Friday, August 12, 2011

Friday Photos

This time next week, I will be on my way to Jackson, Mississippi, heading to college. I can't believe it's almost here. It seems like I have been talking about it forever and to know it's almost here is exciting...and a little terrifying. But I truly am eagerly looking forward to see God's plan for my life unfold before my eyes.
Here are some more of my picnik edits...

P.S. If you want a picture done, you can contact me via facebook or email { taylor_ellen13@hotmail.com } and send me a picture and words you want on it!















Tuesday, August 9, 2011

{Goodbyes}

Peter Pan once said, "Never say goodbye. Because goodbye means going away, and going away means forgetting." But sometimes in life, goodbyes are necessary. For me, right now is one of those times.

I had to say my first goodbye today. Grace, who has been one of my best friends since birth, is leaving early Thursday morning for Asbury University; and her, and another one of our best friends, Ashlee, all had dinner together for one last hurrah before the first of us leaves. It doesn't really feel real yet, that I won't be talking to her nearly everyday, and that we won't see each other again until Thanksgiving break.

I suppose I'm realizing now, that I am growing up, and that Peter Pan can't possibly truly exist. Growing up is an inevitable fact of life, and everyone must go through it eventually. Something that I am so thankful for; something that makes growing up a little easier, and life a little more fun, is having friends with whom to share these events and this growing up.

God has been so good in blessing me with not one, but three of these incredible people I call best friends. There is something very comforting about having these people whom I know so well, and who often times, know me better than I know myself. They are people who have the best shoulders to cry on, if you feel like crying. They give the best advice when you ask for it, or even when you don't want to hear it. They let you know when you're starting to go the wrong way or do the wrong thing. They show you love when others you love don't seem to love you back. They have the best laughs, because, most of the time, they laugh with you.

Though frienships may change throughout the years, they are the relationships that endure change. No matter how far away, no matter how busy individuals are; no matter what you fight about or laugh about, friendships are the things that always provide you with good memories and laughter, or even comfort and security. Though I am eagerly looking forward to the opportunity of making new friends at college in just 11 short days, the friendships I have with these three girls now are some that I know will always be there for me, no matter where God leads us.

So although it may be goodbye for now, it will never be goodbye for good. Goobyes may mean going away, but for me, they will never mean forgetting.    








Monday, August 8, 2011

{Monday Music}

Happy Monday!
This morning I got to babysit two precious little boys, one was three and the other was four, and they were so cute and funny. I love little kids so much, probably because I still am one. They are such a beautiful picture of God's love for us and how He looks upon us as His children. This afternoon I get to go to ballet class, two ballet classes actually, and I could not be looking forward to it more, especially since it has been two weeks since I've danced. I'm continuing to take ballet and contemporary classes at my studio here in LaGrange for the next two weeks until I leave for Belhaven on the 19th. It will definitely be nice to have these last two weeks with the beautiful girls I've danced with all these years. Here's some music for your Monday, just a few songs I've been listening to a lot lately. Enjoy!




Song starts at 3:12



Friday, August 5, 2011

Friday Photos & Life Update

Well, I haven't done a post of my picnik edits lately, and I have done a bunch recently so at the end of this I'll put some on here. I feel so old to actually be able to say that I'm leaving for college in two weeks. COLLEGE. Man, I'm old. It's such a cliche, but it really does feel like yesterday that I was seven years old, and all of a sudden I am eighteen and off to college. Don't get me wrong, I really am so excited to see what all God has planned for me (and I know He has a lot planned for me, check out Jeremiah 29:11!) and it will be so rewarding and incredible just to be able to watch His will for my life start to unfold. I am also looking forward to making a lot of new friends. I adore my friends I have now, but I have been friends with the same girls for the past eighteen years, so it will be really new and interesting to be able to become close friends with a new group of people (while keeping the old, amazing ones, of course). One thing I am most excited about, though, is getting to dance with new girls, and learn from new teachers, and work with new choreographers. I feel like this will be a really fun step closer to my future as a dancer, and I cannot wait to get started with it! One thing I am a little nervous about is academics, and just adjusting to real school. I have been homeschooled since kindergarten, and so this will be a HUGE adjustment to go from only me at home, really teaching myself for the most part, to going to a campus with others students, with an actual teacher teaching me and assigning me homework that I have to get done by a certain date. It's all so different than what I have become used to over the years, but I have faith that after a while it will become the new "normal" for me. There's a little life update from me. I move into my dorm in exactly two weeks from tomorrow, which will be August 20th. I can't wait!

Here are the picnik photos I promised...
P.S. If you want a picture done, you can contact me via facebook or email { taylor_ellen13@hotmail.com } and send me a picture and words you want on it!



One of my favorite verses...and this picture is such a great reminder
for me that everything, especially my dancing, is to bring God glory,
not myself.





Frank Sinatra song + ballet = the perfect mix




I'm definitely feeling the truth of this statement right now in my life!







Monday, August 1, 2011

Your Will Be Done

You know the phrase, "When life gives you lemons..." The thing is, however, that it's not life that gives the lemons, but God, and God sometimes like to throw us a curve ball.

As humans, we like to be able to control the things around us (one reason why a lot of marriages fail, I believe, but that's another blog post for another time), but you see, God likes to have control even more than we do, but the thing is, that He is all powerful, so unlike when we are in control, when He controls things, it works. But we don't like to give Him control, and we don't like to be without a plan, feeling helpless. So what we do is we like to plan every little detail out, leaving no room for His will at all.

Jeremiah 29:11 says, "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."

He has a plan for you. No matter how old you are, no matter where you are in life, He has a perfect plan. He has every detail of your life planned out perfectly, it's when we take control ourselves that things start to go wrong. When we take control bad things happen, messes are made, people are broken. But there's something great...God likes to take our messes, our bad situations, and our brokenness and turn them into something beautiful. Yes, that's right, I said beautiful.

Take Mary for example. There she is, minding her own business when one day, out of the blue, an angel appears to her, telling her that she's with child, and that the child she's carrying is going to be the long awaited Savior and Messiah that her people have been expecting for hundreds of years. But that wasn't in her plans! Her plan was to marry Joseph, the carpenter, and have a few children down the road maybe once she got out of her teens, and live a nice life with him. But God threw her a curve ball...He gave her some lemons. She must have initially thought that her world was coming to an end. What were her parents going to say about this baby? Joseph would surely break off the engagement! But God had even that taken care of, and what beautiful things came out of her confusing, seemingly hopeless situation!

Think about Abraham. Here he is, over one hundred years old at this point, God had been faithful in providing him and Sarah, even in their old age, with the promised son, Isaac. Isaac was to be the beginning of generations of offspring for Abraham, and then, all of a sudden, God tells Abraham to sacrifice this promised son. Abraham must have been nearly out of his mind! I can imagine Him after God told him this, "Sacrifice?! You mean...KILL my son? The one YOU promised and provided for me? You have GOT to be kidding, God." But God was not kidding, He was dead serious (no pun intended...well, maybe a little was intended), and He wanted to see how Abraham would respond. God threw Abraham some lemons.

What about Ruth? Here she is, recently married with no children, and then all of a sudden, her husband, along with her brother-in-law and father-in-law are dead. The only family she has is her sister-in-law, Orpah, and her mother-in-law, Naomi. What on earth is she supposed to do? She has nowhere to go, no one to turn to. God tells her to remain with Naomi and He provided everything for the two women, and He had a plan all the way to the end, even in bringing Ruth to Boaz.

So really, it isn't about the lemons  or why they've been thrown. It's about what you do with them. "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Making lemonade means to surrender yourself and your plans to the Lord and to learn to have complete and total faith in Him, the one who threw the lemons. No matter what things are happening in your life, know that God has a perfect plan for you and whatever the situation is. He can make something beautiful out of anything.

"Going a little farther, He fell with his face to the ground and prayed, 'My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.' "
{Matthew 26:39}


Thursday, July 28, 2011

{Prodigal} Word Wednesday

Luke 15:11-24 (ESV)


"And He said, 'There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me." And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
But when he came to himself, he said, "How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.' " And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son." But the father said to his servants, "Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." And they began to celebrate.' "

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNz5ejUEsKY&feature=autoplay&list=PL0731AEAA7945E0AC&index=13&playnext=6&shuffle=354213

Saturday, July 16, 2011

{Consumed}

So I have pretty much failed at blogging lately...and I was doing so well. This week I have been wasting a lot of time watching TV, which flipping endlessly through channel after channel I realize is about 99% trash. One show that intrigued me tonight though, was this show on TLC called "My Strange Addiction". You may have seen it, or maybe not, but it follows people who are addicted to things, but not your typical drug or cigarette addiction. On the couple of episodes I watched, it covered everything from a woman addicted to eating couch cushions to a middle-aged woman who wore way too much makeup 24 hours a day, even to sleep in. It was ridiculous. One thing however that they all had in common was that their addictions, whatever they were, had grown so intense that they were consuming their lives. Think about that word: consume. What does that mean? According to dictionary.com it means to destroy or to exhaust.

When it comes to my relationship with God, I feel as though lately I have been in a rut. I'm simply lacking a desire to spend time with Him and lacking that passion within me, the one that is supposed to be on fire for Him and His kingdom. No matter how much I have tried, I see that all my "trying" has been weak. My efforts have failed because I have barely put in effort into it at all. What does all that have to do with "My Strange Addiction" and the word consume? Everything...at least for this blog post.

I leave for college in approximately 5 weeks. I am going to a school where I know no one and have all the opportunities in the world to be a witness to EVERYONE I meet, because everyone I come in contact with will be brand new to me, and my first impression can be Christ. Yet, how am I supposed to do that? Well, that brings us back to the whole "consume" thing. As I watched that show, I saw how their addictions were overtaking their lives, and I remembered that verse that says "For the Lord your God is a consuming fire..." {Deuteronomy 4:24} Just as an addiction can consume a person's life, God can consume it as well. I don't know about you, but I definitely want to be addicted to Christ and have my life be consumed by Him.

But let's go back to that dictionary definition: destroy and exhaust? Yep.

Destroy. Thinking of God destroying your life doesn't sound very promising, but if you think about it, it does indeed. If one is consumed by Christ, He will destroy your worldly life and bring you to a point of concern for your spiritual life. Now, that IS a good thing!

Exhaust. The word exhaust just makes me want to go take a long nap. But really exhaust means that all energy and effort is completely used up. The word exhaust applies in two ways in this situation. The first is that if you are consumed by Christ, all your energy and effort will be used up on serving the Lord and not serving your selfish desires. The second is that all of Satan's energy and effort in tempting you will be used up in vain , because if you are truly consumer by Christ, you will no longer want to go aroudnd sinning.


Starting right now, I am going to start putting so much more effort into my relationship with Christ in order that He might consume my life and set my passion for Him ablaze once again.