Posted by Posted in 100 Hard Things Challenge, challenges, do hard things, faith, Friendship, myth of adolescence, teens, teens doing big things, the rebelution

#30- Visited a Spanish Church

So I am intensely trying to learn Spanish. I got gobs of books on Spanish at the library, I am doing Spanish workbooks and I have a Spanish learning app that I use every day. But I needed somewhere where I can listen and speak the Spanish language. Not just write and read it. So my mom suggested I find a Spanish church to visit and get connected in the hispanic community here in Mooresville. We saw a sign for a church and this afternoon I found myself walking down to the ol’ church house with my mom and Spanish new testament in hand along with a carefully translated paragraph explaining why I was there just in case I got tounge tied. (or in case I didn’t know how to say it because I procrastinated learning Spanish last semester) I was nervous. What if I didn’t know what to say? What if they laughed at me in Spanish? It isn’t any old situation that could make Priscilla nervous. 🙂 However, breathing a quick prayer I pushed open the door to the church and strode in, expecting dozens of Spanish eyes to stare at me. Instead five friendly pairs of eyes smiled at me, welcoming me in. And that is how Mario, Yolanda, Sierra, Juan and Pudi came into my life. They are the five sweet members of the small church. They truly had hearts for the Lord and were accepting of me and trying to help me learn, translating in English every once and a while. They prayed over me and I know that in the future they might be a big part of God’s plan for me. Who knows what will happen if you take that step of faith?

Priscilla

Posted by Posted in Bible attributes, Bible characteristics, faith, Living for God, words

Fixing My Eyes On You

For King and Country have a song called “Fix My Eyes”. The words of this song, jumped out at me and screamed for a blogpost so here it is. 🙂

I Love Like I Am Not Scared

Scared to love? Really? So many people give their hearts away so quickly. Is our generation scared to love? Loving like Jesus did, maybe. John 15:13 says “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” How often do we see that love? For more on relentless love check out the book: “Compelled By Love” by Heidi Baker.

Give When It Is Not Fair

“Its not fair!” the children call on the playground. What did Jesus say though??? Check out Matthew 20:1-16 or Matthew 18:21-35.

Live Life for Another
Jesus said to “love our neighbor as ourselves” (Mark 12:31), “love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Luke 10:27), it does NOT say to love ourselves. In fact Matthew 16:24 tells us to “deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him”. Phillipians 1:21 says “For to live is Christ and to die is gain.” We live for Chist, not ourselves.

Take Time for a Brother
Luke 6:29 tells us to turn the other cheek when others hurt us. The Bible tells us to give them our cloak when they take our tunic. Doesn’t this apply to us, even when we are not getting attacked? If your giving someone a ride to somewhere (giving them your tunic) then why not take them home too (give them your cloak)??? Matthew 9:36 tells us how Jesus had compassion on the crowd. Jesus is the best example of taking time for others.

Fight for the Weak Ones
When I think of this I mostly think of abortion, defending unborn babies who have no voice. Or defenseless orphans, widows etc. Proverbs 24:11 to “save those who ard being taken away to death” (abortion) and James 1:27b tells us to “visit orphans and widows in their affliction”. God tells us to stand up for the weak ones and defend others who can not defend themselves. Keep checking this blog and get my ministy updates I will be posting once a week starting next week to learn more on how you can stand up for orphans/abortion/etc.

Stand Up for Freedom
Gal.5:1 talks about how Christ has set us free. We should stand up for freedom too. You might say “well, I live in America, we have been free since the founding fathers fought for independance.” I would say Yes! Be grateful for your freedom from sin, and being able to live in a free country but guess what there are other people who are being held captive. Children in Uganda. Vulnerable young women in Asia. We must stand up for these captives. Jesus said to “proclaim liberty to the captives” lets do that.

Find Faith in the Battle
1 Timothy 6:12 tells us to fight the good fight and in John 14:27 Jesus promises us his peace, and tells us he will never forsake us. What greater promise do we need to find faith in the battle???

Stand Tall and Above It All, Fix My Eyes On You
An old hymn says:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus/Look full in His wonderful face/And the things of this earth will grow strangely dim/in the light of His glory and grace,
Psalm 46:10 tells us to “Be still and know that I am God.”
In the movie “Night of the Museum 2” Brandon (a night guard) tells Larry Daley (also a night gaurd) to “Shove your hands in your pocket, turn your attitude way down and be nice to people.” In the same way I am going to say, Stop looking at yourself, be still, and fix your eyes upon Him.

Priscilla

Posted by Posted in 100 Hard Things Challenge, Bible characteristics, challenges, character, do hard things, Living for God, teens, teens doing big things, the rebelution

#29- Did the Right Thing

We don’t have a computer. So any copies or prints we need to make we do at the library for 10 cents. A dime. Not much.

So on one unsuspecting evening, we went to the library. I had a copy to make as did my mom. We both went over to the copy machine and I dropped a quarter in to the machine. I made the copy without a problem.

The copy machine now owed me 15 cents. So I go to get my change. To my surprise instead of 15 cents, about $5 worth of quarters spilled out. I carefully pulled it out of the change slot. I rummaged through the quarters until I found 15 cents. Carefully, I took the 15 cents and slowly walked over to the librarians desk and gave them the rest of the money.

Boy, does it feel good to do the right thing! I pray for oppurtunities to share Jesus, love on others and do the right thing. What do you think? Was this an answer to prayer? Lord, thank you for testing our character!

Priscilla

Posted by Posted in 100 Hard Things Challenge, Bible characteristics, challenges, character, do hard things, Living for God, myth of adolescence, teens, teens doing big things, the rebelution

#28- Started Working on a Godly Characteristic Each Week

So, if you read my post below you probably noticed it was about love, which is a fruit of the spirit. What you probably didn’t know was that I have started taking Godly characteristics, memorized verses about them and tried to grow in that characteristic each week as a hard thing. I am going through the fruit of the spirit first and then will move on to others.
Want to try doing this too? Its easy!

1. Have a heart for God that wants to grow.
2. Ask Him to help you grow.
3. Grow!

With God all things are possible, even growing in an area that you have battled with all your life.

Priscilla

Posted by Posted in Bible, Bible attributes, Bible characteristics, character, faith, Living for God, the cross, words

Godly Characteristics: Love

What is true love? Lets see what the Bible says…

Love is Necessary

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbol. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

1 Corinthians 13:1-2

We can see here that God thinks that love is better than mighty deeds like speaking in tongues and such. Those small acts of love toward others are more precious than gold. And love is neccessary, if you don’t have it, you are nothing.

Love is Caring

“Love is patient and kind, love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.”

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

I think Love sounds like a caring friend or family member. Don’t you? Love is… well I will let the next verse explain…

Love is Jesus

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

John 15:13

1 Corinthians 13 is a great chapter about love. I used verses from there to show that love is necessary (without it we are nothing) and love is caring (love is patient and kind). But the best way we can look at love is by looking at an example. This example is gory, grisly, and vividly horrid. It is the example of Jesus laying down his life for us on the cross. Jesus offering his life as the perfect sacrifice for me, for you, for everyone. That is love. So when you think of love, think of…Jesus.

Priscilla