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