So it's been a really long time since I updated this blog. I do have a good excuse. I've been in the beautiful state of OR for the past 10 days having a wonderful time with my boyfriend and his family! I'm trying not to be too sad now that I'm back home and missing Justin greatly. I am counting the days until Christmas.

I really don't have time to write anymore so I hardly know why I started other then just to say I did. I really need to get to bed. It's just that I am still on OR time. Today was an exhausting day as I worked from 7:45 to 4:30 cleaning, doing laundry, making meals, and trying to take care of three sweet little girls in the process. I should be thankful for today as I am going to be working until 9:00 tomorrow. I actually enjoy it, but I will be glad to get caught up on my own work at home. Besides there was a lot to get caught up on at my job because I have been gone for so long. Well, I really need to go. Hopefully, I will have a chance to write again soon.

Can you believe that this is actually my third blog? I am really tired tonight so it's a miracle that I am writing anything on here at all. I am a little discouraged at my lack of discipline lately from going to bed at a decent time to getting up early enough in the morning so I'm not rushing out the door balancing a piece of toast in one hand and a glass of something or another in the other. I just have to think there has got to be a way to cut out all this rushing around that I do from day today. Anyway, something you can pray for me about. This is going to be a rather short blog due to the fact that Prayer Meeting starts in an hour and a half. Speaking of prayer....

You know today on the radio I heard something that sort of sent the wheels turning in my brain. Now that is a difficult thing to do right now, especially due to how rusty those wheels have been getting lately. They were talking about persecuted Christians and how we can help them, and this guy made a comment that the least we can do is pray for them. It sort of stopped me in my tracks. I know that probably this dude didn't mean it this way, but I was like hold on, that's really the best thing we can do for them. However, in my own life I know I act just like that. You know, try to help God out as much as I can with my problems, and then after I've done everything I can on my own, I pray. I just don't think God intended prayer to be the last resort, and yet that is how I treat it so often. Just something to think about.

Ok I am going to try to be more faithful in blogging than I have been on my xanga site, so far I haven't been greatly successful. ;-)
Good meeting tonight! Bro. Steve Ulrich from Illinois has been sharing with us the past few nights. You know the thing that most amazes me about Bro. Steve is his humility. There is something about humility that draws you to a speaker.
Tonight he particularly addressed the youth and I was so encouraged by what he said. He talked about the fact that we are living in a Babylon and that's all well and good. We as youth hear that so much, and to be honest that fact alone can be very discouraging. However he did not stay there, but focused more on how just as Daniel was able to take a stand and make the right choices in the Babylon of his day, so we as youth have all the resources we need to take a stand and make the right choices despite the wickedness of the world in which we live.
The temptation for older adults is to dwell on how evil and sinful and wicked this world is--you've all heard the "What's this world coming too..." phrase. The temptation for youth is to put the blinders on. I mean who wants to think about a future of living in a terrible world--we as youth want to optimistically believe that this world is ok and we're gonna make it even better. I don't know, I think either age-group can learn from each other. Mostly I think personally that I would rather than see things a little more optimistically. Rather than this world is terrible, what is God's great plan for me in this world, and how can He through me make this world a better place.
Can we(only with God's spirit living in us) make this world a better place? I'd like to think so, otherwise we might as well all die and go to Heaven tonight. God has us here for a reason whether it's to touch others lives with the message of His good news, to encourage the hearts of believers , or to be a shining light through the kindness and love we bestow to all of mankind, Maybe I'm being to youthfully optimistic, but I just know I have to believe that God has put me here on this sin-cursed earth to make a difference for the better. Also I really feel a need to see good in the world around me. Maybe it's just my personallity, but if I were to focus on the bad all around me and I know there is plenty of it, I think I would get so discouraged, and would feel like curling up in a ball and letting the world pass me by until it's my time to go home. I really want to focus on the good that's happens every day, the little testimonies of God's grace and goodness and at the same time not put my blinders on to the bad. I want God's spirit to shine through this dark world to touch the lives of this world with His love. Is this possible? I believe it is...