LIfe is good, eternal life is better! :D

Hey everyone! God has been teaching me soooo much lately! I have been learning about being truly set-apart for God, and really having joy in my Christian walk! I have been reading the book "Set-Apart Femininity" By Leslie Ludy, and it is an AWESOME book! All of the books by Eric and/or Leslie Ludy are really good! Something I have learned is that we often spend way too much time feeling depressed that our relationship with God doesn't seem close and vibrant and personal, and too little time actually SEEKING him and striving to become closer to him. In Sunday School we have been talking about holiness, and it is SOO good! The only way for us to become holy is to be daily in God's word. Doing a a short little morning "devo" every day doesn't cut it, either. We really have to seek Him, and let Him search our hearts, and ask Him for His wisdom. We really need to be living out His word, too. It doesn't matter how much we read it and think about it and memorize it if we don't obey it! So I have been really striving toward holiness and joy in my walk with Christ.

I also have found that I love hymns!! A lot of songs these days basically say "Life stinks, everything is hard, you're all alone..... but God is good so don't give up." If you ask me, that's a pretty depressing outlook on life! Yes, life is hard. Yes, the world will be full of heartache and disappointment. But that can't be our focus. We need to let nothing get in the way of our joy. If we are walking with Christ, there will be joy. Even when Paul the Apostle was imprisoned and hated by many people he was full of joy! The more I seek God, the more joy He brings. I have really been seeking Him a lot lately, and let me tell you, it is so worth it! :)

Now to write about the events of the past week... my brothers came home from Lamoka on Saturday for GOOD! They have been at Lamoka most of the summer and now the camp year is over. I'm really happy to have them back. Saturday was also my dad's 47th birthday! I baked him a German Chocolate cake with coconut-walnut frosting, which is tradition in out house. He loooves that kind of cake and frosting, so we always make it for his birthday. That evening was our church's annual Sunday School picnic, so we went to that for a few hours and it was fun. This Saturday is a youth event called the Gathering, and I am SO excited! That's about all I have to say now. Thanks for reading, fellow bloggers! :)