Conquered Fears

"Do not fear for I am with you.  Do not be afraid for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you.  I will uphold you with my victorious right hand." - Isaiah 41:10

Today I conquered a fear and it felt great.  It's amazing how fears can grip us and hold us captive.  That's why I love this verse so much...God tells us not to fear because He's there with us and for us! 

We all have fears in this life...spiders, clowns, public speaking, heights, facing those who've hurt us, and the list goes on.  They make us nervous, fill us with dread and anxiety, and consume our mind constantly.  What we have to remember is we can't let those fears hold us down.  It's important to remember when we are going through those difficult fears that God is ever-present and there to carry us through.  Before facing my fear today, I prayed that God would give me strength as I overcame it.  He was there with me through it and I had a peace that passed my mere understanding...it was definitely a God-thing!

Do you have a fear that is gripping you?  Give it to God.  Ask Him to help you conquer it.  Believe me...when you do, you'll be so glad you let go & let God.

Incidently, this is my little sister, Lauren's, favorite verse in the Bible.  She is always quoting it to my family and/or to friends whenever they feel afraid or worried about something.  Thank you "L" for your constant reminder of this verse...it's definitely a good one!

Feeling a Change Coming On?

Isaiah 43:18-19 (The Message):
Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new.
It's bursting out! Don't you see it?

Change.  Some like it, some don't.

As you can see, I've changed the look of this blog.  I really like it.  I think it fits my personality!  I hope you like it too.  To me this is a good change.


But sometimes things change and we don't necessarily like it.  We'd rather go back to what we've been accustomed to, what worked, what was convenient.  I understand that, I've felt that way many times too.  Like the time we moved back from Hong Kong.  At the time that was the hardest change I'd ever gone through.  I loved that city...it had become home.  My best friends were there, the church I was able to first serve in was there, my life was just beginning to revolve around this incredible city.  But because it was only a 2 year term, we had to leave and come back to the US.  I had to interact with a culture that I had not interacted with for 2 years...and for a preteen, a lot happens in those 2 years!  At the time, I did not like that change and I spent a lot of crying hours during those few months after we got back.


Sometimes change is scary.  We don't know what to expect, how to react, or what to think about it.  We let this change produce fear that grips us to the point of seemingly insanity.  I get that too...another emotion I've felt in my life.  The story I mentioned above includes feeling this emotion too.  I was so scared of making new friends and fitting in that I let that fear grip me to extreme sadness. 


It wasn't until I stopped thinking about what I had lost and began focusing on what I had that I realized how God was working in my life.  For instance, during that time, I was able to serve more in church...a passion that has continued even until this day.


This verse from Isaiah says to forget about what's happened...it's old news.  It encourages us to be alert -- not fearful or focusing on what will happen. We need to live in the here and now.  He's going to do something completely different in our lives, that we can be sure of.  I think another verse that complements this Isaiah verse is Jeremiah 29:11.

Jeremiah 29:11 (The Message):
I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

Change will come, whether we like it or not, God tells us that.  However, God also tells us that He has great plans for us that will prosper us and give us a hope and a future.


So...next time you feel the winds of change blowing around/on you, don't fear and don't think about the past, but embrace the present and consider what God is doing in your life NOW that will in turn affect your future.  God's gonna do great things in your life..that I know.

Blessed Messages

Have you ever received messages that just blessed your heart?  Oh, boy, I sure have!  I'm the first to admit...I will e-mail faster than I can write...simply because I type much faster than I write; but, there's just nothing like a hand-written message to make your heart warm and bring a smile to your face.

I have soooooo many precious letters, but some that are special to me that I've received recently are:

1. My "The Christmas Angel" letter...a hand-written, personalized-for-the-year letter that I've received each Christmas from "The Angels" **wink, wink**

2. Graduation congratulations and well-wishes from some life-long friends

3. Precious letters from my student teaching students:
5th Grade Girl: "...You were always a Great Student Teacher.  You helped our class get closer and get along better. Your future students will love you as much as I do..."  How sweet is that?!?!?!

5th Grade Boy:  "We all miss you, but I do the most.  I'm sorry I didn't mind sometimes but I miss you."  Ok...collectively...awwwww :)

And for the funny one...
2nd Grade Girl: "...and Mis Yung is a grat teecher.  Where did you fine (find) her at?  I like her.  She helps us read and do are math.  She is a grat teacher."  Yeah...pretty funny :)

You know...I've been reading a lot this week (for my seminary classes) about God's Word.  In essence, the whole Bible is a book of hand-written messages that are here to bless & speak our hearts.  God could've definitely sent a computer-typed message from Himself down to Earth, but he spoke His Word, His messages through the hand-written words of some inspired individuals.

We all know that when someone takes the time to write us a message, it means that they really value us and we are special to them.  That's what God's done for us.  He took the time to send us hand-written messages for times when we would need them: in grief, in joy, for encouragement, for love, for troubles...any event or feeling that happens in our lives...there are hand-written messages there just for US!  Because He values us!  Because He loves us!  Because WE are SPECIAL to HIM!

So...my encouragement to myself...and to you...this week is to:
1) Delve into those "hand-written" messages that God has given to you for whatever event/feeling is going on in your life.  Use a concordance if you want to find some specific "messages" that pertain to what's going on in your life.  (If you don't have one...BibleGateway.com)

2) Write a hand-written message to someone that needs some encouragement, or someone you haven't talked to in a while, or someone you love and just let them know how much they mean to you and how special they are to you.

Hope you have a great weekend! :)  I will...with my nose stuck in my theology book! :)

So much for blogging in January!

So it's been a while since I last posted...sorry!  I've been super busy (like I'm ever not busy..lol) :)

I got a part-time job at my church as the graphics person (basically everything I did volunteer work plus the newsletter and bulletin).  It's been great so far.  I kind of like being back in the designing groove!  This job has kept me busy, though, because I'm doing full-time work on a part-time time schedule which is a bit interesting to maneuver!  I'm grateful, though, to be building up funds for the work time I lost last semester.

Online Grad School started about 3 weeks ago.  Shoo-wee...it's been C-R-A-Z-Y!  I was really shocked at the amount of reading at first, but my dad reminded me "It is a graduate program"..oh yeah...I forgot.  I am currently in New Testament Intro & Systematic Theology.  I have been learning a lot.  I especially like New Testament.  I've been able to connect a lot of stuff that I'm hearing my pastor preach about with the things I am reading which has been really cool.  Systematic theology, on the other hand, has been not the easiest thing I've ever learned :)  A lot of this info kind of...well...flies over the top of my head.  I have to re-read a lot of this material in order to understand a good bit of it.  BUT, I am learning a lot in this class too.  I have 2 big projects in both classes and I've already hit my pastor's library in search of some good resource material.  Thank goodness for a seminary graduate dad and church full of ministers who have been to seminary too!  I really don't know what I'd do without them!!

Other than those two biggies...since the beginning of the year I've been catering here and there and visiting my precious student teaching students.

Life's been insane, but I'm loving every minute of it and can't wait to see what God's got coming up in my life!

Hopefully I'll do better at blogging in February than I did in January!