Relationships

Tonight I went out to dinner with a guy I was friends with in high school. I used to consider him to be one of my best friends but I never thought about why we were friends, we just were. As we sat talking tonight I realized we know the basics about each other but nothing much deeper than that. So, I started asking him questions about himself that I have never thought to ask him. I found out that he wants to drive a truck for a portion of his life and he really enjoys manual labor. His dream job just happens to be a ranch manager. On my way home I asked myself, how well do I really know any of my friends? I am lucky to have friends all over the nation who I know inside and out and know about all my deepest fears and secrets. But, do I really know the people I spend most of my time with? Do any of us really? Do we see when someone is going through something? And when they simply say "I'm fine" do we just leave it at that or do we take the time to actually care? Do we take the time to see the people we claim to love? All too often we take for granted our relationships. We just assume our friends will always be there no matter what. But relationships take time and work, they don't just happen. If we don't start contributing our time and love to the people we care most about, we will loose them. The next time you ask someone how they are, don't just ask, listen. They may have something to say or they may actually care how your day is going. Take the time to care and take the time to love. 1 Corinthians 13 4-8

Sanctus Real - Forgiven w/ Lyrics

This is an amazing and inspiring song! Take a listen if you are feeling down or even if you just want some awesomeness in your life :)

Happiness

Question: Are we meant to be happy ourselves?
I have thought about this question a lot and on several occasions and I came to a realization that lead to my answer. At times I consider myself to be a leader which is where my answer is aimed. For leaders, I believe our purpose is to serve. At different times the service will be different and maybe even sometimes unpleasant but does that mean we shouldn't partake? If you are serving others and making their life better I personally believe it is all worth it. I am meant to to serve God in all that I do, we all are, but the capacity will continuously change. This question lead me to thinking of change and temptation. When we decide to live a new life, a life that will look even the slightest bit different from the one we currently live, people will criticize. This is human nature, not because they necessarily disapprove but because they do not understand and that is okay, we must learn to take their words with a grain of salt. But once we have made that decision to change there will be evident temptation everywhere we look; at some point we will be forced to look temptation in the eye and simply say no. To live for the future and for the betterment of ourselves and our society we must learn to control our urges and temptations. I have chosen to change many times in the past but I have fallen off of the wagon so many times that I thought it was impossible to get back on the right path, I was wrong. God is forgiving always, He is loving always.
I believe making others happy will in turn give me happiness. We are not meant to be happy all the time but in the moments we are, they will be extreme and enough. After all, life is only a series of moments, small and intense moments. If we look back on those moments and see that we have made an impact then, in the moments of stress and ridicule, we can realize that our good days our weigh the bad and we can see that in the end it was all worth it. Happiness means different things to different people. What does it mean to be happy, I mean really, truly happy? What makes a person so unhappy they decide that they have had enough and that no one can help them come out of the darkness? What makes a person choose to be unaccepting and mean to another person? Could it be their own unhappiness? And can a person who chooses to be different ever truly change?

I hope the answer is yes...

Roommate Situation...

Have you ever had a roommate that you totally connect with but just do not understand? Well I do. For the purposes of this blog we will call her M. M is an amazing girl who has also recently found a love for Christ. On this level we totally connect, I love learning about what she is studying in her Bible and discussing what each of us have read. But, I do not understand her personality. She is such an amazing girl but sometimes she gets so down. I want her to see how smart she really is and I want her to believe in herself the way I believe in her. She has a really tough class this semester that she has to pass in order to become a doctor, but she is really struggling. She studies so hard and still doesn't understand. This observation brought upon some questions I began to ask myself. Are we in complete control of our feelings all the time? Can we control our moods? And if we are then why do we continuously put ourselves down? Why do we become grouchy and take it out on the people we love the most? Is it because we know that they will stick around no matter how badly we treat them? If all this is true then we can choose to be happy and we can love unconditionally just as God loves us. We are all capable of loving people no matter what they do to us, we can choose to forgive them and move on. We can choose to forgive ourselves and love ourselves for who we are. And if we see something we don't like we can simply make the choice to change it and begin again. God has a plan and he has given us free will, to change our minds and to make decisions. We are not perfect but, we can choose to live our lives through the light of the Lord. God uses imperfect people to accomplish his perfect plan. Just food for thought.

Crazy Love

To start things off, I would like to talk about a book I began reading sometime ago called "Crazy Love." This book is about realizing first that you are so small in grand scheme of things and second that God has a Love for us that seems so Crazy to us that sometimes we cannot believe that he could really forgive us for the things we have done. This book so far has given me a new view of my life and of the way I have been living. I am one person, I began to think what can I possibly do to please the Lord? How can I show Him that I am thankful for the life he has given me? I mean I am only one small person... But God has created me for a purpose, He has chosen me for something that is so much bigger than me and I cannot wait to find out what His plan is for me. I would encourage anyone who hasn't to read "Crazy Love" solely because I fell in love with it. :)

All about me!

My name is Shelby, I am a freshman in college just trucking along. Up until now I have been living a crazy awesome life or so I thought. Yes, I was having an great time living it up with my friends and partaking in all the things a freshman in college should, the drinking, partying and free living. I was up for anything that seemed like fun. Until about a month ago I thought that is what I was supposed to be doing with my life. Then I came to a point where I felt completely empty, there was nothing but loneliness everywhere I looked. Yes, I had friends who were fun but all they wanted to do was party and get wasted. What kind of life is that really? When you think about it, this type of lifestyle may seem like a blast but, when you take a closer look all you see is a life full of nothing. Then, I broke, my life changed forever. I realized I was not living a life of leadership nor I life worthy of the love of the Lord. This blog is not about "Bible thumping," it is meant to be about finding God in all that you see and do. This blog is about my life with a new perspective. I plan to write about my new walk with Christ as well as all the other things that might be useful to other college students my age.