Heart to Heart: Faithfulness into the Unknown

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Ruth is a book of only 4 chapters but yet a book that holds such wisdom and depth. In our youth group girls’ Bible study we had decided that we wanted to read Ruth after we completed Esther. It was the night before Bible study and I still hadn’t read Ruth yet. I knew that I needed to so I could be semi-prepared for discussion the next day. I started reading Ruth that night and found everything so interesting. Ever since I was a little nursery kid I had always heard the story of Ruth but back then it was just a story from Sunday school. While I was reading that night I realized how selfless of a person Ruth really was. She left everything she knew, her home, her religion, and her family to follow her deceased husband’s mother to her home land. Naomi was literally sobbing and pushing Ruth away telling her not to follow her but Ruth would not budge. Ruth 1:16- But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” You don’t find that kind of loyalty very often. Ruth had no idea where she was going or what she was getting herself into, but she knew that she was going to follow Naomi with all her heart. I then started to think about my own life, do I show loyalty like that to the people that are close to me? Do I show it to God and let Him be in charge of my life? I realized that the answers to these questions were no. I am not allowing God direct me on a path without questioning him or without thinking of all the other possible routes I could take before agreeing to God’s path. I started to realize that I need to show faithfulness like Ruth, to not question anything but have child-like faith and know that whatever God is telling me is the best thing for me.  With big decisions coming up around the corner I am slowly working on letting go of control. I am working on letting God shine the light on His path, whether it be through my mom reminding me of all the options out there or my dad encouraging me to think of the future after college. I have to be honest and say that it’s not the easiest thing, but I know that God is working on my heart and reminding me that He is always right. So today I encourage you to remember the story of Ruth and maybe start thinking- am I on my own path or God’s path?
With love, 
Caroline.

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Posted by 2blondesandaredhead blog on Thursday, August 27, 2015

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Heart to Heart:Stress Reliever

During the school year things can become pretty hectic at my house. Everyone is going to their different activities and sitting down with the whole family for dinner becomes a rare case (unless my mom decides to not let any cars leave until we have all finished our dinner together). For the upcoming school year I decided to find a couple of verse to hang up on my wall that would be my stress reliever verses. I wanted to share them with you in case you were looking for some scripture that would remind you to take a deep breath and trust God. 

John 14:27 ESV- “PEACE I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

Romans 16:20 ESV-“The God of PEACE will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

Psalm 118:5-6 ESV-“Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. The Lord is on my side; I WILL NOT FEAR. What can man do to me?”

Psalm 94:18-19 ESV- “When I thought, “my foot slips,” your steadfast love, O Lord, HELD ME UP. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.

Have a blessed day!

with love,

Caroline 

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Heart to Heart: Mountain Top Experience

Every summer I have the privilege of going to a week long camp with my youth group. I look forward to that time of fellowship with my closest friends but also focusing on God’s Word 24/7. At the end of summer camp the pastor always seems to have the same message- "don’t lose this mountain top experience. Don’t go home and fall back into the patterns that you had before camp. Start having a quiet time with God every day, don’t hang out with your friends who might not be the greatest influence on your life, and get involved with the youth group".  If you have been to a summer camp I am sure you have heard a message close to this one and have felt a tug on your heart to come home and focus more on God.  First off, that’s so exciting, I am glad that your passion for God is becoming stronger and I know that He is excited too! I want to encourage you not to slip into your old habits. Don’t lose hope when you tell your friends about your amazing experience and they don’t share the same enthusiasm as you or when you are exhausted and want to sleep in instead of waking up to do your quiet time.  Keep going steady because in the end, spending time with your Creator and worshiping him with your all is far better than anything else on this Earth!

 Some actions that I would suggest you take to help make this transition easier is to reserve a special time for your quiet time, find an accountability partner, and make sure you are plugged into your youth group.  I have always found that having my quiet time first thing in the morning is the best for me. There is no better way to start you day off than with reading the Bible. If you aren’t sure where to start reading in the Bible start in the New Testament; Mathew, Mark, Luke or John are all great books to begin with!  Another step to take is to find an accountability partner. Your accountability partner needs to be someone who you trust to always be 100% honest with you, someone who isn’t afraid to hurt your feelings by telling you when you are steering off the path.  The last thing I would recommend is to find opportunities to be plugged into your youth group. If that means that your goal is to actually start going to youth group that’s great! Being able to have mid-week encouragement from fellow Christians is always great for me.  When I have a bad start to the week I look forward to Wednesdays because I know that when I get to youth group I will be surrounded by people I love and who love the Lord! If you do not currently have a youth group I recommend going out and finding one.  Try asking some of your Christian friends what youth group they attend, I’m sure they would be happy to take you along!  

Having mountain top experiences is the easy part; it’s the coming down back to base camp that’s the hardest. Hopefully this advice will make the journey less rough and you will be able to keep God at the center of whatever stage of the mountain you are on!

2 Thessalonians 3:13 ESV- "As for you, brothers,do not grow weary in doing good." 

Galatians 6:9 ESV- "And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up"

Romans 12:12 ESV-"Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer."

Love,                                               

Caroline 

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Such a Time as This

This month the girls of my youth group decided to start a Bible study about Esther. When we all came to an agreement to study the book of Esther I was so excited. Esther is one of my favorite role models out of the Bible and I was ready to start digging deeper with some of my closest friends. One reason I love the story of Esther is the story of God’s perfect timing. When Esther and all the other virgins in the kingdom were ordered to the king their chances of being chosen were very slim. Actually there were only a few aristocratic families that were usually chosen from. The fact that the king noticed Esther and wanted to make her queen right away was already amazing, but I love that God made all this happen because he knew that there would need to be someone with power to save his people, the Jews. My favorite verse out of Esther is 4:13-14 “he sent back this answer: Do you think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this.” It always reminds me that God has a purpose for everything he does in your life and even if you feel like you are stuck in a rut or feel insignificant remember, God never leaves you! If you have never read the entire story of Esther I encourage you to open up the Old Testament and take some time to dive in and really focus on the story and maybe share your findings with other people. I would love to hear about your findings and how your group discussions go as well. Also if you have any questions about Esther or how to start a bible study I can certainly try my hardest to answer them! Happy Reading!

With Love,
Caroline 

Heart to Heart: Trust Issues

Do you ever have trouble trusting someone? I know that I do, and do you want to know a secret? Sometimes I even have trouble trusting God, the creator who has my best intentions at heart. I was scrolling through Pinterest the other day and I saw this picture of several verses that told me why I should always trust God. 

This picture really helped me put into perspective how many times God says in the bible why we should trust him. Let’s face it, He knows us better than we know ourselves! I would encourage you to look up every one of these verses and then copy this picture down on a piece of paper and hang it up somewhere that you pass often. The bathroom, right by your bed or even on the refrigerator, I bet you are not the only one who could use this reminder! Just like anything, trusting someone especially someone who you can’t see or even comprehend is hard, but can you remember a time when you did trust God and everything turned out even greater than you thought it could? Even though you might not be in a situation that you had in mind, God knows what he is doing and as Paul says in Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to this purpose. Isn’t that an amazing promise that we can hold onto! 

with love,
Caroline 

Heart to Heart: Philippians 4:8

One of my favorite verses that I try to keep close is Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, 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 one of my favorites because it is encouraging but convicting at the same time. In this verse Paul is encouraging us to think about God’s word and praiseworthy thoughts, but at the same time he is saying that we might not always have lovely thoughts and we should try to get back on track. I personally know this has happened to me several times, and I try to come back to this verse when it happens. Before you say something you may think is questionable ask yourself, “is this thought true, is this thought noble, is it right,” and so on. If you say no to any of the questions, try to steer away from the thought by saying a prayer or reading and reciting some scripture. Keeping on this path can be challenging at times, just remember that we are not perfect and we all fall sometimes. It’s ok if you feel frustrated at times; it’s all part of our walk with God! 
with love,
Caroline