Things I Wish I Had Discovered A Long Time Ago

The title says it all. These are a few recent things I've fallen in love with.
P.s.- don't ask why i'm posting this. just enjoy :)

1. Brand New's album Deja Entendu.
2. Watching Regis and Kelly before work every morning.
3. Putting ketchup under the chili on my hotdogs at work (hey, i never said these wouldn't be weird/random!) :)
4. Click-it Sharpies.
5. Msnbc.com's "week in photos". They are always so amazing!
6. Caress Tahitian Renewal body wash. That stuff smells like heaven.
7. Sour Cream and Onion chips. I never really ate them until now.
8. Jack's Barbecue in downtown Nashville. I could talk about it all day. :)

That's really all right now. I say all these on here so you can enjoy them too. So now you can eat amazing barbecue, look at even more amazing pictures, color with sharpies, and finish your day with a nice shower and heavenly smelling body wash.

You're welcome! :)

Oh Juno.

Too bad I can't embed this video....but please watch this.

It's the sweetest, yet most awkward thing ever. Especially when they both start the "doo doo doo" and all that jazz. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBDbUVXXp-U

I Heart You.

Ever really sat down and thought about.....

your heart?

Maybe you have, but I have not actually sat down to think about it until this weekend.
I was thinking how much our hearts have to do with everyday life. And I know what you might be thinking....thanks, Captain Obvious! Yeah. But really, how often do we just throw our heart around and not realize it? Things we say, do, watch...can really affect our hearts. Proverbs says hope deferred makes the heart sick. And hope itself is only one thing in this world that can make our hearts sick. What about when we just casually hand our heart over to someone we think we love....then we get hurt?

My point is, we all know that Jesus is big on our hearts, but do we even realize how much? I read in a book today "that the subject of the heart is addressed in the Bible more than any other topic." (thanks John Eldredge!) If I was given a guess, I would have said faith or salvation. Not the heart. But this book made a good point that the heart is central.....look at this quote.

"There is no escaping the centrality of the heart. God knows that; it's why He made it the central theme of the Bible, just as He placed the physical heart in the center of the human body. The heart is central; to find our lives, we must make it central again."

So I look at this, and I'm like pssssh....I know! But then I think, if hearts could literally break....mine would have scotch tape all over it. From people. Death. Situations. Consequences. Myself. My heart didn't have to break so many times had I just given everything over to God. That's His goal and that's what we struggle with a lot. Some people's hearts break so much that they just give up on life. Lose heart, lose everything. Sad, isn't it? I was fortunate enough to grow up in a Christian home and became a believer at an early age. So I don't remember what it's like to not believe in God. But I can just imagine people who don't know God....even if they are happy and blessed, surely there's an aching deep inside them. They have got to know something is missing, no matter how much they deny that. Right? Is it weird to say sometimes I wish I could have felt what it was like to be a non-believer then be radically changed? Don't get me wrong, my salvation is everything. I've been radically changed by God. I guess I just like those really awesome stories of people finally figuring out that God was the part missing from their heart.

So, good books I recommend to get about this subject:
1. The book I keep mentioning....The Ransomed Heart by John Eldredge.
2. Soul Cravings by Erwin McManus.

What are you waiting on.....get yourself to the bookstore! :)

call it home.

I've got my memories always inside of me.

But I can't go back to how it was.

I've come too far.

....and not after all my searching, after all my questions....

I'm gonna call it home.

i've got a brand new mindset.

i can finally see the sunset.

i'm gonna call it home.

wrapped in grace.

"And God must be a pretty big fan of 'today', because you keep waking up to it. You have made known your request for a hundred different yesterdays, but the sun keeps rising on this thing that has never been known. Yesterday is dead and over. Wrapped in grace. Those days are grace. You are still alive, and today is the most interesting day. Today is the best place to live." --Jamie Tworkowski


"It makes me think about the value of a day. In the grand scheme one day seems very insignificant. But, when you add 365 of them together you get one year that could be responsible for so much change, growth, and wisdom. So maybe I should really focus on each day as it comes when I wake up in the morning. I should realize that the decisions I make every day either push me closer to Jesus or farther away from Him." --the great and wonderful Brandon Clements :)


First of all, Brandon is going to write a book one day and you gotta buy it. :)

Second, the theme of these quotes is what has been on my mind this week. Most mornings I wake up and am already looking forward to the day being over. What kind of attitude is that? And especially these days all I am thinking about is moving and all the newness coming along with that. I'm not taking the time to appreciate South Carolina. Appreciate the time I have left living in this house, working my job, talking to the people I see all the time. I get so excited about Nashville and it's really really hard for me to stop and realize I only have four weeks left living here. And I know in my heart I may not be back. Tonight my parents told me to make a list of things I want to do before I move. I thought that was precious. We have four weeks to make as many memories as we can before I leave. I even surprise myself daily....because a couple weeks before I move one of my best friends in the entire world is flying from Arizona to visit a few of us here in SC. And most days I forget! What? I have got to stop constantly thinking about moving and take the time to appreciate right now. These moments, these days, these people. Because I will get to TN and regret it. I will.

That's only part of what I think about. The other part is what Brandon said. The decisions we make everyday either bring us closer to Jesus or further from Him. Let's be honest, how often do we stop to think every decision we make affects our walk with God? Rarely for most people, myself included. Somedays I don't consider that fact at all and I get close to screwing things up. This past week my church put up a sign that says "Christianity isn't a cruise ship, it's a battleship." Yeah, corny, but true, isn't it? Even if you aren't battling other people, you are at least battling yourself everyday. Why do some people not care if they get their quiet time done in the morning but kick themselves for missing the morning news? Our nature is flawed and we've gotten so used to it now. Why is it when the only time we ask God to "rock our worlds" is when we're going on mission trips or big church events? Why can't we ask that everyday? I don't know, someone correct me if I'm wrong about all this. I just know that personally, I'm taking like every single day for granted. And I'm fighting myself everyday, and most days my flawed human nature wins. I hate it.

But thank God we are wrapped in grace, like Jamie said. I would be seriously messed up without it.

lessons from Relient K.

Random lyrics from a variety of Relient K songs:

Cause it seems I get so hung up on the history of what's gone wrong.
And the hope of a new day is sometimes hard to see (what you see).
And though I'm finally catching onto it.
And now the past is just a conduit,
And the light there at the end is where I'll be.

To be prosperous would not require much of me.
You see contentment is the one thing it entails.
To be content with where I am and getting where I need to be,
I'm moving past the past where I have failed.

If and when I can clear myself of this clouded mind,
I'll watch myself settle down into a place where
Peace can search me out and find
That I'm so ready to be found.

And its funny how you find you enjoy your life when you're happy to be alive.

i'll kill the thing that turns me away,
amputate the arm that will disobey,
withdraw from everything that's hurting me,
until you finish your work in me.

It smells so sweet outside today. The sun smiles down, I'm in the shade. I sit and think about all my friends and how good they are. But when today is yesterday, I know that things won't stay the same. But I know that the memories won't go too far. Round and round the world will turn. Lessons taught and lessons learned. Jesus gets us through the good and bad times. And lets us know that everything will be just fine. A year's passed since I wrote this song. A lot's gone right a lot's gone wrong. But I know that Jesus has been there right by my side. And I see the sun still shines. It shines outside and in my life, and I know that everything is gonna be just fine.


----i love relient k. :)

you'll always be my thunder.

So, I just got back from Nashville yesterday. I left last Sunday and went with Ezelis. Our first road trip, whoo! It was awesome. Came back Tuesday. Left Thursday again with my mom. I can't seem to get enough of the place. Maybe when I'm finally there I will stop blogging about it so much. I need something more interesting on here, don't you think?

Playing on repeat on my ipod the last few days is Thunder by Boys Like Girls. Is this not the most perfect summertime song? They hit the nail on the head, I say. I'm sure kids all over the world will fall in love to this song. That's not such a bad thing. I just watched the video for it today. Looks fun, I won't lie. Throwing food around in a restaurant, running out on the bill. Frolicking in football fields drinking a crap load of Red Bull. Watching the stars. Running through parking garages to go watch the sun come up. These people know how to have fun! :) And through all of that, they are with "their thunder", I guess.

Who likes my commentary on this song/video? Anyone? :)

Gosh, I'm bored.

The good thing about this blog is that not a lot of people read it. So maybe I won't look stupid to a multitude of people. I press on and keep writing nonsense stuff. And whoever these nice people are that come back and read it, I thank you. You give me something to do on Sundays like this.

Alright, here's something. In my life I have experienced meeting awesome people....throughout high school, in college, etc. My fault is that I let these people in way too fast. In my head, my heart, whatever. Sometimes I got pretty attached to these people. Then of course, no one is perfect, so I got let down a few times. It happens. You mend what is broken, pick back up where you left off, hopefully. The part I don't like is when things get broken and you can't mend them. They will sit there until they deteriorate. And thus...a cycle. I let someone in too fast, something gets broken, nothing gets mended, people are stuck in my head for far too long. I don't forget people easily...nor things they told me. I'm pretty sure its a disease :)

Life goes on though. And you go with it.

Come on, let's go.