God's Plans

Yesterday morning, I felt God clearly place a verse on my mind that I hadn't thought of in awhile—one that I should have been clinging to, especially considering all the trials currently surrounding my family, friends, and community.

Isaiah 55:8 in the ESV reads "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord."

What an amazing verse to keep in mind in the midst of struggles. When our lives don't go according to our plans, keep this verse in mind. First of all, for Christians, "our" life isn't "ours" at all. It belongs to God. That's what it means to surrender completely to Him. To hand God the reigns and say "Okay, Lord, where do You want to go? What do You want to do?"

Secondly, there's also a problem with the other "our" in that sentence. We shouldn't be making our own plans! That's not our job; it's for God to do. I can tell you from plenty of experience that "our" plans mean NOTHING to God. He wildly shakes them up all the time.

"It's a funny thing, how much time we spend planning our lives. We so convince ourselves of what we want to do, that sometimes we don't see what we're meant to do."
-Susan Gregg Gilmore

Humans make plans and think that anything other than those plans are failure. This isn't true! Rather, whatever God leads you to do is what you should do, whether it follows your plans or not. Oftentimes, this trust is incredibly difficult to give. In fact, I myself love to plan. It helps me stay focused and have goals. I'm not saying that all planning is wrong—it just has to be aligned with God's plans for you, and if He decides to change them, then submit. Everything is harder if you don't submit to Him and His plans.

Even if it doesn't seem like it, God's plans are always far superior to our own. He knows the future; He knows what is best for us; He loves us. The God who made the universe, who made you, who made everything knows the number of hairs on your head—He can take care of you. (Luke 12:7) When our plans seem like the best way to go, remember Isaiah 55:8. God's thoughts aren't the same as ours, and we don't know His plans for us or others. No matter your circumstance, I promise you that God is with you. He'll never leave you and He does indeed have a plan for you, even when it doesn't seem clear or like the best route. Trust Him in all things, and let His plans guide you.

~

Update on my friend who was in the accident last Wednesday: Her surgery on Thursday went about as well as the doctors had hoped. Though she still has no feeling in her lower extremities, she does have feeling one inch lower than she did the previous day. She starts therapy soon and will be transferred to a hospital that specializes in spinal chord injuries. Keep praying for a miracle; it already is one that she is alive and has no apparent brain injuries! Thank you for your faithful prayers!

January Hightlights 2017

Wow. I can't believe that the first month of 2017 is already over. It doesn't seem real. Wasn't just yesterday Christmas? Despite the speed which with this month flew by, January was a very good month.

~Summary~

I kicked off the year with a trip to Hume Lake Christian Camps again with my youth group. That was my best trip there so far! Plus I earned lots of bragging rights because we went during Hume's biggest rain storm in ten years. Despite the pouring rain, I loved every minute of my time up there. The tube run, coffee shop, and band were wonderful, and the speaker was excellent. My favorite parts were simply the great conversations I had with my friends and getting to know them even better.

I mustn't forget the ice skating! All my friends agreed that this was the highlight of our trip. I had the honor of teaching yet another friend (or two, or three) to skate. This year, instead of always being the teacher, I also got a chance to improve as I was challenged by another friend (you know who you are :P). I finally decided that I didn't care how often I fell, and I had a blast! I attempted skating backward (a disaster but fun nonetheless), and did my best to keep up.

Due to the excessive amount of rain, the Boxsled Blitz was cancelled, at least, the normal one. The Hume staff came up with a sort of obstacle course that we did on the ice skating rink. We didn't even place, but I'm pretty confident that our sled would have won had we raced down the hill. Our design was a pirate ship.

In the coffee shop.

Skating.

 

With the rain, the lake filled in a day.

In chapel.

Our pirate ship boxsled.

The river was less than half this size before rain.

This was one of the best weekends of my life! Thank you so much to my dad for taking the youth group, all the counselors, and my wonderful, amazing friends who made this trip so perfect! You guys are the best friends I could have! Thanks.

January also meant back to school, which really isn't so bad. I found myself actually looking forward to starting again.

In addition, the youth leader's wife from the other youth group I'm apart of had me and a few of my friends over to her house for an amazing sleepover.

A new experience for me this month is taking classes every Monday to get my amateur radio operating license. It's time consuming, but I know that it will be worth it to get my HAM license in a few more weeks.

Other than these, January didn't hold very many big events. It was nice to slow down a bit after Christmas and my birthday and enjoy the rain that we so desperately need out here in CA. We've gotten far more rain than all of last year combined and I'm getting to see ponds filled and rivers flowing strong. It's been so long since we've had this much water that I don't even remember seeing most of these as full as they are now.

~Reading~

I didn't quite make my goal of 10 books this month, but I came relatively close. Seven books for a total of 1,894 pages.

1. Red Rock Mysteries: Hollywood Holdup, Jerry B. Jenkins and Chris Fabry (208 pages)
2. Out From Egypt: Shadow of the Storm, Connilyn Cossette (346 pages)
3. The Blades of Acktar: Destroy, Tricia Mingerink (165 pages)
4. Adventures of the Northwoods: The Vanishing Footprints, Lois W. Johnson (156 pages)
5. Dragons in Our Midst: Tears of a Dragon, Bryan Davis (363 pages)
6. The Staff and the Sword: A Cast of Stones, Patrick W. Carr (428 pages)
7. Red Rock Mysteries: Wind Chill, Jerry B. Jenkins and Chris Fabry (228 pages)

Every one of these books was wonderful! My favorite was probably Destroy. (Of course! It's by Tricia Mingerink!) I also read my first book by Patrick W. Carr, and I was really happy with his writing. If it's any indication, I want to buy more of his books. :)

~Writing~

After a long an unintentional break from writing, I finally started again on my dragon novel. I didn't get too much done, but I'm so happy to be writing again! I ended up writing a little over 1,500 words. I'm also in the process of editing a friend's story.

I think this pretty well sums up my month. I've been really absent from the blogging world lately, but I'm hoping that will change very soon. I hope you had a wonderful month! God bless you all!