Burdens

This week went by really fast!!!! I didn’t have time to blog yesterday because I totally forgot about a project and a report due today. I finished, but it was like 2 A.M. and I didn’t take a nap so I was super duper tired. I went to this play today for extra credit and I was suppose to go with a small group of friends. But it turned out to be just me and my friend, Bhumi. Awwkkarrddd. Just kidding, it wasn’t. We still had fun.(:

After I posted my last post about Transparency, I went and opened my Bible. I just finished the Book of Numbers and I started reading Deuteronomy. The last post about how I should be transparent to my worship team; People who I can trust and rely on, so that they can pray for me and keep me accountable. Help me grow. I was reading Deuteronomy and it talked about the appointment of leaders. I don’t remember who, but I think it was Moses talking. And basically, there was too much burden for one man to carry so he appointed some leaders he trust to help him out. Help him carry the burdens. It helped me think about how he has placed all these specific people in my life. All these Brothers and Sisters. And yet, I still keep the burdens on my shoulders.

“Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

                                                ~Galations 6:2

I have the whole youth group. A group of youth. 

Young. Innocent. Weak.

I want to help lead these people to Christ. Show them the way. Be an example. Disciple. Teach.

Because the sponsors can’t do this all by themselves.

Anyways, I don’t have much too talk about.
Life’s been great. But when it starts getting better and better, we tend to forget God. We tend to start relying on our own. Ourselves. Thinking we don’t need God when we really do.

We start growing into this world when we should be growing out of this world.

So I guess, as a prayer request, that’d I won’t fall into this world just because my life is going fine. That I won’t forget God because I get so caught up into the pleasures of this world. Because this world can’t bring the ultimate joy. You can’t find eternal life through this world but through Jesus Christ, His Son.

^“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.”

                ~Philippians 4:8

:))

Transparency

What I think is that you can't always tell everyone everything. You can't always be transparent. There's some things you gotta keep to yourself and some things that aren't meant to be said. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm right.

My mentor wants to talk to me, about what happened before the Retreat, since he wasn't at the Retreat or was he there during practice. He's basically a mentor for our worship team too. But, the worship team talked to him about what happened during that Thursday night practice (I wrote about it awhile back) and I guess they were kinda forced to tell him everything since "its a sin to keep stuff away from Z" or something like that because if you know something is wrong and you don't do anything it's a sin. I mean, Z, he's a big guy. He's intimidating and people are scared of him when it comes to something serious. I called one of the worship leaders and asked what they talked about and stuff so I can get a feel around of what he's going to talk to me about on Friday.
Honestly. I'm scared. Yeah, he's my discipler and I'm suppose to trust him and tell him everything in my life. But I guess I only put an extended amount of trust between him and I.
I don't like to talk about things from the past. Once it's over. It's over. But since he wants to talk about it, I can't do anything about it. I'm not saying I don't trust Z, I do. He's always there to love me, there to show me the right direction, but I guess I'm scared to take that path.
 I had a lot more on my mind last night but I forgot. "Forgive and Forget". That's one of the motto's I live by.
I'm actually glad, the disunity we had that night, because it BONDED us closer over the weekend. Anyways, "transparency to your group". That's what the thing is. If we can't be transparent to our team, then we aren't unified. We have to know each other. Our problems. What we're struggling with. So that can pray for each other and keep each other accountable.

I guess that makes more sense now. I'm usually a independent person. I like to do things secluded from the group. I like to keep up at my pace. But I guess you can't do everything by yourself.

But trusting people is so hard for me. So many times people never keep their word. So many times I've been betrayed. So I guess for me, I'm more caution than others about telling them stuff.

I'm awake, early in the morning to study for my APUSH test that's today. And, it talked about what happened after the American Revolution. How, states didn't trust each other, how they were scared that the new government was trying to abuse their power, like Britain did before. But in reality, they weren't. The states, the Americans, were just scared the same thing would happen again.
So I guess, thinking about it.
Trust.
It's scary to do something again when you already experienced it and things went wrong. You feel like it's going to happen again. But just like America, in the end, became a great nation. Our worship team can be a great team, once I overcome the ability to actually start trusting people.

One thing that surprised me though, was the fact that Hester was telling me how much people actually look up to me. That people are watching me, looking up to me. I never realized that. I never realized people would actually look up to me. People still talk about me, about how I can lead worship from the heart all the way to what I did wrong. I never knew that.
Or for the most part, it's the girls that talk about these things.
She told me things I guess I'm not suppose to know. But, I'm not going to get mad at them. People are people.

Anyways, transparency is something I, myself, have to learn. Adapt.
Become a Body of One.

 "For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
                                                                        ~Romans 12:4-5

This is me. I am a leader of our Youth. I am a role-model to the kids. An example to every Christian out there. A man whose faith is still growing.
What if I can't lead these people right? What if I fail?

It's scary. I may not be the best, the perfect. But I guess, one verse, shown by my best friend, helped me. Helped me through all the troubles and denials I give myself.

^"9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”


                        ~Joshua 1:9

Prayer is Key

Man, it’s unbelievable how much we need God throughout our day. It’s almost 1 A.M. right now and I’ve been working on my projects/homework/studies since 7 P.M. My eyes are tired, my mind is exhausted, and I’m all dried up. I have so much to do, so much work, I don’t know what to do.

Pray.

That sounds nice.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

                                                ~Matthew 11:28

Today, this morning, I woke up 30 minutes later than usual, so I had 30 minutes less with God. I’m so tired nowadays, I don’t know why. This morning I read Numbers 35 and it just talked about Cities of Refuge and stuff. I’m running short of prayer request so for you guys, if you have anything, anything I could pray about/for, it’ll be tight.

During lunch today, I talked to one of my friends about what’s going on in our Christian life. He went to our church when he was little but moved to another one later in our childhood. He said something about how he’s not really focused during worship at his church and he kinda just stopped doing devos.

That “Spiritual High” you get after camp usually doesn’t last that long and he wished that he had that feeling during his daily life. I mean, he comes to our youth sometimes, and he wishes to join our church again but his parents say that our church isn’t healthy for him or something like that.

I can see in him that he longs to find that comfort and quietness that God provides but doesn’t know how. I didn’t say much during the conversation but we still kept on talking about it until lunch ended.

One of the things I’m struggling with right now, is pride. Pride with this blog. I usually, actually never, write a diary or something about myself. And when I read the previous posts I put up, it doesn’t even sound like me. It seems like it’s a totally different person. I can’t write. That’s the truth. I can’t put thoughts into words, which explains why I can’t explain things. But when I write on this blog, I feel so free, just writing down every thought, every emotions I feel during that day; rather than storing it up inside of me. And when I reread all these posts, I feel so prideful, so arrogant, that I, Josh, actually put thought into words.

It’s pride that crumbles and demolishes you from the inside out.

I pray every morning to ask God to humble me. To take away all these malicious sins away from me.

That HE, our DEFENDER and PROVIDER, would REIGN IN US.

“Reign In Us” is actually a song written by Starfield.

One of my friend came up to me after worship on Saturday and said

“Dude, the bridge, is so powerful.”

And it is. It is a compelling and mighty part. All of it is.

The bridge goes like this-

So, reign please reign in us

Come purify our hearts, we need Your touch

Come cleanse us like a flood and send us out

So the world may know You reign you reign in us

Letting God reign in us, letting him rule our lives, is a tough thing to do. But we also have to remember this:

“you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body”

                        ~1 Corinthians 6:20

I know how I said that I’m going to be tired and weary throughout this week, but I never expected it to come to me this fast. It’s only Monday and I’m doing poorly in school and I have so much to do.

^“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

                                       ~Phillippians 4:6

When I’m stuck and I don’t know what to do or I’m all burned out. I go to God and remember that He Reigns and He is always there.

Delight in God's Grace

Left: Speaker's Wife
Middle: Our speaker during the retreat, Mike.
Right: Our youth pastor: Kevin

I'm back home, back to reality. I took a 5-hour power nap so I can finish my homework by tonight.

I always keep thinking about the retreat, it was such an amazing experience. I thought I would do the same thing as the last retreat where I would play paintball, basketball and chill with my friends. But instead of growing closer to the fun and entertainment this world has to offer, I grew closer to God.

I know that this world cannot provide the joy and happiness God has to give, yet I still ignore it. I’m too scared that giving up my time, my life to God will not give me what I desire.

It’s like there’s two doorways infront of you:

One that says on top “World” and the other that says “Believer”

When you look into the doorway of the “World”, you see these fun, these short-lived desires that would keep you entertained for only a specified amount of time. But when you look into the doorway of “Believer”, you don’t see much. You see a doorway which leads to the unknown. You’re too scared to go through it thinking that once you go through, you’ll be abandoned. But that’s not true. God has a plan for each and every one of us.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." -Jeremiah 29:11

That’s probably the worst analogy ever. It just popped up in my head. So, please, don’t criticize. ):

I have quite a lot of homework this week, and it’s the last week of the six weeks, so I have to work hard to keep up my grades for one more week. I know I’m going to be tired, exhausted and become to lazy to have my quiet times with God in the mornings. But I know that without my time with God, I become weak and the devil can come and easily over-conquer me. So I guess this week, the main verse I need to rely on is-

”Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

                                    ~Proverbs 3:5-6

Because we get so caught to this world, we forget to be still and know that YOU are GOD. So for all of you guys reading this, keep on striving for God and never forget what HIS SON DID FOR YOU. AND ME. AND ALL OF US!!! 

The CRAZY college group. (:

(:

It's the last morning for the retreat and I'm pretty sad about it. I mean, I gotten so close to my worship members, or that's I what I think. It kinda sucks knowing that we all have to go back to the world, go back to reality and it's troubles.
Mike Baker. That's our speaker. His messages may seem unrelated, not even close to God's Word in the beginning, maybe the middle, but in the end, he connects all the points. And it makes total sense. It's fun to see the different ways other people teach and learning from them could be a thing to do.


So our team has to lead worship one last time for the colleges and youth in like an hour and a half. 1 hour 21 minutes precisely (: 
It's really sad, knowing I won't be able to lead with my other worship leaders until the next event. We make a really great team, I think it's because we know each other. Hester and Hilarie has these AMAZING voices and when they sing and harmonize together, it's simply amazing. Josh knows how to keep the beat because obviously I cannot count or have a steady beat. Tiffany's always silent and she never says anything when we practice. But she's important to our group. All of them are. So I thank God for putting them into my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


My life's getting better each second but I'm scared all this fantasy, this world of peace, will be crushed once I get back. ):
But I know I still have my God, My King. He shall forever reign in me forever and ever.




"Shout to the LORD, all the earth; break out in praise and sing for joy!"
                                    ~Psalm 98:4


Stand up and never lose your voice for Christ. Never back down. Because Jesus Christ, His Son, died for us.

God's Amazing Grace

It's Saturday and I'm at the retreat. It's been...how would you say, amazing.

It's only the morning and God already worked and shown his Mercy & Grace.

We didn't even practice the songs this morning one time through. But by HIS mercy, he let the holy spirit inside us, weak and humbled,  to lead 40+ of the college and youth to worship.

It's funny, the songs, we choose. We didn't know what to expect, we didn't know what the message was about, or anything at all. But the songs, all of them, had a meaning to the message, to the place where we are at right now.

Before that, last night, when we arrived at this place, the team, most of them, wanted to talk to me about last night (on the last blog) about what happened and what should be done. After we prayed and had a small talk, in the end, I asked if they would forgive me. I mean, I guess people wouldn't expect me, a guy who jokes around all the time, to actually ask in person or a group, to ask for forgiveness. And they all started laughing. I was like, *sigh*, but they weren't mocking me, but saying the irony. That they had a deal, the 3 girls. Basically, they said: "If we can't become a group in unity, how are we going to lead these people to worship? We can't lead unless we are in unity." something like that...

So they said to each other that if I asked for forgiveness, they would go back and lead. Not thinking I would ask, I did.

My grammar right now is probably really bad right now but I don't care, its not what I'm thinking about right, I'm thinking about how amazing God is. How Glorious.

We all started cheering about how well we did for worship. But it hit me, what about God. GOD. We should be praising God.

For it says...

Therefore, as the Scriptures say, "If you want to boast, boast only about the LORD."

-1 Corinthians 1:31

We still have to lead tonight, and tomorrow morning. So I'm all HYPE up.

Missions Trip (:

Keep on Going, Never Stop Trying.

The past two weeks, it's been awesome. But once you reach to the top the only direction you can go is down.
The past days have a downfall. I've been falling away from God. Falling hard.
I feel like I've been tangled from the vines of Satan, and it's hard to free myself. There's always ups and downs in our lives but the important is that we continue to fight and serve our Lord.
So I guess I'm leaving for the ACC retreat soon and I hope God has something for me during this weekend. I know it's only like a day and a half but when God has something planned for us, it get's done.


Yesterday night, we (the worship team) were kind of practicing worship for the ACC retreat but in my all honest opinion, it was more a hang-out. I thought we got nothing done. There was no desire to worship and practice, only the desire to socialize. I guess we're all good friends and stuff but I didn't have the guts to tell them that we needed to practice.
So basically we have 2 leaders, me and this girl. But she didn't have a holiday like most of us so she had a Physic's test the next day (which was today). and while we were practicing, she was just doing her homework, on the computer, etc. I got kinda mad. She didn't pay attention to what went wrong or what verse was next or whatever the thing was during that time. I mean, I know she has a test tomorrow and she needed to study, but when we spend time with God or when we worship Him, even in our practice, we need to lay aside everything that goes around in this world.
I know I shouldn't be talking, I'm not perfect. No one is. But last night was terrible. 
I know, from my heart, that we are not prepared, spiritually and mentally. 


We're relying on ourselves and we don't even know it. We're caught up on who's leading what and what's a good song to sing, we don't have a clue that LEADING WORSHIP ISN"T ABOUT PLAYING THE BEST SONGS, OR THE GREAT SONGS.


It's about leading ALL these people out there in the crowd to Christ. It's an "Audience of One", not an "Audience of Many". It's all about Him and we're only leading to lead these people to Christ, not us, the worship team.


I'm scared, about worship this weekend, seriously.  If we don't have the Holy Spirit in us, then how can we lead these people into the heart of worship?


We basically just went there, chilled, ate, talked, and that's it. There was no time of worship.
Someone called and one of them looked at it and gave a really big assumption and I told her not say anything about it but she already gave the hint about it to the entire team. I ignored it but, I guess me not having trust, distracted me and I told the whole team I couldn't think. So I said to take a break and I just talked to my accountability partner. It wasn't nothing biggie. I guess me trusting people isn't my thing.
I know her, the leader, I know she's awesome. I can trust her. I can rely on her. And I know she has a passion for Christ. But there are some things I'd like to keep to myself.


Look, I'm not saying our worship team is a complete trash. But that night, yesterday night, we weren't focused.





Our team is actually a good team. 
Hilarie, our singer, is a great encourager. She can always cheer you up and she never lets you down. She knows when to be serious and she has grown spiritually like crazy. Hester, one of our team leader, has the PASSION, to learn, to seek God. She wants to go ALL out for Him, spread the Gospel around, do this, do that. She's a trusting and honest person. Josh, guitarist, is my accountability partner and he also has the passion to learn. He may be quiet and all but I know he has the heart to learn. Tiffany, our drummer, she's new to our team and even though she's learning to drum, she's also learning more about God. I do have great hope that God has something planned for her. For ALL of us. Me, the other leader, I'm not much a leader, I'm falling away, and I try not too. I try to be the best. But I can't. My discipler is teaching me how to become a leader, doing those 7 steps I wrote down on this blog. It's hard. Giving up are entire life for Him.
We all decided to that we were going into seminary school and gonna live our our life for God. And I know we have a lot to learn. So I hope this year, this school year, that we WILL have the hearts to learn more about Christ.
I love my team, I truly do and I would never trade them off and I they feel the same for me.


I have to go and leave for the retreat but I'll bring my laptop to write more during this weekend.


Just remember that, if you fall, always get back up and KEEP ON GOING. Don't fall astray and go back to the same dirty hole you've been living in. If you keep on seeking God with a pure heart, you will find Him, trust me.


For it says
"But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul." Deuteronomy 4:29

Early Morning

I didn't write yesterday, even though should have, because I was SINCERELY tired. I didn't come home till 8pm and I didn't take a nap in the afternoon. Other than the one nap in AP Chem but the teacher, Mrs. Young, sprayed me with water before I could even go deep into my sleep.

So I went home, ate dinner and slept at 9pm. Pretty early huh? Well, I'm awake right now and it's 4:15 and i want to do my homework so I won't have any during the ACC retreat this weekend and...it's not working out so well. Haha...

PDA.
Prayer. Devotions. Accountability.

3 simple things that can help you during your spiritual walk with God.

I guess for me, accountability with one another isn't a thing for me. I usually like keeping my thoughts, my emotions inside of me, rather than ranting about it or something with a friend. But usually once in a while, I'll have too much things on my mind, too much to bear, people can tell that something is going on and they keep asking me "What's wrong?" It gets pretty annoying, no offense, even though they do it cause they care for me.
I guess it's a good thing that do care for me plus

"If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." 
                   ~ 1 Corinthians 12:26


I have this one friend. A great friend. Who I never actually started to spend time with until this summer. I guess he seeks for a friend who's mature and stuff but he never really found it. I've been his friend since forever but never actually gotten close to him till this year. I guess it's a good thing, we've really gotten to known each other. Anyways, accountability is an important thing to have, you can't just contain all the emotions and problems inside of you. You'll EXPLODE!!!!!!

Yeah, so that's what I thought about this morning.
Don't leave a someone behind!

Worries

Ok, so it's like 1:31 A.M.
And I have a test tomorrow so I'm writing very little.

Let's see...
I've been practicing worship for our Church Retreat that's coming this Friday and it's pretty tedious. I mean, we have to learn 20 songs and stuff and we were notified on Sunday. So it gives us (the team) a week to prepare, but if you think about it, it's not really a week since we have school, test, homework and all these other things.


we usually have a week to prepare for worship for Friday night youth but that's only 4-5 songs.
leading worship can be very stressful. VERY. One of the main things that happens to most leaders is getting caught up with the music, chords, how it should be played and all these stuff, we forget the very important thing, which is preparing our heart, mind, and soul for worship and that worship comes from the heart.
One of my friends once said something years ago and it he said

"Don't pray with your mind and mouth, Josh. Pray with with your heart and soul."

I guess I learn alot from people's experiences and stuff since I tend to tell you guys about what other people said. I've been praying and preparing for this weekend and I'm pretty excited, ready to learn about what God has for me, for our youth. (:
Yeah, I guess all those worries have been on my mind this entire week.

But I also remember this verse.

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
                                          ~~Matthew 6:34

Opportunity

So today, I got a chance to share about God's Word in school but it ended up into a small failure. 

So basically, I have this small white cloth around my ankle, which serves as a reminder that Jesus Christ died and washed away our sins. (We got this thing in some altar call at a mission trip, so we all put it around our backpacks, wrist, ankles). It was in the locker room after working out and some skinny small dude comes up to me and asked what the is the point of having a small cloth around my ankle, or what did it mean. So I explained it to him, trying to make it simple so he could understand, but he just sat there quietly. He has heard of the story of Jesus Christ coming to save us from our sins but he didn't really believe, or understood the concept of it. He told me he didn't go to church and he's not a christian. I sat there, trying to think of something, something to say

"Hey, we have a youth thing every friday night..."

"You wanna know more about Him?...."

ALL these things to say. BUT, I just sat there, quietly while he was just changing back to his school clothes. I guess honestly I was super DUPER scared but I mean, I had told people about Christ, just not by myself. Before I could think, before I could say anything the bell rings and we all just left.

I got so mad at myself...thinking..."I just lost the opportunity to share God's Word with something. An opportunity that could've changed him. Save Him."

I guess I have another chance, but who knows when you know?

My discipler told me once:

If you just make a fool out of yourself for just a few seconds, you can have the chance of letting them spend eternity with Christ forever....

or something like that.

¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

~Matthew 28:18-20

Way of the Shephard

7 Steps I've been mentored to learn, teach and apply in my life~

Step1: Know Your Sheep

Step2: Know Their S.H.A.P.E.

    [S]trength

    [H]heart

    [A]ttitude

    [P]ersonality

    [E]xperiences

Step3:Identify the sheep~

    -Know their integrity, character, high standard, compassion, and always produce trust.

Step4: Provide a safe environment for them

    -Make them know that they are important

    -No rivalry

    -Be personal to them

    -Make sure there isn't any pest 

    -Showing up ALWAYS helps

Step5:The staff of guidance and direction

    1)Represent your duties

    2)Establish boundaries

    3)Rescue your sheep

    4)Encourage and Comfort

Step6: Rod of correction

    1)Protect

    2)Correct

    3)Inspect

We have 2 things that help us: 

    a) Advantage point - we can see the dangers ahead

    b)Disciplis-pupil

Step7:Heart of the shephard

1) There's a high cost in this and it's YOU.

2)You should live this daily as a lifestyle

3)And always remember that the sheep only responds to the shephard

I know this won't apply to most of you guys out there reading this, but if you are a worship leader, a person who leads a small bible group, anything that involves a small group- just learn to apply these things to your life. (:

The Start of Writing

It's Sunday night. There's a storm raging outside of my house and my dad just left for work that's out of town. This is my first public post and it's going to be short. Not because I'm lazy right now, but because I'm trying to study for my AP Chemistry test that's tomorrow!!!! I can't concentrate so I guess I'll just write a little about me and what's going on this week.


I'm a junior in high school and I have at least 4-5 test tomorrow and the day after that. I haven't prepared at ALL for them...I have to help out with worship during the weekend for a retreat for our church. I'm PRETTY excited. (:
I really didn't do anything this past week...
Oh Last friday I asked a girl to homecoming and it was a major FAIL. but the good thing she still said yes. of course she'll say yes. its me.


Anyways,


This blog I have isn't  going to be about my life, my school life. But instead, it's going to be about my spiritual life, what I'm struggling with, and my walk with Christ. I don't know if I'll blog again till later this week but I'll try.


I still don't know how to use this blog thing and it took me literally 5 minutes to find this Posting thing. I guess I'll study AP Chem now, and I guess wish me luck!


Oh by the way, this morning in English service, I was really convicted by the message.
Basically, this summer really changed my life, missions trip, DCCYC, and being discipled by one of my youth mentors.I want to become a missionary. But it's hard you know? Giving up your entire life for one mission. but I know that mission is worth my life. It's selfish for us to keep God's Word with us when we could share it with the whole wide world so we ALL can live eternally with our creator.


Ever since I was in 9th Grade, I realized God's going to use me somehow and somewhere, but I never knew when. That all changed this year and I know God's going to do something amazing this year. Not just with me, but with our youth group.
So anyways, I basically got so caught up with school- homework, test, friends,  and all these worldly things, I got carried away from what God is trying to do in my life. Missions.


So during the message, he spoke out a point "that really hit me and reminded me of a verse"


"Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed" 
- Psalm 82:3


He talked about each and every one of us having a gift given by God. And that we should use that gift to do good things in the kingdom of God. But the thing is, we want to choose our gifts instead.

Here's the story he gave:

He and his wife took a long time thinking about what to give as a gift for a birthday present for one of their friends. And after a long and whole-heartily time wrapping that gift, they went to the party and gave him the gift. While he opens the presents, he opened their gift and when he saw it he said "Oh I already have that" and he tosses it to the side and looks at the others to see if he got what he wanted.

We shouldn't being throwing away the gifts God has given each and every one of us. It offends God, saying his gift to us isn't enough. Use that gift, whatever it is, listening, singing, persuading, socializing, anything.

I know one of the many gifts He has given me is the gift of listening. I may not be able to explain things, or sing well for worship but whenever people are in need of help, I can always listen and never judge.

So I guess this is my first blogging and I'm gonna end it with this:

Just remember that God, Our Savior, Our Defender, and Our Father is true and as real as can ever be. He shall reign in us forever and ever if you let him. Amen.