Happy April Fools!!

Well its officially April!! :) I love this time of year..when its finally starting to warm up and you know that summer is right around the corner!!I love it when the seasons change! It seems like God knows exactly the right time to move on to the next one! I love the winter and the fall but I am ready for FLIP FLOP weather! Tomorrow is my close friend Kayla's twenty-first birthday!! Happy Birthday Kayla!! It is so crazy how time flies..our birthdays are exactly one month apart so I know my turn is coming up fast!! I was cleaning out my closet not too long ago and I found a box of old birthday cards I had saved and I found one from Kayla when we were 13! It doesn't seem like that long ago... Wow!!

As far as April fools goes I have always wanted to pull a good prank on someone but I can never pull it off! I am not a very good liar so it is hard for me to pull pranks on people! Ha Ha!! Maybe next year! But the good news is that I have not been pranked either so I guess I can't complain!! Well this time next month I will officially be DONE with my first semester at LCU! It has gone by fast and its been fun but I am def looking forward to summer! Sadly, along with the end of the semester comes finals!!! GULP!! I am not looking forward to those but I am sure I will survive! :)

Well God has blessed me once again!! I know I shouldn't be surprised when He does but I just can't get over how amazing He is! Everytime something awesome happens or He answers a prayer I just find myself in complete Awe of Him! Everytime...it NEVER gets old! Yesterday I went over to my friend Desiree's house to talk about our schedule for next semester and ended up having the most amazing conversation with her about how wonderful God is and about how he always directs our steps even when it seems like nothing important or exciting is happening! Well yesterday was a perfect example of exactly how He does that! Desiree emailed me this morning and told me that God used our conversation in order to bring her peace and encouragement! Plus, she got a phone call last night from a friend who was having a rough time and she shared what we talked about and was able to encourage her friend as well! So just a simple get together ended up being what God used to encourage Desiree and her friend! It just goes to show that when we ask God to use us and to direct our steps he does! Even when you don't even realize it! And this morning God used Desiree to encourage me by sharing what happened last night! God is so awesome and he ALWAYS brings things full circle! For we have the hope "that in ALL THINGS God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

Moving on Up!

Well this weekend was pretty much the same as any other except for one thing...Micheal moved into a new house! I am so happy for him (and not AT ALL jealous ha ha!). I know how badly he has wanted his own place and I am so glad that God opened this door for him! Sadly, my digital camera is on the fritz so I can't post any pictures yet but hopefully I can soon. We had a lot of fun getting all of his stuff moved in and set up. Luckily Micheal did not have to do it all by himself...thanks to all of our wonderful friends!! Brian and Andy helped Micheal move all of the big heavy stuff and us girls (me, Meg, and Stacy) got to help decorate.We did a marvelous job...if I do say so myself! Oh...and did I mention that his next door neighbors are some of our most favorite people in the world??? :) Yup...Andy and Meg are gonna have to start locking their doors so we don't drive them completely crazy!! ;) I am so excited about everything God is doing and I am so thankful for his wonderful provision for Micheal!!!

Praying for Baby Stellan

Back in December I started reading a blog called My Charming Kids. I am absolutely addicted to it now. The woman who writes it calls herself MckMama and I absolutely love the way she writes. She is a mighty woman of God and a lot of her posts are about how her relationship with Christ has helped her so much in raising her children and in her marriage. Anyway, she had a baby boy in November and he was diagnosed with some kind of heart problem while in the womb and the doctors did not expect him to live. Well God intervened and he was born a healthy, full term baby. He has been perfectly healthy until this weekend when his parents took him to the er because he was having trouble breathing. Well while he was in the hospital his heart began beating extremely fast and it seems that his heart problems have returned. I know that baby Stellan and his family would appreciate it if you would please pray for them. If you would like to find out more about Stellan's condition and his wonderful testimony click on the picture below.

WOW!!!!

I cannot believe how time FLIES!! It is already Spring Break at school!! :) That means that when I go back on Tuesday I only have ten days of school left! It seems like just yesterday I was just getting started at LCU! I have really enjoyed this semester but I am so ready for next semester because one of my close friends, Desiree is transferring there too! YAY!! :)

Hopefully we will be able to take lots of classes together since we are majoring in the same thing! Well as far as spring break goes I didn't do a whole lot. Micheal and I went on a fast and furious trip to Oklahoma for a youth ministers conference. We left on Friday morning around nine and got back Saturday night around 11:45. Talk about a long trip but the conference was great! I think that Micheal got a lot out of it as far as ideas to help him out with his youth group but I got a lot out of the teachings as well. A lot of the teachings were about dying to yourself and carrying your cross daily. So I am intentionally waking up every morning and throughout the day commiting my entire self to God. I want my life to be a living sacrifice! It is so encouraging to know that I can let go of everything and give my life to God. Throughout the conference I kind of had a revelation. For a long time I have been praying and asking, "God what do I need to do?" But I realized that I don't necessarily need to pray and ask what I need to do but I need to pray and ask God to help me die to myself. When I die to myself and commit my life as a living sacrifice to Him he will guide me and direct my paths because I can't do it MYSELF!!! That gave me such freedom and I know that more I continue to grow in the area of dying to myself and giving my life to God the more I will understand it!! :) A scripture that is really helping me learn to let go of what I want and trust what God wants are Romans 12:1-2. I really like this verse because it gives a very clear understanding of what we need to do in order to see God's good, pleasing and perfect will prevail in our lives. We have to give our bodies as living sacrifices, keep from conforming to the pattern of this world and to be transformed by the renewing of our minds! I know that a lot of people, including myself, are sometimes scared to lay down our plans and truly tell God that we want his will to be done in our lives and not our own. We tend to thing that as soon as we say that God is going to send us off to some remote country and make us live some horribly depressing life! This scripture contradicts that COMPLETELY!! God LOVES us and he knows us better than we know ourselves, therefore we can trust the fact that His plan for us is not only good but it is better than anything we could ever have planned for ourselves! God is so WONDERFUL! I cannot wait to see what God does in my life as I continue to take myself out of the equation.I am expecting GREAT things to take place because I serve a GREAT God!!! :)

Bryson Andrew Quinto

Well one of my dear friends became a mom on February 8th!! I am sooo happy for her and her husband Chris! She is the first one of my close friends to have a baby! She delivered him about 9 weeks early but God is answering our prayers and he is doing GREAT! I actually went to see her the day before she had him and we had a great time. I had not seen her in several months, so we had a lot of catching up to do! Our visit was fun but way too short! Anyway the next morning when I found out she had him I was so glad that I had gone to see her the day before otherwise I never would have gotten to see her pregnant! I love how God works! :) You can check out Baby Bryson's progress here http://www.brysonquinto.blogspot.com/. Please keep Courtney, Chris and Baby Bryson in your prayers so they can go home soon!!!

Exciting Weekend Coming Up!!

This weekend is Littlefield's Disciple Now. Its a time when jr. high and high school students come together for a weekend of fun, games, food and fellowship! This year we are doing it a little different than we have in the past and I am really looking forward to it. It starts tomorrow at 12 noon and lasts until Sunday at noon. So its 24 hours of non stop action. Including going to Lubbock to the movies and Main Event (both of which have been rented for just our kids)! It is going to be a lot of fun. I will try to take lots of pictures!! Today I am just trying to prepare my heart so that I will be able to have a good connection with my group of girls. D-Now is a lot of fun but its main purpose is to spread the love of Jesus and to help kids grow in their relationship with him. So there will be several small group sessions. I can't wait to see what God has in store for everyone this weekend! Come Sunday I know I will be exhausted but it will be worth it!! :)

Trusting in God

Wow....God is so good! Yesterday when I had to miss school I was pretty nervous because that was the first time I had missed any of my classes this semester....and I hate missing classes! So even though I had a day off yesterday I have to admit that I spent the majority of it worrying about what I was missing. Then I got even more worried when I realized that I was going to miss a quiz in one class and a test review in another. Not to mention a whole days worth of notes. As soon as I saw how many important things I was going to be missing I immediately began praying. I told God that I knew he understood why I stayed home and that I knew that he would take care of me and make everything work out. I tried my best to stay calm and remember that God was in control. I know that this may seem like a silly thing to worry about but I knew that God ALWAYS cares, even about the little things. So this morning when I checked my email I found out that both the test and the quiz had been postponed until next week! Plus, my professor emailed me the notes from class...which was way more than I expected because he always told us that if we missed class then we would have to get the notes from a classmate.

So what I learned from all this was that God cares, even about the little things. He loves us and takes care of us even when we think our prayer requests are too miniscule for him! That just encouraged me so much!! It made me think...if God is willing to take care of me when it comes to missing one day of school...then he will take care of me in the big things too! Even when we don't deserve it! God has completely showed me that if I put my trust in him that he will make sure that everything turns out ok!! I am so pumped right now! God is so AWESOME!!!