Better tomorrow than today.

Since I love to write so much, many times I'll start writing a blog in my head, or in front of the mirror. Simply thinking through my thoughts from that day. And if they come together in any sort of fashion, I may choose to run to my computer & try to get them out in a coherent manner. This is stemming from one of those episodes.

I've been thinking since New Year's is just a few days away about resolutions for this year. I have many things I would love to simply get a hold of this year. I'd love to make amazing grades, master time management, figure out how to study efficiently, lose weight, be more positive, & simply just "fix" a lot of things. I do this every year; different year, but same goals. And every year, I fail. I have the same goals, & then I find myself falling into the same old patterns as the year before. Reclaiming bad habits, getting back into old routines. This isn't a post about goal setting, although that is something that's important to figure out. But this is about becoming a better person.

My goal is to become a better version of myself, every day.

I know that this year I will not wake up one morning & be a size 2, with A's on every single assignment or test, with perfect self control. But, by working on myself a little at a time, I can slowly grow to achieve the things I want to. This isn't even about determination, or personal initiative. Because those things require YOUR power. Your strong mindset, your skills at planning, your changing things yourself. And I don't know about you, but personally, my own efforts haven't really been getting me where I want to go. I'm weak. I decide to do something & at the first instance of being distracted, I'm off track. I can't focus on anything. I can't do things on my own power. The thing is though, I serve a God who can do it all.

I'm sure you've heard the phrase that someone has "made it". What does that mean exactly? Does it mean that someday you wake up & you have achieved success in such and such an area, & then it's done? That you quit because you've simply arrived? I know that I never want to stop growing. I want to wake up every day & know that I'm a little different than the day before; that I'm better. And like I said, this isn't going to come through my efforts. That is something that only God can do. Only through reading His word, & focusing on HIS plan for my life & who He wants me to be.

What I want this year, & every year that will follow this one, is to simply grow. To grow in faith, to grow in love, to grow in knowledge, to grow in skill. I want to examine my life daily though the lens of faith & His word, & see what needs to change, & allow Him to make those changes in me. Notice I didn't say that I would make them, because I can't. Only He can. Only He could save me, & only He can help me grow by His power. I hope that as I grow older, I will grow stronger. I hope that my faith will grow, & spill into the lives of those around me who may be lead to find faith of their own. I hope that I never fall into believing that I don't have anything left to accomplish; that I've just got things together. Because I know that no matter what condition my heart may reach through my faith in Him, He will always have things to change in me. I pray that I'm always open to those changes, & willing to encourage the same in others. I pray that I can withstand old sins & overcome them by God's power in me. I pray that I simply never stop growing, & growing closer to Him.

If I stay where I'm at, I will always be dealing with the same problems and challenges. But at some point you have to have enough of a desire to experience MORE of what He has for you, to be willing to work to defeat those challenges & move toward growing more like Him. And I know that I will never achieve perfection. But there is no reason why I can't work to become a little better, every day. Matthew 5:48 says "Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." Because we're sinners, we can never truly reach perfection, no matter what we do. But, He can always do a work in us if we're willing to commit our lives to growing closer to Him and getting to know Him better as we grow in our faith.

I hope this year for myself, & for you as well, that we can all work towards this:
"In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God's promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self control, and self control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone." 2 Peter 1: 5-7

Let's make becoming more like Jesus, our beautiful Savior, our main goal this year. Because surely, when we make that our focus, everything else will be touched by that & affected as a result. Let's make Him the anchor of our goals, & see what He can do through our lives as we live according to what He wants for us.

Whiter than snow.

Georgia typically does not receive a white Christmas. Like as in, ever. For example, in 2009 we had temperatures in the mid-70's on Christmas day. It just doesn't happen. However, this year, the impossible actually happened. It actually snowed. Now to consider it a white Christmas, I personally would like to be able to SEE the whiteness, like wake up to it or something, which you couldn't since it snowed after it was already dark. But anyways, it still did snow on Christmas day which was cool, and it's still been snowing throughout the day today.

Snow is so lovely. I love when it's falling, & especially when the trees & everything else are completely covered in white. You can't see the flaws of nature's roughness or discolorings or anything. It's all white. Perfect. Serene. Beautiful. Pure.

Some of my favorite memories when I was little were playing in the snow. We'd get all dressed in warm clothes & gloves & hats & everything, then go out & run around all over. We had snowball fights, rode on trashcan lids behind 4-wheelers with our neighbors, and some of my favorite memories are playing with my best friend Emily when she would come over from across the street since we were both out of school. I loved playing until our clothes were so wet we couldn't do it anymore, going & throwing them in the dryer & drinking hot chocolate while we waited to get back out as soon as we could. I loved every minute of it.

I love what snow symbolizes. In Isaiah the Lord says He will "make you white as snow". This is such a great picture of His forgiveness and love. After the snow has fallen, everything under it is covered, just as our sin is covered under His forgiveness. And since it's snowing around Christmas, what a great time to remember what the snow illustrates. He came to save. That forgiveness would be made possible. And that is without question the most important thing for us to remember this time of year.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your family & that this year we can all remember to be thankful for His mercy & forgiveness, by which we are made white as snow.

"I'm taking pictures in my mind so I can save them for a rainy day..."

Sometimes life goes by just like snapshots in your mind. Pictures taken to capture a single moment in time.
I've had a love for photography and taking pictures as long as I can remember. I get it honest; my dad has always loved the same thing. But along with that, my mind operates in snapshots sometimes. I look at the world around me, or people I'm close to and my eyes start to look at how I would frame that view in a photograph. A sunset isn't just a sunset; it's a moment waiting to be captured. A sudden break of a smile on a friend's face isn't just a smile; it's joy embodied, just begging to be remembered in a picture. Simple, spontaneous moments that somehow capture our favorite parts of life; happiness, smiles, being together, the beauty of creation. A lot of times though, it's easy to feel like your photo album wouldn't measure up to someone else's; it's easy to feel that there's a shortage of excitement and adventure compared to other people. However, it's a treasure to be able to see your own life, and the snapshots capturing the special moments in that life, and appreciate every bit of it. Even though our lives certainly don't always work out to be what we wish they would, they're OURS. The way that God made me & the experiences that He has allowed in my life are not exactly like anyone else's in the world, or in history. Surely He has made me for "such a time as this", and wouldn't it make it more meaningful to live it looking for the joys He allows me throughout? The simple moments? The feeling of holding my sleepy little dog in my arms, or the sounds of my nephew's laugh, or seeing my brother when it's been too long; a familiar voice on the phone, a text that makes you smile. It's all part of my photo album; the moments that make my days better, and my photo album of life more colorful. And even though some days I feel like my life couldn't be more boring or uneventful, there are still little moments that let me know that it's special just the way it is. The times I'm experiencing are exciting and special, and probably will turn out to be the best years. But that's almost hard to believe for me. Because somehow, I'm positive that there are treasures at every stage of this life. There are little moments spread all throughout that make it more beautiful. There are pictures of His grace and love and mercy all mixed in. And using my little moments and joys, a beautiful collage is made of Creation and the lives that we are allowed to live, so undeservingly.
I hope you enjoy some wonderful snapshots of your life this next week, and that you can appreciate them for all that they're worth.

Georgia on my mind.

Even though I am happily living in Greenville again for college, I have now called Georgia "home" for 6 & 1/2 years. If you had asked me at the beginning of that period what I liked about Georgia, the list would have been short after having to leave Greenville. I used to pretty much have "Why Georgia" by John Mayer on repeat (of course my interpretation was probably different than how he thought of it when he wrote it). But now, especially since coming home means coming back to Georgia, I have really been realizing the things that I love about it.

I love the silhouette of the pine trees against a sunset.
I love seeing baby deer with their moms in the fields.
I love Atlanta. I love the energy, the city lights, the feeling of opportunity that lives there.
I love the beaches. I love St. Simons Island & the memories I had the chance to make there with my high school friends.
I love Savannah. I love the history, the charm, the Southern-ness. I love the lighthouse on Tybee, & walking on River Street in downtown.
I love the open skies here at home. I love how you can see stars here better than anywhere else I've found.
I love that my family is from here - my dad's side, anyway. I love when we all get together & their accents & how even though we don't see each other very often, I feel like I see them every day because they're part of where I come from.
I love Madison. I love the lights at Christmas; I love walking around downtown; I love seeing a million people I know just driving down the road.

I love the people I've met here, the best friends I've made, & the growing I've done. When I moved here I was 12. Now I'm 7 years older, & a huge reason I grew into who I am is the experiences I had here & the people I met. Thankfully I was able to find amazing people who invested parts of their lives into mine, & helped me get through the challenges to really grow into something more. I love that all of that happened here. This is where I learned to drive, learned to fish when I was little, & where just about all of my memories with my dad's parents were made. Even though South Carolina will always be where I consider myself to be "from", Georgia turned out to be where I have done a whole lot of living & growing. And somehow this year especially, I've developed a new appreciation for that.

I'm very thankful for the memories, & looking forward to many, many more.

This world keeps spinning faster.

One of my favorite movies is Enchanted. In it, Patrick Dempsey is talking to his six-year-old daughter & tells her that she & his girlfriend are going to spend some "grown up girl bonding time together" the next day. She replies, "But I'm only six." Then Patrick Dempsey says the line that gets me every time. "You won't always be."

Time. Flies. I'm sitting typing this in my college dorm room where I am retreating after finishing two exams to finish out my first semester of college. And it seems like yesterday, I was 13. My biggest worries used to be about my brothers picking on me or not being able to stay up as late as I wanted to. Then it was worrying about getting my learner's permit. Now, I'm worried about scholarships, getting a job, & starting a savings account for after college. It's amazing how things change. In a lot of ways it's scary. Just the being on your own part. There is definitely huge excitement about independence, but a huge dose of sadness too being away from the familiar. But I love what God is doing in my life. I love what I'm learning, I love how I'm growing, I love the friends I'm making. And God is giving me so many incredible opportunities that it's just unbelievable. And surely it will only get better from here. So even though time is flying, I am loving where it's going. Even though it requires leaving behind little girl fantasies, it enables making your dreams finally come true, as cliche as that is. And the glorious thing is that I know how this story ends because I know the Writer! God is good, & life is such a blessing, & I don't want to waste a single day.

Life's what you make it.

Life is an interesting thing. When we enter into it, many details of our life already exist when we get here. We don't get to choose our parents or families. We don't get to choose the house we live in or how we look. Those are all planned and decided for us, whether by our parents, or the great Planner Himself. More than details like these, we are also born into something else: sin. We have no control over this. We are born into a sinful nature, each & every one of us. The damage was done back at the beginning of the world that we all come to face in our individual lives.

The amazing thing that the Lord gave us though is the ability to make choices. Because of that freedom, we have the chance to really change a lot of things.

If one is born into less than desirable family conditions, they can move on from that when they start their own family - they can choose someone as their spouse who can help them turn that around.

Just as one is born into a difficult family, they are born into the family of sinners. However, we are incredibly blessed to have the choice to move out of that family and back into the family of Christ. All it takes is a choice.

Jesus made a choice to love us & die for us to make a place for us in that family. He chose us, from the beginning. He wants us, even when our earthly families may not. Even though our sin causes us separation from where we want to be and who we want to be, He provides that way out. Because He wants to.

Love is much more meaningful when the other person chooses to give it. When my friends tell me they love me, it's not because they feel like they should; there are plenty of other people they could have as friends. But I know they mean it because they choose to spend time with me & build a relationship. Love in any relationship is so special when you know it's not because they have to love you, but they choose to look past all your faults & keep you anyway. It's so much more genuine flowing out of choice rather than out of force. And Jesus' love flows out of choice. God created us because He loves us & wanted us to enjoy Him forever. And even though we messed it up, He still made a way for us. All we have to do is accept what He has for us. Accept our brokenness, our sin, our position of need, & He fills that for us.

Even with all the things we encounter when we enter this world, there is a way out of any situation we get into to make it better. With the right outlook & focus, we can always choose to see the good, & find a way to make that happen in our lives, with God's help. Also, if I am looking at every situation & focusing on things I can individually do to improve it rather than blaming others or simply sulking about it, I will be more positive & constantly improve myself. Not to mention the love the Lord has for me fills me with an incredible joy that I just can't seem to get rid of, even when things are really hard. So, I think we just need to realize that even with any cards we've been dealt, we can always make it better. We can always choose to see the good, & more importantly focus on the ways the Lord could use it to accomplish His plans & purposes. We aren't responsible for anyone's actions but our own, but the Lord can use absolutely anything in anyone's life to fulfill His ultimate plan, which is amazing. If we choose to simply trust His will & do what we can do to do our part by following His word & daily direction, there's hardly anyway we can fail. After all, if He is for us, who can be against us? Let's choose to trust Him & trust that He will bring us through WHATEVER life can throw at us.