Attribute Challenge day 4: King of Glory

Psalm 24:10
"Who is this King of glory? 
 The LORD of hosts,
 he is the King of glory!"

As I was looking up at the stars tonight I am reminded of the simple truth that You placed every star in the sky. I can only imagine what this would of been like. 
The peace I feel standing under the stars is incomparable to anything else.
Thank you for creating something so beautiful for us to enjoy.
You are the King of Glory!

Attribute challenge day 3: Worthy of praise

Psalm 96:1-5
"Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day,
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols
but the Lord made the heavens"

Father, you are worthy of praise.
Let me remember that even when I don't feel like praising you.
Thank you for allowing me to attend a University where we can unite in worship and praise You.
Let our hearts always be right when we come before you because You are worthy of praise.

Attribute challenge day 2: Speaker of Truth

Psalm 15:2
"...speaks truth in his heart"


The Lord speaks to those who listen.
He instills desires into our hearts and speaks with authority.
I want to listen to you Lord, always.
Thank you for being the speaker of truth.





To learn more about the attribute challenge, click here

Attribute challenge day 1: Safety

Psalm 27:5
"For He will hide me in His shelter"

I was reading from Psalm 27 and God directed my attention to verse 5.
The Lord will hide me in His shelter.
I will not fear because He is safe.
Let me always remember the safety of Your arms Lord.



Here is an explanation of the challenge I am doing :)
The Endless Attributes of God

The endless attributes of God

This is a neat challenge that one of my sister RA's and I are doing together. I'm hoping to see God in all I do and really focus on that one attribute for the day.

For the record, this is not my own, it was taken from Louie Giglio's book, "The Air I Breathe" 

First, get a blank journal/notebook and begin each day for thirty days with the prayer, "God , I am here for You, please show me who You are." Open to the Psalms and begin to read. The goal here is quality, not quantity. You may be content with a verse or two, or you may want to focus on a whole Psalm. But don't speed along. Let the words sink in.

As you read, look for one attribute of God that seems to grab your attention. An attribute is simply something that's true about God. A part of His character. A facet of His heart. One of His names. Maybe you'll be drawn to His mercy. Or His consistency. His love. His holiness. Maybe your heart will zero in on the fact that He's your Sustainer. Shepherd. Shelter. Friend.

When you feel like one thing has captured your heart, write that attribute on the top of your journal page. You might want to write the verse down, too.

Now take some time to meditate on that aspect of God's character. For example, think about what it means that God is wise. That He embodies "All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." And think about what God's wisdom means to your life today.

After a few minutes, write your thoughts to God. You might write your own psalm of praise back to Him, or just a stream of thoughts as they spill over from your heart to His. You might write a new song, or just sing one you already know that magnifies the dimension of His heart that you're focusing on. Make it personal. Intimate. Honest. Remember, there's no right or wrong way to journal your response to what you see of Him. Two sentences can be as powerful as two pages.

Now carry that word with you all day long. Keep the conversation with God going everywhere you go. You might be surprised how many times that characteristic surfaces as you walk through your day. Every time it does, thank Him for the truth that He has shown you. Praise Him for who He is. After thirty days, you'll be encouraged at how far along you are on the path of knowing Him. And you'll be amazed at how much more there is of Him to explore.

~Louie Giglio, "The Air I Breathe"

Melanie 

A simple text

My ten year old little brother texted me today and as some of you may know, this made me smile :)
He lives with my dad in Florida, so although I do not get to see him very often, he is still very special to me.

For Christmas, my parents bought him a kindle fire. They discovered, if he has wifi, he can text his sisters! Every now and then I get a text from him and it always makes my day.

The other weekend he traveled for swim and my stepmom was texting me giving me updates. I tried to watch his race live, but it wasn't working on my laptop. My stepmom then proceeded to tell me he was chasing girls around the hotel. Who knew ten was the magic number where girls went from "having cooties" to being chased! Didn't even know we were there yet! Last time I checked, girls were "gross".
I texted him and told him to stop chasing girls. He just responded to me tonight saying "hi sis, i'm not chasing girls"
Good to know :)

Ben is intelligent, funny, silly, athletic, crazy, and a fun little brother. I miss him daily but I am thankful we can stay in touch.

My sister Jordan, little brother Nick, and Ben on the right

Perspective

This blog has really inspired and challenged me, click the link to see one of my favorite posts.

Perspective: She seeks

Sabbath

When I returned to Cedarville, I had to go to a few meetings because I am an RA. After the first few mandatory meetings we had a choice to where we wanted to go, I chose a session called Silence and Solitude presented by one of the RD's here at Cedarville. She talked about the importance of the sabbath and the reason behind it.
God began to convict my heart, and I realized I do not set a day aside for Him. A day where I do nothing but delight in Him. As a college student, I make up every excuse in the book like "i'm too busy" or "I can't give up a whole day of homework" or my favorite "I just don't feel like it". I'll admit it, sometimes I just don't feel like spending time with God. It's a constant battle, but i've discovered the more I delight in Him, the more I desire Him and I think that's how it should be.
Because it's not practical for me to give up a whole day, i've decided to commit a few hours on Sunday's to delight in Him, let Him teach me and just relax. I tried this last Sunday and I felt much more ready to begin my week and I was excited to go to class and learn.

God restores me when I am weak. He makes me whole when I am broken, and He loves me despite my failure to Him.

Will you join me? Commit just a few hours one day a week to Him. I'm up for the challenge, and my wonderful roommate Hilary is holding me accountable. Yes, this may even mean you have to do homework on a Friday night, but I promise, you will survive :)

When you go outside, look up. He's there.

Today around lunch time, I received a text message from my sister saying this "i'm ok but got in worse accident of life due to someone else" Immediately my heart sank and I began asking a million questions. She told me a car suddenly swerved into the median in order to avoid traffic, my sister slammed on her breaks to avoid hitting this car. Realizing she was going to hit this car head on, she swerved thinking it would be better to go into the ditch then hit the car in front of her. Well, she did a 360 and was almost t-boned by this same car and ended up facing ongoing traffic on the other side of the highway. Thankfully, there were no cars coming and she came to a stop.
My sister could of been killed three times today but the Lord had his hand on her the whole entire time. Thankfully He's not finished with her yet.
My mind kept playing the "what if" game and it kept taking me to the question "what if my sister would of died?" Honestly, I can't answer that question. But I do know she has a purpose, one she hasn't yet fulfilled because God did not take her.
When I talked to her on the phone, she told me this..."i'm a little surprised i'm not more shaken up then I am but when I think about it, He's my father, He protected me and that's what fathers do"
That statement has never been more true.
He is our Father and He does protect us.
He protected my sister today and He will continue to protect her until He decides to take her.

I am thankful for more time.

Back to the Cornfields

I apologize for my large gap between posts (thank you for reminding me Molly ;) ) but my life just got re-busy (if that's even a word).
I arrived back at Cedarville on Sunday and have been unpacking, catching up with friends, visiting with my hall, and experiencing "syllabus shock" (yes, it really does exist). 


For my New Testament class I have to chose a passage to study for the semester. We are required to do a number of projects on the passage and really analyze what the text is saying. 
When I heard Dr. Williams explaining this, I got really excited and several passages started flooding into my head. One in particularly was 1 John 4:7-12 which states...


⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, becauseGod is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.


The reason I am explaining all of this was because I was sitting in chapel the very next morning and our speaker referenced this passage. I immediately whispered to Lauren who was sitting next to me to tell her my excitement! God is so cool sometimes, the way He places a passage on my mind and then references it the very next day. It's a great reminder that God is truly in control and He knows my every thought. 


I'm grateful to be back in the cornfields of Ohio and especially grateful for these 3 girls :)

Oh and I can't forget this girl either :) she's very special to me, despite the distance.

Escaping

More recently I have discovered something about myself, I avoid situations that are difficult for me to handle emotionally and I run from my feelings, afraid to express how I am truly feeling.
I have trouble sitting with my emotions and allowing myself to feel.

I'm reading a book I got for Christmas called The Contented Soul by Lisa Graham McMinn. In this book she has this to say about struggle, "but could we be more mindful of our physical existence, not always rush to eradicate discomfort but embrace bodies that are responding to a broken world that cries out for redemption?"

If you are anything like me, you run from problems and stuff them deep inside until you literally cannot take it anymore and one day, you just explode. This seems to be a common occurrence with me. It's something i've begun to recognize in myself and i'm learning to embrace my newly found emotions. I'm learning that it is okay to hurt and to resist the temptation to escape or fix the situation. When I have a day that I am just sad I begin to look for little moments of joy and hope. A few things I like to do when i'm hurting is...
write in my journal
sing at the top of my lungs
drive to get a dollar seven
grab a friend and talk
turn my phone off so I can think
write notes to those I love

I'm not an expert when it comes to hurt. Most of the time I can give the advice I need to hear, but I cannot hear it for myself.
I'm praying God will teach me how to hurt and experience emotions.

"Because the world is broken, we will not experience the full joy we were created for, but because our contentment comes from an awareness of a personal, ever-present God, we can rest in contentment even when our circumstances include suffering and loss"
-Lisa McMinn

Melanie

"Adventures"

Tonight my sister and I adventured to the Christian book store to look at Bible Reading plans for her :)
I started to help her look but then I became distracted by the television and the different movie trailers that were playing.
We had a lot of fun looking over different Bible studies she could do, watching all the movie trailers, and talking to some really nice workers!

I've discovered (rather later then her i suppose) that tasks are so much more fun when we are together.
Grateful I am home to spend time with Jordan and grateful for these "adventures"
Love you Sis :)

Melanie