reflecting over 2013, so much has happened in my life over this year. God has blessed me with a loving family and amazing friends, and I thought that my little lessons might be too much for a Facebook status, so I saw it as a good excuse to break out the old blog. 

Here are several things that I have learned over 2013.

2 0 1 3 ' S    L E S S O N S

-family is forever 

-graduating from high school was an incredible feeling 

-I loved being homeschooled 

-Ramon noddles are nasty no matter how you fix em 

-Jesus is faithful to His promises 

-everyone you encounter has a story and something they can teach you

-there's a huge difference between redneck and country 

-communication is extremely vital

-I seriously overpack for trips 

-puppies grow up

-love never fails

-Starbucks is overpriced, but I won't stop buying it

-every kids favorite PE game is sharks and minnows 

-what's one more cookie?

-I am not defined by what I can do 

-trust God in every situation 

-I don't like cats 

-I have a huge urge to travel 

-ain't is a word

-be intentional in all that you do 

-I am slightly competitive 

-alone time is needed time 

-Netflix is literally the best 

-there really is no place like home 

-check the weather before you go camping 

-Pinterest crafts and projects are not done by real people 

-transparency with others is important 

-your never too old for a coloring book 

-I am one of the only southerners who doesn't like sweet tea

-but I am a fan of some Cheerwine, so I think that makes up for it

-laughter is the best medicine

-God loves to restore people and relationships 

-I am directionally challenged 

-my mom is my hero 

-I love home cooked meals 

-I dislike the season of winter and the temperatures it brings

-never listen to fear 

-I love the Carolina's

-always think the best of yourself and others

-my sister is my best friend 

-I hate running

-The Lord rewards those who diligently seek Him

-so much can change in a short amount of time 

-life is so much fun!

-positive thoughts are the best thoughts 

-I adore people with accents 

-I like to be busy

-always push yourself outside of your comfort zone

-getting totally lost can be fun, and teach you a lot about yourself 

-I love God's presence 

There ya have it! Some of my top points from 2013! 

I learned so much this year, about myself, about The Lord, and about others. 

I'm so thankful for all the family and friends that are in my life right now. 

And I am so ready for 2014!

I'm gunna own it!! 😉

A Lamp

"Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path."

Psalm 119:105

His Word is a lamp....

Through all of my life I've always been one to be asking, what's next? Hey! Lord, what's going to happen?! And I always want the full picture, right now! 

But when I was reading this verse, I realized that the Lord doesn't guarantee that He's going to give us all the details as soon as we want them, but He promises that He will be right there with us, as long as we stay in His Word, we will have a lamp to guide our footsteps and our path will be illuminated for our eyes. 

In Bible times there obviously weren't any extra bright flashlights around, they used lamps, lit by candles when the sun went down. And we know that candles give off a very dim light, so while using a lamp, they were only able to see the next step, unlike flashlights, which allow us to see a long way down the path ahead. 

This verse reminds us that we need to let the Word of God guide our next step. And as we continually take those small steps that His Word opens up for us, no matter how small or insignificant they seem, we find that we are walking down the path that Lord wants us on. 

Hello, Beautiful.

Four Percent.

This statistic is crazy and blows my mind. Four percent of woman around the world consider themselves to be beautiful. That's it.
I came across this subject yesterday when I saw a video made by Dove, who conducted a social experiment to see how women view themselves. The results are crazy!

A former forensic artist for the San Jose department met with and asked a group of women to describe to him the way they look. They were separated by a curtain, and he asked them specific questions, and wanted detailed explanations of their hair length, the structure of their face, and their best and worst features. While asking the questions he drew each of the women according to their explanation of themselves.
Before the study was conducted each women was asked to get to know one of the other women in the group, then describe this other women's features in detail to the forensic artist. Just like they did for themselves.
After the sketches are over, the artist brings in the women and shows them two sketches, the one that they helped him draw, and the other one how the other woman viewed them.

Definitely watch the video below! The impact is amazing!

Why do we view ourselves so critically? I know I do it all the time, judging every little feature about myself that doesn't fit the perfect image of how I think I should look. And then feeling self conscience about myself, what I wear, and always wanting to always "fit in".
Why do we let the latest fashions, and magazines determine how we feel about ourselves?
And why do we let that runway model make us feel insecure in our body and dissatisfied with our figure and complexion.

The Bible has lots to say about this topic.

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end."

                                                                                                    -Ecclesiastes 3:11

God didn't create any junk! He didn't create anything to be ugly! He has made everything, that means us too, BEAUTIFUL!

 Song of Solomon 4:7 says,

        "You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you."

Even when your hair is all crazy and you smell bad, and you feel ugly. Or when your sick, or having a terrible day, the Lord still sees you as His gorgeous child.

And guess what? You were beautiful to Him before you were even born!

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand-- when I awake, I am still with you."

 

                                                                                  -Psalm 139:13-18

He formed you and knit you together, He loves each tiny detail about you! His thoughts are precious towards you, He thinks about you all the time, and He is crazy about you! Don't criticize yourself.


Are you convinced yet? Realize and believe that, YOU. ARE. BEAUTIFUL.

Love

And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:14 NIV)

It's a new year! 2013: another 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes, and 3,153,600 seconds of learning, progress, and new experiences.
(Well, now it's a little less cuz it's almost February!)
Anyways, with the new year always comes resolutions, gym memberships, and other cool stuff. I always write out new years resolutions at the beginning of every year, most the time I get super over ambitious and write out so many it's impossible to do them all.
This year my list consisted of reading a book a month (which would be a huge accomplishment for me), and then I'm gonna try to write a blog post per month....and I have several other personal goals with like my schoolwork and hobbies. That sorta stuff.
But this year my mom asked what fruit of the Spirit each of us kids wanted to 'resolve' to work on or focus on this year.
Galatians 5:22-25 says:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with it's passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep step with the Spirit.
So I got to thinkin bout it, and I could without a doubt use work in every area! But one that really stood out to me for this season in my life was love. It seems so simple, but loving people, God, and yourself can be super challenging (at least for me)! I feel like God's really pointing that out to me, because lately I've run into some people that I don't particularly like and even some people that have hurt my feelings in the past! And I've gotten myself to the point of honestly strongly disliking some of these people and wanting to hate them even! And when I get to feelin like this, I feel like God says, "Ashley, I made that person in My image, he/she is My favorite! He/She is My child!"
It sets me back a little and I think about all the times God has loved me when I have been the definition of unlovable!
If you read 1 Corinthians 13 it explains love super well..

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-13 NIV)

Love is like really important! I saw a little phrase on a missions newsletter I got in the mail that said, love has no borders.....I see how true that is in Corinthians. Love doesn't draw lines or build walls up.
In 1 John 4:8 it says that "....God is love."
And as Christians we are striving to be like our Heavenly Father in every aspect of our lives, so that means we must be love as well. That means loving our enemies and the unlovables. And even loving ourselves. Not in a selfish or proud way, but in coming to the realisation that God made us in His image exactly how He wanted us made and we have to accept ourselves and love ourselves if we're going to love and accept others.
This year and for the rest of my life I want to look like love, and love others for who they are and not for the reflection of myself that I see in them. I want God to saturate me with so much love that there will be no more place for hate.

Words Have Power

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that frightens us the most. We ask ourselves, " Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?" Actually, "Who are we not to be?" You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. We are born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence "automatically" liberates others.
-Marianne Williams (A Return to Love)

I haven't posted in like FORVER!! So I thought it'd be a good time for an update. Today I wanted to write about something that God's been speaking to me about lately.
I'll start by telling you about a dream I had a few days ago. It's not very long, but I felt like it was pretty powerful, at least to me.
It started with me and a couple of friends and we were hiking. So while we were enjoying our hike, we suddenly see all these tornadoes and those little twisters forming in the air, tons and tons of them began to form. At first I did feel a little afraid because we were on this mountain with no shelter, but my friend started to speak to these twisters, so I joined in with her, and we began to 'call out the good in these storms' and tell them that they would not be destructive, and telling them that they wouldn't hurt or harm anyone. As we were speaking they started to get smaller and smaller, then they'd disappear! It was just such an amazing dream, because I could feel God's presence and the authority that He has given us, and when I was speaking and declaring over the storm, I was like this is what we're supposed to be doing! God's given us authority and power in our words, we can change circumstances and atmospheres just with our words!
It made me think of Romans 8:18-19
"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed."
Creation is waiting for us to come to the realisation that we are the sons and daughters of the living God, and understand the power that we have!
In Proverbs 18:21 it says,
"The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat it's fruit."
God created the world with words, and He created us in His image which means we can create as well with our words.
So lately I've been speaking over myself and my life and just declaring the promises of God over myself, it really does work!! We are children of God!! Our home is heaven! We're not supposed to be suffering through our days, hating life. Our daddy is the Creator of the universe!!
So I'm gonna include some declarations that I speak over myself, if you'd like to do the same.

I am crucified with Christ
I am accepted in the Beloved
I am alive with Christ
I am a new creature in Christ
I am redeemed by the blood
I am forgiven of all my sins
I am alive with Christ
I am complete with Christ
I am a joint heir with Jesus
I am free from condemnation
I am justified by faith
In Christ, only the new creation means anything
Jesus has created One New Man and that New Man is in union with Christ
I am a New Man in complete union with Christ
I have put off the old man and his lifestyle
I am renewed in the Spirit of my mind
I have put on the new man which is created in righteousness and true holiness after the likeness of God Himself
I am the light of the world
I am loved
I am chosen
I am victorious!

Radical

I've been reading this book called Radical by David Platt. let me say, it is excellent! very challenging to the Christian faith. i have loved it so far. a lot of what he has been saying i've related to also. i'm gonna write some of the points in the book in this post for you. the point of the book is saying that we aren't called to a comfortable Christian life of going to church week after week, giving God an hour or two on Sundays and Wednesdays, never changing, maybe giving a tithe and expecting God to drop all this immense wealth into our laps so we can say that we are blessed. for one it's not about us we are called to a life of radical obedience to Christ. we aren't called to all be rich and have everything. there are entirely more important things in life than football or our job. we gotta wake up! several parts of the world haven't even heard about Jesus! our plans and goals need to be swallowed up in His.
following Jesus is going to cost us something, in Luke 9, there's a story about these 3 guys, so they come up to Jesus and their like we want to follow you Jesus!! the first dude says, "I will follow you wherever you go." (Verse 57) Jesus basically tells him that he might as well expect that he's gonna be homeless if he does. to the next guy Jesus says, "Follow Me." the man says, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." and get this, Jesus says, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." the third guy says, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me go back and say good-by to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." 
so these 3 guys want to follow Jesus, and they have some pretty simple conditions. i mean the guy wants to bury his dead dad, Jesus says no, the other dude wants to say bye to his family, sounds reasonable...i would want to, but Jesus is like you have to give up everything and not look back. it's all or nothing, pick up your cross, die to yourself.
we do have to give up everything to follow Jesus. we have to love Him with everything in us! we have to love Him more than anything in this world! He has to be our magnificent obsession. it's completely possible that He might tell us to sell everything we have and to go serve Him someplace. we have to abandon the attachments we have to this world. we are not of the world...we are a new creation. we are made in the image of Christ.
i met this man and his wife in Mexico last year, Jerry and Susy McNally, they gave up everything they had to go where the Lord was leading them. they moved to Mexico with their 4 or 5 kids, and they had like no money, not really any security, they were this white family in a different, dangerous country, they had only God and they knew how to hear His voice...today they are the founders of this big orphanage called Esperanza Viva. you can read more about them and their ministry at this link:
http://www.lovehopemercy.org/about-us-founders.asp
so Jerry asked us one night what we thought we were called to be or do...i wasn't really sure, and i think a couple of people may have said some stuff. but he said, our calling is to live a life of total obedience to Christ. now i know how true this is, it's not about our plans, our life is not our own, it's Christ's...

another Bible story brought up in the book was Matthew 13:44
"the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. when a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went a sold all he had amd bought that field."
the man happened upon this great treasure that was apparently worth more than he owned because he sold all he had to buy the field. it must have been pretty valuable!

anyway something else he said in the book directed to this verse was,
'with joy you sell all you have, abandon it all because you've found something worth losing everything for.
Do we believe He is worth abandoning everything for? Do we believe that Jesus is so good, so satisfying, and so rewarding that we will leave all we have and all we own and all we are in order to find our fullness in Him? Do we believe Him enough to obey Him and follow Him wherever He leads, even when the crowds in our culture-and maybe our churches, turn the other way?'

so are you going to say yes? even before you hear what Jesus wants you to do, will you say yes?
i want to live this life of radical obedience, it will be super hard! but i want more of Jesus! and talk about dying to your flesh daily! but it will be so worth it...

The Rest of the Trip-Haiti 2012

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of wittnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perserverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2

So, as you know i am now home. i flew in yesterday, and i was not diligent with my daily updates. for this i am sorry, but i'll make it up to you now.
me and Haiti have a love-hate relationship. i love the people so much! they are so welcoming and friendly. they make me want to stay there forever. i hate the poverty, destruction, and hopelessness. i love their unity, especially when they worship together! it's beautiful! of course i love the kids there. they are so grateful, and loving. if you give them a little attention they'll love you forever! they really just want someone to love them and give them a little attention. Haiti is so overwhelming to take in, then i think that there's no way i, myself could change every single life, fix every broken building, even in my lifetime. i couldn't fix it all myself...i guess i am saying that the overwhelming part is seeing myself compared to Haiti. Haiti is so big, destroyed, and poor, and i'm just one small kid. i want to fix everything! everyone here needs Jesus, everyone here needs healing, they need water, they need food, housing, everything. so how do i compare? what can i do? i know that if i touch one life, if one body gets healed, if one soul gets saved it's worth it! i just want to see it all get better. i wonder what the people in Haiti would be like today if they hadn't gone through that disaster. would they be struggling to survive and provide for their families?
the kids here absolutely amaze me! one of the interpreters i made friends with, his name is Peterson, he's 22, knows 7 languages fluently! and he's studying theology and is hoping to become a preacher! i was like dang! our other interpreter, named Sterling, is 17, and knows 4 languages and he's planning on studying medicine in a couple years. in America, compared to Haiti, our education standards are so low. we go through high-school most the time reluctantly, and dabble in a foreign language, and don't learn it, we can't speak it. we are so dumbed down. i think the difference is that the kids in Haiti i think value education, it's like all they have. if they don't have an education they really have nothing. they are very diciplined and dedicated, they have so much potential. they have really motivated me to higher my standards.
so anyway, back to the Haiti trip...where did i leave off?
ok so day 3 of the pastors conference, Todd was speaking about God releasing the healing mantle and raising up apostles, missionaries, evangilists, and preachers. i feel like i got commissioned, and tons of other people did also. we then went to lunch and came back to the compound and prayed in the church for the last night of the crusade. afterwards we went up on the roof of the church and got to see a lot of the city from overhead. i saw inside some of their homes and more of their everyday life. i saw kids playing ball and women cooking in their homes. all the homes were full of trash. i don't know why they don't keep their little 10x10 space clean. then we got to worship up on the roof. it was a different feeling worshipping in a different country, i danced around the roof and jumped all around. everybody was worshipping their hearts out! it was so awesome!! we were bringing Heaven down with our worship man! then Todd preached on salvation, and receiving it and receiving your healing. a lot of people got saved! there's no telling how many people got healed! i only got the opportunity to spend time praying for one lady. she was in a wheelchair and her legs were crippled and her kidneys were hurting. so i was praying and i got her to stand up, and she said she felt something happening in her body while i was praying for her. i was about to make her walk but we were told to get on the stage. so when we did, Todd started praying for us to have more fire, and for the sick to be healed through us and all that. and he went down in the crowd to pray for people himself, and we followed behind him praying for all the people we could reach! it was awesome! i wonder how many people got healed, i'm sure that lady in the wheelchair was ready to walk!

ok, the next day, Saturday we went to a market to shop for some suvieners. i actually bought some this time! haha! i'm not very good with remembering to take pics and buy stuff for people...i got some pretty nice stuff. we were joking about how all our Haiti suveniers were probably made in China:) there wasn't really any original things that i knew they made themselves. but i liked what i got!
after this we went to Pastor Vincent's orphanage. he has 19 kids from 4-16 years old. we fed them pizza which was the first time they had ever had it surprisingly! then we gave them candy and toys, they were so calm when we were handing it out, one kid didn't get one of the pieces of candy that all the others did and he didn't even say anything. one of the leaders noticed it and gave him some. but they were so calm and grateful. it was amazing. after lunch we broke out the toys! several team members brought stuff for the kids. so there was those punching balloon things and balls and kites and all that jazz. i played soccer with a few of the kids, i didn't realize Haitians are beast at soccer too! just like Hispanics! we started cheating a little bit, cuz we had no chance against these kids. we had to leave too soon, and we went back to the hotel for the night.

the last day of the trip, which was Sunday, a few of my team members were going to split up and speak in 3 local churches. so we picked up our interpreters and went to the churches. i was with Victoria, she had an excellent message! she spoke on how worship is our most powerful weapon and the Word of God is our sword. at the end she called up all the women and put her crown she won as miss North Carolina (or it might've been the one from miss Colorado) on each of their heads and told them how valuable and beautiful they are. and told them they are princesses. and she held up a mirror and told them to see how beautiful they were. some of them cried, and some of them wouldn't look, you could tell they didn't feel worthy. but it was an amazing moment to see. then she called up all the men and annointed them with oil and told them that God is the glory and the lifter of their heads. then i prayed for all the kids and annointed them all with oil. the kids were so receptive, they'd bow their heads and listen to my prayer, it was so sweet. people were bringing their babies up to me for me to pray for them. it was a great service! afterwards we went to Pastor Vincent's church and listened to his sermon. that afternoon we went to Pastor Vincent's mom's orphanage, she has almost 100 kids living in it. and she also takes in disabled kids as well. they basically have a self sustaining farm. they raise animals to eat and have a garden and all that. the kids go to school everyday and come back in the evening to do their chores, then study, then they get free time to play with one another. shes really hard core, she enforces dedication and perserverance into those kids lives, they are so blessed to be there!
well, i am back in America...i had the most amazing time in Haiti! i want to go back so bad! it was one of the best experiences of my life and i think it did change my life. it makes you see beyond yourself, and there's no way you can see life the same after you've wittnessed the extreme poverty there. i plan on going back someday, hopefully soon!
next stop: Honduras!:)