Recital Reflections

Okay, I think it's time for a normal life post (not that my life is normal... haha). Last Thursday night was a very momentous, fun, and exciting event: my last piano recital. I have taken piano lessons for nine years from an amazing, godly woman in our church, and the Lord has opened up to me an entire new world through music. It's like learning to read: once your know the basics, you can find out anything you want to know through endless books and resources. In the same way, once you know how to read music, you can play anything, and it is so thrilling!

There were thirty students in the recital, and I got to play three times. Once was a solo piece, Fantasie Impromptu by Chopin. I have always dreamed of being able to play it, but didn't imagine I'd be able to play it so soon. In September, when I started learning it, I wanted to give up and play something easier. But Mrs. Briggs gently pushed me on, and sure enough, through many excruciating hours of practice, I learned it!

I also played a duet of Yankee Doodle with my sweet student, Kameran. This is her first year, and I was so proud to see her playing so perfectly in front of so many people!

And, I played a duet with Mrs. Briggs that was a combination of Shout to the Lord, Lord I Lift Your Name on High, and Great is the Lord. It was so glorious to magnify the Lord with music together!

After the recital, we had a celebration at my house with some friends and family. We had a campfire, sang along to the guitar (not me playing... I fail at that! lol), and walked out in the woods in the pitch black of night! I couldn't get any pictures because it was so dark, but it was so much fun. I didn't want it to end! And, my parents blessed me with a dozen beautiful red roses as well.

 I am so thankful for the years of lessons and eighteen recitals to remember over the course of them. And I will NEVER stop learning when it comes to piano!

A Tag from Katy :)

My wonderful friend Katy (Who I miss a LOT, by the way) tagged me in this! So, here goes. :)

First the rules:
1.) You must post these rules (Haha this rule makes me laugh!)2.) Each person must post eleven things about them on their blog.
3.) Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post and create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.

Okay, so 11 things about me. 

1. I have been saved by the substitutionary death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and now my life is hidden with Christ on high. Every day He makes me more like Him, but I am SO far away from what I should be. I am so thankful for His mercy and grace. And thankful to see growth in my life, though it is slow indeed.


2. I want to be a missionary to a foreign country someday. God has been burdening me for the parts of our world that have absolutely NO access to the gospel, and are constantly dying (without CHRIST!) because they don't even have their physical needs met. And, what's more, they are not glorifying God with their lives, and Christ deserves the reward of His sufferings!

3. Can't decide whether I like being called Christianna of Christy better. Almost everyone I know calls me Christy, and I think it sort of fits my personality better, but Christianna is definitely more beautiful. (as long as you pronounce it an AHN-na, not ANN-na) Which do you think is better - Christianna or Christy?

4. My favorite animal is a white Bengal tiger. They are incredibly beautiful! I love all the big cats - tigers, lions, leopards, etc. God was so creative with the cat kind.

5. One of my dreams is to go to visit Australia - especially the Sydney Opera House. It's such an incredible work of architecture! I would also love to see some of the beautiful country landscapes in the country, and get to see all the native animals  - kangaroos, koalas, etc. That would be spectacular :)

6. I'm very much a girly-girl. I love dresses, flowers, and pretty things. I hate gore/blood and guts, bugs, and the like. But, I do have a bit of an adventurous side - I love hiking, camping, 4-wheelers, snowboarding risks and other such things.

7. One of my biggest faults is being unteachable. I am too proud to be corrected or told what to do. God is working on me in this area; I'm better than I used to be, but boy, do I have a long ways to go.

8. My personality is mostly sanguine, with a decent amount of choleric and melancholy. If you don't know personality types I will enlighten you: Sanguine is playful and energetic, Choleric is ambitious and take-charge, Melancholy is thoughtful and deep, and the other one (which I have absolutely none of - lol!) is Phlegmatic - easy-going and calm. If you'd like to see what YOUR personality is, try this link - it's pretty fun!

9. I love working with kids. I'm totally in my zone when I'm with kids about 6-11, and I love little ones too. I want to have an influence on the life of every child I meet, especially young girls. Mentors can make such a difference in a person's life, and having a child look up to you really makes you think about your actions. It's a win-win!

10. I LOVE music. I cannot imagine a world without music - ugh it would be awful! I play piano, and I wish I could play other instruments too. I love listening to music, playing music, singing, or whatever. Pretty much, I like every type of music that is God-glorifying.

11. I talk a lot! For all of you readers who know me in person you're probably smirking like, "You can say that again!" Haha. I love to laugh and talk, and talk and laugh.

Now to answer dear Katy's questions:

1. Do you like salty or sweet better? Sweet, for sure... hehe
   
2. What are three words you would use to describe yourself? Hmm... probably energetic, emotional, and determined.
3. What is the neatest things that ever happened to you in your life? I'd say meeting some influential freinds - particularly the Cases, Tabea and Paul, the Butlers, and the Sardinas.
4. What is your favorite Bible verse? Why. Wow, that's tough. I'd say my all time favorite is just this simple verse: "When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." ~Psalm 61:2. So many times that is exactly how I feel - overwhelmed. It's such a comfort to remember that when I am, I can go to Jesus Christ who is a high Rock to lean on and learn from. His grace is sufficient.
5. Would you rather read a good book or watch a movie to relax? Read a good book, for sure. I used to be *such* a movie person. But I realized that I was wasting way too much time watching movie, and so I sort of "swore off" movies for this entire year. (Although not totally) I don't miss it at all, and I find that I would way rather read a book, go for a walk, bake something, etc. I have time to do things that are truly refreshing now!
6. What is your favorite color? Every color!! Haha :) My favorites are probably purple, pink and sky blue
7. Who is the person who inspires you the most? Okay, this has to broken into categories. In the Bible: Peter, because he had my passionate personality, messed up a lot, yet did amazing things for God. In my life: My mom. She is such an amazing influence and godly example to me. In history: Gladys Aylward. She was a woman with some serious faith - she had "everything against her," but God on her side. She believed and lived out Romans 8:31-39. And God did amazing things through her!
8. What is one thing about you that people don't usually know? I deal with a lot of loneliness. I struggle with missing my brothers, wanting to see friends more, and wanting a "special someone." I think God is bringing me through this difficult time to show me that He is enough for me.
9. Would you rather be hot or cold? Probably hot. I always used to not mind being cold and get cranky when I was too hot, but now I am totally the other way.
10. What is your favorite type of food? Seafood!! Mmm looove it!
11. What is your favorite classic old movie? Probably Emma, the Jane Austen movie. As for animated movies: I totally love Lion King. :)

And here are 11 questions for those who I tag! 

1. What is something that you dream of doing someday?
2. Have you ever been on a missions trip? Where did you (or would you like to) go?
3. What is your favorite kind of pet?
4. How do you normally do your hair?
5. What is your favorite hobby?
6. What is your favorite article of clothing (hoodies, PJ pants, skirts, etc)?
7. Do you play any instruments? If so, how long have you played?
8. What are 5 words that you would like to describe you?
9. Do you prefer to be indoors or outdoors?
10. What is/was your favorite topic in school?
11. Who do you talk to most on a daily basis?


And, last but not least, the people I am tagging:
1. Leah Albright at God's Daughter
2. Karissa Noelle at Set Apart Girl 4 Christ
3. Emily at Emily's Ponderings

And well, most of my friends have already done this, so anyone else who wants to do it can take it from me :)

A Passionate Romance

"Love is here, love is now, love is pouring from His hands, from His brow. Love is near, it satisfies, streams of mercy flowing from His side." (Love is Here - Tenth Avenue North)

Wow, those lyrics are so true! In light of Valentine's Day, I thought it would be apropos to write a post about love.

All too often, we look for love from other people; girls are especially guilty of this. And, as Christians who are striving to remain pure for the person we will someday marry, it's easy to act like love is something that's in the future.

Love is not somewhere, someday. It's here; it's now. Jesus Christ is the only one who can satisfy us.

"Why are you looking for love? Why are you still searching, as if I'm not enough? To where will you go, child? Tell me, where will you run?" (By Your Side - Tenth Avenue North)

Jesus loves us. Yes, it's true! He loves you more than you can imagine. He gave up everything for you. Even though we are, by nature, God-hating, selfish, and wicked, God chose to love us and sacrifice everything for us. But His love has one condition. "But," you say, "I'm nothing, I'm a failure. I can't meet any conditions!"

Well, read on. His one condition is this: You must hope in Him. That's it! You must reject any other hope, any other pursuit of love, security, wealth, power, or anything else, and place all of your hope in Him. He is the only hope of salvation, love, and joy. If you cling to Him as the only way to save you from your sins, repenting of all of our sins, rejecting all that is contrary to His word, He will adopt you as His child. He will betroth you as His perfect bride. You will no longer be condemned, and sin will no long have any power over you.

And this isn't some distant, mystical love. Having a relationship with Him is a day by day, hour by hour, intimate romance. If we really believed He was our lover, how would our lives be different? We would daydream about Him. We would laugh with Him. We would talk about Him. We would tell Him everything, and listen with delight to everything He tells us. We would pour over His love letter to us, memorizing it, obsessing over it. We would be so much more joyful!

That's my challenge to you today. Treat Him as you would treat a lover.

"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness(alone with Him!), and speak comfort to her. I will give her her vineyards from there(blessings/tokens of affection), and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt(Coming out of Egypt = Being freed from sin/salvation). And it shall be, in that day," Says the LORD, "That you will call Me ‘My Husband,’ And no longer call Me ‘My Master,’ for I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals (idols/sins), and they shall be remembered by their name no more... I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in loving-kindness and mercy;" (Hosea 3: 14-17, 19) (All of the words in parentheses were added by me, for clarification.)

Happy (belated) Valentine's Day, everyone! I pray that you will have an every growing, passionate romance with the Lord.

Busyness

Wow, my life has been busy lately! Between school, friends, music, and everything else, I hardly have a calm day! But it's wonderful... I've really enjoyed the busyness of the past few weeks.

One thing that is keeping me busy is: Practice for a musical! Yes, that's right, I get to be in "The Fiddler on the Roof" musical with a christian school nearby! I'm so excited. I don't have any lines; I'm a towns-person. I sing a lot of songs though, and I even have 3 words of a solo in one song! Haha. We have practices almost every day, and often I spend the evening with my best friend and her family afterward. It's so much fun!

I also am busy with schoolwork, church, youth group/youth events, and friends. Last Thursday and Friday I stayed at the home of a good friend who I hadn't seen in a long time, which was such a blessing! On Sunday I went to 2 youth group and 2 church services. It was very fun, very uplifting, and very tiring. ;)

Well, speaking of my busyness, I had better finish this post up because I've got a busy day today, too. Thanks for reading! :)

Blessings :)

So, I just thought I would post and tell you what is on my mind today. :)

~ I am REALLY excited because I am going to a NANC (National Association of Nouthetic Counseling) "Hope Seminar" tonight and tomorrow! It's a program that trains people to do Biblical counseling. I'm looking forward to what God has to teach me!

~I am SO glad that it's Friday because this has a been a very long school week.

~I am sad that my blue and green monkey socks wore through. :(

~My singing and piano playing are getting a lot better, and I'm really enjoying practicing! It takes up a lot of time, but I love doing it!

~I LOVE my family! Mom, Cody, and I were just talking and laughing in the kitchen a few minutes ago, and it was fun. :)

That is all! Blessings to all of you~

Some thoughts on God's love and my life :)

Hello all! God has been SO good to me lately. This week I have been growing so much in Him. I've been learning about just how much he loves us.

I think that too often we get into a mindset of thinking, "Okay, if I can just do this right... if I can just do the right thing, obey God... THEN God will love me and be pleased with me." That is just not the case! God loves us SO, SO much!! His love is not dependent on our works! Song of Solomon describes God's perfect love for us... "You have ravished my heart, My sister, my spouse; You have ravished my heart With one look of your eyes, With one link of your necklace." (Song of Solomon 4:9) Put into modern terms, God says "You make my heart beat faster... I LOVE it when you look to me!" WOW!! Do you get what that's saying? God doesn't just think, "Well, yes, I guess I'll forgive you... I'll be good to you and answer your prayers just because I'm good, even though you're a loser, even though you stink, and even though I can't stand you..." Not at all! He is in love with us. Take a look at a newly married couple... they can't get enough of each other! They are obsessed with each other, really! They love to make each other happy! That is how God feels about us! Isn't that amazing?! We can't comprehend how much God loves us. It is SO wonderful! We don't have to be discouraged by our sins, or by how difficult life is, because God will always be faithful, and will always do us good!

On a somewhat different note, let me tell you what I've been up to lately! I have been really busy with school. I start at about 8:30 in the morning, take an hour for lunch, and get done around 4:30 most days. Some days though, like today and yesterday, are much busier! Yesterday I got to go shopping! I went to Salvation Army and Second Impressions - two second hand stores. :) Salvation army is a donation store, so it has lots of junk mixed in with a few nice items. But, if you look hard enough, you can get some great clothing for hardly any cost at all! I got lots of nice skirts and shirts there. Second Impressions is a consignment shop, so the prices are a little higher but the clothes of beautiful! I got a pair of nice, modest pants for $9 in excellent condition! Today has been busy also. I had a full school day, plus piano and voice lessons. It has been a wonderful day - I am so thankful that I get to have music lessons! It's getting late though, and I still have some school to do, so I'd better get off! ;) Thanks for taking the time to read! :)

Love Song for a Savior

In open fields of wild flowers,
She breathes the air and flies away
She thanks her Jesus for the daises and the roses
In no simple language
Someday she'll understand the meaning of it all
He's more than the laughter or the stars in the heavens
As close a heartbeat or a song on her lips
Someday she'll trust Him and learn how to see Him
Someday He'll call her and she will come running
And fall in His arms and the tears will fall down and she'll pray,

"I want to fall in love with You, I want to fall in love with You.
I want to fall in love with You, I want to fall in love with You."


"You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness," Psalm 30:11 ♥

As a little girl, I believed in Jesus, but I didn't know Him deeply. Over time He's teaching me the meaning of it all, and how to trust and see Him. And I want to fall in love with Him!

Photo credit goes to Cody for this one. Song lyrics are "Love Song for a Savior," by Jars of Clay.

My brother Erik!

Ah, another beautiful day that the Lord has made! And today, I get to write about Erik!
Erik is my awesome 20-year-old cowboy brother. Throughout my life, he has been a great friend and mentor to me.He is very smart and studious. When it comes to linguistics or grammar, I can always ask him for help, because he is spectacular at them! Since he loves languages so much, he loves to learn them. He knows at least a little bit of many different languages. Incredibly, he has even created languages!During the day, he is usually quite busy working as a web editor for Answers in Genesis. For the most part, he edits website articles, blog posts, and emails, or manages technical things.

Erik is very sweet and sensitive. Understandingly, he can always tell when I'm sad or upset. He's an admirable person. Exceeding my wisdom, his advice is something I really treasure. For me, it is very encouraging to talk to him because he always helps me to hold to a high standard in every area of life.
Theology, history, photography, computers, fantasy, books, and the outdoors are some of his many interests. As I mentioned before, he's kind of a cowboy. He loves horses, country music, and campfires. He looks great in a plaid shirt, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat!


He's crazy about music! Practicing often, he has learned to play guitar, pennywhistle, chord piano, djembe, and even a little bit of violin.

Doesn't he look great in his hand-made chainmail?

He's also carved flutes out of American bamboo, created languages, and written songs. He's so creative!

While he is often serious or calm, Erik can also be really fun! He and I have had a lot of laughs together. :) Sometimes we can be so silly, and just laugh for a long time about things that aren't even all that funny!
Dependability is a quality that Erik has that I really appreciate. I can always rely on him!
It's such a blessing to have a man of God like Erik for my brother! <3

My brother Cody!

So, I got an idea the other day. I was putting pictures up of my family, and I decided that I would like to do a blog post about each family member. So to start, I'm going to do Cody, my 17 year old brother.Cody is a really fun person. He always makes me laugh :)

We don't always get along, obviously, but we have gotten really close, especially this last year I think. Before he left for camp this summer we went a lot of places together and had a lot of fun. I really love going places with him, because usually it's just he and I in his truck, listening to music and talking. He's very sanguine and choleric, and if you don't know personality types, that means he's very fun, outgoing, and a strong personality. He's always been a really good worker. He'd usually rather be out working on cutting wood or mowing the lawn than washing dishes or something inside. He also snowboards and plays guitar, and is very good at both!!

He has mostly taught himself to do both, which is amazing because he's so good!! He also writes songs, and is quite good at that too. He's very protective of me, which I really appreciate. He's been a good listening ear throughout a lot of hard times for me, and I am SO thankful for him in so many ways!! Most of all, he is a strong Christian and lives to the glory of Jesus Christ alone.

He is such an awesome brother and such an encouragement to me! I have really missed him while he's been at camp.
If you want, you can go to his blog - livingextreme009.blogspot.com. He hasn't posted on it in a while because of camp, but there's still lots of great stuff on it!

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! :)