2,057

When someone hears that I have never hung out with my best friend, they always ask me how I can consider us friends. I have three words for them: love, devotion, and faithfulness. 

There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about how thankful I am for the love she has showed me. She knows the days that I don't want to talk and she understands. When I'm sick, she knows to pray for me. She has showed me love through Skype, talking on the phone, and texting. 

Devotion isn't giving someone 60% or 80%, it is giving someone 100%. At the end of the day I always know there will be a message on my phone asking me how my day went. She always makes sure that I'm ok and that I go to bed with a smile on my face. 

She continuously is teaching me and pushing me to try new things. She always tells me not to settle. Even somedays she can be too honest but those are the days that I know that she is teaching me to be faithful to myself. She knows what I believe in and she is always there to stand by my side. 

Even if she is 2,057 miles away and we have never once hung out in our lives, I thank God for her everyday. I encourage you to examine your friendships/relationships. Are they full of love? Devotion? Faithfulness? Are they really a true friend? 

When It Rains

Often you hear the saying "When it rains, it pours" when something bad happens and then another bad thing happens. Sometimes it can happen over a time span of a couple hours or a couple months. The other day it poured all day for me.

The first day of school is always so exciting. You get to wear a new outfit that you got for Christmas, you wake up early to make your hair pretty, and it's the only day all year, that you actually leave early. Well that was not the case for me. I ended up leaving 15 minutes late and as I was leaving the snow just kept coming down. I knew just then that my 1 hour commute would be a lot longer than an hour. 

All the way to school my eyes never once left the white covered road. My knuckles were white as I finally passed the sign that marks 2 miles to school. All of the sudden my check engine light came on and kept dinging at me. I decided to call my Dad and he assured me that unless it was blinking, everything should be ok. Since I was so close to to school, I just kept plugging along. 

Less than 30 seconds after I had gotten off the phone with my Dad, my car kept accelerating and wouldn't shift. I immediately knew something was wrong. Here I am, sitting on the side of the road, the snow is falling, my car won't drive, I'm officially late for class, and I'm an emotional ball of tears. 

After finally getting to the auto shop, the lady at the front desk offered me a free ride to school. I was so thankful for her at that moment, I broke down in tears again. 

Later that day, after my classes were done, I was blessed again by recovering a ride home from someone who just happened to be commuting from my hometown that day. God has perfect timing. 

Reality hit the next day. The phrase "always a poor college student" is true, but somedays are truer than others. Within one week I had to pay for a new transmission, all my tuition, and my monthly bills. When it rains, it pours. 

At the end of the day, I knew everything would be ok. God tells us that he will never push us past the breaking point. He will push us to our limits, but never over the edge. In God's time, everything will work out and it did. Even on days when it rains, the sun is still shining, you just can't see it. 

Are you a…?

People ask all the time, "Are you a follower or a leader?" Think hard about that question. The answer can say a lot about who you are.

What if for once you stepped out of the leader/follower realm. Instead, give yourself the role of observer/learner. This way you could see both the perspectives of the leader and the follower. You are able to learn the good and bad about both being a leader and a follow. You will also learn how to meet in the middle. You will be able to find ways to relate to those who are followers and those others who are leaders.

Just something to think about.

One Rose

From the get go, I want to remind you that I'm a girl and this is coming from my point of view. 

How would I feel if I was put in the position where I had 25 guys to date. As I dated them, I could either keep them around or send them packing. After I sent 20 of them packing, I was offered a key to a "honeymoon suite" so we could spend more time together. Oh, and don't forget, all of America is watching you. One word comes to mind when thinking of this situation, overwhelming. I couldn't imagine being with 25 different guys. 

Now let's flip sides, what if I was one of 25 girls, trying to win over one guys heart. In this situation all the rules are the same. Could you imagine 25 girls fighting for one man? Jealousy would be at its max. 

I hope to never be in either of these situations ever. As a girl, you want to be respected. When you are surrounded by 24 other girls, who all want a guy that you like, you're full of jealousy. 

Find that one person that loves you for you. You should never have to be in a competition to find the person you truly love. 

A Coincidence

Someone asked me if I believed in coincidences. My answer, no. Something is never just a coincidence. God has everything planned for a reason. He has every star in the sky named. He knows exactly how many hairs are on your head. He also knows how many hairs will be on your children's head. He knows the exact day you will be married and who you will marry. He knows when you will get your dream job. That one time when you ran into your best friend from kindergarten on a plane? He planned that. So, personally, I don't believe in coincidences.

Coincidence? I think not…

A couple of days ago I spent time with my family out in the middle of nowhere. We went to the desert. Yes, that boring place that has sand, cactuses, and tumble weeds. Honestly, that is seriously all that is out there. Since I knew that I was going out there I decided to type a few blogs to post while I was out in the desert. I scheduled when they would be posted so that I could have them spread out over a few days. 

Well on the same day as I posted "Training Wheels and Trees" I tried something new. I have always loved riding four wheeler so I figured that I would try riding a quad that was out in the desert. I figured I would get used to it then let my wild side show. Except, I had different plans. Immediately I started pushing limits. As soon as I set out on the first ride with the family, I decided it was time for some fun. Well, as I tore out of our camp site, everything was going awesome.  There were some bumps ahead and they were small so what did I do? I went faster of course. My front tires went into a divet at the same time as my back tires. My quad went down and my body went up. I found myself in the sand with a runaway quad in a cactus. I ended up hitting my knee and head pretty hard. Thankfully I was wearing a helmet. My knee on the other hand is pretty scuffed up but that wasn't going to stop me. I had to get up and get back on. 

So here I was in the middle of the desert running after my quad that decided to finally stop in a cactus. What did I learn from this? You can not let a little accident keep you down. Just like how I talked about taking training wheels off, push your limits. You will never know what you are missing until you try. I am so thankful that I got back on and kept going. We ended up finding some old mine shafts in a hill and if I would have given up, I would have never been able to see them. 

The Story of Jack of All Trades and Sarcastigirl (Episode II)

After seeing their lives flash before their eyes, they did something that Sarcastigirl can't do at home. For almost an hour they allowed themselves to be free. With their hair whipping all over, they sang songs from their heart.  It is moments like this, when they allow themselves to be free, that they learn how to be themselves.  For those minutes in the car, they threw their worries out the window. It was just Jack of All Trades and Sarcastigirl. 

To be Continued…