I'm So Bad at Blogging.

Hi there! It has basically been a year since I posted on this blog. I mean really, I don't even know what the point of me having a blog is seeing as I am not a photographer or a fashionista or a foodie... Sorry blogging world that I'm not cool enough for you! Anyway, I do enjoy writing my thoughts about life and the Lord, so I want to get back into blogging and I'd love it if you friendly friends wanted to keep up with it! :)

I say I'm not a modern cool girl, but I'm about to show y'all a craft I just made that I love!

I know. Cool, right? I'm pretty much obsessed with it.

It's so easy and I want you guys to know how to do it, so I'm about to become a phony crafty blogger who posts tutorials on crafts. Whoops.

Tutorial!

1. Buy a canvas. Whatever size you want.
2. Decide what you want the words to say then buy VINYL letters in whatever size you please. I bought mine at Michael's. I looked at Hobby Lobby but didn't find any. (I could have missed them though!)
3. Choose whatever color of paint you want. I used acrylic, but the tutorial I used said spray paint works well too.
4. Firstly, mod podge onto the canvas whatever you want the words to be made of. You can collage with magazine cut outs or use sheet music like I did or us pages from an old book. Whatever your creative little noggin comes up with! I would glue whatever you end up using down to the canvas first, then mod podge over it so that it seals it before you paint.
5. Then, place your letters on wherever you want them after the mod podge dries.
6. Right after you place your letters you can paint over the whole canvas. I just did one coat so you could kind of see the sheet music through the paint.
7. Finally, when the paint dries, carefully take the letters off of the canvas and viola! You have a super classy piece of art in your house/room!

Y'all, please let me know if you want to do this and have questions! Or if you make one send me pictures of what you came up with! I'd love to see them!

Inside Out Youth Camp!

This is turning into a long post, but I feel like there is a lot to be said about the youth camp I attended last week.

I work at Camp Copass, a baptist encampment in Denton, and this year they decided to sponsor five wonderful students from a homeless shelter in Dallas so they could experience camp! I got the amazing opportunity to be the counselor for the girls... Er, girl. I just had one little lady to "counsel" from the shelter. Another staffer from camp, Zach, was the guys counselor and we got to stay in the cabin Faith with the sweetest and most welcoming church ever! Shout out to FBC Dorchester for being so wonderful to us and becoming sweet friends in just five short days! We had so much fun pranking each other and loving on each other throughout the week, but more importantly we got to spend some really awesome time being refreshed and taught by the Word of God! It was a seriously incredible time for me to really learn about being a leader. Because Zach and I were it. What we said was the law, and the students really looked up to us for guidance. I was so grateful to be in that position because for the first time in my life I got to experience praying for people I was in charge of leading. Prayer became a necessity for me because I had NO idea what I was doing with those kiddos. Basically God became my go to when I was scared or confused about what in the world I was supposed to do as a leader to some really special students. And it just felt so right because that's how I'm supposed to view God at all times in my life, but so many times I become comfortable with my situation and lose my childlike need for the Lord's help. 

On that note, I hope that the Lord would constantly give me opportunities to get out of my comfort zone and truly rely on Him as my Father who can help me perfectly.

Sorry for the novel. I just get carried away when I think about God's serious awesomeness in our lives.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the week!

Thanks for reading even though I'm long winded! :)

Well Hello!

I'd like y'all to meet someone.

This is college Kristen.

She's basically the same Kristen,

just with a million classes,

assignments and stresses in her world.

But she doesn't mind because

she likes college.

BUT, more importantly,

things that make me smile. :)

College Kristen has homework to do. PEACE.

It's a Night for Blogging.

So, let's start from the beginning. Sunday night I had a wonderfully needed Bible Study with three lovely ladies named Kayce Simmons, Meri Sue Ramsey, and Kelly Beaty. These girls challenge me SO much every time we meet. The way they talk about their relationships with the Lord make me strive to look more like Christ. They are so kind and loving to me and everyone around them. Honestly, if we could all be as kind as Kelly Beaty the world would be a beautiful place. This girl is SO in tune with God that it spills out of her. I want that. And that's the point of our Bible Study. Growing together to be more like Christ. I am so very thankful for you ladies! Anywho, at the end of our BS (Yeah, that's what we call it. Get over it.) Sue had the idea for us to each have an accountability parter. Which pretty much equals a person to encourage you/crack the whip on you reading your Bible, praying, and living for the Lord at all times. Well after a little confusion in drawing names "out of a hat," I was paired with the marvelous Kayce Simmons. Rock on, Lord. That's exactly who I was hoping to be my partner. Not that I didn't want to be with Sue or Kelly, but God had just laid a huge burden for Kayce on my heart and I wanted to have a reason to talk to her all the time. :) When Kayce prayed that night, she thanked God that He had made me her accountability partner because she had already been wanting to talk to me about some things. I literally smiled while she was praying because I knew all of it was SO OF GOD. And that's the most joyous realization ever!

God's movement = life being wonderful.

Sooooo, after skipping economics and rescuing Peeps (No, not people. The delicious little yellow marshmallows in the shape of baby chicks.) from the digestive system, Kayce and I are officially better friends because of God's movement. Which I love. Every day we talk about what the Lord is doing through what we've read that day, and we're encouraging each other in our prayer lives. Also, we're doing our best at memorizing Ephesian 6:18-20! Which is our BS verse for the week.

Here it is:

"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the Gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should."

So, because of this wonderful lady and our wonderful BS, it has been an awesome week in the Lord so far. And it's only Wednesday!

Speaking of Wednesday! YOUTH WAS FANTASTIC.

Literally so full of the Lord. Our wonderful youth pastor, Josh Lewis spoke again on the parable of the Prodigal Son. Luke 15. He talked about the older brother and how he was lost, yet it was in a very sneaky way. His lostness was defined by duty, anger, and superiority.I find that I struggle with the last one. Superiority. No, I'm not lost. I am a saved, born again Christian, but I still struggle with thinking I'm better than others. I admit that.

This was our first week at youth to break into small groups. HOLLER.

In my lovely small group of God-fearing friends, we had two questions to answer. One about the older brother's actions in the parable, and one about our actions in our lives. The second went something like this:

2. What can you do in your life to invite the lost to salvation, not prevent them from coming to it?

The answer for myself: Stop looking down my nose at people. Stop acting superior. Because I'm not. Sin is sin. I've done it. They've done it. I'm not any better than them. God loves them just as much as He loves me.

When I was thinking about all of these things I wrote this in my journal, "If God looks at sinners and only sees His perfect Son, why do I only see their sin?" That hurts. God is punching me in the stomach. I need to be welcoming people to salvation with love and grace and mercy. All of the things God showed me.

Then, after all of that awesomeness we sang Declaration.

It's basically my life anthem.

Here's a clip of it from CAMP STINKIN 220!

In conclusion, God is good.

He Loves Us.

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.

Cause He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us.
Whoa! how He loves us.
Whoa! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.

Just a little taste of how good my God is.

No matter how many times I fail, He is STILL jealous for me. He still wants to be my everything. To be my object of adoration. He wants ME. He wants to love ME.

Thus, His mercies are new every morning. He continues to flood my life with His grace. I'm drowning. I only pray that I would never once take a breath.

All my shortcomings turn to dust when I think about the amazing, marvelous, breathtaking, glorious, jealous, perfect, unconditional love that my Father has for me.

Lord, I pray I would maintain sight of your love in my life.

Every day. Every class. Every person. Every thought. Every word.

I want everything to reflect the

indescribable

love that you have given me.

And I want others to know you offer them the exact same love.

Falling For the Eighties.

Apparently I should have been born in the eighties.

This has been deduced from a little

incident that happened in 2nd period nutrition.

A friend, upon seeing and feeling my slightly

shiny leggings such as these:

Said, or rather, sang these words:

"She's a maniac, maniac on the floor!"

I questioned his judgement, and soon after forgave him when he told me he couldn't help it once he saw the tights. He went on to tell me that I should have been born in the eighties. I agreed. OBVIOUSLY.

That would only have been the BEST thing ever.

So, thank you Lashawn for reviving in me a love for the eighties.

ALSO,

Pretty in Pink is essential eighties.

And I love it.

Even though I abandoned my chipmunk faced sister

while we were watching it for a skype date. Sorry Lizzie!

Nonetheless, I didn't miss my favorite moment from the movie:

Another eighties song that's basically the best ev would have to be Jessie's Girl by Rick Springfield. For obvious reasons.

Jakers, it's okay if you need to sing this song to me. :)

My Soul Magnifies the Lord!

He has done great things for me.

Let's Be Honest.

The Glory in the Highest Tour with Chris Tomlin and Louie Giglio blessed me beyond measure. I am so thankful God gave me the opportunity to worship with so many other believers in the Spirit of the Christmas season. So often I lose sight of what Christ truly did for me on the Cross. And even more than that, I see my Savior's humble beginnings as a cute little story I've heard a hundred times, when in fact, it is not. It is the kind of story that should inspire awe and cause us to worship our Lord Jesus Christ. I am so thankful that God opened my eyes to see the story of His Son in a fresh way, and I pray that I will never forget His faithfulness to me.

Purple Journal!
"Let the words of my mouthand the meditations of my heartbe pleasing to You, O Lord,MY ROCK and MY REDEEMER."
-Psalm 19:14
This is one of my favorite verses. Ever. It always brings my wandering mind back to Christ. Back to MY ROCK. The only steady, unmoving, faithful thing in my life. His faithfulness moves me tears. Although I am so wretched and unfaithful to Him in all of His glory, He never lets me go. He never loses faith in me for one second. The fact that the creator of the entire universe loves me that much gives me the strength to press on. To strive to be a more faithful follower of my King. This verse challenges me to consider my thoughts before they become my actions. Jesus REDEEMED me from an eternity separated from my Father, and I want to honor and love Him in my obedience.
T H O U G H T B U B B L E SPOP! I want Louie Giglio sermons on hand at all times.
POP! Having cute pictures in cute picture frames is like having a brand new gift to open every day.
POP! Jess Patton, there was a strange drawing of your abdomen sitting on my desk when I woke up this morning. I threw it in the trash.
POP! Black and white takes me back.
POP! I hope my crafty side turns out to be all I aspire for it to be.

APictureWillAlwaysBeWorthAThousandWords

Here's yall folks a little taste of why I love my youth group so stinkin much!

Oh, hi no one that reads this blog.

I've decided to put some pizzaz in this thang.

Meaning, as of this moment these blogs will have a little structure. Sounds boring. I know. But I have a

tab bit of an organization problem.

Here's how this will work:

There will be these things I like to call sections that will have specific names so you can easily read that part of my bloggy blog.

Here they be:

"A picture will always be worth a thousand words."

-So you may have experienced this one in my last post. It's lovely, but these darn pictures are a stinkin hassle to get into this thing.

"Let's Be Honest."

This is the part of the show where Kristen comes out and states something random.

"Purple Journal!"

So this little purple book was a prezzy from V Todd. Shout out! It's actually a presh journal that I wrote a bunch of Scriptures in long ago. So erry post I'm gonna type up one of the verses and say a little about what the Scripture meant to me. Yay God's Word!

Lastly...

"Thought Bubbles."

Just the random thoughts of life.

Suze, tonight we had an 18 minute conversation about two words that were written on Jess Patton's wrists.

I love you.

I love this stamp in my passport.

So, it only makes sense that in my first real blog I should talk about the past, right? Okay.

Man. Mexico. I'm not sure where to start. All I know is that every time I reminisce over the plethora of pictures from that God-ordained week, I feel God moving inside my heart. Reminding me of the things He did, and the hearts He touched. Sharing the Gospel on the streets of downtown Cancun was a huge test for me. I was scared. Not from the stories of drug lords and shady business, but because I was representing my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The thoughts about eloquence and reciting Scriptures plagued my mind. If we're being honest, they plagued my mind until the third, and last day of sharing. Yeah, on the first two days I shared the Gospel, but it never seemed "right." It never seemed to be MY words and MY version of God's love story to me... Until day three. Stacy Lewis, the lovely lady that she is, was my parter. Along with our wonderful translators whose names I cannot remember. Eek! Anywho, Stacy had shared the Gospel at the first couple of houses and I stayed pretty quiet. On our way to a shop-like house Stacy said to me that it was my turn. That I needed to share the Gospel with those people. In that house. After I said, "no, no" in nervousness, Stacy was adamant. I knew in my heart it was my turn. God had been pushing me, and finally I obeyed. Using the pictures from the Keys To the Kingdom I shared what God's love story meant to ME. It became personal. It became real. The mother and daughter that I shared with looked engrossed the whole time. They drank in my words via the translator. God spoke. It wasn't me at all. When I opened my mouth to finally speak words that were real, they became words that were not of me. I had the overwhelming joy of being "a special utensil for honorable use."

(2 Timothy 2:21)

As much as I want to say that experience of sharing the Gospel "changed my life," I can't. It did change my views about sharing. Don't get me wrong. However, I have not yet employed those things here. In my life. In Justin, TX. In Northwest High School. In Health class.

Oh Father, help me.

I need that revelation every moment of every day.

Sorry about the novel. I can only pray that God flows out of my life like He does onto paper.

A

picture

will

always

be

worth

a

thousand

words.

Matthew 9:37-38