Blank Name

Kaitlyn Void Null Peach Anne Jeffery Letcher Michael Seven Smith.

I think those are all the middle names I've been given through the years due to my lack of middle name. Feel free to contribute.

A Better Kind of Rest

Matthew 11:28

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Taking naps is so nice. Being able to sleep during the day if only for 20 minutes, is such a blessing. I love to sit in my bed, and let myself fall so softly into a place where reality is a dream, and dreams are reality. Not only do I love to nap, but I think that what makes a nap that much better is to have someone soothing me into sleep. When my mother rubs my back. I cannot resist someone rubbing my back. It feels so good, and it will put me to sleep right away. I absolutely adore when someone will do that for me. (Quinn - Kosova) When a friend puts their arm around me as I fall asleep on their shoulder. It just feels nice to have someone there that is sort of protecting me, or holding me as I sleep. I think it might even help me rest better, having someone there.

I like to imagine that is what Christ is saying in this verse. He knows we're tired, he knows we need a nap. He is the one rubbing your back, or putting his arm around you. He is singing a lullabye or rocking you back and forth. I love the image of this all-powerful, all-mighty God wanting to let us lay down in his lap and take a nap. It seems so safe, so comfortable.

I can't imagine that I could find a better rest somewhere else.

Mistakes

I am a screw up. Yes, its true. Everyone... Katie is a screw up. She just screws up. All the time. She is disorganized, irresponsible, forgetful, and she isn't very thoughtful.

Then again, I guess we're all screw ups. Its true. Everyone who is reading this... you're a screw up. I'm sorry, but its true. We're all just clumsy, forgetful screw ups. We can't do anything right

Without Christ.

There's nothing without Him. There isn't even a life to screw up. He is my everything. He gives me life, and breath, and everything that I could ever need. He knows whats going on. He is the only one that keeps me from being the screw up that I am naturally. Of course, we have slips. I just have more. :) I really love that he lives in me. Its kind of awesome.

It keeps me from being a screw up all the time.

Hold Your Hand

The Beatles sing a song called, "I Want to Hold Your Hand." This is common knowledge to anyone who knows anything about The Beatles, but I'm looking at it from a different perspective today.

We are supposed to follow the Lord in all that we do. Proverbs 3:5 says, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." We should let the Lord guide us and direct our path. Proverbs 3:6, "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." So this is the bargain: Let God carry out the plans he has for you in your life, lean on him, and don't worry about a thing, and He will make your paths straight. Sounds like a pretty good bargain to me. And yet we resist. We don't want God to take control of everything in our lives. We insist on controlling something, if not everything. Or maybe we give him parts of everything, but there is always a small bit left and we hold onto that piece for dear life. There is something about giving everything over to an invisible and mysterious God that scares us, understandably. But shouldn't we know better? Shouldn't we understand, after having known God for a while, that He is crazy in love with us for no reason at all, and to even be able to give our lives to him is a gift in itself? Now to refer back to the song. Read the lyrics as if God is saying them to you.

"Oh, please, say to me

You´ll let me be your man

and please, say to me

You´ll let me hold your hand."

Now it seems silly to say that God wants to be our "man." But to substitute another word in for "man," God wants to be our commander. He wants to be our friend. He wants to be our leader. He wants to be our Father! God is reaching out his hand, giving us a sympathetic and loving gesture by wanting to lead us. Think about how you would feel if you were reaching out to grab your child's hand, but when they saw what you were doing they suddenly jerked away and told you that they didn't need you at all. It is a sad picture. God just wants to be a part of our lives! He wants to love us and demonstrate his love by leading us through the trials, the joys, the pains, and the sorrows of life. But when we see what he is trying to do, we pull away and say, "God, I don't need you. I can do this all by myself, just go away!" I imagine God would be hurt, and sad.

And we would be stupid to give up such a gift.

Not enough time.

There are not enough hours in a day. I think I am going to petition the government/God for more hours in the day. Or we could just eradicate sleep. That would work out pretty well. Sleep just takes up precious time I could be using to do things like homework, working out, practicing, reading, etc.

Have you ever heard of those people who only need like one or two hours of sleep every night or every few days or something. AND THEY COMPLAIN! Alright, next time I meet some of you kids who think its so hard to get everything done when you have 23 hours in your day, I am going to punch you in the face. I wish I were you.

I'm going to pray that I become one of them. Yes, that sounds like a good plan.

Pray that I don't ever have to sleep again.

Young Life!

I love these kids. I love them so much! Everytime I think about them I smile. I love that they are here, I love that they are so funny, I love that they are faithful, I love that they care. I have stumbled upon the greatest group of Young Life kids that I could ever possibly ask for. They may get distracted, they may get crazy, and they may not be perfect, but I cannot help but love them! I don't think any of them will ever even see this, but if you do... I LOVE YOU! You're amazing! It means the world to me that you've made it so easy for me to be a part of Young Life at your school! Thank you so much. I'm praying for you, and I'm thinking about you.

The Lord has shown me a little bit more of my long and narrow path. This part of the path is where I dive into Young Life, and get myself invested. He lights each step I take but only right before I take it. I guess its more thrilling that way! But I see a light. It seems far off, and it seems unreal, but I know its there. I'm running toward it. I need it.

I love them.

What a day!

I have the best family and friends in the world. Today I was going to check my wonderful mail, I got a paycheck (WOOT!!) and a beautiful package from my Aunt and Uncle, and saw my wonderful friends!! I think that that little mail trip just made my day. I also laughed. I like laughing.

Now I'm listening to Mute Math play their amazing songs, drinking water, waiting for my class, and it is friday. What a day!

I feel as though I have strayed from my usual style of writing. I'm not sure why, but I am pretty sure it will be back soon. Last time I tried writing casually, I missed writing pretty things.

Isn't Friday the 13th supposed to be bad?

School.

I have decided that I don't really work hard at all in school. I have been slacking this semester. Today I walked into class and he handed me a quiz. I looked at the questions, then I started crying. Well, not really, but I need to work harder. Maybe read my books and stuff. Except in math. I might cry in that class too sometimes, but usually because I could teach the class myself.

I'm not very good with deadlines, goals, etc. So until I do this for an excess of 21 days [ you know... the 21-day rule ] , I'll hate it. I'll probably hate it even after that. I'm pretty sure this is going to be hard.

Pray for me.

alarms

alarms are scary. even when I'm already awake I hate the sound of it. It just gives me this feeling, almost of horror. I guess it has something to do with the displeasure of waking up being associated with that sound. Now I can't stand it.

that is a just a tidbit for you.

thanks.bye.

I'm going to break the rules.

I tag Rachel too.

To My Loyal Fans

Alright, so I just thought I should let all of my loyal followers know that the last post was the 100th post. Thanks for sticking with me these last few months. I have the best fans in the world. ;)

But really, I just remembered that I didn't tag anyone for the Find-you-fourth-album-then-get-the-fourth-picture-then-put-it-on-here-and-say-something-about-it-then-tag-two-other-people-to-do-the-same-thing game.

SO. I tag Quinny, and Baird.

Oh Stephanie...

Ok so this silly girl named Stephanie tagged me in a little teensy weensy feensy game. It is called, "Find your fourth album, take the fourth photo from it, post it on here, say something about it, then tag two other people to do the same thing." Yeah, the name needs some work. I hear the committee is meeting soon. Their meeting has a name too, its going to called, "We're just getting together to find a new name for the find-your-fourth-album-take-the-fourth-photo-from-it-post-it-on-here-say-something-about-it-then-tag-two-other-people-to-do-the-same-thing game." So yeah, they really need some help.


ANYWAY. here it goes. my photo.




Well, see Rachel, Faith and I were having a photoshoot while we were bored in Pennsylvania. This is what we do for fun. I love my family.

the end.

I don't really feel like trying to sum this one up in one thought by giving it a title.

Its just one of those days. I need something, someone. I need a good hug. I need a caring word or two. I need someone. It's so weird being away from my family and realizing what true love is. I know my friends love me, and I know that my friends care about me, but they can't love me the way my mom loves me, the way my sisters or brothers love me, the way my daddy loves me. They can't be with me like people who've known me for years can be. I'm not trying to cheapen any relationships that I have with people here at school, but its just different. Family love is different than friend love, and right now I'm feeling a serious deficit of family love. I just want my mom to rub my back. Thats honestly all I've wanted for a few weeks, for someone to rub my back. Because if someone rubs my back, I can close my eyes and pretend like I'm at home, in my room, on my bed, with my mom. Her hand rubbing my worries away, and her words soothing my ears.

Why don't I appreciate things until I don't have them anymore?

Mousetrap

No matter what happens. No matter who tries to mess things up. No matter how the devil tries to interfere, the Lord always wins. You can't mess up his plan. He knows what will happen. He can turn our dirty rags and sinful acts and evil doings into something that will give Him glory. Even in ancient Rome when the Christians were horribly persecuted, God was there. He knew what he was doing. He was working in each one of those Christian's lives. Even in the Salem Witch Trials when so many people were being so sinful and doing horrible things, He noticed. He was in control. I was thinking of it like this: You know the game mousetrap? It starts when you set off one thing and then it sets off another which sets off another which sets off another. Until in the end the basket falls and traps another player's piece. Well, from the beginning of time God has been setting up his game of mousetrap. Its like the other artist blog that I had a while ago. God sees it all as one big picture. He is always in control of what is going on. Unlike in the game mousetrap, God has control through the whole thing. He doesn't have to change anything because he is making it happen and he knows EXACTLY what He's doing. I think he likes to see our reaction. We're all mad that something bad is happening and then something else happens and then it keeps going until we see it all. Then we're like, "Ahhhh, yeah... thanks God, I got it now." And we start to rejoice. So next time something bad happens, or your life doesn't seem to be going that great. Look to the Lord, trust in Him. In the end it will all work out ok, and He'll get the glory.

And that's exactly what we want.

Jonah

If someone came up to you and said I'm running away from God, depending on your religious beliefs, a non-christian would probably say something like, "Sweet, I don't care." If you were in danger, and you knew the person with you was running away from their Lord you probably still would not think that all the danger could be because of them.

When Jonah runs away from the Lord he tells the people who's ship he boards that he is running away from his Lord. They don't really care that much, so they let him on. When the ship starts to rock and the water starts to rise and the whole crew is put in danger there is nothing left to do. The people cast lots and the lot falls on Jonah.

So they asked him, "Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?" He answered, "I am a hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land." This terrified them and they asked, "What have you done?" (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.) - Jonah 1:8-10 -

They were terrified as SOON as they heard that he worshiped this God who had made the earth. They didn't have to ask about his power, if Jonah's God had created the earth they knew that He was powerful. They knew that Jonah's angry God could destroy them all.

Why doesn't anyone understand this anymore?