Day 03: What I remember from the Virginia days...

What do I remember from those good ole' Virginia days... Let's see.

     Let's go way back, say 4 years old. What i remember was my best friend Craig. This guy was the man. Our families were very close with one another, to the point where it was almost like we could sense when one another was outside so we could ask our parents to play outside. Man! For 4 years old, we did a lot of stuff together.  There was one of my birthday parties that forever will be etched in my head. The theme was, Blue's Clues. BAM! Nuff said right there. but for your sake I’ll type on.

    My brother dressed as Blue the dog, and my cousin Aaron dressed as Steve. We all ate cookies and cake out of dog bowls, which was the best ever! Craig was there, Niki, who was also my best friend, was there, my practically big brother Jeremy was there. I mean, this was some party! Anyway, Jeremy and my cousin Mikey left the house and walked to the end of the row of townhouses where his was, and went and played Super Mario Bros. on the SNES! they left to play games! But of course i followed them and joined them!

    So! The next year was 5 years old. And the one thing i remember from here is that we (me and Craig) were a P.M. class. Thus! we played at my house for hours on end until school. 

    Throughout the years, we did a lot of crazy stuff like when the other person wasn’t aloud to play outside, we would go to the backdoor of their house, knock on the window and they'd be outside with us! So bad!

Sometimes we would even go inside and play Nintendo 64 until we heard his mom shout for him. Thats when i left.

     Let's shoot forward a few more years, say about fifth grade. That's when the group got together.

Faith, Holly, Lauren, Camille, and occasionally Niki. Which i loved when Niki hung out with us. We did everything together, at Church though because for some reason i don’t really remember hanging out too much out of church. When sixth grade came around though we hung out a lot. Thats when we were qualified for Fine Arts. A festival where you present your gifts forward to people who are there to listen. We were REALLY close during Fine Arts, it was great. and i was loving life. I got to know my friend faith during this time of awesomeness. i love her because she's never ever left my side, even when i nearly ruined our relationship at times. I'm just so glad that i know her now because she's my best friend even if we're separated by states. Now, Eighth grade was where i got to know my friend Lissy really well too. She's chill, collected, and when she needs to be, sassy :) She's probably reading this so i know she'll smile. A lot of family issues occurred during the time that i got to know her. but after many months of prayer and sleepless nights for myself. My family melded back together. It took me a long time to forgive people for what they did to my family. It was so hard and sometimes recollections occur in my mind and i just have to be alone sometimes. But my friends stayed by me no matter what happened, even when i found out it was time to move. MOVE?! i thought to myself. I couldn’t leave my life behind here! So many years building relationships, sometimes nearly ruining them from me being a stupid middle school boy... You can probably sum that up... i had to leave it all behind. My final year as a Virginian was also the last year i was part of my friend's drama group. which was practically what i lived for back then... being with them for hours, joking, eating, talking, practicing with them. National Fine Arts in Orlando was kind of my Ultimatum of getting things right. tying up lose ends. repairing what was destroyed. or at least attempting to for that matter...

    Anyway, a little before i was getting to know Lis, i became really close friends with Daniel. The most upstanding, loyal, ugh, he was my real best friend. I may not have been to him, but he was to me. He fought someone off for me once. And as much as he denies he did, I’ll never forget it. We laughed, we messed around, lighted gasoline on fire and nearly lit his whole forest on fire ( But that story is for another blog post ;) ), and he was a quality person in and of himself, and i can get people to confirm it!

So those last moments of Virginia i had were spent hanging out with them all as much as possible, I actually spent a lot of my last time with Lauren at the pool near her house talking and reflecting.

You just don’t really know what you've got till its gone i guess. its just good to know that whats good s in fact not all gone. it resides in the beautiful state of Virginia.  

Day 02: A Suckish Day

Hello fellow Bloggers! No, that was a lame opening...
Hey everyone! (Thats better...) so i hope you've enjoyed my first few posts. But i think that I'm going to copy cat off of my best friend Faith, who's blog is both hilarious and serious, and write about my day :) so here goes something!



Well, I took the last of my school mid-terms today, which was poop because I had half days all week last week and it was great being home so early and being able to chill! But anyways, my Dad brings me to school everyday, and we kind of reflect on what we read on our daily reading time of the Bible and stuff. Well I'm actually reading in Deuteronomy, and have been for a while, actually i'm almost finished with it! Woot!
And its just been talking about how the Lord brought Israel out of captivity, and what rules and regulations to follow and stuff. I just figured out that I say “and stuff” a lot. So bare with me! :)



Well that was the beginning of the day. The juicy stuff always happens in the middle of the day, and by juicy I mean stuff (there it is again!) that you will actually want to read about. Well so I plowed through the world's easiest Biology mid term and my next exam was the Driver's Ed final. I was actually pumped to just get it out of the way, you know? Well, heres what sucked. I finished the test, and it seemed fairly easy to me, except for the parking distances, like from a fire hydrant or the curb, silly things like that. Well Coach Kaye, my driver's ed teacher, read off if we passed or not. And the cut off for passing was an 80%.
Guess what I got. A freaking 70! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! I was so defeated, it really, really sucked. So I have to retake it after school sometime. But at least my weekend was the best weekend of my life! I dont think I have every been as happy as I was to see Faith Phipps in the car when I went to go see what was “for me” in it. Good times......

Who does the Lord see you as?

Let me ask you a straight forward question. Do you know the Lord? Do you know his mercy? Do you know his Love?

Okay, maybe a few questions. If you answered NO to any of these questions, then your reading the right blog, so stay tuned. You too, anyone who answered yes.

My next question is, Who does the Lord see you as? A regular person, a follower, or a disciple? The importance of the answers to these questions are crucial to where you go eternity-bound. First off lets begin with a regular person.

A regular person is one who has a void in their hearts, a void that no material item could be placed to fill it. A regular person is a slave to sin, constantly in bondage with their own transgressions. They don't know the Lord, thus not knowing what true life is. Wrapped in worldly affairs, they are distracted from their real purpose in life, which is to be a soldier for Christ, as 2 Timothy tells us. To be distracted is to be weak. To be weak, is to be off guard and thats just what the enemy preys upon.

A follower, is a lover of Christ, a reader of The Word, and a soldier in the Lord. That void thats in regular people is full with the love and mercy of a God who's everywhere. A follower is always on guard for attacks. They are in the word daily, praying and believing. Blessing others and in turn being blessed.

But a Disciple is beyond just a follower. They strive for something more. Jesus' disciples didn't just follow Jesus everywhere. They actively participated in many of the miracles that Jesus performed. You see, disciples aren't just readers of the word. Disciples are Doers of the word. My church has a twelve mile radius, that we call "Roar Twelve". Our vision is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in that radius; by planting Cell groups throught it, thus expanding Roar Twelve's borders. We strive to be disciples, shouting from the rooftops what the Lord has done and what is going to do.

Thats what Christians should strive for, to be Disciples. Because in order to be like Jesus we need to do as he did. The Lord calls us to more than a follower. To be a better soldier for Christ

Pilot

Excuses are often used when someone finds out what a mess of themselves they've made. When someone lives in secret, concealing every unpleasing thing they do, they use excuses as "Backup".
Think of it like this, you and your friends decide to go skydiving. Your friends know you as someone who never was a crazy park enthusiast who hit the big insane rides with no problem. You often used excuses to get out of rides like, "you go ahead, i'm gonna' grab something to eat." or "My doctor said (insert here)"
You beat around the perverbial bush instead of telling the real truth. You are really scared.
So you get up in the plane and you climb in altitude. Your hearts racing and you feel like you are going to just pass out dead. The pilot yells "This is your stop guys, check your packs and head out." one by one your buddies jump, now your left. There's no one around for you to tell an excuse to. What are you going to do?
God loves you. And he only wants what's best for you. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that God has a hope filled future planned for you. So remember, come clean! Don't use excuses. Because God hates excuses!