He Likes You

God is so good.

He sees beyond our blunders and mistakes, knowing us for who we are. He knows our hearts. He knows the deep desires each one of us holds tightly within our grasp. Gently, He loosens our fingers from their death-like grip, letting us know that it’s okay to give those desires to Him. When they are safe in His hands, He is able to use us in ways we never even thought possible.

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” -Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

You’ve probably heard it said before, but it’s true: God loves you. He deeply, intimately cares about you. Out of all the worries flying through your mind, He knows every single one.  

… God likes you.  

The first time I heard someone say, “God really likes you”, I nearly broke down in tears. I knew that God loved me, but I never really knew that He liked me. When you like someone, you want to be wherever they are. Your heart dances when you think about them.


To me, love seemed to be more of a duty, "Ok, so He's God, He has to love me". But, that's not it.

He wants to be with you, to be included in every part of your life. His heart dances when He thinks about you. He knows you by name. He sees you, even in those moments when you feel like no one else does.


H e   l i k e s   y o u .

More Thoughts...

Here are a few thoughts I've had the past few days. Maybe you can relate.
   
    I tend to judge my relationships with people by the relationship they have with other people... Meaning, just because A was best friends with B, and I also had a somewhat friendship with B, I felt like I ought to have the same friendship with B that they had with A. 
   
   Does that make any sense?? 
   
   You need to know people and relate with them on your own individual relationship with them, and not base it on someone else's relationship with them. It takes time and effort to become close with someone, you can't skip over anything, or wish you had someone else's relationship with them. You need to take your own time and your own effort to build that individual relationship.
   
   Like... With God. You can't become best friends with Him only on the fact that your parents or friends are close to Him. You need to know Him through your own relationship with Him. You can't skip that process of "getting-to-know-you".  Know God. Have a relationship with Him that is completely His and yours, and not based off someone else's personal relationship with Him. You need to be diligent in spending time with Him, like you would with a person you want to get to know better. Time. You aren't going to automatically have the same closeness with Him as someone else who has been in relationship with Him longer. It takes time. One step after another, day-by-day, no shortcuts. Fellowship with Him.
   
   Relationships are a dear, delicate and sought after thing. They must be nurtured and cultivated. They are not automatic. You can't skip over some parts because they're uncomfortable, you need to experience all of them, because that will shape and grow and build the relationship to be all it was meant to be. If you leave things out, or try to skip around things, it would be like building a house with pieces of foundation missing.
   
   How much time and effort you put in a relationship is how much you will get out of it. Real relationships will cost you something. Pride, letting go of fear... There will be times when it will hurt and you must give something of yourself. It is not a real relationship if you never allow the other person to see who you really are. You need to be real to each other, open and honest. Trust.




I   w r i t e   t h i s   n o t   o n l y   f o r    y o u ,   b u t   f o r   m y s e l f   a s   w e l l .

.We Wait For You.

We Wait for You.

What is This Thing Called Love?

This generation is constantly seeking out the meaning of love. What is it? What is love?

According to the dictionary [on my computer], love is defined as:

• "an intense feeling of deep affection"
• "a deep romantic or sexual attachment to someone"
• "a great interest and pleasure in something"
• "an affectionate greeting conveyed to someone on one's behalf"
• "a formula for ending an affectionate letter"
• "a person or thing that one loves"

We tend to use the word "love" rather flippantly. We base it on our feelings, our emotions. By today's standards Love can mean anything from, "I love cheeseburgers" to "I love you, let's get married." We use it to determine our identity. "I love cars" [Okay. So I guess that means you're really in to different types of cars.] Or, "We've been dating for a week... I think I'm in love." [Finding identity in knowing that someone is attracted to you.]

Go here : What is love?

Love is a choice. A direction of one's will. Love is sacrificial. A choice to give up something for someone. It is patient, it protects, it perseveres.

Ultimately, God is love.

1 John 4:8-11 says, "God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."

This is an awesome post you should read:

www.awhitestoneblog.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/what-google-says-about-you

Did you know that in August 2010, the two most searched for phrases in Google were "Who is God" and "What is love"?

People want to know.

... Just something to think about... And act on.

Words

Words. Looking at the title you probably thought, "Oh hey, another boring post about something random," or "Oh hey, this post should actually be quite interesting," or probably neither one of those...

Do you remember my previous post about what to do when you're bored? In this post, I just wanted to let you in on a rather fun way to endure a sometimes long and drawn out class, or wherever you may be where you have to sit for long periods of time.
So, to do this you will need: 1) a piece of paper, 2) a hard surface, and 3) a pen, pencil, marker, or crayon.... 
Think of a random word and write it down as your title on the paper. After that, find every single hidden word you can make, from that main word, and write it down.
As an example, I will show you what I did today:

GRADUATION

Drag                    Guitar                        Tundra

Drug                    Tar                             Naruto (manga/anime)

Ton                      Toad                          Gain

Not                      Goat                           Din 

Organ                  Groan                        Dot

Trod                    Raid                            Ding

Nod                     Oat                             Rot

Duration             Goad                         Dog

Tag                      Art                             Dating

Dart                     Arigato (Japanese for 'thank you')

Tan                      Auto                          Daunt

Nor                      Rain                          Daring

Tad                      Drain                        Dung

Rad                      To                             Ring

Gut                       Or                             Rung

Gun                      Rag                          Rang

Rut                       Rug                          Train

Rat                       Grad                        Dig                       

 Got                      Gaunt                      Tin                       

Grunt                   Got                          Tour

Data                     Out                          Ration

Rating                  Our                          Ratio

Audit                    Dug                

                  

                

                    

                  

                

            

T h e r e   c o u l d   b e   m o r e   t h a t   I   h a v e n ' t   f o u n d   y e t .   I f   y o u   s e e   a n y   t h a t   I  m i s s e d ,     l e a v e   i t   i n   a   c o m m e n t !  :)                    

Have an amazing day!

3 Things

It's kind of amazing what you can learn about yourself just by answering statements like these (even if they're simple) :

3 Things That Make Me Happy:

• Uncontrollable laughter
• Exploring/ Adventures
• Rain :]

3 Things That Bother Me:

• Disrespect
• Bees landing on my food
• Not knowing what to say

3 Bands I Enjoy:

• Owl City
• Leeland
• Movie soundtracks (P.S. I Love You, Chronicles of Narnia, August Rush, The Time Machine... on and on)

3 Authors I Like:

• C.S. Lewis
• Ted Dekker
• Francine Rivers

3 Things I Love About My Life:

• My family and friends
• God's provision
• Freedom to be who I was created to be

3 of My Favorite Sounds:

• Snow falling on the ground
• The acoustic guitar
• Silence

3 Smells I LOVE:

           

• Rain
• Pine trees
• Old books

What about you?

 :) 

Be blessed!

"Faith never knows where it's being led, but it knows and loves the One who is leading." 

-Oswald Chambers

Graduation is coming up a lot sooner than I expected. I can hardly believe I've been in college for two years already... It's gone by fast. I wish it would slow down. One reason being, I have no idea what I want to do with my life. Better yet, I have no idea what God's plan is for my life. Several friends already have a general idea of what they want to do, what God is calling them to do. When people ask what I want to do after graduation, I panic a little, my palms become sweaty, and my heart pounds in my chest. How do I answer them? Can I only say, "I don't know"? That's not the answer people want. But, I don't want to just conjure up some wild idea and use that as my story to please their curiosity. I want give them the truth.

... So, here is the truth:  I don't know what my future holds. But I do know a God who does. Whatever He has planned, that's what I want. His dreams are my dreams. I want to always be in His will, following Him wherever He leads. When He opens a door, I'll go through it; when He closes it, I will wait. That's why I like the quote above by Oswald Chambers. 

That's where I'm at right now.

Shalom :]