Jesus FreaKatrina

My Music Video [Ocean Damaris - When the Snow Melts]

2010-10-24T12:53:00.002-05:00

It's been a long time since I've written. That's because I'm spending a lot of time working on music. Here are some of the results of my efforts: a song complete with a slideshow music video. Watch it! Let me know what you think. There will be more in the future.

The Reason Why I Sing--Don't Look At Me

2010-08-10T12:00:00.003-05:00

You wonder why I sing? Is it for me? Is it for you? Why do I write these things? I have often wondered myself, but I wonder no more.

It is for the glory of the mighty God, the risen Savior, the powerful Holy Spirit that I sing. If it was not for Him, it would be worth nothing. It would not matter if thousands sat before me every night to hear me play and sing, if Christ were not the purpose for what I do, it would be nothing.

The songs I write are gifts from God. My inspiration comes only from Him. If I am not seeking Him, I cannot write music. It would be a great tragedy then, if I tried to make my messages into ones that pleased the masses. It would be a shameful thing if I looked to the popular music of our times to fashion my music after, trying to draw in a crowd, because then I would not be trusting the Lord to bring the audience; I would be trusting my own knowledge and ability.

If I am writing a song and I don't see God at the center of it, I know it is a song coming from my sinful self and not Him, so it is quickly discarded. I see no reason to fill the world with more empty music when there is so little proclaiming the glory of our Creator. And even if there were scores of songs about Him, there could never be enough.

This may seem radical, but it's not. Jesus gave everything so that we could come into His presence. If we're truly there, how could we not sing about Him?

Light Up The Sky

2010-08-09T18:52:00.005-05:00

This song is very beautiful and inspiring, especially when you hear the message behind it!

Love the Way You Lie Review

2010-07-21T23:52:00.000-05:00

Note: this review deals with adult themes. The song referred to contains profanity, drug references and a story about domestic abuse. Please use caution in listening to it.

“Just gonna stand there and watch me burn

But that's alright, because I like the way it hurts

Just gonna stand there and hear me cry

But that's alright because I love the way you lie

I love the way you lie

I love the way you lie”

This song is haunting me. The opening lyrics and chorus are chilling enough. The rest of the song is a nightmare.

The song, I Love the Way You Lie, is the story of an abusive relationship told by both the girl’s and guy’s point of view, sung by Eminem and Rihanna. It starts with her saying that she likes the way it hurts and goes back to that throughout the song. The verses are about his inner struggle.

He feels pain, because they’re fighting, but then admits he’s addicted to the feeling he gets when they fight. She’s leaving, but he wants her back. He tells about how things are good between them sometimes, but when they’re terrible, he hurts her. He reminisces about when they fell in love and talks about the sorrow that brought him to the place where they’re physically hurting each other. Even knowing that it’s bad for them to be together, he still wants her back because he says he loves her.

Up and down he goes for three verses. He seems to get it. He knows he’s going to run out of apologies. He knows he needs to change. He can see how things are going terrible. Then he wonders if maybe the fighting actually is fine, just what happens between two extreme personalities. Then he realizes that everything he’s saying to her are lies. It seems there will be a happy ending perhaps.

But the ending lines from him say that if she every tries to leave again, he’ll tie her to a bed and set the house on fire. And that’s when she comes in again saying that she likes the way it hurts when he watches her burn. This isn’t an imaginary fire. She really is burning.

Wow. Why am I even writing about this? Because the song is madly popular right now, top-selling on iTunes, #2 on Billboard. My friends wanted me to hear it. I listened. I cried a lot.

How scary.

What is going on? What is humanity coming to?

Figuring there would be a huge controversy over this, I looked for reviews online, but what I found was not what I expected. I can only find articles praising this song, saying it is beautiful and a great message with a good ending about domestic abuse, with Eminem being repentant.

I’m sorry. I think I missed something. Since when is wanting to set someone on fire a good resolution?

I’m so torn up about this message that I hardly know where to go from here.

Let’s get something straight though: this is not just entertainment. No one writes stuff like this for the sake of money. Eminem and Rihanna have gone through relationships like this. There are plenty of things they could have written about that would have sold equally well. They feel the message, which is why they put it out there. As an artist, I know you can’t write and perform something that you don’t feel.

Why does this message resonate in us, the listeners? Even just listening to this song a couple times, I feel myself being drawn into the weary resignation that the girl has. It is an attitude that I see and feel everywhere in society. If we can’t change it, why bother fighting it? If they’re going to beat us up, why not just make up our mind to like it? It is a sick attitude, but it’s an attitude Satan feeds us so that we just give up fighting against evil.

It does give an intense picture into domestic violence. But it’s just a frightening one. How many men will decide that it’s acceptable to burn their partners if they’re unfaithful? And how many guys will get the idea that girls actually like this?

The sad thing is that I can understand the attitude. We have so much apathy and division in society that terrible loneliness in inevitable. So if a guy is fighting for you, even if that’s manifested by him fighting with you, doesn’t that mean that he still cares? If he didn’t care about you at all, he’d just let you leave, right?

God, help us.

I don’t have an answer, besides Jesus. He is the only answer. This song is just another picture into the emptiness and despair that we live with. I pray for Eminem and Rihanna now.

Guys, if you can relate to this, love never manifests itself through violence. If you love her, you will not hurt her.

Girls, do you get this? If they guy hurts you, it doesn’t matter why. You have to leave.

Parents, why are you letting your kids listen to music like this?

When we hear things like this, it should bring us to our knees, begging God for mercy and grace, asking for Him to rescue people out of these situations. It should shake us to the core. It should drive us to wake up every morning with a fire in our soul, driving us to do insane things, for the sake of saving a few from having to last through this living hell.

“God, I want to reach souls. I want to help people so that they can see You! I want to be the one telling them about You. I want to be the one that gets to share that joy with them. I want to transfer this peace to others. I want to pass along the burden so that we can bring Your light to others. I want to bring people to the foot of the cross. I want to live there, God. Lord, please build me a house at the foot of the cross. I want the blood to drip from Your feet onto my head so that I never forget Your sacrifice, so that every day I’m madly propelled to get up in the morning. Make my heart beat in sync with Yours. Be the reason for my waking up in the morning. Be the One holding my hand as I run towards the lions, rescuing my friends from their mouths. God, I can’t be silent anymore. I can’t keep this inside of me. I just had this encounter with joy and I can’t STAND the idea of it being stuck inside me. God, I don’t want to sleep now, because I don’t want to forget what this feels like. I don’t want to forget what’s going on in the world. I don’t want to be so found that I don’t remember what it’s like to be lost. I don’t want to separated from the lost. I want to see them every second of the day. God, please haunt me with them. You see them everywhere, every part of the day, the hurting, suffering, broken, empty, dying, and I want have the picture of Your risen scarred hands burned in my soul and the faces of the lost and tormented seared into my heart, so that I cannot have a moment’s peace unless I’m bringing more people into Your kingdom. God, use me.”

A Tuned Piano

2010-05-15T16:20:00.002-05:00

I was playing a piano today that was rather ugly. I had very low hopes of it actually working, because it's very beat up; it's missing the finish, the keys are chipped and pieces of the wood are broken off. But amazingly, beautiful sounds came out of it. It must have been recently tuned.

It reminded me of the fact that this is how I'm supposed to be as a child of God. I need to be a tuned piano. Jesus is the Master Piano player and I am a lowly instrument. I'm beat up, with chipped parts, and ugly on the outside. My reaction is to look around at the beautiful pianos around me that are different colors, that have shiny finishes, that have beautiful carvings in them, and say, "That's what I want to be like! I want to be beautiful."

But their beauty is not real. When played, a rough sound comes out. Never been tuned, the songs and their melodies are not even recognizable. The instrument sounds nothing like a piano. But they don't care. They look beautiful on the outside and take great pride in that and all day long are only concerned about their polish, desiring the latest type of finish-stain, the glossiest coat, and more complicated decorative carvings. And so often, I buy their lie that looks are all that is important.

Then God comes and starts tuning me, His little beat up piano. "Why are you doing that, Father? Why are you pulling me so hard?" "I'm tuning your strings, my dear." "But it hurts!" "The pulling and pain is necessary for your sound to be beautiful." "But when are you going to make me beautiful? When will I get to look good on the outside?" It is then He tells me His true vision for me.

"I am making you beautiful now, My Daughter. You must be in tune for me to play you and have beautiful music come out of you. It doesn't matter if you look like you've been through a war. What matters is if you allow Me to change you, to make you a beautiful instrument. The outside does not matter. It does not please me that all those other pianos look beautiful on the outside, because I cannot play them. Their keys stick when I try to play them and they do not produce music. You are an instrument and the more you let Me clean you up on the inside, the better you will sound when I play you. And the more you allow Me to play you. The more people will be blessed by the beautiful song in you. It is then that they will give me true praise. They will not praise you; they will praise me. They will marvel that I choose such an ugly looking instrument, but they will worship me all the more. Some will reject your song. Some will not have ears to hear the beautiful sound. Some will prefer the outer beauty and clanking cacophony of the other pianos. But you don't need to worry about them. If you just surrender yourself to be completely changed and always played by me, you will be serving your total purpose.

Dear Father, please make me a willing instrument in Your hands. Please tune me perfectly, even though it hurts. Please play Your beautiful song in me, that many will hear it and praise Your name. Please take my eyes off the other pianos and what they value and cause me to only desire Your will for me. In Jesus' Holy Name, Amen.

"Sarah's Choice" Movie Review

2009-10-02T22:03:00.003-05:00

This week I had the privilege of seeing the movie, Sarah's Choice, in its world premier location. I came into the theater very skeptical about how good it would be, but I was pleasantly surprised by how amazing it was!

It is the story of a young professional woman, Sarah, struggling to make ends meet while looking forward to a promotion. Her boyfriend, Matt is not so driven. In addition to being immature and not motivated to try to keep the job his uncle gave him, he often spends the night at Sarah's much to the dismay of her Christian mother. Her mom is very vocal about her displeasure about Sarah and Matt's relationship, but Sarah has long since abandoned God, because she believes he abandoned her.

After coming into work sick for a couple days, he coworker drags her to the bathroom and gives her a pregnancy test. When it comes out positive, they go to the clinic together. Even though Sarah does not care about following God anymore, she can't bear the idea of killing her child and doesn't believe that it is really a clump of cells like a wart, as the clinician tries to explain. On her way out, while she's seemingly alone on the elevator, a woman startles her and says, "don't do it." She explains that she will see three visions from God and gives her a Christmas card.

Okay, so here is where I really got a little irritated. I like realistic stories and the idea of having visions is slightly far fetched. Yet, Sarah has the same concerns later in the movie when she explains them to her mother's pastor and he said that it's still possible to have visions. And I do agree. But more on that later.

So, she wrestles with the idea and finally tells Matt that she's pregnant. He doesn't feel ready to marry Sarah or be a father and the two don't speak to each other for a while. During that time, Sarah does have visions, though, much to the dismay of her coworker. She sees visions of her daughter in different stages of her life. This is one of the great points of the movie: an aborted "fetus" is a child that otherwise would have had a life, filled with many experiences, some wonderful, some not so wonderful, but life nonetheless. And so begins her struggle: does she choose her career's future or her baby's future?

During Matt's struggle with what to do, he has a conversation with his uncle, that is possible the best scene of the movie. He asks his uncle if a marriage started because of an unplanned pregnancy could work out well, if people like that could truly love each other. His uncle tells him that all good marriages require work and that in order to get to the "great stuff" in marriage, you need to work through the "bad stuff."

In that scene where Sarah asks the pastor if she could trust the vision, he points out that if following the vision is something she knows is right and the other choice is wrong, it doesn't even matter that she had a vision. I love that concept.

One of the sweetest things in the movie is a scene with a bunch of girls releasing balloons with messages tied to them to float away. When Sarah asks what they're doing, the woman explains that it's a post-abortion healing activity. Girls write messages to their aborted babies, looking forward to seeing them in heaven, and it helps them move past the experience and receive God's forgiveness.

The film quality itself was awesome, unlike some of the Christian films that have been put out in past years. The acting was all very convincing. The costumes and sets were authentic and played along with the plot very well. It really wonderfully supports life and goes through some of the issues facing pregnant career women. Where the movie, Bella, asked the question, "what will she do with her baby if she keeps it?" this movie more asks, "what will she do with herself if she has a baby?" I think the movie goes through the idea very thoroughly and looks at all sides through characters that have made different choices. This is definitely a great tool for supporting life and adds some great ideas to the whole discussion.

Owl City--"If The Bombs Go Off, The Sun Will Still Be Shining"

2009-09-29T12:15:00.004-05:00

Life gets terribly frustrating and upsetting sometimes. Today and this past week has really been one of those times for me. Music, though, really has a way of lifting my mood! And I just discovered the perfect artist that is doing that for me right now: Owl City. His stuff is addictive.

This music is so infectious. The main elements of the songs are techno beats, with drum loops and funky synthesizer sounds, reminiscent of the disco era. Adam Young, who comprises the entire Owl City "band" said that he's been influenced a lot by the European music and has a great respect for the DJs who have the ability to mix music so well.

His lyrics are captivating. So simple, "G-rated" as everyone calls them, but there's a certain profoundness underneath. Adam is a Christian; on his Myspace page he says, "I follow Jesus Christ wholeheartedly. He is my life, my strength, my all.1" Although some people criticize him for not being obvious about it in his songs, I have no trouble believing that. He says that his inspiration comes from his faith. With lyrics like, "When violet eyes get brighter and heavy wings grow lighter, I'll taste the sky and feel alive again and I'll forget the world that I knew,2" and "I get a thousand hugs, from ten thousand lightening bugs, as they try to teach me how to dance,3" and the thought of being "drenched in vanilla twilight,4" I can't help but think of heaven. The paradoxical thoughts and soul-stirring illustrations just give me shivers, because they allude to a world better than this one.

This guy inspires me. He made his music in his parents basement when he couldn't sleep. He finds it very inspirational to be alone in the calm windowless room, with no producers or recording engineers to interrupt his artistic flow. He has a lot of landscape paintings and "ethereal" nature photography in that room, the ideas of which, he says, creep into his music. Adam worked at Coca-Cola for two years and while he was there, he used the time to dream up the sound and look he wanted to have with his music. "Sometimes working in a monotonous environment can really free up your imagination,5" he says.

So, if you're having a bad day and need it to get better, or even when you're having a good day and want it to be phenomenal, listen to Owl City. There's something in the words "I've never been so afraid, but I don't need a telescope to see that there's hope, and that makes me feel brave,6" mixed with the upbeat sound that just makes the problems in life a little less intense. The cheery melodies go along with the message, so that it's easy to feel that there's hope and not just arbitrarily believe it.

I love how genuine this guy seems, too. In his music and blog posts, he presents this very authentic personality, that hopefully won't be hidden over time, due to his stalker-like fan following. In his promotional photos and music video, his face is never very visible, which I found odd at first, but realized that it's his humble way of showing that it's not about him, because in his fan photos, he has no problem smiling. I think it's just his way of not getting in the way of the music, the gift God gave him.

What's most refreshing is that he doesn't hide that he's a Christian. God is his number one influence, listed along with John Piper, C.S. Lewis and Rachel Joy Scott, the first girl killed at Columbine for being a Christian. As of October 1st, his song Fireflies is #3 on iTunes. Hopefully people in the music industry will notice this and realize that good music does sell and I hope that other Christians trying to succeed in the mainstream music world will realize that you don't have to compromise to be a success.

In one of Adam's blog posts, he writes, "I wake up every morning, hit my knees, and wholeheartedly thank God for allowing me to do what I do. I am endlessly grateful to Him for the time that has been given to me, for allowing me to be apart of people's lives in some small way, for blessing me in ways that are utterly indescribable. I am left speechless. Breathless. Overwhelmed."7 I hope listening to his music helps you feel the same way.

1. http://www.myspace.com/owlcity
2. Vanilla Twilight, by Owl City, on Ocean Eyes
3. Fireflies, by Owl City, on Ocean Eyes
4. Vanilla Twilight, by Owl City, on Ocean Eyes
5. http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/08/12/breaking-owl-city/
6. Tidal Wave, by Owl City, on Ocean Eyes'
7. http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=201526773&blogId=510437323

History, In the Making

2008-12-31T16:59:00.001-05:00

It's been a bad day, you've been looking back
And all you can see is everything you wish you could take back
All your mistakes, a world of regrets
All of those moments you would rather forget
I know it's hard to believe
Let me refresh your memory

Yesterday is history
And history is miles away
So leave it all behind you
Let it always remind you of the day
The day that love made history

You know you can't stay right where you fell
The hardest part is forgiving yourself
But let's take a walk into today
And don't let your past get in the way

Yesterday is history
And history is miles away
So leave it all behind you
Let it always remind you of the day
The day that love made history

Would you believe that you are history
In the making, in the making?

Every choice that you are making
Every step that you are taking
Every chain that you are breaking
History is in the making
Every word that you are saying
Every prayer that you are praying
Every chain that you are breaking
History is in the making
History is in the making
History is in the making

Yesterday is history
And history is miles away
So leave it all behind you
Let it always remind you of the day
The day that love made history

Oh, history is in the making

--Matthew West-History

I think this song is appropriate to quote on the eve of the new year. It is so hopeful and encouraging.

This year has been a good one, full of triumphs and joy. I was going to write a very detailed summary, but that's what I was going to do last year…and it didn't happen. So, I'm just going to go for some highlights.

These are some of the wonderful things I've experienced in the last year (in no particular order):
• I had a wonderful birthday party with fifty people and it was great to know that my friends traveled so far to celebrate with me.
• I started learning guitar in February and am still playing! I love it!
• My family got to go to Washington DC and spend a couple days with Sarah Greek and attend the Rebelution conference, and meet some more rebelutionaries.
• I had a great time at Teenpact and met more new friends.
• We attended a new church for a brief time. We didn't make many lasting connections there, but one friend that I kept contact for a little while was a great encouragement to me in my song writing.
• Song writing? Yes, I've been writing songs! Mostly on the piano, but some on the guitar too. As of two days ago, I have 12 songs done, including one Christmas song.
• I also have started voice lessons, which are going very well. Even after only two lessons, my friends say they see great improvement in my singing.
• I got a new iPod for Christmas (which I named Bella, after the Bella in the movie of that same title), so I've started running again with it.
• Alejandra visited me a couple times this year. The first time, I almost died. ;-)
• Tatiana and I got to visit our friends in Rhode Island and see Coburn's play! We stayed up until 2 in the morning, talking. That was one of the most encouraging talks I've had in a while.
• Soulfest was an amazing time. We stayed with our cousins and dear friend Rachel along with our Japanese exchange student. It was at Soulfest that I decided to not buy any new clothes for a year. It's been five months and…it's a little hard, but I've been able to use my money so much better! Also at Soulfest, we got to meet some new friends, hang out with old ones and get BarlowGirl's autograph in my Do Hard Things book.
• The Art Music Justice Tour that came to Gordon College was fabulous and inspiring. That's when I decided to sponsor my third child, Uwamahoro. She's from Rawanda. Radia is from Ethiopia and Jacinta is from Mozambique. I love child sponsorship programs! It's so awesome to get the letters from them! I got to meet and hear talks by Sara Groves and Brandon Heath the next day.
• My family and I got to volunteer with blood:water mission at the Love Came Down at Christmas concert and because of that, we met Jars of Clay! I also met Leeland and got them to autograph my Do Hard Things book.
• While we're on the topic of concerts, I went to the Matthew West, Jeremy Camp, Tobymac concert for my birthday and it was the best over all show that I've ever been to.
• Graduation parties this year were fun! And I'm glad I got to see my friends Esther, Evan, Hannah and Corinne over breaks! Actually, I get to see Esther and Evan more than that!
• There was an awesome Thanksgiving break bowling party!
• Dad took me and my sisters out for his and Mom's 5th anniversary. So sweet.
• Worldview Academy was an awesome, awesome time! I met so many wonderful people and went street witnessing which was the best ever!

I think those are most of the cool things that happened this year! Thank you all for being great friends!

Happy New Year!

What I'm Liking :)

2008-12-25T21:23:00.002-05:00

This is just a list of things that made me happy during the Christmas season and I thought they were worth sharing. It's great to look at my life and see that even though a lot of things went wrong lately, that God still was watching over me and giving me joy.

I had the privilege of playing the piano for two Christmas pageants that our homeschool group did. I also got to sing two of my songs with my sisters.
I finally started voice lessons and being strongly pushed by a friend and I'm loving them!
I managed to not get sick for the holiday season (at least, not yet)! Quite a change from last year when I was very sick from the 9th to the 23rd.
I got to have about twenty friends come over last Saturday for an awesome Christmas party that went well into the night. We had a great time of fun, fellowship and worship. It really meant a lot to me that everyone came!
Yesterday morning, we went to Lynch Park and my sister and I went down to the beach, while the rest of the family went sledding. I collected shells and rocks and put them in a dish and vase when I got home. My sister took some great photos too of me on the beach and in the garden! It was a wonderful new Christmasy thing that I will remember forever!

Last night we got to actually do something important. We helped some friends of ours clean their house, since the mom has problems with a chronic illness and four young children which makes it hard for things to get done. So, we got to have a wonderful time with them while helping them and at the end we sang some carols with my guitar.
Today was a wonderful day, just spending time with my family and actually...catching up on some things around the house. It was nice this year to actually clean up from the meal and do laundry and put away the gifts instead of leaving it for the day after, in an attempt to cause a post-Christmas depression. Also, this was the first year that I made sure we read the Christmas story from the Bible before we went to done to open presents and I think that really helped put the day in proper focus.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

A Wonderful Reminder

2008-11-10T15:55:00.001-05:00

During a recent down time in my life, I was despairing about my future, not knowing what God wants me to do. After relaying this all to a friend, they told me that they were sure that with how much time I spend reading the Bible, that I would find God's will for my life.

This reminded me of something that is easy to forget sometimes. It reminded me that no matter how much we have read the Bible, it will still speak new to us in different trials. We may have read it five times, and get a little lethargic about looking for meaning in it, but that's a dangerous habit to fall into.

I believe that in any problem we are experiencing, the Word speaks anew to us and will lift us out of our trials. It is important to grasp as much meaning out of it as we can, every time we read it. It's like food; we never get to a point where we say, "I've eaten for the past 6,532 days and I think I've had enough nourishment, so I'm going to take some time off from eating." That would be ridiculous. Yet, Jesus said that the Bible is the bread of life. It is just as ridiculous for us to get lazy about reading the Bible as it is for us to get lazy about eating.

If you're dismayed, the Bible offers hope. If you're confused, God's Word gives direction. That's what I'm basing my life upon.

Worrying/Waiting

2008-11-05T21:07:00.003-05:00

The other day when I was thinking of what to blog about, I scratched down worrying/waiting on my to-do list. I was planning on writing some really positive post about why we don't need to worry and if we just wait long enough, everything will be fine. But, today, I don't feel that. The idea which I was planning on expounding on is still true; ultimately things will be good for us in heaven. But on earth, today, it doesn't feel like things will be good for a while.

If you wait long enough, things get better...and if you keep waiting they sometimes get worse again. Right now my health has gone down again after I've done every possible thing I can think of to improve it. Despite my spiritual growth, I still face the exact same temptations and sinful cravings I did when I was 11. My future is not as sure as I felt it once was, and my conviction feels weak at the moment.

That said, I'm still going to write on my original idea, and perhaps my feelings of discouragement right now will make what I'm saying more real.

In the Bible we are told not to worry. Hmm... Worrying is so easy though. In fact, our whole culture is based around worrying about things and overreacting to them. That's how stores can sell so much. We buy it because we worry about not fitting in. Worry seems like a normal, even healthy response when we are faced with challenges or problems. But it isn't. It destroys peace and causes despair. But why is this important? Why did Jesus really tell us not to worry? I believe it is because that by worrying, we are trying to take matters into our own hands and not completely trusting in God to do what he says He will do. That's what sin is too. So, in effect, worry is this the prequel to sin: we see things going wrong, worry about them, try to take things into our own hands intsead of putting them in Gods' and deviate from His ways, then sinning.

How should we handle things then, when we feel like our life is out of control? We turn to God. Actually, we should have been looking at Him the whole time. If we are always in constant awareness of God's divine ways and eternal perfect plan for our lives, clearly outlined in scripture, we wouldn't have these worries. We need to trust in Him. If we wait on His plan, everything will be put to right eventually. Even if we do not experience great peace in our lives on earth, we will live forever healed and happy in Heaven. That will be amazing. We may have horrible lives on earth, or just not the best, but if we know the True God, we have no excuse for worrying. We can hope in His glorious future for us. So stop worrying.

I'll stop worrying now too.

P.S. None of my worries were tied to the election results, if you were wondering.

Trusting In God, Not the President

2008-11-01T17:11:00.001-05:00

Politics has never been of extreme interest to me. I just found it kind of boring. The suits, the laws, the buildings--it all seems so separate from every day life. But I know the importance of it and have overcome my initial distaste for it. In classes I have taken and from books I have read, I have learned the necessity of making God the center of any governmental workings. The leaders for our government should have beliefs that line up with our Creator's. The legislation they implement should reflect His standards. I am in no doubt that many of my brothers and sisters in Christ are in agreement with me on these ideas. But I have noticed a saddening trend these last few weeks leading up to our presidential election.

A lot of Christians have been supporting McCain because "he's not as bad as Obama." They say he's pro-life. He in fact has said,

"I’d love to see a point where [Roe v. Wade] is irrelevant, and could be repealed because abortion is no longer necessary. But certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X number of women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations.^[1]"

That hardly seems pro-life to me. But, everyone says, there is no one else to choose from. We don't want Obama, who is unashamedly pro-choice. That leaves us with no other option, right? Mustn't we choose McCain then? At least fewer babies will have to die then. But they are leaving something huge out of the equation: God.

It seems to me, that it would not be the will of God for a man, who will not support repealing legislation that kills innocent children for no reason, to become president. Then why are we voting for it? God's way is not for us to compare people to the worst, but to compare them to Christ. I know that no man measures up to Him, but how can we support a man that openly goes against God's commands?

People in this voting season seem to be having a hard time being on the losing side, but what are we as Christians? We lose every time by the world's standards. We cannot be copying their way of thinking. With Christ we are victors and He does not work by the ways of the world. If I were of voting age, I could not choose either of the main candidates, but I pray that God works a miracle this election day.

[1]San Francisco Chronicle, August 19, 1999.

Rebellion

2008-10-29T19:00:00.001-05:00

These are the words to a great Lecrae song from his new Rebel CD, called Rebel Intro. I found it really inspiring.

Welcome to the rebelution
Jesus was a rebel, a renegade, outlaw, a sanctified troublemaker, but He never sinned, no
And He lived His life by a different set of rules
The culture didn't approve, so you know they had they had to bruise em, that's the way they do it
Man, they swear they're so gangster but everyone's the same
Everybody does the same stuff: tattoos, piercings, smoking and drinking, money and sex, plus them extravagant weekends
Man if that's the high life, I'll puff puff pass that
You leave evaporated like you're missing a gas cap
I guess I'm past that
I am in rebellion
I'd rather have a dollar in my pocket than a million
I'm scared to worship money, and my wants over Elyon
I'll remain a rebel while the rest of them just carry on
This is what I live for, this the hill I'm buried on
If Jesus is the truth, that means one of us is VERY wrong
Think about it
I'm in rebellion
No glory in me, all glory's to the King on the throne, Jesus
You either love Him or leave Him alone, but you can't do both
Yeah, I know you heard that once in song, I pray you hear 10 more before you're gone
Hey listen up, holmes, stage is the corner, crowd is the streets
And I rap the bread of life cause they're dying to eat
I'm a rebel, you know the kind that die in the street
'Cause you refuse to conform, won't eat the king's meat, yeah
Christ rebelled by shunning the cultured
He ate with sinners, giving Pharisees ulcers
He never got married, He was broke and plus homeless
Yeah that's the God I roll with
Your boy's gotta wife and no I never cheat
I'm praying for humility whenever I get heated
Forget about the drugs
Rebel against pornography
This ain't how it ought to be, homey
This is how it's gotta be: a rebel

The message of this song goes along with message of the Rebelution, quite well. I especially like that he mentions pornography as something to be rebelled against. It's something that most people feel awkward talking about, but it needs to be spoken about.

By the way, this is a rap song, which explains some of the interesting lyrics. The rest of the CD has great songs too!

A Collection of Thoughts

2008-10-26T21:38:00.001-05:00

I feel I still have something to say here. Frustrations are hard to overcome, but I'm going to press through and keep giving you writings that I hope will inspire you. God is still teaching me mass amounts....

A couple of weeks ago, some friends and I went to the Art Music Justice (AMJ) tour, with Sara Groves, Brandon Heath, Charlie Peacock, Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken. They spoke on some issues that we ought to be noticing in the world today and how we can promote justice. One thing they're trying to raise awareness on is the modern day slave trade. It is pretty shocking but nearly every country in the world still has slaves, including the United States of America. The artists with AMJ told about one ministry, the International Justice Mission (IJM), that is "a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression." On their website is a gift catalog, where you can donate to in someone's honor and receive cards that explain what the donation is used for. If you are interested in learning more about modern day slavery, there is an interesting book on the topic that I read last week. It's called A Crime So Monstrous. It is not written by a Christian, so there is some bad language. I will also warn you that is rather graphic as it explains the brutality and trafficking that many of these people suffer from. If you don't have time to read the whole book, the last chapter and the epilogue are very intensely moving and kind of summarize the idea of the whole book.

My family and I went to a mini seminar put on by Answers In Genesis this weekend. Carl Kerby was the speaker and in his opening talk, he said something that really hit me. Rather, he pointed me to something in the Bible that really hit me. In 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Paul says, "And [God] said unto me, 'My grace is sufficient for thee.' For my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong." Woah. Do any of us actually think like this? Let's talk about the first thing he mentions: infirmities. Webster's 1828 Dictionary defines that as

"1. An unsound or unhealthy state of the body; weakness; feebleness
2. Weakness of mind
3. Weakness of resolution.
4. Any particular disease
5. Defect; imperfection; weakness"

How many of us experience these things? I can safely say that all of us have. Then...how many of us glory and take pleasure in these things? Huh? Why would we want to do that? These are products of the fall, right? Why would we act in such a crazy counter-cultural manner? The answer is there in verse 9: that the power of Christ may rest on us. That's a very powerful thing. I have to say, this has convicted me. I have often been a complainer, especially when I'm sick or notice problems with ourselves. But these are the times I am supposed to rejoice and not dismay, because then Christ's power will rest on me. Why in the world could I want to trade for that?

Where Is Katrina, Anyway?

2008-10-11T13:23:00.003-05:00

As you may have noticed, I haven't posted on this blog for a couple weeks. There have been a couple reasons for that. I haven't felt very inspired to write lately, because of various personal troubles I've been facing. Also, I do not like this style very much. I would rather have this be more personal.

I have the option of writing more for the Change, which I would like to do. But I don't think I can maintain this blog and write for that one as well, so I need to make a decision on which one to focus on more. So, basically this break is a time of thinking for me, asking myself which blog would be better for my to contribute to and what the purpose for my online writing is so that I can stay focused on that purpose.

So, bear with me please. I should have an answer within the next two weeks.

P.S. If you have any input, I'd love to hear it.

Artists Speak On Depending On Christ

2008-09-19T16:35:00.001-05:00

Here are some lyrics by some of my favorite bands, speaking about depending on Christ, trusting God and finding our only purpose in Him.

I'm about to let go and live what I believe!
I can't do a thing now, but trust that You'll catch me,
When I let go.

--BarlowGirl, Let Go

It's all because of Jesus I'm alive.
It's all because the blood of Jesus Christ,
That covers me and raised this dead man's life,
It's all because of Jesus I'm alive.

--Casting Crowns, All Because of Jesus

When I come to die,
Give me Jesus.

You can have all this world,
Just give me Jesus.

--Jeremy Camp, Give Me Jesus

Will You lift me up with tender care?
Will You wash me clean in the palm of Your hands?
Lord, hold me close so I can thrive.
When You touch me, that's when I know I'm alive.

--Newsboys, Thrive

The way it always was
Is no longer good enough.
You make me want to be brave.
If You believe in me, that changes everything.

--Nicole Nordeman, Brave

You're the one who will never let me down,
Won't let me down.
I belong to You.

--Superchic[k], I Belong To You

Amazing Change Happening In Colorado!

2008-09-18T20:02:00.001-05:00

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Depending On Christ (Part 3)

2008-09-17T20:50:00.003-05:00

Guilty Christians?

As Christians, we are saved by Christ. His blood has atoned for our sin. He died for our punishment instead of us, so that we can live. Not just so we can live ordinary average lives, but so that we can live life abundantly. But are we really doing that?

So many Christians live in fear, with constant feelings of guilt, shame, purposelessness and inadequacy. I too struggle with these feelings. These seem like pretty normal emotions for humans, but they actually shouldn't be for those saved by Christ. I believe that these feelings largely stem from a misunderstanding of the Gospel and Salvation.

When we claim the payment Jesus gave, as our own, we are saved from all our sins, past and future. When we live with guilt and shame for the wrong things we've done, though, we are acting as if we don't fully believe in Christ's power and words He has spoken to us in the Bible. I would like to clarity here that I'm not talking about guilt for current wrong behavior; the Holy Spirit does convict us of sin still present in our lives, which is something we should not ignore.

I am instead referring to prolonged feelings of guilt and failure, even after acknowledgment of and repentance of sins. As Christians, we need to move past our previous wrong doings, knowing that we have been forgiven for all these things.

One reason I think that feelings of shame an inferiority are common among believers is that we're still trying to earn salvation. We're still trying to find our worth from our works. But, Isaiah 64:6 says that our "righteous acts are like filthy rags."

What's Our Worth?

Our salvation only comes from Christ and there is nothing we can do to be more worthy of that gift. We don't deserve that, but instead of living in continued fear and shame, we should glorify the Lord for the wonderful grace and mercy He has granted us.

Our purpose is likewise defined in the death of Christ. When we ask questions of ourselves such as, "Who am I and what have I done?" our only answer should be, "I'm a child of God and I've accepted God's free gift of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ."

Anything we do should bring glory to God. When we fail by the world's standards to accomplish great things, we must not take their criticism as a part of our identity. We must believe the words of the Bible that we are saved by Christ, which gives us worth beyond measure.

I don't write this all to discourage you from doing hard things or working for the Lord, but instead to show you the right foundation. We must depend on Christ alone to erase our shame and guilt and give us a purpose in our lives. The world will offer other solutions, but Jesus is our only one. We are God's creation, saved by Christ. Now, let us start living like we are!

Depending On Christ (Part 2)

2008-09-16T21:54:00.003-05:00

One very important thing that we need to depend on Christ for is help with battling the sins in our lives. Before going into the specifics of how we can do this, I need to make something clear: if you are a Christian, Christ has already taken the penalty for your sins and His righteousness is now counted as yours. As it says in Isaiah 53:6, "All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, every one, to his own way and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." This is very important to grasp, because only when we do, can we be fully honest about the sin in our lives. When we are still living in guilt, we won't want to search our lives for sin and ask for Christ's help. Rather, we will try to cover them up.

This assurance of grace also gives us tremendous hope for warring against the sin of our flesh. It is like being told, before you go into a battle that you are going to win. Knowing this gives you more strength to fight. Also, we must know that if Christ would take the penalty for our sin, He will wonderfully enable us to fight our sin and will walk along side us as we do that in His strength.

Now, what kinds of actions are sins that we have to fight against? Most people asked to define sin will names things such as murder, adultery and stealing. Most of us haven't done those things, which can tend to make us feel superior. But we need to dig deeper. Sin is any action that does not please God. God has made it clear in His word what pleases Him and what does not.

But so many times we overlook a lot of the "small sins." Sin is sin though, no matter how much we try to justify it. I'm currently reading this book called Respectable Sins, which talks about "confronting the sins we tolerate." Among the list of specific sins that the author, Jerry Bridges, addresses are anxiety, frustration, discontent, selfishness, unthankfuless, lack of self-control, impatience, anger and worldliness.

This list I think is especially hard to go through as a teen, because it goes against everything taught in our pop culture and social scene. In face, most movies and advertisements targeted at us encourage these qualities, falsely titling them as ways to be "true to yourself."

We need to move past initial pride and resistance towards acknowledging these sins, and others in our lives. It is when we do this that Christ can work in us to help us grow more.

When we go about fighting sin, we must fully rely on Christ and His power. This does not free us from responsibility, though. We must constantly be working hard to kill the sin of our flesh that lives in us. It may be painful, but it will be beautiful. It will bring God great glory and it is our duty as a Christian soldier.

Prayer is a very important battle weapon. Never underestimate its power. Any time you are in a situation that you are tempted in, plea for Christ's immeasurable power to help you.

Memorizing Christ's words on sin and also His assurances of salvation in His word will also help you in you fight. When you are in hard situations, Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, will remind you of those words to help you.

Battles are never fun; you battle on sin won't be either. But with Christ you will be able to endure.

Depending on Christ (Part I)

2008-09-15T21:18:00.003-05:00

This world is such an exciting place with many wonderful things to do. We are surrounded every day with things that attract our attention: food, clothes, friends, the internet, money, sports, entertainment.

But there are so many problems in our world: The wars, the famines, the diseases. There are so many problems in our society in this country: abortion, divorce, suicide. There are so many problems in our schools, our families...ourselves. Sin is rampant. There is so much hate, envy, anger, bitterness, backstabbing, double-crossing and other causes of sorrow, that it is hard to not daily despair. These are just the big problems though.

The demands of normal daily life are taxing too. Working, going to school, being part of a family, serving in the community--these all require a great deal of energy, energy that we don't have on our own. This is just a small overview of the stresses in our lives.

Obviously, with things all crazy and with all the expectations put on us in life, we need someone or something to depend on. Everyone does, whether they admit it or not. After trying to make it by oneself for a little while, it's very evident that there is not enough strength in one person to make it on their own. We all need to turn to something outside ourselves for real strength.

There are things in this world that people turn to for their fulfillment and support: friends, family, pop stars, entertainment, sports, money, control, drugs, drinking--anything to inspire them, make the feel strong, or just help them escape. There are many that turn to a variety of religions to depend on.

There are also many people that are really depending on the next leader of this country to make a change. They are hoping that someone will take charge and help solve all our problems. They're looking for someone to step in and fix money problems, pay for everyone's good health, provide with funds for educating the children. Those people are depending on our flawed human leaders to be their savior.

But all these things can never bring true, complete fulfillment. At some point, everyone and everything that you we turn to will let us down. Every place of escape will disappear. The ones we depend on, will brush you away and leave you alone.

As tragic as this can be though, it should drive us to Jesus. He is the only one that will never let us down, that will always be there for us and is the One that is really dependable forever.

To be continued...

2008-09-11T10:39:00.008-05:00

Check It Out:

Christa Taylor just wrote a great post about how our feeling of worth should only come from Jesus Christ and not from how we look.

Fun, Useful Tool

I just heard of mind mapping the other day and got a chance to try it out. It's a really useful tool for arranging notes in an effective way. WiseMapping and MindMeister are the best ones that I've used.

Keep Watching...

I'm starting a series about Depending On Jesus, why we need to and how we can. The first post should be up by Monday afternoon.

Here's My Life...With No More Looking Back

2008-09-04T09:15:00.007-05:00

At the start of every season, feelings from the previous year during that time are awakened in me. Old thoughts and desires are awakened every year. With the coming of fall, I am pleasantly reminded of the new school books I would unwrap (yes, I actually did like new school books), the mall shopping trips for warmer clothes that were necessary every year until I stopped growing, the fall concert tours that would stop in our area and, of course, the starting of youthgroups.

It is different for every season. Some years I have happier memories than others. This post has to do with the coming of this summer (that is sadly drawing to an end). It is born out of my own deep personal struggles I have been having for the past two months.

At the end of spring, with the leaves turning green and the need to wear long pants disappearing, I was reminded of the summer days in my old home and the beach days we used to have, since we lived so close to the water. Old friends, old games, old churches, old habits: I was strongly reminded of them all. But with this remembrance came a great sadness that I couldn't seem to shake for a while.

Looking at my life sometimes now, comparing it to how it used to be, I grow dissatisfied. There was a certain security I used to have that is gone now. I was at the same church for fourteen years. Now we have been to five churches in the last couple years and are only beginning to settle into the one we've been attending for six months now. I used to be able to have the same friends over almost any day of the week and see them at church at least twice a week and now, almost all my friends live over half an hour away. These are rather petty things though. We moved to a new town. I should get over that.

But it's not only our house and neighborhood that have changed. I have changed as well. I used to be able to spend hours reading to myself and now I feel an obligation to spend more time with my siblings. I used to be able to spend money on myself in ways that I can no longer justify. I used to be able to stand silent, comfortable in social situations when evil was going on right before my eyes, but now the Holy Spirit in my hardly allows me to be silent. I used to be able to talk about how I would act if I was in tough situations; now I am forced to act that way because I am in those situations.

Why do I lament these good and wonderful things? Because it hurts. It was much easier to go with the flow, than to fight through the mob. It was more comfortable to be able to trust in myself and my surroundings rather than to have to depend on God like I know do. It hurts me now just to read over what I just read. But it's the truth. I think this all needs to be said. This is now my public confession.

I'm making a new dedication now. Jesus said, "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Well, I'm not looking back anymore. The things that have happened have helped shape me into who I'm supposed to be, but they're gone.

I'm doing like Cortés and "burning my ships," so I have no way back to the way I used to be. "Who I am hates who I've been" so I'm just not going back there.

Switchfoot's song This Is Home says it well:

I've got my memories
Always inside of me
But I can't go back
Back to how it was
I believe you now
I've come too far
No I can't go back
Back to how it was
Belief over misery
I've seen the enemy
And I won't go back
Back to how it was
And I got my heart set on what happens next
I got my eyes wide
It's not over yet

I'm really going to live for God now with no regrets.

Jeremy Camp wrote these words in his song Let It Fade.

Let this old life crumble, let it fade
Let this new life offered be your saving grace
Let this old life crumble, let it fade, let it fade

I'm going to live out the words to that and trust in God and follow him wherever he leads me.

God I'm crying out tonight
Because I've given you my life
But I I'm tired now and missing what's behind
So once more:
Here's my life!1

1. BarlowGirl-Here's My Life

Raising the Bar: Alex and Brett On FamilyLife Today

2008-09-03T20:31:00.001-05:00

Alex and Brett just did a great interview on FamilyLife Today. You can listen to it here. I can't write more because my mom wants to listen to it now. Let me know what you think!

Living Beyond The Moment

2008-09-02T20:09:00.000-05:00

I didn't post yesterday, because I forgot that it was a holiday and we were gone at a party all day. As you'll notice though, I did write an article during my absence. I'm back now and hoping to post every day, but life does get busy, so please excuse me if I don't.

At the end of the day, I'd be glad that I read my Bible, my daily bread. But in the moment when my alarm goes off at 6am, I'd rather sleep in until I just have enough time to shower and grab breakfast before being gone all day.

At the end of the day, I'd feel great satisfaction having spent time with my younger siblings, teaching them and being a good example. But in the moment, during the afternoon, when I'm feeling sluggish, I'd rather reply to my emails.

At the end of the day, I'd love to spend time talking with my Savior. But in the moment, I'd rather just zone out and fall asleep quickly.

At the end of the day, I'd feel good if I had aching muscles, knowing that I gave myself a good workout, knowing that I'm getting stronger. But in the moment, when I'm already exhausted at 10am, I'd rather just check my Facebook account.

At the end of the day, I'd feel wonderful if I had eaten healthy food all day, avoiding the sugar and the wheat that makes my stomach swell. But in the moment, when everyone at the party is having desert, I'd rather just eat the cookies.

At the end of the day, I'd like to have done all my chores, leaving the house neat and orderly. But in the moment, when things are chaotic and I feel overwhelmed, I'd much rather just escape from the mess and play my piano.

At the end of the day, I'd be incredibly content, having done some serious reading, stretching my mind. But in the moment, when I have a headache and my brain is lazy and exhausted, I'd rather just lay down.

At the end of the day, I'd feel satisfied if my to-do list had everything checked off, knowing that I kept on task. But in the moment, when the list seems daunting, I'd rather just organize my closet again.

At the end of the day, I'd feel awesome having stood for my beliefs and acted on my convictions for the glory of Christ. But in the moment, when the pressure's on, I'd rather just blend and go with the flow, even if it means compromising a little.

Living in the moment is so comfortable, so easy, and it feels so...right at the time. Living for the end of the day satisfaction, knowing that I served Christ well and didn't bring shame to Him is hard. Well, really hard. Impossible without Christ. But I can do all things thought Christ who strengthens me.

At the end of the day, I feel great, knowing that I pushed myself to the limit, stood on my convictions, served the Lord well, depended on God for my strength and didn't just go through the motions again. Because in the moment, I conquered my selfish desires and looked beyond it and did hard things for God. At the end of that day in that moment, I feel wonderful.

Dressing Modest Affordably (And Why)

2008-08-28T00:50:00.001-05:00

I wrote this little post for the girls over at this blog. While it may seem a little silly, I think it is rather important. The emphasis in our culture is usually to indulge ourself. I wrote a little bit on this idea in this post. We dress modest for Christ, but we can't let it consume our money. We need to go against the norm and decide not to be extravagent with how we dress ourselves, but sacrifice in order to give to the needy people around the world. (Guys, sorry, but the rest of this is probably boring for you.)

Modest clothing is becoming easier to find these days and we're all very happy about that. But is anyone noticing the prices? Umm...sure you can find a modest skirt at Banana Republic and J-Jill, but who can afford $90 skirts consistently? Especially with the rising prices in our struggling economy, it's time to formulate a plan of action for how to still be chic, beautiful and modest, without going broke. Here is my list of ideas to help you out with that.

1. Buy cheap layering items.
Camis, tanktops, thin t-shirts and layering turtlenecks are invaluable for modest fashion. The once too-low purple shirt can now have an higher contrasting-colored neckline and the adorable racer back tank can be paired with a light layering tee. This also can make some shirts able to be worn in more seasons. Wearing a thin turtleneck under a cap sleeve babydoll top, or scoop neck summer shirt can make them perfect for the winter. Mixing different colors and styles can practically create new outfits. A white button-up shirt looks very business like with a black camisole, but if you switch the cami for a yellow tank top and unbutton the shirt, you have a casual outfit for a picnic or day at the beach.

The wonderful thing about these layering items is that they don't have to expensive at all. You can easily find them at stores like Target or Old Navy, regularly, for around $5. If you mix them right with your outfits, it can be like buying a whole new shirt for a fraction of the normal cost.

2. Share with a sister, mom or friends.
Recently my sister and I combined our closets and dressers, since we're the same size. We both ended up having potential outfits quadrupled because of the new combinations of clothes we can wear. While I often wouldn't wear the dress shirts with skirts that she wears, I wear her shirts with my jeans. Since she doesn't wear pants much, she uses my shirts with her skirts. It works out very nicely and now I don't have to buy a lot of items that I thought I had to. So if you know some girls that are your size, or if your female family members are, ask if they'd consider sharing some clothes. It can save you both a lot of money.

3. Improvise and "shop" your closet.
A lot times we get stuck in a rut and wear the same combinations of outfits over and over, leaving us bored with our clothes and wanting to head back to the mall. But really, a lot of times for me at least, the outfit I need is right there in my closet, I just never thought of wearing it that way. Sometimes I just wear the outfits the way they were paired together at the store, not realizing they would go very well with other pieces of clothing too. After spending a little time going through my clothes one day, I discovered (with the help of my mom) that a certain peasant top I had always worn with my denim skirt happened to go very well with a fancier skirt that I owned, making it a nice formal outfit for church and dressy parties.

So, before you head to the store next time, check your drawers and hangers first. You might have missed it there before. Don't be scared of trying funny combinations either. I've put on what I thought to be ridiculous combinations of clothing only to have my sisters walk in the room and say, "Oh, you look so pretty!"

4. Use the power of accessories.
Good accessories for an outfit are kind of like a good mat and frame for a painting: they're really essential. They really give new life to an outfit too. That same shirt you've worn a million times can look brand new paired with a dangly necklace. You dress outfits up or down with accessories, as well. A dress shirt and nice jeans with a satin sash for a belt, chandelier earrings and a pearl necklace can look rather professional, but with a plain leather belt and shell necklace, you're nicely casual. Accessories don't have to be expensive either. No one really cares if they're real gems or not.

5. Shop at thrift stores.
I used to look down at thrift stores. I thought that since they were already used, there couldn't possibly be anything in style there. Well, I was wrong. Although I don't always shop there, I did happen to find my favorite skirt in history there, and I've worn it so much in the past two years that the zipper is breaking. Also, a lot of time in thrift stores, you can find things that aren't in style, but aren't really out of style either. There are lots of unique items you can find, much cheaper than in retail stores. Here's a hint: don't only try things on in your own size. Try items a size or two above and below your size, because the sizes really differ from brand to brand.

6. Skip the trends.
Alright, so trapeze dresses and coats are in style. They're kind of cute, but what's more, they're everywhere. They're all the rage, on every "Top-10 Fashion Items" list for the fall and you have to have one, right? Nope. Don't get me wrong: there's no problem if you wear them. There are modest ones and you'll be very stylish in them. But you can't go for every trend. They could very well be out of style before spring comes. The trends are more expensive, in general and very often, they don't last long. How many shrugs do you see these days? I haven't seen one in months, but they were still in every store around Christmas last year. You'll save a lot if you aren't going out every season and buying the new "in" items, especially since they could be "out" again before you've even had time to wear it half a dozen times.

7. Don't be afraid to wear out of style items.
Since we're already going against the flow by being modest, why don't we go against the flow and wear out of style clothes too? Tiered skirts' popularity are fading, but don't let that make you get rid of yours. Wear it proudly until it wears out, having the satisfaction of wearing something the you once did like (you bought it, right?) and still wearing it because you still like it even though some people think it's not cool anymore. Don't let the designers convince you that what you bought last year is unstylish to wear this year.

There are so many good things that you can be spending your money on and clothing doesn't have to be all of it. If you're a little creative, your wardrobe and clothing budget can be stretched a lot further, while still keeping you pretty and modest.

I'm Taking A Short Break

2008-08-22T20:34:00.002-05:00

I did say that I planned on posting every day, but some things have come up that really don't leave me time for that. Plus, I'm typing up the equivalent of several blog posts a day in my correspondences and documents for the projects I'm busy with.

First, I'm doing this planning thing for an event that is yet to be announced, but keep watching for it!

Second, I am meeting with someone to discuss some important issues that I need to plan a lot for.

I've also been working on designing a dress for someone and doing intense reading. On top of that I'm fighting terrible stomach aches and a disruption to my sleep schedule, so I've been having to rest more during the day.

All this is just to explain why I'm taking a short break. Just about a week. I'll be back September 1st.

Please pray for me and all the upcoming things I have to do and my stomach problems. Thanks!

Leaning On God

2008-08-19T21:04:00.001-05:00

Good friends are hard to come by. You know it's true. I'm sure you have some good friends though. They're people that you can go to with any problem, that you vent to, that are always going to support you. These people are so special to us.

But, what if they aren't around? What if they change? What if, all of a sudden, they aren't there for you anymore? Who do you lean on?

This is a tough subject to write about. I'd like to tell you that you'll never come to a point when you can no longer depend on your friends. I'd like to hope that we always have good Christian mentors to support us and like-minded friends rallying around us. This is the biblical model, after all, at least in general. But we are coming to desperate times. Friends betray friends all the time. When the persecution of Christians come, the numbers in the church buildings will dwindle. Even families have unresolvable differences and go their separate ways.

Who do we turn when there is no one left to help us?

Though, when everyone forsakes you, when you have no earthly person to turn to, God is always there.

We can always lean on God. He will be there till the end of the world and for all eternity. He knows us and our problems inside out and He loves us in spite of our numerous sins. He is greater than we can ever imagine. He won't leave our forsake us if we put our trust in Him. He conquers all of our problems.

We really need to be relying on Him more now. The human tendency is to go to other people for advice, help and love. But as followers of Christ, we need to make the Lord our ultimate companion, savior and helper. God is the only one strong enough to truly support us. We are weak, but we can always lean completely on Him and He will lift us up. How great He is!

So, whenever you are sick, tired, discouraged, depressed, upset, angry, or feeling hopeless, turn to God first and lean on Him. He has all the answers and will never let us down.

Witnessing Cringe

2008-08-18T20:32:00.001-05:00

Witnessing is rather hard. I just thought I'd get that straight right from the beginning of this post.

But like many hard things, spreading the gospel is good and it's important. It is a very big deal. We spend so much times in our lives working for material treasures, but none of it leaves earth with us. Only people can come to heaven. We also spend a lot of time in our Christian circles, not ever bothering to try to enlarge it. I'm not saying that we need to start hanging out with the non-believers, but somehow or another, we need to get the saving message of Christ and His resurrection to them. Think of it this way: how would you like to be one of the people that has never been told about salvation? That kind of puts a different twist on it, if you think of it that way. I'm not claiming to be good at this. I've only ever done street evangelism once and have communicated God's love to very few people. I'm going to keep trying though and I hope you do too.

(Yes, this post was rather short, but sometimes small things are the most powerful)

The Importance of Family for Rebelutionaries

2008-08-15T21:00:00.001-05:00

As rebelutionaries, we believe in the importance of collaboration; it is key to accomplishing great things. I think, though, that we teens are prone to often overlooking an important group of people that could be of great help to us: our families.

There are many advantages to working with your family. You already know them extremely well, so you don't have to get to know them. You already live with them, most likely, so location issues won't come up. And, hopefully, you share the same moral standards, which can greatly help you when doing things together.

There is another side to this, too. You should make sure that you don't overlook how you can be a great help to your family in the projects that they want to do. A very important thing for teens, in order to be of use to their family, is to not be individualistic. It's hard to not be this way. I very often want to do my own thing, rather than do what my family is doing. I think that, at least while you're living at home and being provided for by your parents, it's very important to be looking out for your family's best interests. Many times, we're willing to work out things with everyone except our families, which limits our opportunities to do productive things.

A family that shows the results of working well together for Christ is the Botkin family. Geoffrey Botkin has written and directed public affairs films and has produced or executive-produced more than one-hundred documentary films, television productions, and other media projects. His children actively support him in this work. They have studied music theory and composition extensively for his films' scores. His sons have incredible expertise in filmography; his daughters in costume design. Together as a family, they can almost completely film and produce full length films. That will prove incredibly useful in fighting the culture war.

For me, my family has given me invaluable support in everything I do. My parents willingly drive me to events that help me in my Christian growth. They provide me with numerous resources to help me as well. My younger siblings are very kind to me, sometimes even sacrificing their comfort so that I can take advantage of certain opportunities. I love my family and I try to help them, too, by praying for them, helping with household tasks, driving my siblings places and doing errands for mom, teaching my younger siblings and just by being a positive influence in our home. I don't always succeed. Many times when we work together, we end up discouraged, but God works it all out in the end and we're always working at growing closer together, for the purpose of advancing God's kingdom. I wouldn't trade my family for any other.

God put us in our families for good reasons. He knew exactly who our parents and siblings would be. We must not forget that when we're working with our families, even when problems and personality conflicts occur. It may be hard to work things out with our family members sometimes, but it will be good and you will grow stronger.

My Abscence

2008-08-14T19:52:00.002-05:00

Hello dear readers!

Right after I told you that you should see new posts every night, I didn't post for two nights. I'm not exactly sorry though, because I have been busy with other important things, such as working, practicing guitar and piano, doing housework and spending time with my family and Japanese exchange student. I'm also reading this good book called The Tipping Point which is about how just a couple people and a slight change in presenting ideas can make a big cultural difference. The life of doing hard things doesn't always leave as much time for blogging as I would like, but I will work better at writing posts in advance for when I'm busy. Thanks for reading!

Some Favorite Resources

2008-08-11T20:52:00.000-05:00

This post will mark me blogging for a full week after returning from the Do Hard Things conference and the rest of my vacation and unpacking. I decided to make it a little different, so instead of me writing, I'll point your attention to some great resources that have helped me.

Boundless.org is a site for Christian young adults. They have articles by many wise Christians on a variety of topics important to young adults.

Plugged In Online does great movie reviews from a grounded biblical view point. I always check reviews there before watching movies, which helps me to live out the principles I wrote about in this post.

I use Biblegateway.com all the time when I'm studying the Bible. It has many different versions of the Bible and you can do word searches on there.

I should have put this on my blogroll, but since I haven't it gets special attention here. Agent Tim's blog is really great. He always has really inspiring things for rebelutionaries. I had the wonderful privilege of meeting him at the Do Hard Things conference!

Although he hasn't posted on it in way too long, David Boskovic's blog has some really great posts still on there. You should check it out.

As a special treat, here is a list of five good books that you should read:

1. Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments by Randy Alcorn
2. What’s The Difference? by John Piper
3. Be the Change by Zach Hunter
4. Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper
5. Safely Home by Randy Alcorn

I've read them all and they're really great!

For a final recommendation...

If you have had the great misfortune of never hearing of the Rebelution, you HAVE TO CHECK IT OUT! Do Hard Things.com It has been so inspiring to me! For you who know about the Rebelution, here are two cool things on the site that I think a lot of people are missing:

Uno: Alex and Brett's booklist
Dos: The resource section that links to all sorts of great articles by strong Christian leaders

Thank you all for reading my blog. Plan on seeing new posts every night. I'll try my best at posting that often.

Real Beauty Vs. Cultural Beauty

2008-08-10T21:00:00.001-05:00

The cultural demands of what we should look like are strong indeed. I feel very weighted by them sometimes. Everywhere we go, there are images to remind us of how we should look different. They tell us how we should do our hair, even what color it should be, what kinds of clothes we should wear, where we should buy them, what jewelry to wear, what shape we should be, what size we should be, and on and on and on.

There are so many magazines on beauty, I won't even venture a guess at how many. Americans love looking at beautiful people. We put them on our advertisements, TV shows and even on our bedroom walls. But then, when you're checking out your food from the grocery store (perhaps feeling a little guilty at the amount of ice cream in your cart), you can grab one of the tabloids that shows the favorite beautiful people, looking their worst. We feel better then. Even the beautiful have their bad hair days and can gain ten pounds.

We care so much. We believe the culture. We think we have to look a certain way to be beautiful. We value what the world thinks. But what does God think?

I know you've heard this verse a million times, but it's an important one. God Himself said, "For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." We know this, we hear it, we believe it, but we don't live it out.

How much time do we spend on maintaining our looks? Doing hair, taking showers, going clothes shopping, doing makeup, picking what to wear in the morning, working in order to pay for the clothes, exercising and working out... it all adds up to a lot. But how much time do we spend making our hearts beautiful? I've talked to so many people that say they can't read the Bible in a year, which takes about 15 minutes a day, but most people take that long to get showered and dressed in the morning. For the most part we focus on the outward more than the inward. And I say we. I am not immune to any of these problems. I struggle all the time with worrying what people think of how I look. But right here and now I'm saying that it's wrong. At the very least, it is a waste of time and energy.

What does God think is beautiful? He tells us in Romans 10:15, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!" That is so powerful and wonderful. Wouldn't you like to be really beautiful? I would! I really want to put this into practice and spread the gospel and be beautiful in God's eyes and not just the cultures.

After all, cultural beauty is only for today, but real beauty lasts forever.

Resting In Christ

2008-08-09T20:00:00.000-05:00

Imagine this:

You just got back from an awesome Christian conference. The speakers said inspiring and deep things, so you have all the motivation and knowledge you need to begin changing the world. So you start on a project, using your God-inspired passion to lead you on. Your idea is gaining momentum. You're spreading the news among your friends. You are making a difference and things are going well. Of course there are some problems along the way, but there's nothing God can't fix. You have many people praying for you, adults counseling you and your family is supporting you one hundred percent. But then. You get sick. Really really sick. Perhaps it's the lack of sleep from all the late-night planning and brainstorming sessions. Perhaps it has something to do with the junk food you ate on your trip to the conference. Maybe it's just an attack of the enemy. But all this guessing doesn't solve your dilemma. What do you do? Your project is in full swing. You're gaining recognition and recruits to your cause by the day. You can't just leave that, right? You're the only one who can lead it. But if you keep going at your present pace, you will have no time for rest and healing. What do you do?

Okay, so not everyone lives their life like this all the time. I definitely don't. So, picture this:

You're still in highschool. Spring is coming and the snow is just starting to melt. But you hardly have time to notice. Junior year really was as hard as everyone said it would be. You're still doing interviews for colleges and have to make a decision on which school you're going to really soon. With church, school studies, music lessons, and socializing, family time is tough to fit in. And it's hard to get along with your family anyway. You don't get enough alone time to think and relax like you want to. Nothing is going wrong. In fact, most people think you have it all together and that you shouldn't complain. But trudging through this stuff day after day is getting old and you're getting tired. You're feeling frustrated. You wouldn't really change anything about your life, except you'd like to not feel so tired and stretched thin all the time.

So, what is the answer? I've faced situations rather like this myself. I've had many health issues and seem to get sick way too often and always at the wrong time (like for two full weeks right before Christmas and the day before we went to DC for the Do Hard Things conference).

A small passage of scripture that I've often quoted to myself in times like this is Matthew 11:28-30. In it, Jesus says, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

The answer, I believe, the thing that we should do when we are faced with tough situations, but are too worn out, is to rest in Jesus. Just rest in Jesus.

But how do we do that? I've wondered this myself over the years as I've held tissues to my nose while vacuuming for meetings at our house, and as I played the piano for a Christmas pageant in a nursing home almost too weak to hold myself up. 1

What I've come to learn lately is that you can't always stop the world till you get well again. Time moves on whether you're excited about making a difference, or you're so discouraged that you don't want to get out of bed in the morning. Sometimes the wise decision is to cut back on projects and to get other people to help you. We really can't do everything. But sometimes you can't. There are some things that we just have to do. We must look to God to decide which to do in the situation we are in. But when we are in the situation

What is rest anyway? This is one of Webster's 1828 dictionary's definitions: "To be quiet or tranquil, as the mind; not to be agitated by fear, anxiety or other passion." 2 I think this is the kind of rest that Jesus is talking about. While we cannot physically lie on the couch, we can have calm, rested minds. This is a gift of Christ if we go to Him with our worries and cares. The mind and the physical body are so connected that when your mind is rested, your body will feel more rested too. I can definitely vouch for that from experience.

The Psalmist says in Psalm 121, "From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." This is so encouraging. Our true help only comes from God. Other people can't help us. We can't help ourselves. A change in our external circumstances cannot. Ultimately it is only the Lord Almighty that really helps us.

Brett Harris told me at the Rebelution conference that even though we do come across things that are too hard for us to do alone, the same God who got us through the hard things before will get us through our hard things now.

Resting in Christ is going to Him, studying His word to learn of Him. It's casting all your cares on Him, telling Him your every worry, so you don't have to bare anything alone. He is all powerful and will never leave you to suffer alone.
Rest in Christ.

1. If any of you are wondering why I would go to a nursing home to make all those people sick, rest assured: I was not contagious. I had severe asthma and a lung infection, and not even my family got sick in those two weeks.
2. http://1828.mshaffer.com/d/search/word,rest

Evaluating Media

2008-08-08T20:02:00.002-05:00

Art is very powerful. Music moves our souls. Movies capture our emotions. Books direct our thoughts. Some people call this all entertainment, but it's more than that.

Art is a major part of our culture and culture is said to be "religion externalized." (quote by Henry Van Til) Most of us don't fully realize this though. We go to the movie rental place, looking for something to entertain us, to just give something to do for a night. We listen to CDs of the radio just to sometimes tune our the rest of the world, to have something to fill up the silence in the car, or maybe to have a catchy rhythm to dance to. Although reading books is becoming more rare, magazines and web pages are looked at constantly. We don't think much about these either. We idly click links that catch our attention of mindlessly browse periodicals in the doctor's office or at the grocery store checkout stand.

As Americans, we're rather passive about our media choices. We let the general public dictate what consume in that area. We just wait for the next trendy thing to drop into our laps. And there are always people around to shove their beliefs at us in the form of "mindless entertainment."

I think we really need to wake up and recognize the voices we're listening to.

God's word tells us to "take every thought captive." (2 Corinthians 10:5) This definitely includes what we watch, read and listen to. It is other people telling us things and if we listen, it is in our thoughts. We must realize this and examine whether the media we generally consume contains thoughts that are God-honoring.

In Philippians 4:8 it says, "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." This is a basic standard for evaluating our media. A lot of times, this may limit us from watching violent films. It should make us think twice about the cheap, low quality books and web sites we read from. I would even go as far as to say that there are certain harsh styles of music, with yelling and discord, that we shouldn't listen to, as Christians, because they are not lovely.

There a couple questions I think we need to ask before we watch, read or listen to anything:

Does this make sin look good?
It is really important that we are not always letting stuff enter our minds that oppose our standards. Aside from a select group of our Christian friends, people are not going to support our Christian walk. The last thing we need to do is to willingly invite more things into our lives that are prone to discouraging us in that way.

Does this glorify God?
A lot of times, people think that movies are good because they don't have "bad stuff" in them, such as drinking, swearing, violence or inappropriate sexual situations. But we often overlook the movie as a whole. There are even some rated-G movies that I won't watch because the overall message isn't something that would please God.

Does this help or hinder me?
There are some things that certain Christians can read in good conscience that they really learn from. Some Christians could read the same thing though, and would actually have it stunt their growth. We need to be aware of what our weaknesses are and really be honest to ourselves about this. It may seem silly avoiding these things sometimes, but it will be worth it. I know of some Christians who can't listen to rock music, even Christian, without being reminded of the drug and party scene they were a part of before their conversion.

On a final note, I would like to add that not everything labeled Christian is something that Christians should watch, read, or listen to. There are many Christians producing art that know very little about real Bible doctrine and Christian living. This problem seems especially prevalent in "Christian" novels and music. It may be created by Christians, but that doesn't mean that it's uplifting to Christians.

It may be hard to really engage our minds and proactively make media choices that honor Christ. But this is what we're supposed to do as rebelutionaries. Media items, after all, are a form of companions. It may be awkward when you have to turn down trips to the movies with your youthgroup and frustrating when you are trying to find music that actually helps you in your walk with the Lord, but it will be worth it!

Affecting The Future

2008-08-07T21:00:00.002-05:00

I read once of a mother who would always tell her daughter, "remember, one day your body will carry a child." When she admonished her daughter to eat healthy and to abstain from drugs, she would always end with, "for one day..." 1

This really has made me think about how our actions now always affect our future. Ir is really important for us to grasp such a concept, now, today, while we can still change for the better. The Bible says, "for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." What we are doing now will have a direct impact on our future, whether positive or negative. There are several main areas of our lives that are most affected:

Our Families
As a son, daughter or siblings, we have tremendous impact in our families. The examples we lead for our younger siblings now may greatly influence how they live their lives later. How we support our parents will assist or hold back our parents from beneficially impacting our siblings, extended family, church, neighborhood and culture at large.

Our Future Spouse And Family
Everything we do now is directly or indirectly going to affect our marriage and children. The movies we watch, the music we listen to, the counsel we accept, the companions we choose all influence our thinking on family. Many people think if they watch or listen to impure things, it only affects themselves and no one else. This individualistic thinking is very flawed, because everything we do affects someone else and changes the course of society.

Relationship With God
This aspect of our lives is often overlooked, I believe. People often think that praying and reading the Bible are things they can always do and that they're just "something that Christians do." Really, though, we suffer personally every day we neglect our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Whether we communicate with God and read His Holy Words today will determine how in tune we'll be with his ways tomorrow. It is the foundation for our life and we can only start building on it today, one day at a time.

The Next Generation
People talk a lot about how our generation is going to make a big impact. We are in this amazing position to make a change on the culture. A lot of people are expecting us to and depending on us. We cannot forget that we are laying groundwork for the generation coming after us. How we act now will lead the cultural opinion of the next generation of teenagers. When our children and grandchildren want to get something done, people will be able to say look back at us and say that they can make a change because we did.

There are so many times that I look back, maybe read through some old emails, and see how immature I used to be. I regret that I didn't realize at the time how the things I said then would stay with me and affect me now. It's something I don't want to forget again and I hope you don't either. We can be a positive change for today...and tomorrow!

1. Doug's Blog-Mailbox: Remember, One Day You Will Carry a Child

Making A Change

2008-08-06T21:00:00.000-05:00

We went to a Christian music festival last week. During the breaks, in between bands, speakers for certain organizations came up and told us about their causes. This was my either year there, but for some reason, what they said really struck me this time.

One man told of a time when he went to a poor country in Africa. He was in a garbage dump and this little boy in rags was digging around in the trash. The boy found something, picked it up, shook it, and then put it in his mouth. The man was shocked. This young boy had just eaten something that wasn't even recognizable.

So, there I sat tonight at a restaurant, looking at my pizza, thinking that this boy would probably get a week's, if not a month's, worth of food out of it. What the five of us ate for dinner could have fed fifty young children in a Third World country. And I can almost guarantee they would have been more grateful than us.

At the music festival, World Vision had this "challenge" for us. They wanted a whole village of children in Mozambique to be sponsored by the festival attendants. There are at least ten thousand people there every year. Last year about 500 children were sponsored. That's five percent. This year they were hoping for us to sponsor the remaining 1200+.

Now, let's put this into perspective. It costs $35 dollars a month, which provides these children with schooling, clothes, medical care, food and other necessities. What does it cost us? One less shirt. Two fewer CDs. No cell phone. Cable downgrade. Skipping eating out three or four times. What do we lose? Almost nothing. And what do they gain?

But how many people realized this? Only five percent. Tickets to the festival cost $120 and that doesn't include the accommodations for four days there. I'm willing to guess that all the food thrown away and wasted by us all at the festival could have given the whole village food for a couple days. Last year, I'm ashamed to say, I bought a sweatshirt for $45. That could have supplied a poverty stricken preschooler's vital needs for over a month.

We are so spoiled in this culture.

There was a torrential downpour the last night of the concerts, canceling and delaying some of the bands. I prayed all day that it wouldn't rain, and when it started, that it would stop. But it didn't. Selfishly, I asked God, why. Why did it have to rain on the day when almost everyone there was praying that it wouldn't? Couldn't it just rain the next day?

Later though, I was appalled by this way of thinking. Several girls carried around signs all day that said, Pray For No Rain. It seemed so right, so spiritual, but did it really matter? What if people carried around signs that said, Prayerfully Consider Sponsoring A Child. Imagine the difference. One of the speakers rightfully pointed out that most of us will eat ice cream cones without praying about it. We'll eat something unhealthy, that's making us fat, without asking God, but when it comes to giving a child a total different life, we stall and spit the lines we've been taught.

This is just one small example of the gross standard of living that our country operates under. It's the accepted. It's the expected. It is the norm. Something has to change. This is not the life we are to live, in Christ. Jesus told us the story of the good Samaritan. Are we going to keep walking along like the temple worker? Or are we going to stop and see the need, and love our neighbor as ourselves? After all, this is the second commandment.

We can make a difference and a change. Let's start with me. Next is you.

Here are some ways you can sacrifice and be involved:

-Instead of buying CD and hats for birthday and Christmas, buy a gift from the Samaritan's purse catalog in someone's honor.

-Take the money you would spend on soda, coffee and other beverages for a month and give it to Blood:Water Mission. $1 will give an African water for a whole year.

-Downsize your clothing or entertainment spending and sponsor a child from World Vision or Compassion International. You can even write letters back and forth with your child.

The best thing about these causes is that they spread the gospel too, which is the living water and the bread of life.

There are so many other things you can do. There are so many things we can sacrifice. There is an abundance of worthy causes to give to. Please consider making a change in your life, to help others.

The Real Hard Thing

2008-08-05T20:00:00.000-05:00

There are some things that most people consider to be hard things, but really aren't. Let's not kid ourselves. There are things that really are hard and we need to be doing them. This list is just an example of my own hard things. Find and conquer your own.

Getting up an hour early to read your Bible is easy--Reading it anyway, when you miss your alarm and are gone from 6 to 10 is hard.

Immaculately cleaning the house when company is coming is easy--Cleaning the house for when Dad comes home is hard.

Helping with stuff around the house without being asked is easy--Being asked later to do more and not listing off what you already did, to get out of it, is hard.

Skipping meals is easy--Eating healthy portions at every meal is hard.

Learning an instrument is easy--Teaching your younger sibling to play it is hard.

Sharing clothes is easy--Continuing to share clothes, after receiving some back stained, is hard.

Cutting things out of your life is easy--Replacing them with something good is hard.

Taking classes is easy--Teaching yourself is hard.

Sharing a room with siblings is easy--Helping them clean up all their stuff is hard.

Obeying is easy--Obeying cheerfully is hard.

Talking about controversial ideas is easy--Carrying them out is hard.

Graduating highschool is easy--Continuing to study afterward is hard.

Admitting your own flaws is easy--Letting others point them out is hard.

Witnessing to strangers is easy--Witnessing to unsaved family members week after week is hard.

Cleaning someone else's house is easy--Cleaning your own house is hard.

Writing is easy--Writing worthwhile things is hard.

Praying for your friends is easy--Praying for them when they decide to hate you is hard.

Being kind to and obeying parents is easy--Still being kind to and obeying parents when they're in a bad mood is hard.

Being open with people is easy--Not closing up when they reject you for it is hard.

Working is easy--Working with other people is hard.

Doing your best is easy--Doing your best when no one is looking is hard.

Having high standards is easy--Having high standards, when you're the only one with them, is hard.

Doing what the world thinks is hard is easy--Doing what you know is hard for you is hard.

Rebelution Conference Notes-Part II

2008-05-12T21:12:00.001-05:00

You can find the second installment of my notes from the Rebelution conference on this blog: http://thechangeonline.blogspot.com/. I know I write for too many blogs, but bear with me please.

10 Reasons Why My Mom Is Amazing

2008-05-11T06:00:00.004-05:00

1. She Homeschooled Me
Being homeschooled was so wonderful for me. I got to study at my own pace, pick what I wanted to learn, not have the pressures of an unhealthy social environment and even graduate early!
2. She Gave Me Good Freedom
She didn't let me run wild, and she never pushed me into doing things that I didn't want to, if it wasn't a moral issue. She let me choose my tastes and be myself.
3. She Set High Standards For Me
I knew from an early age what things were good for me to do and what weren't. My mom didn't just tell me what to do and what not to do, though. She explained why I should do those things and made me want to uphold godly standards.
4. She Pushed Me Out Of My Comfort Zones
This may be a shock, but naturally I'm a very shy, withdrawn person. Just a couple years ago I would stand in the corner at social events, seeking to be unnoticed. My mom pushed me, though, teaching my good social skills, introducing me to people, and strongly encouraging me to meet new people myself. (Funny story: When we were at the Rebelution conference in Indy last fall, the night before, we stayed at a hotel. Everyone else there was going to the conference, too, and a bunch of teens were in the parking lot. My old nervous anti-social nature kicked in and I stayed in our room, put on my pajamas and got in bed at 7:30. My mom would not tolerate that, so she literally dragged me out of bed and made me go down and hang out with them. Good thing, too, since I met a good friend that I still keep in contact with. I had an awesome time that night, singing praise songs with them until 11.) So yeah, if you're reading this, there's a good chance we wouldn't be friends if my mom hadn't pushed me to be more social.
5. She Taught Me What Really Matters
Thanks to my mom, I think I have a proper view of what's of worth in this life. She showed me that people are always important and to be polite, kind and loving to them, no matter how much of a hurry you're in to get things done.
6. She Didn't Give Up On Me
Yes, even little Miss Perfect Katrina has some pretty severe faults. My mom loved me in spite of them. 'Nough said.
7. My Mom Let Me Stay Home From College
I know a couple girls who would've like to do the same, but were pressured into going by their parents. I love that Mom lets me be at home and prepare to fill my God-given role as a woman.
8. She's Really Cool
This may seem funny, but anyone that knows my mom well can vouch for this. Some of the cool things she's done are owning a Mustang, riding a motorcycle on ice, burning rubber in our Camaro, and picking me up from youthgroup with Switchfoot up to max volume. (The last one used to embarrass me, but that was when I was stupid :P)
9. She Cares About My Friends
Every night she asks me something like "What's up with ____?" "How is _______ doing?" "Are things better with _____ yet?" It means a lot to me that she cares about me and cares about the other people that I care about.
10. She Led Me To Love and Follow God
This is by far the most important thing. Perhaps part of it was because of the other nice things; she reflected God's love for me, by loving me herself. I cannot be grateful enough to her for teaching me the ways for the Lord. I'll never be the same...

Thank You, God, for my great mom!

2007 Rebelution Conference Notes, Part I

2008-05-09T20:14:00.006-05:00

I should have posted these a long time ago, but I figure that it's better late than never.

Session 1-The Myth of Adolescence, Alex Harris

Alex started out by telling three stories about young men from different centuries: George, Dave and Drew. At age 17, George had the commission of surveying the entire Culpepper county in Virginia, a three year project. He had to survive very harsh conditions in the winter and unsettled wilderness during this time.

Dave, when he was only 12 years old, was put in command of his own ship. At one point he was in charge of capturing an enemy ship and bringing its captain back to the US.

By the time Drew was 17, he was the sole provider for his family after his father’s death.

These three boys grew up to be George Washington, David Farragut and Andrew Carnegie.

Alex pointed out that although these are extraordinary feats for our time, these were not very extraordinary actions for their time. But do we know any teens these days that could do such things? Which leads to another interesting thing he said: the first use of the word “teenager” was in Reader’s Digest in 1941. What were people ages 13-19 before then? He continued to explain that until the last two generations, there were only two groups of people, children and adults. Childhood was spent preparing for adulthood and as soon as a young person was physically grown, they were ready to be an adult. At the beginning of the nineteen hundreds, only 10% of people over age fourteen attended highschool, but labor and compulsory education laws soon changed that.

Alex then quoted 1 Corinthians 13, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I understood like a child and I thought like a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” He then said “Paul didn’t say, ‘When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I understood like a child and I thought like a child. But then I looked like a man and sounded like a man (Alex did a very funny deep voice), but I still acted like a child.’” Then jumping high into the air he made a very comical childish grin. Just as a side note, the Harris twins are very funny and the audience laughed several times during each of their talks. This illustration seems funny at first, but it is a frighteningly accurate depiction of the ideas of our culture.

Somewhere during this talk (I think I got everything out of order because I had nothing to take notes with for the first talk), Alex told the story of how people in Africa keep their elephants from wandering off with only a thin rope tied to a stake in the ground. This is not strong enough to keep the mighty elephant from breaking free, but the bonds in its mind are. These shackles were first formed when the elephant was just a baby. The masters would chain the young animal to a thick tree and for the first weeks or months the creature would strain against it, but inevitably gave up. After that, the chains weren’t needed. The elephant tried and gives up forever, the restraints in its mind fully in place.

He then said that we teens are often like that with the culture. We have these expectations from the culture, low expectations, that are only thin rope, but what we think is holding us back. Leaping across the stage, Alex encouraged us to break free and all that we can be, to expect more out of ourselves than just making our bed and doing a daily chore, as one study suggests is appropriate for a teen. We can be better than the culture expects us to be and we can be better than we expect ourselves to be. That’s what the Rebelution is all about: rebelling against low expectations.

The Sword

2008-05-04T16:24:00.004-05:00

Here I am, back at this blog again. My other low pressure blog is just that: too low pressure. I still need a place for my writing that I have high expectations for. I'll still be writing on both, I believe.

Our pastor talked partially about the power of the Bible this morning and I really feel inspired by it. He said that we often look for guidance from things outside God's Word, which is sadly true. Sometimes we seem to take for granted that we know it and that we can start looking to other places for advice. But that doesn't work. The only place that we can ever get the complete truth from, every single time, is the Bible.

I think it is vitally important to read the Bible every day. I don't see how we can expect to know how to serve God if we aren't reading over His words every day. Trying to serve the Lord daily without reading the Bible is kind of like going to work, not talking to your boss, and expecting to know what you're doing.

For a personal example of the power of God's Word, I'll share my own experience. The past couple days, I've felt like something was missing in my life, like I was supposed to be doing something else. It just occurred to me this morning that, for the last three days, I've only been reading a small amount of the Scriptures. How sad it is, that I who have the cure sitting on my shelf sometimes go looking for false remedies.

Matthew 4:4 says, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." The Word is our spiritual food. If we are not reading a good portion of it every day, we are going to feel like something is missing, in the same way we would feel like we were missing something if we were not eating.

I'm really determined not to ever fall out of reading great portions of the Bible again. My soul becomes bitter and dry and cries out when I do. Every day there is a deep spiritual battle going on and how am I to win if I do not take up my sword? (Hebrews 4:12)

Our culture is screaming every second for answers to their troubles. They desperately need to know what to do about their finances, their marriages, their children, their health, the schools, the government, the wars, and their relationships. We have the answers and we have daily access to them, unlike people in some other countries. Maybe it's time to start sharing the wisdom, to stand up loudly and say, "We have the answer!" The answer is the Word and He has revealed Himself in the pages of the most Holy Book. He can heal all wounds, mend all breaks, soothe all hurts. We really need to step up and fight for what's important. We can't be ashamed. The world needs us to share the light.

Complicated Life

2008-01-08T21:23:00.002-05:00

Oh, how we complicate life. We twist things up, shove them into boxes, copy them from the culture, ignore them, try to make them what they aren’t, and what has it gotten us? Discontentment and confusion. What am I speaking of, you may wonder? Everything. I hardly even know where to start.

Life. It is a wonderful beautiful gift from God, yet we warp it all the time.

I guess I shall start with sleep. Sleep is such an essential recharging time for us. Our bodies need to rest at night, but yet, we develop unhealthy habits. Before electricity, the sun went down and, for the most part, people went to bed. The sun woke them up and they lived their day. Why now do we have these all-nighters and stay up late just to be able to boast of our freedom? Why don’t we sleep when we are tired instead of having this “category” for sleep in our lives? When the sun is up, it is the most natural time to be awake, yet we sleep in till noon and stay up till three in the morning trying to catch up with things.

We have this whole world out there, yet we stay inside all day with artificial light. Do we ever wonder why so many people need glasses? Perhaps it is that our eyes do not see the sunlight enough.

Why do we think of cleaning the house as a miserable task? We create the home we live in. Maybe we should just think of cleaning as an art, a beautifying process for the home, the same way people think of showering and dressing in the morning.

Why do we put doing laundry in this box where we mentally shove it aside until the last minute, instead of just seeing it as a task that can be done joyfully, necessary to looking presentable and smelling clean?

Why do we always seek friends outside the home when God has already placed people here that will help us grow and will always be here for us? Why are we listening to the culture? Just because they say that our families aren’t cool doesn’t mean that we need to listen.

Why do we think that friends need to be our age when the Bible says all over that other youths can lead us astray? Not that having any friends our age is bad, but when 98% of the population isn’t our age, don’t you think that it’s a little limiting to only socialize with our age group? (That number is assuming an average of 50 years per person and assuming that there’s an equal number of people born and staying alive every year. Faulty logic, I know, but you get the point.)

Why do we think we need to follow the fashions of some Godless, wealthy stars? Normal, working people don’t need to spend $80 on a pair of pants. This is just common sense. God frees us to be who we are. We do not have to try to keep up with nor copy the unbelieving culture.

Why do we put so much emphasis on work? People don’t need to work 40 hours a week, especially young people who are still under the protection of their parents. Yes, 40 hours a week is necessary to maintain the American lifestyle, but who needs that?!? Throw the American way of life out the window! We don’t need multiple computers, TVs and stereos. Honestly, only three or four outfits are necessary. We don’t need to go to the movies, or buy new CDs all the time, or go to concerts, or go out to eat. We work for all this stuff, yet there it sits at home, unused, while we slave away all day and collapse into the bed from exhaustion each night. We work for ourselves and our families, and give them and ourselves so much stuff, but by doing so, we have no time to enjoy it. Perhaps I am insane, but I think people would be a lot happier if we lived in small homes, with one car, staying at home with the family a lot, making home pleasant.

Finally, why do we think of reading the Bible and praying as some drudgery, something to be thrown on at the end of our days? Now, all relationships are hard, and we put much effort into our friendships with humans. Why don’t we do the same for our Creator? He should be our best friend that we ask advice for about everything, before we turn to the other fallen people of this earth. He has written us this long, grand letter yet we neglect it day after day. We talk for hours about meaningless stuff with our friends and hardly spend more than five minutes talking to the most important being in our lives. Why is this? Something HAS to change.

Now, I’m not saying that we need to revert to some Victorian or Colonial way of life. I don’t do any of these things well. I have many, many outfits, CDs, and books, go to concerts and drive all over the place. But then again, I never feel perfectly content. Maybe, just maybe, instead of making us feel blessed, all these things are distracting us from God, the only true source of contentment.

My Decision

2008-01-05T22:15:00.001-05:00

When I first wrote of the importance of family, I promptly dropped the topic, realizing that I had little knowledge on the topic. During my absence, I actually did quite a bit of research on the Biblical structure of the family. It seemed like a good thing to study since I would be home for at least a year with my family. I had no idea how much my thinking would be changed.

I've come a long way since I first feebly tried to explain to a single career woman my plans for this year. When I told her that I wanted to stay home for a while and not work much or go to school yet, for the purpose of learning how to be a better sister and how to run a home, she in essence told me that it would be a waste. I later said the same thing to a mother of nine and she told me that it was a wonderful idea. Not having much to go on, but having this strong feeling from God that I should stay home, I made the decision to stay home for a year. Thank God that I could hear Him well enough to do that.

In the months since March, when I graduated, I have read several books, listened to CDs and watched DVDs that taught me the Biblical role for women and daughters, and I have been incredibly blessed by them. I was here at home for the past nine months, struggling with the idea that I didn't really know what I was doing and that I was the only girl I knew that wasn't going off to college after highschool. All I knew was that I didn't want to have that life, but could not really see the goodness of staying home. I have learned so much.

These various resources have taught me that the main purpose of a woman's life is to be a helper to a Godly man, first her father and later, Lord willing, her husband. The time after high school does not have to be wasted time for a girl until she gets married. This is the time when she is supposed to be learning how to care for children, how to cook, clean, do laundry, manage finances, plan schedules, and most importantly, submit to her father. All these things will help her family in an invaluable way and prepare her for marriage if she does marry.

The general culture may think all these things to be menial tasks and a waste of potential, but this is indeed the life God has planned out for females which He clearly tells us in the Bible. I don't know how so much of the Christian culture is missing this. I was very relieved when I started watching and reading about girls like me that have decided to stay home from college and a career, to serve their families and prepare for their future families. So, here's the official announcement: I'm not going to college. I'm staying home to serve my father and my family, by God's strength.

P.S.
These are some of the resources that have been helpful to me:
DVDs: The Return of the Daughters
Eden String Quartet
Books: So Much More
Passionate Housewives Desperate for God
CDs: Bewitched by the World
Home Is Where the Heart Is
Strength & Dignity For Daughters
Making Wise Decisions about College and Life After Home School

I'm back!

2007-12-03T23:24:00.001-05:00

This blog is not dead! After an embarrassingly long absence, I believe, although I cannot promise, that I am back for more frequent blogging again. Wow, it's almost been six months. Half a year--so much can happen in that time. This post has no special topic. I just am attempting to catch you up with what's happened to me. I won't explain away my absence; I was lazy, I'm ashamed to say. Actually, lazy is a bad word. I could have written posts, but for a while there, I was so busy and stressed out that I was running away from any deep thinking processes. In the past month, I started thinking again.

Concerning my family posts, I'm hoping to continue them soon. So much has changed in me since I wrote the first one. We had a friend from Austria, who is about my age, visit this summer for a whole month. We spent a lot of time together, more than I usually spend with my siblings, and it really showed me the enjoyment and bonding I miss out on with them. I began putting more effort into those relationships and am much closer to my siblings now, which I love. God works in such mysterious ways. I will confess that at the time of my first posts on family, I was writing them as much for my own benefit as for others. I am always trying to talk myself into believing that is worthwhile to stay home with my family and spend time with them. In doing so, I'm finally believing and feeling it. It's such a beautiful feeling.

Another thing that has caused great joy, pain, upheaval, peace, turmoil, fear and trust in my life is, believe it or not, driving. I have had the most interesting experiences since I first got behind the wheel. Most of the time, I find driving to be relaxing and a perfect time to pray and observe the world. That is, I felt that way until I had my accident. About a month after I got my license, I spaced out and collided with the back of a perfect Nissan. Following this encounter was an agonizing two months of being terrified of and frustrated with driving. I had planned out in my mind that I wasn't going to be just another average teenager that crashes their first year. I finally resigned myself to being a mediocre driver. Then I scraped my dad's truck and I went back into my discouraged depression. My mom told me to stop driving by myself, which I was more than happy to comply with. Then one day, my mom told me that even if I couldn't drive well, I can do all things through Christ. Later that afternoon, I needed to drive somewhere alone and I called my mom for permission. I just prayed the entire time I drove that God would show me how to see what I need to see(the problem with my driving is that I've never been observant) and work through me as I drove. I had driven that same route many times before, but that day it felt like I was seeing the world with new eyes. I had never been able to see so much. Everywhere I looked, I saw something new. It was truly a miracle; I felt like my eyes were truly opened for the first time and it has felt like that every time I've driven since. It's only been a week, but I know that God is with me and helping me every time I drive.

In all my driving adventures, I've had much time to myself. All my life, though, I have run as far from aloneness as I could. I never studied alone in my room because it was too quiet, so I'd go downstairs where Adventures in Odyssey and music was playing, people were on the phone and talking, just so it wouldn't be silent and alone. One Saturday, I stayed home to do some baking by myself last Christmas and, in the couple hours my family was gone, I called four people because I couldn't stand feeling alone. So, driving for hours every week to work, by myself, with no music, has caused so much distress for me. I told my mom of my fear and she told me that Someone is always with me. I replied that I'd been talking with God the whole time but that I still felt alone. Of course, there are still places I want to go alone, and my mom told me that'd I'd have to take a self defense course to be able to do that. Friday night was my first class, which totally freaked me out. When my mom and I talked about me feeling alone, I had resigned myself to just not going places by myself if I could absolutely help it. But then yesterday, I woke up, drove to work and class and all around and I didn't feel alone! God had worked another miracle. He is so good.

Every time I feel I've reached the end, every time I resign myself to living a monotonous life, just making do day to day, not thriving, but merely existing, God says, "Katrina, this is not the life I have for you. I have died that you may live, and live life abundantly, to the full. You just need to be patient and wait on Me, even when it feels like the end, for it is truly the beginning. I have great plans for you and I am always here to raise you up when you are too tired to go on, on your own."

To God be the glory.

Moses' Family

2007-06-18T22:11:00.000-05:00

Close your eyes (or keep them open if you can read better that way) and imagine this story. It is probably a story familiar to you. The time is circa 1600 BC, when an evil Pharaoh ruled the nation of Egypt, one that ordered the killing of all Hebrew baby boys. The location is on the edge of the great Nile River, near the Pharaoh's bathing place. A baby is floating in a basket. His name is Moses. He is hiding in the rushes, where his mother placed him. Pharaoh's daughter is bathing nearby. She sees him and commands one of her maids to fetch him. She opens the basket and upon seeing him cry, she has compassion on him and decides to keep and raise him. But how will she feed this young child? She cannot nurse him herself. She looks up and upon seeing no relative of the child nearby, she takes Moses back to the palace and hires an Egyptian woman to nurse him for her. Having adopted him as her own son, he eventually becomes the next Pharaoh of Egypt ruling more cruelly than his grandfather, eventually wiping out the Hebrew race.

"Wait, wait!" you say. "That's not how it happened." You would be correct in that reaction. In the real historical account (found in Exodus 2), Miriam, Moses' older sister, watched him by the water and saw the daughter of Pharaoh pick him up. His sister then asked Pharaoh's daughter if she wanted her to find a Hebrew woman to take care of him. Upon her answering yes, Miriam brought a woman, none other than Moses' own mother.

This does not at first seem very significant, but on further study the importance jumps out at you. In the culture at the time of this story, children were not weaned until the age of five. This was more than Moses' mother just getting to feed him. He lived with her for the first years of his life, also being taught in the Biblical principles by his parents. By the time he was five, the Word of God was probably heavily ingrained in his mind. This must have had a tremendous impact on his life in the palace and made him the person that God needed him to be in order to eventually lead the people out of Egypt.

But the first scenario that I presented you with is a possible one if Miriam had not fulfilled her role in the family. What if when asked to watch him, she had said that she was invited to a party and went there? What if she had disliked him because he was a boy and not wanted to watch him? What if she shunned the role of older sibling and ignored the responsibility? What if she had decided to bring some friends along and they were having such a good time that they ignored watching Moses? These outcomes seem absurd and unlikely, but they do not sound so different from the excuses we use ourselves when asked to watch or go places with our siblings.

This story of Moses teaches me so much about the importance of being a good sibling. It inspires me to be a good influence on my siblings, to teach them the ways of God and help lead them in their life decisions. I want to create good bonds with my sisters and brother, so that when we grow up, we can work together for the Lord like Moses, Aaron and Miriam did.

The Importance of Family--Intro

2007-06-01T07:30:00.000-05:00

"No way!" I exclaimed with a shocked expression on my face. "You're sisters?"

I had known this girl for many years and gone to many events with her. In my group of friends she was one of the more popular ones in the younger half. The shocking news that she had just told me was that she was the younger sister of one of the older popular girls. This came as such a shock to me because they seemed like the most separate personalities in the whole group. Whenever we all got together, they would come with different people in different cars and sit on opposite sides of the room, rarely speaking to each other.

I was immediately repulsed by the idea that they were sisters. The idea that sisters--Christian sisters--could hardly get along with each other was a disgusting one to me. That at least was my immediate reaction. At first, I could not figure out why I was so disturbed by this. The more I thought about it, the more my ideas and feelings confused me. I determined to find a conclusion.

For months now, I've been wanting to write a blog post about the importance of family. But I have encountered major snags, complete detours and severe writer's block in this process. It is really a hard topic to write about. Family is not a heavily covered topic in the "mainstream" Christian groups. You could go to church your whole life and the closest you'd get to hearing about the importance of family is maybe a sermon on the fifth commandment. But having a Christ-honoring family seemed to be a lot more important that people make it out to be. I determined to find some answers.

Unfortunately these answers are not coming easily. I still don't have even half of them. I am starting this though, to share some of what I discovered so far, and hopefully I'll learn more through this writing process.

Check back soon for more...

Sore Knuckles

2007-05-24T09:38:00.000-05:00

This poor blog has long been neglected--far too long. I apologize to all my family and friends, and whoever is now reading this, that I have taken so long. I have a good reason, or rather, a bad reason for not posting in so long. I have felt uninspired recently and also very confused about things. But I’m finally not feeling so confused and have been inspired, so this blog is officially in commission again.

One thing that I have been thinking about recently is God's will for us and how we find out what that is. Lots of times, we Christians use random circumstances to "determine the will of God." If opportunities suddenly come up, sometimes we have this tendency to take it as the final will of God. We think that God just drops the right answers and decisions into our laps all the time. This isn't always bad. Sometimes God does give us an obvious or easy answer to our problems. But there are some Biblical principles that I think we ignore too much. The main one I was thinking of is knocking on doors.

Jesus said "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." I think that we often neglect these important aspects of our faith. We like Gideon look for the will of God in obscure things instead of seeking and asking for His guidance and knocking on the doors. We seem to look at all the doors we can go through and go through the open ones, rather than knocking on the closed ones.

Just because doors are already open for us does not mean that we should go through them. If you are just walking through a neighborhood to go to someone's house, you don't look for the first house with an open door and go through that one. Instead, you go to your friends' house and knock on their door, never assuming that since it's closed that you shouldn't take visiting them as an option anymore. That would be totally absurd. But I think we do this too often in the area of seeking God's will.

I'm reading this book right now by Frank Peretti called Piercing the Darkness (sequel to This Present Darkness). It is about a town struggling with average type problems that you read about in the news all the time. But the unique thing is that the author tries to portray the invisible struggle of the demons and angels "behind the scenes" of all that is happening in the town. It really shows me how much demons probably try to trip us up with little circumstances and confusions. I can just picture them all holding wide the doors and us blindly walking through under the delusion that we are following God's will, when all we had to do was knock on some other ones.

So I encourage you to build up some calluses on your knuckles knocking on doors. Try new things. Step out of your comfort zone and ask tough questions of God because he surely has all the answers. Prayerfully seek God's will and you will find it.

The Cliff

2007-03-12T19:53:00.000-05:00

A lot has happened to me the past few days. On Friday I finished all of my highschool studies, complete with a graduation party on Saturday. I finished highschool just in time to turn 16 yesterday. I would like to say how much I want to do with the rest of my life, which college I plan to go to and all, but I really don’t know what God wants me to do yet. Here is what I said in my “valedictorian” speech on Saturday:

I would especially like to thank my dear friend Phoebe for inspiring me to graduate early. Phoebe originally started school a year early so that even though she and I are the same age, she was always a year ahead of me in school. That really bugged me and I wanted to catch up with her somehow. But I was already in 8th grade and I couldn't just skip ahead to the next grade at that point. After giving it very little thought, I spontaneously decided to just do ninth and tenth grade last school year. Since it went so well, I figured that I'd give eleventh and twelfth grade this school year. I figured that if it didn't work, I'd just do my junior and senior year in the next two years like everyone else. Well, it did work. Yesterday I completed my senior year of highschool!
Now this is a monumental jumping off point for me. It actually feels just like that. It feels like I've been running across a plain towards a giant cliff with a vast ocean at the bottom and all that I've managed to do by finishing school two years early, is run the distance two years quicker than most people. The past week, I've been thinking about what I'm going to do Monday morning when I wake up. I've been emotionally dragging my feet this past week, wishing that I could just stop and not have to worry about driving, getting a job and all. But something on Thursday clicked in my head and I realized that I was just not trusting God as I should. I know that my God will not let me down.
There are so many decisions I could make at the time, so many resolutions I could make, and so many goals I could set. But as Proverbs says, "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails." So in spite of a desire to plan out the rest of my life right now, or even just the next year, I'm only going to attempt to do one thing. I'm just going to trust God with my whole life and all the rest will follow. If I trust God, I have nothing to plan. If God has taken me this far, he will give me the wings as eagles that I need to fly when I reach the edge of my cliff.

For all of you who are curious what I did do this morning, I read the driver’s manual… and… (you should feel the excitement building!) I got my driver’s permit! I just came back from driving to my church! So, I may not know what all I’m doing these next few months, but driving is about at the top of my list.

The Clouds Are Blue

2007-03-02T19:18:00.000-05:00

Today I woke up to the sound of music and got out of my comfortable bed after having eight hours of sleep. I finished my school early and spent a while talking to friends on the computer while scanning old photos. Now, we have a family over for a delicious supper. All in all, I had a wonderful day. I am blessed with family, health, friends and a great home, which I thank my God for. My life is good. I am happy.

But something deep inside my soul is afflicted.

Everyday in this country 4,000 babies are killed at the command of their confused mothers. Less than I mile from here, lost people are consuming drugs to escape from their sorrows. Somewhere in this city, someone is being beaten. In this neighborhood, some guy is looking at porn. One block away, a girl falls asleep without her mother or father. Thousands of teens this very night are trying to find love by sacrificing their purity. Millions of people in this world are starving while I now eat my chocolate cookie. Hundreds of people this very night are being tortured for proclaiming Jesus as their Savior. Leaders of our national government forsake their wives for fleeting sinful pleasure. Children all over this city are living with only one parent, or maybe neither. Wives and husbands stubbornly split their families in two, along with their kids’ hearts. I personally know many people that are slowly dying. Adults sacrifice precious time with their own children, only to enable themselves to buy more possessions that will never fill the holes in their souls. Families are torn apart by hatred.

And no, I don’t live in a bad town. It’s a very nice little town with a thriving community and a “great school system.” But I do know for a fact all that I mentioned before is true. Our world is falling apart while we sleep at night. Every minute hundreds of people die and are separated from God forever.

Life is not good. I am not happy. God has blessed me so richly and I often selfishly complain that I don’t have enough, when people all around me, even with all the riches in this world, are missing the greatest treasure.

It is times when I reflect on tragedies such as these when I understand why we are commanded to “Pray without ceasing.” How can we in good conscience ever stop pleading to God to save our planet, when we know of all this evil going on in our world?

Other than the sin in my life, I am a good person. Other than the bad things happening, there is nothing to pray for. Other than all the suffering in our world, life is good. The more I think about all this, the more I see that saying that life is good is as absurd as saying the clouds are blue.
Thank God for your blessings with every single breath, and beg him to have mercy on our world.

2007-02-25T09:26:00.003-05:00

On Friday, I had the great privilege of seeing the movie, Amazing Grace, on its opening day in the theater. I’ve heard of little else in the blogs, e-mails and forums, in the recent weeks, so I was anticipating a great movie, but I didn’t know that it would go phenomenally beyond the hype. It was the greatest movie that I think I’ve ever seen. There are so many wonderful aspects of this movie that I would have to quote the whole thing to give you an accurate view of why you should see it. But since I don’t have total recall, I’ll just have to tell you what particularly impressed me about the movie.

First, I should say that I had no idea who William Wilberforce was before I saw the trailer for this movie, so everything was new to me. My friends tell me though, that it is very accurate and if it is, I can think of no better way to so enjoyably learn a history lesson. I found the whole thing to be very informative and interesting in a way that I seldom see. The acting was so wonderful that I never once thought about them being actors because they portrayed their characters so well. And the sets and costumes were so spectacular that I nearly felt underdressed in the theater.

I was totally blown away by the determination of Wilberforce. He fought for the abolishment of slavery in parliament for 20 years. If that wasn’t astonishing enough, he had a serious stomach illness to deal with as well. It reminded me of my own stomach pains that I occasionally have to fight and realized that I should not let my own suffering inhibit my usefulness and my ability to make the world a better place. Most of us could come up with some excuse on why we can’t try harder to change the world and fight for good causes, but few of us have the excuse that Wilberforce had, and he did something greater than most of us will do.

Another thing that jumped out at me in the movie is when Equiano, the ex-slave helping the abolitionists, says to Wilberforce, “In Africa, I was a prince, in many ways, not unlike you.” This really deeply struck me because recently my family moved from the house I lived nearly my whole life to a different type of neighborhood and I really have been rather ungrateful for this change. Especially in the recent weeks, I’ve been thinking back on my life and wishing I had back the times before. But when he said that in the movie, I was struck by the truth that life on earth is indeed not fair. God has given me much more than I deserve and my job is not to compare the situation I’m in now, to that of others or what mine was before. My job is to do what God has placed me here for.

The other character in this story that I really admired was Barbara Spooner, who eventually married Wilberforce. She first meets him when he leaves parliament and goes to visit his friends who are attempting to heal him from his illness. At the time that he meets her, he has given up on the whole idea of his abolishing slavery. He’s ready to admit that he failed and that they had lost the battle. But as he tells her the whole story of his fight, trying to explain to her why it’s time for him to give up, all she sees is that he’s come to close to give up and she convinces him to keep trying. That is how we should all strive to be. If we don’t do many hard things ourselves, we at least should encourage others to do hard things. We should be others’ confidantes, encouragers, and stability when they’re confused.

Seeing this movie helped me to raise my own bar higher than I want to, but know I need to. It’s inspired me to do new hard things as the old ones get easier. I wish to be like William Wilberforce, Equiano, and Barbara. I want to fight for good in this world, no matter how foolish it may seem.

2007-02-14T12:59:00.000-05:00

The massive results for the cumulative effort of theRebelution.com and others (including me) and others has been released. Yes that's right: I'm announcing the release of (drum roll, please) the Modesty Survey! For months we have been waiting, but you don't have to wait any longer.

Girls, all you ever wanted to know about modesty has now been revealed. Over 1,600 guys have given us the clear truth about modesty. Everything from sleeveless shirts and slitted skirts to lipstick and shoes. Guys, you too should check it out. You definitely won't feel alone in your battles anymore.

The whole survey is very eye opening and it leaves me with no doubt of what is modest. This is definitely the best Valentine's Day gift I've ever received (except for the caramel-filled chocolate bar that my dad just gave me).

Go check it out: www.therebelution.com/modestysurvey

But, don't stop with just you reading the results. Tell all your friends...and even your enemies. We want everyone to know about this! Post on your blog and send e-mails too.

Guys, signatures are still being accepted for the Modesty Survey Petition, which is also an important part of the survey.
Image provided and created by theRebleution.com.

Spreading The Rebelution In Massachusetts

2007-02-13T21:03:00.000-05:00

Looking at the rebelution map, I think I'm the only rebelutionary in Massachusetts. For a while now, I've been thinking of this as being a bad thing because I haven't had any people (except my sister) fighting alongside me to rebel against the low expectations of our culture. Massachusetts is so liberal and everyone has so low of expectations of teenagers, that they practically don't exist. I have always wanted to live in a different state because of this, but recently a shocking realization struck me. I am magnificently blessed to be in this position.

Being in a situation when I'm bombarded with low expectations makes my doing hard things all the more glorious. God has already worked some great things with us here. God has called me out of my comfort zone and I now feel so free. Staying inside the comfort zone is not really comfortable. It's restrictive. I'm glad to be getting out of it.

Alex and Brett sum up my thoughts in one of their posts: "We cannot be elitist. We must fight for humility. Even while we decry the state of our fellow youth, we must not condemn or separate ourselves from them. The heart of a rebelution is the truth that all young people have the ability to accomplish much greater things than our culture would have them to think." I am going to try to do this more thoroughly here. It is so easy to dismiss people with low expectations as not being worth my bother, but then the rebelution wouldn't spread!

My family and I are working to make a change in this state. Already, not even having lived a year in this town, we were written about in the newspaper about how our family is different. There is hope for this state. I can make a change. I am going to work to spread the rebelution in my church. There is so much potential for better, that I don't know where to begin. I ashamed to admit now, that I was going to keep the Modesty Survey a secret from the highschoolers at my church and not even tell them about it or that I was involved with it, but now I see how foolish that would be. If I can be happy and serving God with abandon, these people will be drawn to me even though I'm different.

Already the rebelution is spreading. My friend back in the city we moved from joined the rebelution forum and I have a friend very interested in the Modesty Survey. In fact, she's a public schooler, but she's going to write a paper about how superior homeschooling is to public school. I do not say this to bring glory to myself in any way. All the glory must go back to God.

But I will encourage any of you that live in an area that hasn't heard of the rebelution, to please speak up and not be ashamed for being different, as I once was. Tomorrow, I'm telling the girls in my youthgroup about the rebelution and the Modesty Survey. Please, if you all would pray for me that I would stay strong in this desire to spread the rebelution, I will be very grateful. We're all in this together. We're all in this for God. I'm not truly alone in this state. God is always with me. I'm going to spread the rebelution!!!

Note: My youthgroup meeting has been canceled for tonight due to a snow storm. I will still be telling the girls in two weeks, though.

Image provided and created by theRebelution.com.

Trusting God In the Fog

2007-02-10T10:40:00.000-05:00

I get very worried when people come up to me and ask me if I applied to college. I tell them that I don’t believe that God wants me to yet, but they just don’t understand.

“Aren’t you a senior?”

“What will you do, then?”

“Don’t you want to go to college?”

“Are you going to start applying now?”

“Are you going to get a job and save up then?”

And my favorite: “Where do you want to go to college?”

I try to explain myself again and leave the conversation shaking my head. They just don’t understand.

I try to live by the principles in Matthew 6:34: Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Not that I never think about tomorrow. I still haven’t completely figured out this verse. But I do believe that doing my highschool work is enough for today.

Of course…there are times when I do worry about tomorrow. The other day I was thinking about what I’m going to do next month when I’m done with highschool. I thinking about my future and how there seemed to be nothing to look forward to. In my despair I sobbed to my mom, “My life is about to end!”

She smiled at me, gave me a hug and said, “Oh, no it isn’t! It’s just about to begin!” My mom is always encouraging me in ways like that.

I was thinking about the significance of what my mom said. When I am done with highschool, so much more opportunities will be opened for me that I just cannot see right now. It’s as if I’m in the fog right now and cannot see what will happen to me.

All this while, I’ve been worrying that when I walked through to the other side of the fog, that I would be faced with a shear-faced cliff that I would plummet off. But when I think of God’s promises, I know that this is not true. In Jeremiah, the LORD says, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you…thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

I know that once I get to the other side of the fog, I will encounter a landscape more beautiful than I have ever seen. I know that God has an awesome, wonderful, beautiful, marvelous plan for me! It may be walking through a beautiful field of flowers, or I may in fact encounter a cliff. But I know that God will give me the means to climb it and will not let me fall. I will not be disappointed if God chooses the harder road for me. After all, the best views are seen from the high places.

And, even if I do fall from the cliff, even if the future still looks bleak when I get to the other side of the fog, I know that when all is said and done, and the fog of this world is all cleared, I will be home my Savior.

Modesty Survey: Petition

2007-02-09T19:29:00.000-05:00

The Rebelution.com has come up with one last way for guys to encourage girls to be modest. They came up with a petition consisting of seven exhortations to the girls, to be modest. They also encourage girls to not use the survey results to rebel against the guidelines their parents already have in place. If you are a guy, please sign it!

Update: Modesty Survey

2007-02-07T14:39:00.000-05:00

I wish I could write a more personal and original post, but today is a very busy day for me. I babysat this morning, am going to babysit again this evening, and in the mean time, I have to clean and vacuum our house. I will though, take this opportunity to catch you up on what's been happening with the Modesty Survey.

The Modesty Survey closed on the 28th. Here is a recap of week one, displaying some early rough statistics. In response to a lot of objections to the survey Alex and Brett wrote a post addressing the people who think the Modesty Survey is chauvinistic, saying that the people who think so are misunderstanding it.

I find it very ironic that girls think that Alex, Brett and the guys who took the survey are being chauvinistic. Over 215 girls wanted them too. I would think that the girls would find it offensive if the guys refused to to take the survey when girls asked them to. I am glad that Alex and Brett were able to stand up to the pressure so well.

Now, the most exciting thing is that the results are going to be released on St. Valentine's Day! It is a very wonderful gift that girls can look forward to receiving from 1,500+ Christian guys. What more could a girl want?

The Harris twins also posted two sermons, one by John Piper and one by CJ Mahaney, both having to do with modesty and clothing. I have yet to listen to both, but I plan to while I clean after I'm done with this post.

They also gave us a sneak peak to the survey by releasing two text responses about guys' responsibilities to not lust after girls. Both quoted gentlemen explained the guys' responsibility very well. In the first part, I found the summation that guys would "rather do [their] battles with the world than with [their] sisters in Christ" to be a very informative reality for us girls.

In part 2, Shannon Moeller likened modesty to building a wall around a roof, so not to bring guilt upon the owners if someone fell off their roof. He explains that girls are not responsible for guys' lust as long as they are modest, in the following way: "Yes, just like certain men will jump off a roof, despite the parapet. If a man wants to jump, you should do what you can to stop him. But, if he forces his way past and jumps anyway, the guilt is on his head, not yours. The parapet is there to keep men that don’t want to jump from falling. It’s the same with modesty."

But how high should the wall be? In other words, what is modest? He points out that we can look at it two ways. "The “how-low” group might build a 12-inch railing or a fence with four-foot gaps between the posts," which can be likened to a girl that wants to know how little clothing she can wear and yet be considered modest enough to keep from being responsible if guys lust after her. And, "The “how-tall” group of people might build a nine-foot-tall, solid-brick wall ensuring that even Goliath would have a hard time forcing himself over the railing," which is like a girl trying to cover herself as much as possible, like the Muslim women, to ensure that no man find her tempting at all. He says that the "how-tall" group goes overboard and that girls don't have to cover every inch of skin.

I will take this a step further and say that the "how-low" group is not truly interested in keeping others from being harmed. If you only build a one-foot flimsy wall around your roof, that wouldn't actually keep a person from falling, but would only take the guilt from your head. In the same way, a girl that wears the bare minimum to be considered modest is not truly concerned for her brothers' -in-Christ wellbeing. It will be hard for us girls to stay in the middle, but I think the modesty survey will help greatly.

This did turn out to be more personal that I anticipated, but I could not resist adding my opinions. I have to go clean and listen to the sermons now.

Note: Even though I helped with the Modesty Survey (and used their image), my opinions on this blog may not reflect those of the Rebelution's.

I'll Post Soon

2007-02-07T12:55:00.000-05:00

Ok, I'm long overdue for a post. Unfortunately, I started Algebra 2 today and I have not finished today's part yet. When I finish, I will write a real post (probably in two hours). I just wanted to let you all know that I'm still here.

About Me...the Real Me

2007-01-25T17:57:00.000-05:00

I have a confession to make. My name is not really Katrina Rowe. My name is Katrina Martin. Rowe is my middle name which I formerly used for my online alias. But now, I've gotten the OK from my mom to reveal my true identity. So there you go, I change my name after at least 500 people thought I'm Katrina Rowe. Sorry!
The thing that prompted this unveiling was the article in the newspaper today. We ended up on the front page of our local paper telling about our homeschooling and our family business, and my mom said I had to put it on my blog, which requires this explanation. It's an excellent article that is completely accurate, except in that Silveira is spelled with an "i" not a "y." My little sister Lillian could readily verify my being glued to the computer. Without further ado, here is the article:If you click on the image, it will get larger. You can also read the article in the online edition of the paper here.
That's all for now, because our guest for supper is here.

In Christ,

Katrina Martin

This Sad Day

2007-01-22T16:37:00.000-05:00

Today is a sad day. 34 years ago, on this very day, a group of people decided that there is nothing wrong with killing babies. They decided that the mother's life is more important than her baby's. They decided since young girls make irresponsible choices, that they can legally kill their own child, just so they can continue living irresponsibly. They created a way for a mother to be selfish by not having to spend more money to keep another human being alive. They decided that our next generation could be brutally killed by a gruesome death. Ah, but they don't call this killing babies. There is a different name more commonly used, to trick people into thinking that we aren't really killing innocent children. On January 22, 1973, seven leaders of our country legalized ABORTION.

I want to take the opportunity on the sad day, to bring to your attention organizations and people out there fighting against abortion, people fighting for LIFE!

First I would like you to watch this video by rapper Nick Cannon. He presents us with the sobering reality that if we are under the age of 34, our mothers had the legal option taking our lives away. All of us who are younger than 34, are blessed by God to be alive. My thanks to Alex and Brett of the Rebelution for making this video available for my blog.

Now I would like to draw your attention to organizations fighting for life

Stand True is a Christ centered prolife organization with many teen volunteers who I've been honored to meet at music festivals. Many Christian bands such as BarlowGirl, Superchic[k], Switchfoot and Casting Crowns endorse this ministry and wear Stand True shirts at their concerts. They have a great selection of shirts that can help you spread the prolife message. This organization also created the shirts for the March For Life in Washington DC.
Abort 73 is Christian ministry dedicated to spreading the sad, honest truth about abortion. They present the truth through real videos of what happens to children in abortion. This is rather graphic and I do not recommend that people under the age of fourteen see this without their parents' permission. If you are younger than fourteen though, please ask your parents to look at it. People need to be educated to what is really happening to all the unborn babies. I especially encourage you to read their article "Why does human life matter?"
LifeDynamics.com is another Christian organization helping to spread the truth about abortion. Here is a quote from their website: "As an anti-abortion pro-life organization, we fight to change the abortion picture - to end legal abortion and return the right to life to unborn babies from the moment of conception. Our motto is, 'Pro-Life: without compromise, without exception, without apology.'"
ProLifeAmerica.com is a Christian prolife ministry dedicated to educating people about abortion, by means such as their forum and page with links to other sites with photos of the effects of abortion.
One last thing you should check out is the abortion counter provided by Jesus-is-Savior.com

I hope what I've said to you this day has encouraged you to join the fight for life.

10 Reasons Why I'm Blessed to Be Homeschooled

2007-01-17T15:25:00.000-05:00

Since I’m a senior this year and I won’t be in school much longer, I decided now was the time to write the reasons why I like being homeschooled. Some of these are very silly, but silly or not, they are good reasons for homeschooling your kids.

1. I get to wear hats – This may seem unimportant in the vast scheme of things, but for me it’s not. Hats are very cozy and believe it or not, they help me think better. They keep all my brain cells from evaporating into the ozone layer.
2. I have a more flexible schedule – There have been many opportunities for jobs for me that I would not have had if I had a rigid schedule that the schools employ. I am free to sleep later when I happen to have a late night, and on the flip side, if there’s something I want to do later in the day, I can get up earlier to start and finish school earlier.
3. I get enough sleep – Yes, I can sleep in late, but I can also go to bed earlier because I have no homework to do after school.
4. Yes, you heard right: I have no homework – Unless you count writing in my blog as my homework.
5. I get to listen to music while I study – Yes, sometimes this can be distracting, but classical music really helps me think better. I have also listened to my share of Switchfoot and BarlowGirl while I study, which isn’t necessarily bad, but I’ve learned that I concentrate better when I don’t have other words that I’m trying to listen to at the same time…which brings me to my next reason…
6. Being homeschooled taught me to be responsible – This may not be the case for every homeschooler, but for me, I think I’m much more responsible than I would have been if I went to public school. The very fact that I’m free to choose when I want to study forces me to make responsible decisions. If I do poorly on a subject a certain day, everyone knows it’s my fault for not preparing properly.
7. I get done with school quicker – Classes in school only move as fast as the slowest person. If someone doesn’t understand something in school, the class kind of halts until they understand. It also does away with a lot of the excess explanations and demonstrations, necessary in a classroom with twenty kids.
8. I can study in bed wearing my pajamas – My desk happens to be my pillow. One cold winter mornings, it’s much preferable for me to stay under my covers while I read my school books.
9. I learn how to get along better with people of other ages – Just being with my family all day, helps me to understand and relate with adults and younger kids better than I see public school kids doing. It also makes it so I have two classmates that are on a permanent sleepover.
10. I get lots of good practice for being a homemaker – Because I have so much extra time at home, I use it for practicing practical skills such as doing laundry, dishes, vacuuming, and get lots of practice with watching little children.

This is a guest answer by my eight year old sister: “I like being homeschooled because I get to be with my family, I get to spend more time on things I like to do, and I don’t get bullied.” Right on Sister!

Finding My Importance

2007-01-16T14:56:00.000-05:00

I love doing stuff with people. I love to talk on the phone, IM, visit, have people over, go to parties, youthgroup, and church. We’ll have been out all day seeing people and my mom will say, “The must be enough of seeing people to last you a week.” Then I’ll say, “No way. I want to do it again tomorrow!”

It is not necessarily a bad thing to want to see people a lot. I don’t like to hang out with people that are a bad influence on me. I like to chat with Rebelutionaries and visit with adults that are wiser than me, so as not to pick up bad traits. (Proverbs 13:20) But there tends to be two problems with my spending so much time with people.

The first problem I have with spending a lot of time with people is that I tend to base my successfulness on it. If I have a day when I’m invited to three things, I’ll think that it’s a good day. But when I stay home all day, I begin to question my value as a person. I have this warped view that if other people want to spend their time on me, then I must be doing well, but if no one wants to do something with me, then I must be doing something wrong.

Even if my idea that my significance is based on how many people do stuff with me was true, it would still be a bad view. The purpose of my life is not to be adored by people. The purpose of my life is to adore God! At the end of my life all that will matter is that I’ve served the Lord. I am living well, if I am looking to God for his leading in everything that I do. The chief purpose of life is to glorify God. If I do that through my relationships, then that is wonderful. But if no one’s around to talk to, there are many other important things to be done.

I don’t think I’m the only one with this problem of sometimes basing how life is going on the amount of time spent with other people. It seems to be a common trend with the highschoolers in my church. They pack as much time with each other in to their days, even if they’re just wasting it on watching movies, and then they stay up late trying to catch up on their school studies.

That brings me to the second problem I have when I spend lots of time with people. When I spend most of my day with other people, the other things that I should do usually get left undone. Sometimes I'll get up in the morning and check my e-mail and see that someone’s online I could chat with, so I start a conversation even though I know I have a lot of school work and chores to do. When I spend hours out at people's houses, the laundry and dishes don't get done.

So right now, I'm trying to get my priorities in the right order again. I'm not saying that all of you who chat and spend time with me aren't a priority, but I do owe more time to my family, my studies, and to God than I have been giving.

I'm also going to learn to base my worth in God more, because He's unchanging. If I say something stupid, or make a mistake, I don't have to worry if He's still going to be there for me the next day. I can wake up in the morning every day and know that my Heavenly Father is always there for me to talk to and that is where I find my real importance: as a child of God.

The Importance Of Modesty

2007-01-12T15:20:00.001-05:00

The other day, someone asked me what my pet peeve was and immediately I answered ‘immodesty’. Immodest girls really bother me. I feel very threatened by girls whose main goal is to be sexy. They are teaching guys to appreciate girls only for their looks and not who they really are on the inside. At the same time I feel very sorry for such girls and the guys who give them attention. I was also asked once, if I could change one thing in the world what would it be. I answered that I would end immodesty. Since a lot of people don't see the relevance of modesty either in the Bible or our culture, I decided to write this post showing how modesty is very relevant to any lady who wishes to please God.

Before I continue I would like to clear up a common misconception about modesty. The word modesty is not synonymous to unattractive. Modesty is the way a woman should dress and act so as not to be sexually enticing to men. A girl can still look pretty if she dresses modest.

Modesty is not directly mentioned much in the Bible. It is only once directly mentioned in the KJV (1Timothy 2:9). But it is an important part of following God nonetheless. In the Gospel of Matthew (5:27-28 KJV) Jesus says, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”

Now, I realize that females are not always responsible if men happen to lust after them, but many times they are. But that doesn’t really matter anyway. What matters is that when girls dress immodestly they are inviting men to lust after them, which in turn causes them to commit adultery in their heart and also causes them to covet, which breaks two of the Ten Commandments.

One day a man asked Jesus which commandment was the greatest. Jesus answered: “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31 KJV)

What does loving our neighbors have to do with modesty? Well, since men are tempted by images of immodest woman, how is it loving to any of them if you constantly show them those images? I shall answer myself: it’s not! It is not loving to God either, if you are constantly causing men to sin.

Immodest girls distract men from their wives and cause them to be mentally unfaithful. It is an ugly chain of reactions that immodesty has caused in out society. Provocative women distract men from worshiping God with their whole mind, which, as Jesus said, is the most important thing for Christians to do.

BarlowGirl’s song Clothes is a great song about modesty and A Return to Modesty is a very well written book about the problems immodest behavior has caused in our culture. Josh Harris’ book, Sex Is Not the Problem (Lust Is), is a great book about combating lust in general, both for guys and girls.

Keep looking for the Modesty Survey results, which will be coming out as soon as we get 1,000 guys to answer it.

Concerning My Previous Post About Work:

2007-01-12T15:16:00.000-05:00

Some of you who read my blog were confused and thought that I don't like work. Quite the contrary; I really do like work. It's just the word "work" that I don't like. I was just trying to point out my odd practice of equating the word work with something bad when I really do know that all work is good. I hope that clears it up. Now get to work!

My Allergy

2007-01-09T21:41:00.000-05:00

I have a bizarre allergic reaction every time I hear a certain word: work. For some reason this makes me freak about. I think “Oh no. Mom’s going to make me clean the entire house before I go to bed.” I really have always pondered this odd reaction I have, especially when it’s always something small that she wants me to do, such as taking out the trash. I just today came to the conclusion. I realized that I have the mindset that work is bad. When I came to that conclusion, I can tell you, I was not very happy. “I’m supposed to be Rebelutionary! How can I not like work?!”

I soon discovered that I had another problem: I had bought in to our society’s lie that work is bad. All around our culture you hear everyone groaning about work. People are always saying things about how they hate work, or that they need a vacation, and on and on. I was very upset that I had this problem too. I thought at this point that things were just hopeless for me. How could I say that I like hard things if I don’t even like work?

This was really bothering me all day. Then the light came on in my head and I realized a couple of things. I realized that I don’t dislike work. I really do enjoy doing laundry and dishes most of the time. I like babysitting and vacuuming. Then why do cringe every time I hear the word work? The answer is that I have attached our culture’s negative connotation with work.

That is very bad. Work is a wonderful thing. God encourages us to work hard and well. We don’t even deserve to eat if we don’t work.

I found another problem with my thinking. I realized that a lot of the time, I had been thinking of life as being two parts: work and play. “When the work is done, I get to play. Work is boring; play is fun.” How wrong, not to mention stupid. Some of you may share my allergy and I’m going to tell you as I’m telling my self, STOP IT!

Work is a great blessing. Work is a very satisfying activity. I always feel so good when I finish washing all the dishes. The lawn looks so good when it’s mowed. Our culture is wrong. Work is great! Work is a blessing! Whenever you get overwhelmed by your chores just say that to yourself ten times fast…in pig Latin if you have to.

I’m so tired now, that I’m afraid I won’t make sense if I continue longer. I need sleep so I can I can work hard tomorrow!

Modesty Survey

2007-01-09T21:39:00.000-05:00

Take It (GUYS) / See It (GIRLS)

Book Review: Crunchy Cons

2006-12-30T17:35:00.000-05:00

I just finished reading Crunchy Cons and I'm so glad that I finished it for two reasons. 1) I have a hard time making it through non-fiction books, and I'm glad to have one more under my belt. 2) It was a book well worth reading and I'm here to recommend it to you. My family and I already practiced many of the Crunchy Con principles, but it was eye opening nonetheless. For one thing, I’ll never again dream of eating meat that isn’t organic. What first caught my eye about this book was the subtitle: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, gun-loving organic gardeners, evangelical free-range farmers, hip homeschooling mamas, right-wing nature lovers, and their diverse tribe of countercultural conservatives plan to save America (or at least the Republican Party). This describes me and my family pretty good. No, I don’t wear Birkenstocks (have you seen the price?) and I don’t know the first thing about Burke, but I think I can safely say that I think guns are a necessary part of self defense. We don’t have an organic garden yet, but we plan to sometime soon. Though we do only eat organic food; we just have yet to grow it ourselves. We are definitely evangelical and only buy free-range meats. No we don’t have a farm either, but maybe someday. I can think of no better way to describe my mom than as a hip homeschooling mama. And yes, we’re definitely right-wing and we love nature. So I was very interested in this book, because I had no idea that there were enough people out there like us to give enough info to write a whole book about us. It turns out that we are not alone, and now I have a title for myself. I’m a Crunchy Con. Just as a side note, I don't recommend telling young kids if you're a Crunchy Con as my little sister though a Crunchy Con was a kind of French fry.

Rod Dreher does a wonderful job describing various aspects of the Crunchy Cons beliefs, including what they believe about food, the environment and education. I have to say, I disagree on some of what he says about religion. He puts Jews on the same level as Christians, but it is true that there are Jews in the Crunchy Con movement. He also thinks it’s alright to drink small amounts of alcohol, which I completely disagree with. One other con to Crunchy Cons is that he briefly says that he doesn’t believe that the world was created by God in seven days, which I believe to be fundamental to Christianity. He is a Catholic and considers himself to be a Christian, so he treats Christians very well in the book, if not completely accurately. In spite of these few drawbacks, I find this book to be a must-read for all Christians, if not all pagans too. His wife homeschools and he tells about the financial troubles one-income families may face, but he is a strong advocate for it anyway. He also logically points out that even if families with stay-at-home moms have a smaller income, they will save money and hardships by not sending their kids to school. Well, I think this is long enough now, so I'll just say that I'll raise my glass (of water) to the Crunchy Cons.

Do Hard Things

2006-12-26T18:15:00.000-05:00

I have mentioned "doing hard things" on my blog a few times. If you're wondering where I got that, here is where I got the idea. Where else? On the Rebelution.

My Skateboard

2006-12-22T15:23:00.000-05:00

Since a lot of you didn't know that I skateboard, I bet that even more of you don't know what my skateboard looks like. Here's a picture.

My Favorite Books List

2006-12-16T21:40:00.000-05:00

Inspired by Alex and Brett's reading list on their website, I went to the library today and picked up a bunch of good books for me to read. I also decided that I needed to put a list of my favorite inspirational books that I have already read on my blog. The list is really small right now, but that's just because I don't have time right now to look through all my book shelves to remind myself of the good books I've read. You can expect a lot more to be added soon though since I have barely been able to leave off my reading ever since I read the article on Regenerate Our Culture about how theRebelution.com was inspired by reading good books. Happy reading! I need to get back to mine.

Modesty Survey

2006-12-16T09:46:00.000-05:00

The Modesty Survey is really coming together. The questions were all submitted yesterday, and now the team (Alex, Brett, Sarah and I) is going to do some serious editing of the questions and David Boskovic is building us the website for it. I'm so excited about how this is going to turn out. I just hope I won't have to get rid of too much of my clothes. Just kidding! I'll be very glad to be able to wear clothes that I know won't be tempting any guys. I hope this will be a great help to many girls and guys alike.

Our Awesome Car

2006-12-12T19:40:00.000-05:00

The above photo if of a 1981 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. It's not the greatest car I've ever seen, but it's pretty cool. The reason why I put it on my blog though, is because we used to own this car, back when I was younger. It went SO fast and my mom always burned rubber in it. It had a great stereo too. I know loving cars isn't neccesarily the mark of a Jesus Freak, but it's a mark of this Jesus Freak!

All You Need For Christmas

2006-12-08T22:42:00.000-05:00

I have a Christmas party going on which I'm not really a part and am up late and have cleared my inbox, so I have no excuse for not posting something.

Christmas is such a wonderful time. It's a time to decorate Christmas trees, a time to sing carols, a time with no school, a time with family, a time to eat a lot, and best of all a to time to give and get presents. But in all of these wonderful things, there's a certain amount of worry. "What am I going to get Uncle Urban?" (I just happen to like that name. I don't have an Uncle Urban) "Will Clarissa be offended if I don't get her a gift?" "Which family should I spend Christmas Eve with?" And the most important question: "How do I keep from gaining ten pounds?" Of course we don't worry about what people are going to get us, right? We don't' worry that Grammy is going to get us another scarf? We aren't making lists of what we want, are we? Or maybe we are. With all this worry, Christmas is a great cause of depression for some people. But I'd like to give you good hope this Christmas season. No matter how much weight you gain, no matter how few gifts you receive that you actually wanted, no matter how much money you have to spend, no matter how much homework you have over the holidays, just remember: You have the best gift of all. You have Jesus! That's what Christmas is all about. We have the biggest present of all. And NO ONE can EVER take it away. No one can break it. No one can steal it. And you will never lose it. You will always carry Him with you. That's all anyone could need for Christmas.

Getting Into the Christmas Mood

2006-12-04T18:07:00.001-05:00

Christmas is coming! What better way to get into the Christmas mood than by listening to Christmas music? Here are my favorite Christmas CDs:

Wow Christmas Green - Various Christian Artists
Wow Christmas Red - Various Christian Artists
Christmas In Black and White - Nicole C. Mullen
Christmas - Rebecca St. James
T his Christmas - TobyMac

I also like to listen to Focus on the Family Radio Theater Dramas:

And then of course, what Christmas would be complete without movies?

I hope you all get in the mood for Christmas now. One thing that I forgot to mention that's good for getting into the Christmas mood is SNOW! We finally got snow today. Unfortunately most of it melted, but I think we'll get more soon.

The Nativity Story

2006-12-04T14:36:00.001-05:00

I just saw the Nativity Story on Friday and highly recommend it to everyone. It was a very accurate depiction of the events leading up to Jesus' birth. I thought the acting was great, the story plot was engaging and the overall quality tops most of the other movies made about the Bible. For more info on it visit Christian Spotlight, Plugged In, and The Nativity Story's Official Website.

Modesty Survery

2006-12-04T11:01:00.000-05:00

This is what I'm busy with now:

“How tight is too tight for tops? Are jeans with holes in the thighs immodest? Is a purse worn with the strap diagonally across the chest a stumbling block? Are shirts with messages across the front distracting?”

Join other Christian young men and women in TheRebelution.com’s new and exciting project: The Modesty Survey. The Modesty Survey allows any girl to submit anonymous, modesty-related questions to Christian guys and to receive (multiple) anonymous replies. It’s the discussion you’ve always wanted to have.

GIRLS: How To Submit Your Questions

If you are a girl and would like to submit your question(s) for inclusion in the survey, please email them to our Female Survey Coordinator, Katrina Rowe (that's me): jesusfreakatrina@yahoo.com. They must be received by Friday, December 15th, to be considered for inclusion in the survey.

You really may submit any question provided that it relates to the topic of modesty. Through the the forum we have already received over one hundred questions ranging from glitter lotion and painted nails to swimsuits and skirt slits.

While not necessary, we also recommend that you register on the forum and join The Attic, our Girls Only area. This will allow you to be directly involved in any discussions which take place in the process of conducting the survey.

GUYS: How To Get Involved

If you are guy and would like to help respond to the girl’s questions please begin by signing up for the the forum and joining our Guys Only area: The Garage. The Garage will serve as “brainstorm central” for the male side of The Modesty Survey.

This is an opportunity for you to serve your sisters in Christ. Many girls are without fathers or brothers to advise them in this area. They need input from godly men regarding what is appropriate and what is not. It is not unlikely that this survey will go on to be widely read and carefully referenced.

On the other hand, as Christian young men in a highly sexualized society, this is an opportunity for us to educate Christian women regarding our inner-battle so that they won’t unwittingly contribute to our struggle. If you have ever wanted to tell a girl to go put on a sweater, this is your chance to do so — anonymously.

Help Make It Happen

(1) Please help us spread the word about The Modesty Survey. Feel free to tweak this post and republish it on your own blog or send it as an email to any friends who you think would be interested in participating. Also, you can place a snazzy sidebar ad on your website or blog.

(2) Volunteer your tech skills! If you have experience setting up online survey/polling software we would appreciate your experience as we develop an efficient and uniform system for answering the submitted questions. E-mail info@therebelution.com if you want to help.

What I'm Thankful For

2006-11-21T10:56:00.000-05:00

Thanksgivings in just two days! This is the time of year when I like to think of what I'm thankful. Whenever you ask groups of people what they're thankful for, they all pretty much say the same thing:

Jesus
Family
Friends
House
Clothes
Car

These are all good things to be thankful for, but I wanted to think of more unique things this year. Such as:

The Rebelution forum - It's so cool to be networked with teens who care about the same things as me.
Books - I just love reading!
School - I'm not kidding. As boring as it is, I want to be informed.
Names - I am obsessed with names and their definitions. I have 5 name books and hope to get more. My favorite names right now: Urban, Demetrius, Fedora, Theodore (for a girl), Domino (another girl name) and Mark (a tribute to Mark Stuart).
Mustangs - They're my favorite car. Even though I don't have one (yet), I love to just look at them.
My imagination - It's just fun to be able to imagine things. I would hate to be bored when I don't have anything to do.
Music - Music is air for me. I listen to music while I do school.
Skateboarding - My favorite thing to do right now. I scraped my arm trying to do an Olly yesterday.
Pain - I love what Jars of Clay says in Good Monsters: "and the pain makes them feel so alive." This is very true. Whenever I'm hurt I just think, "This is what being alive feels like."
The declaration of Independence - I love to read this. National Treasure first got me interested in it.
Photo editing programs - I love being able to make me colored with everyone else in the photo black and white. Ha Ha.
Old hymnals - There are lots of easy to play Christmas songs in Hymnals.
Walking through the mall during December - I love the crowds, decorations, and Christmas music playing everywhere.
Youth group - We're doing a study on the songs from Jars of Clay's Good Monsters CD.
The color of the ocean on a perfectly clear day - It's the best color in the world.
The feeling you get when you stay up late - Around 11 o'clock, I get really wide awake and feel like getting lots of things done.
Cold - Kind of like pain: It make me feel so alive.
Sleep - Wouldn't it be awful if we couldn't sleep?
My surgery - I had stomach surgery to remove my burst appendix. I almost died beforehand. Whenever I think about what happened to me, I'm so glad that God spared me from death.
Freedom - Watch Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. There's a great scene about freedom in it.

blood:water mission

2006-11-20T08:49:00.000-05:00

With Christmas coming every business and charitable organization wants your money. We've gotten four times the amount of catalogs than we normally do, this past month. Everyone wants you to buy your presents from their company. It's so hard to know where to spend your money. You feel so guilty about spending so much money on your friends when their are starving children in Africa. But after buying all the presents you need to, you don't have much more than five dollars left, if even that much. That's why I'd like to tell you about blood:water mission. blood:water mission is an organization Jars of Clay started to build wells in Africa. Dan Haseltine, the lead singer of Jars of Clay said at his concert that 80% of the diseases that people are getting in Africa is because of these people drinking dirty water. blood:water mission is based on the philosophy that if people drink clean water, they'll have clean blood which will eliminate AIDS. They best thing about this company is that 1 African can have clean water for 1 year for 1 dollar. It's such an easy way to help change the World. Dan Haseltine on the blood:water mission site says,

"Clean water is a powerful way to begin a large scale conversation about AIDS. The 1000 Wells Project is a simple campaign that has very little controversy surrounding it. It is difficult to argue whether or not a person should have clean water. It is also difficult to deny the equation: $1= clean water for 1 person for 1 year. And it is vital that the church begin to build relationships with African communities. When a well is built, a conversation is started, a relationship between the church and the community benefiting from the project begins. This is the seed of a worldview shift. This is what excites us about this project."

So let's say you work for minimum wage at $5 dollars an hour and you work for one hour and give that money to blood:water mission. That will mean for just ONE HOUR'S WORK, 5 Africans will get clean WATER FOR ONE YEAR. I encourage you to give at least one dollar to this company and you will completely change someone's life.

Music

2006-11-17T17:22:00.000-05:00

Music is a very important part of our lives. For me, it gets me through hard times in my life and encourages me. I have noticed though, a discrepancy between what Christians believe and what music they listen too. They believe swearing and sexual immorality are wrong, yet they listen to songs with swears and that glorify fornication. Whenever the Bible talks about music it has to do with praising God. Ephesians 5:18-19 says: "...be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord..." and Psalm 149:1,3 says: "Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints. Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp." So how do 50 Cent and Christina Aguilera fit in to the Biblical views of music? One thing that I do to evaluate all that I listen to or do is to ask myself if Jesus would do it. Ephesians 5:1 tells us to "be imitators of God." Would Jesus listen to Eminem? I don't think so. I've had to give up some of my music by following this principle, including some bands that people consider Christian. I just had to give up Stacie Orrico. I was going to put her in the link of my favorite bands, but when I looked up her site, I was disappointed by the pictures of her. She was wearing clothes Jesus definitely wouldn't approve of. As for other bands, even if the lyrics of songs are good, I don't think screaming is a God-glorifying activity. Evaluating the bands you listen to will be an ongoing thing. People change. Bands I used to listen to I just can't anymore, because I know they aren't pleasing to God. If you do decide you need better music that praises God please check out my links on the side. And if you think that any of it isn't appropriate for a Christian to listen to, please let me know.

Welcome To My Blog

2006-11-16T20:05:00.000-05:00

First off, let me say thank you to anyone that is viewing my blog. I'm very glad to be part of the blogger revolution now.

I guess I'll tell you a little about myself. I'm a Jesus Freak. If you didn't know, a Jesus Freak is more than just a Christian. A Jesus Freak is willing to do anything for the sake of pleasing Jesus. Because I'm a Jesus Freak I do more than some Christians find necessary. I dress modestly, only listen to Christian music, don't watch rated-R movies (except the Passion of the Christ), I won't date, and I won't kiss until I'm married. There's more, but I can't think of it at the moment. My favorite bands are Jeremy Camp, BarlowGirl, Superchic[k], TobyMac, Jars of Clay,Kutless, Relient K, and last but not least, AUDIO ADRENALINE. I'm so sad that Audio Adrenaline is not going to be a band anymore. I love Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Karen Kingsbury, Francine Rivers, Sarah Arthur, Josh Harris, and Alex and Brett Harris . I like to read, skateboard, play basketball and softball, read, crochet and knit, post on the Rebelution forum, read, and read more. I have two younger sisters and a two year old brother who along with my parents are my favorite people in the world who I dearly love. I will post more soon and thanks for checking out my blog.

Jesus FreaKatrina

My Music Video [Ocean Damaris - When the Snow Melts]

The Reason Why I Sing--Don't Look At Me

Light Up The Sky

Love the Way You Lie Review

A Tuned Piano

"Sarah's Choice" Movie Review

Owl City--"If The Bombs Go Off, The Sun Will Still Be Shining"

History, In the Making

What I'm Liking :)

A Wonderful Reminder

Worrying/Waiting

Trusting In God, Not the President

Rebellion

A Collection of Thoughts

Where Is Katrina, Anyway?

Artists Speak On Depending On Christ

Amazing Change Happening In Colorado!

Depending On Christ (Part 3)

Depending On Christ (Part 2)

Depending on Christ (Part I)

Here's My Life...With No More Looking Back

Raising the Bar: Alex and Brett On FamilyLife Today

Living Beyond The Moment

Dressing Modest Affordably (And Why)

I'm Taking A Short Break

Leaning On God

Witnessing *Cringe*

The Importance of Family for Rebelutionaries

My Abscence

Some Favorite Resources

Real Beauty Vs. Cultural Beauty

Resting In Christ

Evaluating Media

Affecting The Future

Making A Change

The Real Hard Thing

Rebelution Conference Notes-Part II

10 Reasons Why My Mom Is Amazing

2007 Rebelution Conference Notes, Part I

The Sword

Complicated Life

My Decision

I'm back!

Moses' Family

The Importance of Family--Intro

Sore Knuckles

The Cliff

The Clouds Are Blue

Spreading The Rebelution In Massachusetts

Trusting God In the Fog

Modesty Survey: Petition

Update: Modesty Survey

I'll Post Soon

About Me...the Real Me

This Sad Day

10 Reasons Why I'm Blessed to Be Homeschooled

Finding My Importance

The Importance Of Modesty

Concerning My Previous Post About Work:

My Allergy

Modesty Survey

Book Review: Crunchy Cons

Do Hard Things

My Skateboard

My Favorite Books List

Modesty Survey

Our Awesome Car

All You Need For Christmas

Getting Into the Christmas Mood

The Nativity Story

Modesty Survery

What I'm Thankful For

blood:water mission

Music

Welcome To My Blog

Witnessing Cringe