Am I really a SENIOR already!?

OH. MY. GOSH! I am a senior in college! As I was driving into College Station after being home for half of the summer it hit me, this a year full of lasts.  Needless to say I got sad, and then said "well, I just have to live it up while I can!" Anyways, I will be getting my AGGIE RING in NOT that long and I am SO excited! I have been talking about it to anyone who will listen and I'm pretty sure it's driving my family and friends crazy, but oh well! My parents, brother, and aunt and uncle are all coming for the big day and the only thing that would make it any better is if my awesome cousin/one of my best friends was going to be there, but she will be far, far away in Germany!! Christina, my cousin, will be in Germany for a little over SIX months!  As much as I am going to miss her I am so proud of her and can't wait to hear all about what the Lord has in store for her life while she's gone.  She is also an awesome photographer so I can't wait to see the pictures either! See here for more information about her trip!

 I will miss you and be praying for you!

Hopefully another post will be coming soon, but then again you never really know with me!

Recalculating

"Has not my hand made all these things, and so the came into being?" declares the Lord. 

"This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word."

Isaiah 66:2

I listened to one of Francis Chan's talks tonight and he read this verse.  I think there have been times when I've read a verse that really speaks to me and I've trembled at His Word, but not EVERY TIME I read my Bible.  We are supposed to tremble at the Word of God, and when you think about it, that really shouldn't be too difficult.  After all, He did create all the stars (I know I already mentioned this, but it amazes me everyday.)

FranChan was reading out of 2 Peter, and I have to say that for just reading 4 or 5 verses, I really learned alot.  (2 Peter 1:1-4)
1. My Faith is the same as that of Peter's, He is not more righteous or more loved by our Creator, we are equally loved! When I think about that I feel, I don't even know how to describe it, because I guess I look at my walk with Christ and Peter's and let's just say mine pails in comparison, but it's the SAME.  Jesus loves me the same! That's some REALLY great news!
2. We have grace and peace through the knowledge of God.  I'm pretty sure God shows me Grace everyday of my life! I screw-up at least once, if not more than once a day, but my life isn't about my screw ups, its about the Love of Christ that he shows me and that I show others.  I need to be living my life so that when people look at me they say "I wish I had her Dad," "I wish I had what she had."  My love for Christ should be something that people are able to see without me even telling them about Him.
3. We have been given all things that pertain to life and Godliness, so when I mess up, that's ALL on ME! Nobody else. Yikesss, scary.
4. Defend Confess and change! Easier said than done for sure. Most of us will defend our bad decisions as long as we can to make ourselves feel better, when actually we will feel better once we confess and make a change to prevent us from making that bad decision again.
5.  When I mess up, He isn't going to write me off, God says to me, "it's okay Aly, you'll still be the girl I created you to be, we're just going to take a little detour." Hence, the title, RECALCULATING.

I think He has had to recalculate my plan so many times He's probably lost count (except He hasn't because He's God and He knows everything.) I need to quit defending, start confessing, and always love others.  God has really been showing me how to love those I don't really want to love, it's been so interesting because I used to hold such anger and dislike towards a certain someone, and then I asked God to help me love everyone, and it has become much more easier to love this person.  I guess He was just waiting for me to ask for help.  Sometimes, I think we're too stubborn.  We need to get over it and ask for help and talk to our Maker.  He'll always be there for us.

I realize most of this is just rambling and might not make sense, but if you made it to the end I'm very proud of you!

Let me know what you think! (it's okay if you ramble on too)

Disappointment

I am such a disappointment as a blogger. It is ridiculous.  From now on I'm just going to pretend like tons of people read my blog and I don't want to disappoint that many people. Haha! How pitiful of me.  There are TWO weeks until spring break, count 'em! ONE, TWO! :) I am so ready for a little break but the two weeks leading up to that break are going to be insanely busy! All of my professors felt the need to pile all the work on before spring break, so goodbye everything I enjoy and hello school work! Ok, ok, that's kind of an exaggeration, especially since I am a HUGE procrastinator and I always find time for reading or watching a show I like no matter how much school work I have.  I won't complain too much about school work though because my mom recently referred to me as an "almost college graduate" and I freaked out on her a little bit.  The words college graduate make me feel old, and I am nowhere near ready for the real world, I'm not sure if I'll be mature enough, it's probably a good thing I'm going to be a teacher and spending my days with little kids!! hahah!

Anywaysss, back to the reason I started this blog...

Last night I read about Prayer, and it hit me that I really don't know how to pray, I don't know what prayer should look like and sometimes I find myself forcing myself to pray.  I don't want to be forcing myself, I want to talk to God all the time, and for it to come naturally.  So I decided to read ALL of the verses in the Bible about prayer and see what He has to say about, who better than to learn from than the God who created it Himself.  Naturally I'm not doing this all in one night, so hopefully I will update consistently about what verses I've read.  Last night I read Deuteronomy 4:7, 2 Chronicles 7:14-15, and Matthew 5:44. and Matthew 6:5-14.

Words related to prayer appear in the Bible SO many times, so obviously it's something that God finds very important and so should we.  Prayer isn't about ANYBODY else, it's about us talking with our Savior.  Adoring this world He has created (Everytime I see the stars I stand in awe of our Creator, He knows them all by name!).  Sometimes Always our prayer might will be asking for forgiveness for our sins, after all, everybody is a sinner! But prayer should just be communicating with our Maker like He is our best friend.  I think i struggle with this because I don't always get an immediate response back, but that what's I'm going to learn about while I learn about Prayer.  Prayer is very powerful, and how are you supposed to have a relationship with someone if you never talk to them.

Hayley DiMarco's suggestions for learning a successful way to Pray:

• Adoration
• Thanksgiving
• Confession
• Worship
• Trust (we need to trust that He forgives our sins and that He will always be there for us, and never leave us.)

Let me know your thoughts on Prayer.

I'll hopefully be back soon!! (I think it's ok to put school work off when you're learning about Christ, right?)

planetary nebula

(yeah, I think He deserves our worship and adoration, how about you?)

Love

Love is an ACTION. 

This week I think God has really been trying to open my eyes to this.  Love is an action, not a feeling.  God commands us to love.  You can't command someone to have a certain emotion but you can command them to act a certain way.  God commands us to LOVE, wait for it, EVERYONE! That means that we should be showing love to the person who checks us out at the grocery store, or the person who recently hurt our feelings or let us down.  Off the top of your head think of how many times the word love is said in the Bible.  It's ALOT! That's because it's really important to God. I'm currently reading a book called God Girl by Hayley DiMarco and it's really opened my eyes to how much love can affect our lives! 

"When you love the way God designed you to love, not only will you find more love for yourself, but your life will have less drama and destruction in it."-God Girl

I think love is something we easily forget about.  I'm going to try really hard this week to show everybody I come in contact with what love looks like.  I'll let you know how it goes. 

I'm a bad blogger.

I am clearly horrible at blogging, but I refuse to give up! I will become a blogger by the end of the semester of I will consider myself a failure! I really hope to write about what God is teaching me here, but I'll also just share about everything else too! I recently finished a GREAT series by Erynn Mangum called the Lauren Holbrook Series! They were all so good, I would really recommend them if you're into chick lit, which me and my cousin definitely are! Anyways those books have inspired me to start studying Ephesians, so hopefully i'll have something to tell you about what I'm learning later on!

So Valentine's day just passed and I know how this sounds coming from a single person, but single or when i've had a significant other I just don't see what all the hype is about. Shouldn't we be showing each other love everyday? So why do we need a day to spend a bunch of money on flowers that will die? I think we should just surprise those we love (whether significant other, family, or friends) everyday of the year. Even if it's just doing something like emptying the dishwasher so your roommate doesn't have to.  Valentine's day is overrated.  I will say the chocolate covered strawberries in the grocery store looked delicious, whoever got those was very lucky.  I am currently waiting on the Valentine's package my parents sent me. (I love getting mail!)

Anyways I hope to not disappoint my one sole reader this time around, I hope your still out there!

P.S. Show some one you love them this week! They'll really appreciate it!