God has his ways

"Be the change that you wish to see in the world."

-Gandhi

I have noticed lately that I am a lot happier than I thought I would be. With all of the things that have happened the past few months I thought that it would bring me down but it hasn't. I think that was God's plan. I have realized the past few months that I am a lot stronger than I thought and can take a lot more than I wanted to believe. I am finally to a point where I am comfortable with the person that I am. Yes, there are some things about me that I may not necessarily like but I am working on those. I am trying to be the person I want and who God wants me to be and suddenly I have more self esteem cause I don't really care what people think about me at least not as much as I did. I know that this is just the beginning of figuring out who I am going to be, but I think this is a good start. 

Honestly, I owe this to the people who are in my life that have helped me a lot, but it is also due to the people who have hurt me the most in life. I am grateful for everyone who has been in my life because they are the reason I am who I am. Most importantly I am grateful to have such an amazing God that not only put those people in my life, but also took away the ones that shouldn't stay. God can work in mysteries ways! 

more important than you think

Things have been really crazy lately and I have found myself not being about to put as much time or thought into Jesus as I would like. 

Anyways tonight I was at work and cleaning tables right before we closed. A man noticed my Young Life shirt and pointed and said your a Christian. I said yes. He asked me if he could ask me a question even though it may sound kind of odd. I put down my spray bottle and rag and said sure ask. I had no idea what he was going to ask but a million things were running through my head. He asked, "do you pray?" I answered yes and he said I was raised Christian but never really followed it until recently, and he said now I try and pray I find its a lot more important than people think. I completely agree with him. Then he asked me to pray for him. 

So not only am I going to pray for him to be able to find his way with God, but I am asking for any of you who might read this and feel comfortable praying, to also pray for this man. This man had the courage to ask me to pray for him and that is not something a lot of people can do. I hope at least one person reading this can pray for him and all the other strangers out there that are trying to find their way with God. They need help and support just like I did when I first decided to follow Christ. God can do some pretty amazing things in a persons life and moments like these are when I truly believe that. I think God brings everyone into your life for a reason. Even though I only talked to this man for a few minutes he was also brought into my life for a reason. 

"Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it"

John 14:13-14

Just another thought

I have recently been thinking about what the next year is going to consist of. This semester has been crazy with taking 18 units and working 25 hours a week. I have realized that I am going to need to do the same thing the next year. It is scary realizing that I am going to be so busy but it is all worth it when I think about how a year from now I will be getting ready to move down to San Diego. I have sacrificed a lot for school and to follow my dreams but eventually all of that hard work will pay off when I have achieved my dreams. 
I am going to have to take two summer classes this summer and both semesters next year take about 18 units. It is going to be stressful, but as long as it gets me where I want then it will all be worth it in the end.  I am ready to move out of Chico and get on with my life but for the next year there are somethings that I need to complete here and still a lot more growing up that I need to go through. I think I made the right choice going to Community College and living at home because it is giving me a chance to grow up and try and figure things out things about myself and get a taste of the real world while I can still have the support of my family. 

You are my Masterpiece

A long time ago I found a piece of paper and I have kept it in my Bible ever since. It is an excerpt from the book "His Princess: Love Letters from your King." The piece of paper has become my Bible bookmark and today I decided that I would share it with all of you. 

I love what I have created. I am delighted in you! 

Don't ever feel insecure about what you think you are not, because I made you in my image and your uniqueness is a gift from me. I did not give you a life, my love, for you to squeeze into a man-made mold. You are royalty, but you won't discover that truth by gazing into a mirror. Let me be your mirror and I will reflect back to you your true beauty. The more you gaze at me, the more you will see my workmanship in you. The sooner you see yourself for who you really are, the sooner you can begin your reign as my priceless princess with a purpose.

Love, 

Your King and your Creator

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Ephesians 2:10

Best Friend Continued: My one true friend

On January 13th I posted a blog about best friends and today I decided to add to that. High School and my first year of college was a time when I gained and lost a lot of great friends. Some moved away, others changed, and others well I haven't yet figured out why they left. For a while it made me feel like it was my fault. Like I wasn't good enough for them to want to keep me around. Lately I have been realizing that maybe they weren't good enough to be in my life. Maybe God took them out of my life because he only wants the right people to be in my life.

I still have some pretty good friends but one in particular stands out. Kristlenne Chantel Vicuna. But she will always be Chantel to me (: We have been friends for a long time but for a while we weren't as close as we are now. Our Senior year we got pretty close and then ironically we got closer when she went off to college. We usually talk on the phone about once a week sometimes more and whenever something happens she is the first person to find out. I trust her with anything and treasure our friendship more than anything. She knows that she can count on me for anything. If she was ever in trouble or just needed me I would drop everything and drive 2 hours to be there for her. I know that if she had her car she would do the same thing. That is what best friends should be. We are always there for each other in spirit even if we can't always be together in person. Yes our friendship isn't perfect. We have fights just like any friends but it always ends with an apology and honestly I could never stay mad at her for very long. We may not have a perfect friendship but what is perfect anyways? I would not change one thing about our friendship. She has helped me through so much and I know that she is going to continue to be there for me through anything because that is what a best friend does. I am very blessed to have such a great friend and I thank God everyday for blessing me with such a great friend.
12 of my favorite Best Friend Quotes
"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walk out."
"A best friend shares the good times and help you out by listening during the bad times."
"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."
"Best friend is someone who knows all about you and loves you anyway."
"Good friends are like stars…. You don’t always see them, but you know they are always there."
"My best friend is the one who brings out the best of me."
"True friends are like diamonds, precious and rare. False friends are like leaves, found everywhere."
"A best friend can tell you things you don’t want to tell yourself."
"A true friend is someone you can disagree with and still remain friends.If not, they weren’t true friends in the first place."
"A friend accepts us as we are yet helps us to be what we should."
"True friends are very difficult to find, hard to leave, and impossible to forget."
"A true friend reaches for your hand and touches your heart."

Hearing me rant

I am irritated with people who take advantage of financial aid and other government handouts. I understand that they are there for people who need money to be able to attend college and that they do help a lot of people. I am pissed off at the people who play the system. I work 25 hours a week and take 18 units and I get absolutely no government help. I am driven to make my many dreams and goals come true and I am doing whatever it takes to get to that point. My parents are a huge help and even though they will never want to admit it they are nervous about how the next few years are going to hit my family financially. I am not mad that I don't get financial help because I do have a pretty good life. My family has a house, we have three cars, and overall we do pretty well financially but lets face it with the prices of colleges pretty well isn't good enough. Life would be so much less stressful if I knew how I was going to pay for college, but I don't. 

One of the most irritating thing is when I'm talking to someone about school and I ask how many units they are taking and I get this answer. "Oh, i'm taking 12 units so I have a full load and can get financial aid." When I hear that I just want to start cursing and saying some very hurtful things, because I work my butt off and take 18 units not because I have to but because I want to. 

The next irritating thing. My dad is an anatomy teacher so he gets a lot of pre nursing students in his class. At the beginning of the semester because of how impacted our classes are he has to turn away a lot of students that could be great students and that would have been a great addition to the class. Instead sometimes he gets students that skim because they just need to get there financial aid. Pathetic! 

The final irritating thing. I was sitting in my Italian class yesterday and these two people were talking about financial aid. The girl said that she can't wait to get her financial aid because she needs a vacation. I got so irritated! Seriously that is what financial aid is to some people. A vacation! I would love to be able to take a vacation but I have work and school and no government handouts helping at all.

I understand the importance of financial aid and I am not saying that this describes everyone who gets financial aid. But like everything else there are problems with how it works. I think that is the issue. 

Something to think about

At the moment this blog was posted there were  6,999,321,881 in the world.  313,151,189 of those people live in the United States. For this blog I am just going to give you one of my favorite quotes and let you figure out what it means to you.  

"At this moment there are 6,470,818,671 people in the world. Some are running scared. Some are coming home. Some tell lies to make it through the day. Others are just not facing the truth. Some are evil men, at war with good. And some are good, struggling with evil. Six billion people in the world, six billion souls. And sometimes... all you need is one." -Peyton Sawyer (One Tree Hill)