Life
It can have many challenges and many surprises
So many memories and also come crises'
There are lots of times when you feel like you're failing
And that on the train of life you are de-railing
There is one thing that we all have in common
One on which all of us have fallen on
But it is the most important one
One which we can say we're done
Or that will cause us so much fun
Choices
As I journey through life I found that other than God, the most important thing is choices we make! There are so many times I've made some really dumb choices and regretted it. There are also times when I made a choice that I felt was the right thing-and never regretted it.
I will admit to you that I have many faults and failings. But I decided since this is (Close enough to) the beginning of a new month that maybe I would challenge myself to work on one thing that I could choose to try to improve in my life.
Some of these will be stupid I'm sure. But today I realized how much I needed to work on, and a LOT of it is basic stuff! Like taking time to smell the roses :)
As I type I have no idea yet on what my challenges will consist of, but I know most, if not all will take a lot of prayer!
Because I do better when I am accountable to others, I thought that maybe if I would post my monthly challenges...and my strategies for doing them, here on this blog it would hold me more accountable to make sure I try to finish them off. I'm sure I will have many shortcomings and backsliding, but maybe it will help?!?!
Oh, and I would LOVE for others to do these challenges with me <3 Even if you don't do all of them, if you find a month where you think you might want to work on something too, please join me. And let me know if you are going to do them so I know I'm not alone in this challenge :)
You may find my ways of trying to carry out my strategy kind of quirky and wacky at best, and if you find other ways to try the challenge. GO FOR IT!
I'll close this up for now, but you can be sure I'll try to post when I think of what I'm going to start out March with ;)
Monday, March 7, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
(Attempted) Painting
Our finished work!!
Ta da!
A couple years ago mom and Kim bought some paints and took some lessons on how to paint. They had fun while doing so, but in the past years the paints and supplies have pretty much just sat there. So the other night I decided to see if my sister in law would want to try painting-since we happened to have the stuff, and we talked about it earlier :) It was tons of fun! By the end I was tired of it though!  |
| Alyssa's picture in progress |
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| Karissa's and mine. *Please excuse my stupid look!!* |
 |
| For some reason I loved this picture of Alyssa's...something about mountains coming out of the sky that was just plain neat :) |
Our finished work!!
Ta da!
 |
| Karissa's Cow |
 |
| My flowers |
 |
| JaLynn did Jesus' cross and a picture of her cat slippers |
 |
| Alyssa's finished piece |
We had a lot of fun doing them. I did learn that no matter HOW pretty you think they are going to be in your head it just doesn't turn out the way you imagined you were going to do it!!
Maybe if we do it again before too long we'll still be in a little bit of practise ;)
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Testimony
OK, so my blogs name is 'Julie's Journey', so I think that maybe since its still relatively new, I would go back in time-back to the time when my journey as a Christian began.
I got to thinking about the time when I got saved...how I knew and believed that God was Lord, and that Jesus was the only way to salvation, but I wasn't right with the Lord. I knew all I had to do was accept Gods free gift of salvation, but I wanted to feel something! I couldn't bring myself to just 'get saved'. I remember sitting in the bathtub and thinking about how long eternity was, how it goes on forever and ever, and I knew I wasn't right with the Lord, but I didn't want to 'get saved' just to get saved--just because you were supposed to...I wanted the Holy Spirit to convict me...at that time little did I realize that it was the Holy Spirit trying to get me to realize that I needed to think about the future,who I was going to live my life for. I wanted to have a WHAM of conviction, get saved, and live on an emotionally spiritually 'high' and do something awesome for the Lord, without any temptations for downfalls. So, since I couldn't always 'feel good' I thought that maybe I wasn't convicted enough, and couldn't get saved. Also, I had heard some about Calvinism and pre-destination, and though I didn't find it scriptural, I wondered if maybe they were right...and I just wasn't created to be a Christian.
As all this was slowly taking place, I didn't realize how I got to feeling or thinking the way I did, it was just something that would come in my thoughts and I would kinda push everything to the back of my mind and think that someday I would make things right and get it all figured out.
Then one day I wrecked our new van and lied about it to mom and dad. I knew that my life was a huge mess without God. Up until then and even at the time I was a good kid, and everybody thought I was a Christian. I was at one time. I got saved when I was five and growing up through the years I had a good rerelationship with God. I had my ups and downs but slowly I quit reading my Bible and praying quite so much, and drifted farther and farther from God. I would look back and remember the feeling of having that unity with God, and trusting Him, and I knew I didn't have that anymore and didn't think I could ever get that back. I would remember how I had prayed a lot back then and couldn't hardly imagine it! And I really did want that back! Well, finally after the incident with the van I finally told God that even though I didn't (think)feel anything I was going to serve Him anyway because He was God and He was my only hope of Salvation...whether He would accept me or not. I would at least live for Him, and trust in Him for Salvation. I knew that my life was already a huge mess without God!
After making things right the the Lord, and my parents I didn't really want to tell anybody else that I 'got saved'. I didn't want them to realize that I was a huge hypocrite and had been for the past year or two. But, mom really thought I should tell them, so she went downstairs with me and we told all my siblings...The next couple of days were really hard for me. I think satan knew he lost me. He tried to make me think I didn't really get saved because I 'planned' to or because I didn't 'feel' anything. But the Lord was with me, and I found the power of prayer was super amazing! Many times I didn't 'feel' like praying, but would do it anyway and the Holy Spirit was there for me.Then he tried to use one of my sisters...If anything came closer to having me give up it would've been her. Anytime we would fight or if I wouldn't do something she wanted she would say she thought I was a Christian now. Or she said that I knew I would get caught for lying about the van so I had to make up a story. Or if I'd say something she'd say "How do I know your not lying? You lied when you said you were saved. AND I ALMOST GAVE UP! But there were times of peace and assurance in all this. Times that I knew I'd done the right thing, and believe me, there is nothing greater than having that peace and trust that comes with knowing that you gave it all to the Lord and accepted His gift of Salvation thought Jesus Christ! I felt so unworthy of taking that gift! Shouldn't it belong to someone like my one sister, who had told me before that Salvation had never been a struggle for her, that it always seemed so easy? But somehow God loved ME and wanted me! He showed me that through temptations we are made stronger. And guess what?!?! I started to feel something! When I would do the right-or at times- the wrong thing I could feel the presence of Him. I had PEACE for the first time in years :)
The Lord promised that if we draw nigh to him Him, He will draw nigh to us. And throughout this time even though I felt that I had done the right thing there were times when I didn't 'feel' anything, but as I kept plugging away...reading scripture and trying to apply it to my own life whether it felt like a wham of conviction or not, The peace and joy that I'd had in just tiny drops before became something huge! My cup started to fill up and it wasn't so hard to go to the Lord in prayer when I was mad, or just plain didn't feel like praying. He is so faithful and I praise Him for His grace as I was stumbling along in the dark! It did open my eyes to others too. A day or two after I had confessed to my hypocrisy, one of my brothers -whom I really respect for his Christian walk now- had talked to mom and dad, and told them that he hadn't been living for the Lord either. What amazing difference his life has been! I'm one of those slow learners, thought trial and error I make my way through life, sometimes wondering if there is any purpose to my life. But my brother! Somehow when he got saved you could just see the difference in his life from day one! Which brings me back to my own questioning, whether I have a purpose here in life. It has been amazing for me to think that maybe through me, My decision to let go of my pride and acknowledge that I wasn't living for the Lord. that I got my brother to thinking or even gave Him the courage to turn back to the Lord as well, and to see the amazing difference it has made in his life!
We all have struggles, some may seem so abhorring when voiced out loud, but through the grace of God, we can turn to Him and allow Him to help us walk through them in their each unique ways, and as we do that we learn to walk closer and closer to the Lord, leaning on Him at times when otherwise we would fall. Allowing Him to pick us up when we do!
I also hope and pray that if there are others out there who are in the same boat that I was in-those raised in Christian homes, but not experiencing the full joy of the Lord-that they can come in unto Him and have a relationship that isn't even comprehendable. I believe that circumstance has a lot to do with how you live your life, but me and only me alone can decide who I will become or if I will have a direct relationship with the Father, or if I'm just gleaning off of others relationships.
I want to encourage others that 'know the way' but don't have a personal realtionship. They can have a realtionship that is truly so amazing. I just stand in awe at the feelings I have sometimes! Do I always feel that way? No. And satan is still going to try to take subtle steps to get me little by little farther way from God but the longer I'm a christian the more I can look back and see how the joy abounds in such great measures when we hold steadfast unto the Lord, and how the Lord is so willing so wanting to pick us up when we do stumble. I believe it builds your faith so much more to see how you and He responds to such circumstances. There are so many times when I look at my life and think ugh! I am...so unworthy! Look at how many times I stumbled! Why do I always wind falling down when I finally think I'm doing so good? But thanks to the Lord, He has given me the assurance of Salvation, and this peace and joy that can only come with the Holy Spirit...who is the Lord our God!
I got to thinking about the time when I got saved...how I knew and believed that God was Lord, and that Jesus was the only way to salvation, but I wasn't right with the Lord. I knew all I had to do was accept Gods free gift of salvation, but I wanted to feel something! I couldn't bring myself to just 'get saved'. I remember sitting in the bathtub and thinking about how long eternity was, how it goes on forever and ever, and I knew I wasn't right with the Lord, but I didn't want to 'get saved' just to get saved--just because you were supposed to...I wanted the Holy Spirit to convict me...at that time little did I realize that it was the Holy Spirit trying to get me to realize that I needed to think about the future,who I was going to live my life for. I wanted to have a WHAM of conviction, get saved, and live on an emotionally spiritually 'high' and do something awesome for the Lord, without any temptations for downfalls. So, since I couldn't always 'feel good' I thought that maybe I wasn't convicted enough, and couldn't get saved. Also, I had heard some about Calvinism and pre-destination, and though I didn't find it scriptural, I wondered if maybe they were right...and I just wasn't created to be a Christian.
As all this was slowly taking place, I didn't realize how I got to feeling or thinking the way I did, it was just something that would come in my thoughts and I would kinda push everything to the back of my mind and think that someday I would make things right and get it all figured out.
Then one day I wrecked our new van and lied about it to mom and dad. I knew that my life was a huge mess without God. Up until then and even at the time I was a good kid, and everybody thought I was a Christian. I was at one time. I got saved when I was five and growing up through the years I had a good rerelationship with God. I had my ups and downs but slowly I quit reading my Bible and praying quite so much, and drifted farther and farther from God. I would look back and remember the feeling of having that unity with God, and trusting Him, and I knew I didn't have that anymore and didn't think I could ever get that back. I would remember how I had prayed a lot back then and couldn't hardly imagine it! And I really did want that back! Well, finally after the incident with the van I finally told God that even though I didn't (think)feel anything I was going to serve Him anyway because He was God and He was my only hope of Salvation...whether He would accept me or not. I would at least live for Him, and trust in Him for Salvation. I knew that my life was already a huge mess without God!
After making things right the the Lord, and my parents I didn't really want to tell anybody else that I 'got saved'. I didn't want them to realize that I was a huge hypocrite and had been for the past year or two. But, mom really thought I should tell them, so she went downstairs with me and we told all my siblings...The next couple of days were really hard for me. I think satan knew he lost me. He tried to make me think I didn't really get saved because I 'planned' to or because I didn't 'feel' anything. But the Lord was with me, and I found the power of prayer was super amazing! Many times I didn't 'feel' like praying, but would do it anyway and the Holy Spirit was there for me.Then he tried to use one of my sisters...If anything came closer to having me give up it would've been her. Anytime we would fight or if I wouldn't do something she wanted she would say she thought I was a Christian now. Or she said that I knew I would get caught for lying about the van so I had to make up a story. Or if I'd say something she'd say "How do I know your not lying? You lied when you said you were saved. AND I ALMOST GAVE UP! But there were times of peace and assurance in all this. Times that I knew I'd done the right thing, and believe me, there is nothing greater than having that peace and trust that comes with knowing that you gave it all to the Lord and accepted His gift of Salvation thought Jesus Christ! I felt so unworthy of taking that gift! Shouldn't it belong to someone like my one sister, who had told me before that Salvation had never been a struggle for her, that it always seemed so easy? But somehow God loved ME and wanted me! He showed me that through temptations we are made stronger. And guess what?!?! I started to feel something! When I would do the right-or at times- the wrong thing I could feel the presence of Him. I had PEACE for the first time in years :)
The Lord promised that if we draw nigh to him Him, He will draw nigh to us. And throughout this time even though I felt that I had done the right thing there were times when I didn't 'feel' anything, but as I kept plugging away...reading scripture and trying to apply it to my own life whether it felt like a wham of conviction or not, The peace and joy that I'd had in just tiny drops before became something huge! My cup started to fill up and it wasn't so hard to go to the Lord in prayer when I was mad, or just plain didn't feel like praying. He is so faithful and I praise Him for His grace as I was stumbling along in the dark! It did open my eyes to others too. A day or two after I had confessed to my hypocrisy, one of my brothers -whom I really respect for his Christian walk now- had talked to mom and dad, and told them that he hadn't been living for the Lord either. What amazing difference his life has been! I'm one of those slow learners, thought trial and error I make my way through life, sometimes wondering if there is any purpose to my life. But my brother! Somehow when he got saved you could just see the difference in his life from day one! Which brings me back to my own questioning, whether I have a purpose here in life. It has been amazing for me to think that maybe through me, My decision to let go of my pride and acknowledge that I wasn't living for the Lord. that I got my brother to thinking or even gave Him the courage to turn back to the Lord as well, and to see the amazing difference it has made in his life!
We all have struggles, some may seem so abhorring when voiced out loud, but through the grace of God, we can turn to Him and allow Him to help us walk through them in their each unique ways, and as we do that we learn to walk closer and closer to the Lord, leaning on Him at times when otherwise we would fall. Allowing Him to pick us up when we do!
I also hope and pray that if there are others out there who are in the same boat that I was in-those raised in Christian homes, but not experiencing the full joy of the Lord-that they can come in unto Him and have a relationship that isn't even comprehendable. I believe that circumstance has a lot to do with how you live your life, but me and only me alone can decide who I will become or if I will have a direct relationship with the Father, or if I'm just gleaning off of others relationships.
I want to encourage others that 'know the way' but don't have a personal realtionship. They can have a realtionship that is truly so amazing. I just stand in awe at the feelings I have sometimes! Do I always feel that way? No. And satan is still going to try to take subtle steps to get me little by little farther way from God but the longer I'm a christian the more I can look back and see how the joy abounds in such great measures when we hold steadfast unto the Lord, and how the Lord is so willing so wanting to pick us up when we do stumble. I believe it builds your faith so much more to see how you and He responds to such circumstances. There are so many times when I look at my life and think ugh! I am...so unworthy! Look at how many times I stumbled! Why do I always wind falling down when I finally think I'm doing so good? But thanks to the Lord, He has given me the assurance of Salvation, and this peace and joy that can only come with the Holy Spirit...who is the Lord our God!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Creation Museum
While we were in Ohio our Uncle paid our way to go down to the creation museum. It was truly a remarkable place! I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I should have, but here are a few of the ones I did take :)
They had all kinds of neat little scenarios of different men in the Bible, or men in history actually.
It explained how throughout history men has tried to destroy the Bible, but God has protected it from the many people who have tried their best to hide or destroy it.
Here dad is looking at a piece of an original page of the Torah that was saved from Saddam Hussein's clutches when he tried to destroy all Torah scrolls.
Example of an early printing press used to illegally translate the Bible.
It explained how through indifference we as a nation are destroying the Word of God by allowing modern theologies to take over, believing that the the Bible is no longer true.
Adam and Eve after they ate the forbidden fruit.
Cain killed Able
My personal favorite was the scenarios of Noah building the ark.
They had the people moving and talking like it was in real life. It was really amazing!
It went on to tell how Christ came to die for our sins so that we can be saved...
And it explained how dinosaurs did NOT evolve!
There was also a lot of scientific explanations to many other things, from the stars burning up, to the dinosaurs, to the fossils. I've never quite been as keen on science so failed to get any pictures, but I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND that everybody should go there before or during, or even after their school years so that they can see for themselves how creation has so much more proof than evolution does! Even if you know these things its still nice to refresh your memory and see this amazing place!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Welcome to the world!
December 29th, 2010 my little niece decided to make her presence known to the world. :)
Needless to say we are all so excited to go see her!! We leave for our big yearly trip next week, and lucky for us Oklahoma is going to be one of the first stops along the way :D
I love how she looks like she's smiling in this picture. Sorry about the quality, it was taken with a cell phone.
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