Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from 2017

Different Kind of Christmas

"There's just a million little memories that remind me you're not here. It's just a different kind of Christmas this year."~" Different Kind of Christmas "-Mark Schultz It's the most wonderful time of the year, isn't it? Unfortunately, that's not always true. For many, this Christmas marks the first one they're celebrating without a beloved friend or family member. As much as they want to celebrate, every part of the celebration is a reminder that there's one less person celebrating with them. Personally, I have felt this way two separate times, once thirteen years ago following my grandmother's death, and then again last year, following the death of my friend Katherine. She lost her battle with cancer only four days before Christmas, and since I knew it was coming, it was hard to get excited for the season. I knew that as Christmas was creeping closer, so, too, was her imminent demise. I prayed that she would survive long eno

Take Time to be Thankful

Today is Thanksgiving here in America, a day filled with family, turkey, and football. It's also a day to reflect on the things we are thankful for (which may or may not include the family, turkey, and football). However, I think thankfulness should not just be reserved for one specific day. The leader of a group on Facebook that I am a member of has created a "30 Days of Thankful" challenge for the group members. Each day, she posts something she is thankful for, and the rest of us reply with things we are thankful for that day. Doing this every day has really challenged me to think every day about what I'm thankful for, which means that I have been more open to seeing the good in each day. Not only that, but since I have decided to write something different each day, I have been challenging myself to come up with a variety of things to be thankful for. I have enjoyed the challenge so much that I plan to continue thinking of at least one thing I'm thankful for

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

This past summer, I read the book Me, Myself, and Lies  by Jennifer Rothschild, and it really made me think. If you read my post " What are You Really Saying? " you know that I realized that at least for me, saying "I can't believe I said/did/forgot/lost that!" was really a way to put myself down, and I was determined to stop saying it. However, this book helped me to realize that though I wasn't saying things like that out loud, I was still putting myself down. I was challenged to continue to assess how I talk to myself. In the book, Jennifer compares our thoughts to items in a closet. We have the comfy ones that we wear so often that they start to wear out, but we refuse to stop because we love them so much. We have the ones that aren't our favorites, but we will wear them at certain times and they fit us well enough. Then there are the ones that we never wear because they don't fit and we don't like them. However, she likens our negative tho

Ceasefire: A Tale of Two Protests

"No one ever wins when the goal is to settle the score."-For King and Country, " Ceasefire " On August 12th, there were two protests conducted in two separate southern cities. Both were concerning a hot-button issue in this country, and both had the potential to make headlines, yet only one did. The reason why is quite simple: one protest ended violently, while the other remained peaceful. The one that actually made headlines was of course the one in Charlottesville, Virginia. A white supremacist group was protesting the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee when they were met by counter-protesters. Insults began to fly between the two groups, which led to fists flying, kicking off a domino effect that ended with a man driving his car into a group of people, killing one woman and injuring many others. The white supremacist group was blamed for what happened, and while I agree that they were at fault for their actions, the counter-protesters were as much

So Ya Wanna Be a Hero, Kid?

Last month, my church had Vacation Bible School, and this year's theme was Hero Central. Throughout the week, the storytelling team taught the kids about heroes from the Bible, and what each hero taught us about what it means to be a hero for God. Monday: (1 Samuel 16:1-13)  The first story of the week was about Samuel anointing David as the next king of Israel. King Saul was not following along with what God wanted him to do, so God gave Samuel the task of anointing a new king from among the children of a man named Jesse. So that Saul would not find out, God told Samuel to take a heifer to sacrifice and invite Jesse and his children to the sacrifice. Once everyone was assembled, Samuel had each of the children come in to see which of them God wanted him to anoint, but none of the six arrogant children there was God's choice. Samuel then asked Jesse if he had any other children, and he replied that the youngest was out in the field watching the sheep. Samuel asked Jesse to se

Dos and Don'ts for Dealing with Depression

Recently, I asked a friend on Facebook for details about an upcoming event. When he didn't respond right away, I figured that he was still ironing out the details and would let me know when they were finalized. Much to my disappointment, less than a week later I saw pictures of the event and realized that the plans had been finalized but never relayed to me. I sent him a message expressing my disappointment, and his response to that message was full of false accusations and triggers. Though the rational part of my brain said that I likely had just caught him in a bad moment, his words still sent me into a depressive funk that I still am having a hard time shaking. Once I was calm, I forgave him, but I also realized that I needed to do something I had considered doing for quite some time but never got around to: write a post about how to respond to those with depression. So here they are in no particular order, the dos and don'ts of dealing with someone in your life who has depr

Dear Younger Me

(I was inspired to write this because of the song " Dear Younger Me " by MercyMe) Dear 16-year-old Amy, I'm not going to ask you how you're doing because I already know. More than that, I know you wouldn't tell me the truth even if I did ask. You hate how you feel, and you don't want anyone to know the truth, but I know. I know what you're thinking, I know what you're planning, and I want you to stop. You do still belong here. So, based on a current popular series and how many years it's been since I was you, here are 13 reasons why you need to combat the lie that your life is no longer worth living. This pain won't last forever:  I know that right now, it feels like you will never be happy again, but you will be. The pain you're feeling right now is temporary, but the solution you're considering is permanent. You are awesome:  I know you're not feeling this way now, but it's true. Behind the glasses and the frizzy hair

Pray for Your Heroes

"I'll celebrate the truth, His work in me ain't through, I'm just unfinished."-Mandisa, " Unfinished " Last month, I heard about the death of Amy Bleuel, founder of Project Semicolon, and I was shocked to hear that someone who was an advocate against suicide would take her own life. There were a lot of people who found hope from her story, and I wondered how many more deaths would happen  because they lost this hope, and I thought it was horrible that she had done this to them. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I shouldn't be condemning her. I can attest to the fact that even though I have defeated the temptation to commit suicide, Satan won't give up very easily, and keeps trying to lure me back to the place where I was 13 years ago. Life doesn't magically get easier just because a person shares their struggles. In fact, it can actually get harder because sharing our struggles, and especially how God get

Breathe Part Two

Last month, I wrote a post  about taking the time to break free from the noise in our life and rest in God's presence. Since writing that post, I have been working on praying rather than stressing, and being a bit better about going to bed at a reasonable time. However, I was still feeling stressed until two weeks ago, when I was home sick from work for two days. I work as a paraeducator in a K-2 special ed classroom. There are two paras in our room, which serves 12 students in 5 different homerooms. The two of us are kept quite busy, and it was quite stressful for me times that the other para was gone. So the first day I was sick, it was quite hard for me to stay home because I knew how much I was needed to help things run smoothly. Then the next morning, I was still sick. I didn't want to stay home another day, but I knew that rest is what I needed, so I made sure to get it. I was nervous about putting my coworkers in a stressful situation due to my absence, but when I re

Breathe

"When the stress is on the rise, in my heart I feel You say, 'Just breathe.'"~" Breathe "-Jonny Diaz Monday morning at work, we got an announcement that the internet was down. Later, it was revealed that a cable had been cut, and we were going to be without internet all day. While we were initially feeling a bit stressed, since our 21st century classrooms rely heavily on technology, we were able to adapt, and actually ended the day feeling surprisingly calm. As one of my coworkers put it, since there was no possibility of checking emails every time she had a break, she felt freer. She didn't realize how dependent she was on checking e-mails until she couldn't, and she found that she didn't miss it. I myself felt a bit lighter, and wondered if maybe being plugged in isn't actually all it's cracked up to be. Last Sunday's sermon at my church was about spending time in silence, and how hard that can be for us. We fill our days with l

2016 Year in Review

2016 was a bit of a roller coaster year for me, with glorious highs interspersed with terrifying lows. Fortunately, there were more highs than lows. Here in no particular order are the highs and lows of the past year. HIGHS: Spending time with Jojo: Jojo is my cousin Jessica's 18-month-old daughter, and due to scheduling conflicts, I didn't get a chance to see her at Thanksgiving or Christmas last year. However this year, I got to spend a great deal of time with her at both holidays, as well as during her dad's birthday party in September. Since she was older at the time I got to know her, I was able to build a better and more lasting relationship with her that will only grow as she gets older. My summer job: This summer, I was the chauffeur/activity supervisor for Ally and Kira, two of my friend Katherine's granddaughters. Throughout the course of the summer, I took them to camps, to the pool, to the park, and to church activities. They taught me how to use