Calming the Sea

When I looked up today's Gospel, I was so excited, and over joyed to see that it was the story where Jesus calms the storm in the sea. It seem that there is a large storm hitting my life, and those around - my mom had surgery, my younger brother got in a car accident, my friend was hit by a car while on a bike, and my friend's dad was diagnosed with lung cancer after having a stroke, plus various other things as well! But it struck me in this Gospel that Jesus calms the storm, simple as that.

Jesus asks the disciples with him, "Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?" This really struck me. How often do we go through hard times fearful, worrisome, terrified, or anxious? How often do we forget Jesus will calm the storm. He allowed the storm in the first place, thus we must trust He will calm the storm. Not only must we trust He will calm the storm, but also that He will give the strength to endure. We must surrender our fears, and allow Jesus to take control. We must constantly be praying, and seeking our Lord.

We must allow Jesus to help us. We must let Him help us. We cannot carry our crosses alone. And our storms will not be calmed, until we surrender them to Jesus. Once we give our lives and our heart and our minds to Jesus, we are better able to serve Him. We can be peaceful people, even in the midst of tragedy, if we allow Jesus to be our rock.

May the Lord grant us the grace to trust Him more, the strength to endure our struggles, and peace.

God bless!

I Need a Vacation...

The past 3 weeks of my life have been absolutely nuts! My house was under construction. I had a grad party. I went on a training retreat to be a counselor for camp. My mom had surgery. And, my younger brother got in a car accident. Plus some of a social life on top of that, and trying to get everything completed that I need to be truly set to go to Capital in August. Therefore, I need a vacation.

I was visiting with a dear friend the other night. We talked about my life and it's craziness, especially with my brother's accident and mom's surgery all happening in the same day. Which both occurred about 48 hours after my graduation party. She gave me these wonderful words of wisdom, and I think it's easy to forget this in the business of summer. I was told to relax and take some time to myself, be sure I keep praying and refuel. She told me I'm stretched as thin as I can go, if I stretch anymore, I'll bust. Which is unbelievably true.

My reason for posting today and my advice for you today is - during the hustle and bustle of summer, remember to take some you time.

Read a good book. Take a hot bubble bath. Take a long run. Do your nails, or better yet go get them done. Get a massage. Lay out in the sun, at a beach for a while. Whatever helps you relax! Be sure you get to mass, at least on Sunday, if not more. And most importantly, don't place God on the back burner. Remember to pray. Remember, Christ is truly where your energy comes from  - so be sure to spend time with Him, so you can have the energy and motivation to continue in the hustle and bustle of summer, and not break!. Be sure to take that personal vacation every once in a while!

Doubting God - Finding Hope in Him

I was just playing a game of solitaire on my computer, and it looked like it was going to be a bad game so I went to hit the F2 button in order to deal again, but I paused for a second to think about what I was doing. I made the moves I could make with the opening cards and flipped through the deck once, and decided that was enough of a chance that I was giving that deal. In less than 5 minutes, I had given up hope of ever winning in that game. 

How often do we give up hope in life? How often do we doubt God, and doubt what he can do? 

My friend and I had a brief conversation about this the other day. She leaves Tuesday to study abroad for the summer and was really stressed about getting everything done in time to leave very early on Tuesday. My friend said, I know God will take care of it all, but it's so easy to doubt, and I doubt him all the time. 

One of my other friends dropped everything at home, packed up his bags and moved to Columbus to serve the Lord, after having lived in the South all his life. He said before one of the greatest struggles in this journey has been trusting the Lord will continue to provide for him. 

I could continue telling you all these times where people have doubted, but I'll only share one more, my personal experience, which played a major role in my conversion. Before my conversion, a personal relationship with God was a strange idea to me. I thought the whole idea of prayer and a relationship with someone or something I wasn't sure even existed was super sketchy. But I eventually gave it a shot...and realized God does exist, prayer life is important, and there is something beautiful about having a relationship with Christ. However, for the longest time I still struggled with hope. I struggled to know and to trust that my future was in God's hands.

When speaking on hope the catechism says, When God reveals Himself and calls him, man cannot fully respond to the divine love by his own powers. He must hope that God will give him the capacity to love Him in return and to act in conformity with the commandments of charity. Hope is the confident expectation of divine blessing and the beatific vision of God; it is also the fear of offending God's love and of incurring punishment (article 2090). When speaking on hope as a theological virtue the catechism says, Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit (article 1817). The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness, which God has placed in the heart of every man (article 1818).  

What does all that mumbo jumbo mean?

For starters, it means we as human beings are weak. We cannot serve our Lord without strength from him. It means we must learn to believe in the existence of God. Then we must learn to trust that He is going to give us the ability to love, if we let Him work in our lives. So in all reality, we need to be open to the idea that God exists. Then we need to come to believe in him through our searching and desires. And then, we need to allow him to work in us. We need to develop a relationship with Christ, so that we can trust Him and trust that He will provide.

We need hope in order to obtain the happiness that we desire. Therefore, we need to pray for the virtue of hope in our lives, trusting and knowing that God will provide for us, and rely not on our own strength, but on his.

This is not an easy task. I’ve been working at growing in the virtue of hope for about 6 months now, and it’s so beautiful, but I’m constantly doubting and questioning the power of our God. It’s so easy to but a limit on our God, but I promise you, our God is limitless, His power is endless – we just need to allow Him into our 
lives and to take control, constantly fighting a battle against the contemporary, materialistic world. 


For you are my hope, O Lord God: you are my trust from my youth 


Psalm 71:5

Closing a Chapter - Beginning Anew

This time of year is so funny, especially for those still in school - whether it be high school, jr. high or college, because there is change. People in your lives are moving onto different things, some are graduating high, and soon will be moving out, living on their own for the first time. Others are graduating college and entering the ;real world', whatever that means...and still others are only beginning the journey we just ended - freshman year of high school.

This weekend I graduated from high school - congratulations class of 2011, we successfully ended the first major chapter in our book called life. It was a funny thing because I wasn't there this year, I participated in a post secondary option, and succeeded quite well. And not to toot my own horn, but it was said that I was the model senior-to-sophomore student. It was the best year of my short 18 years of life so far. I made many new friends, strengthened many relationships, and lost a few along the way, all in the glory of God.

I really wanted to post on this today because I want to encourage my followers on here, and my many friends and classmates to keep going. As Mr. Boylan said today, it is not the end, but only the beginning. Many of us have goals for our immediate future, my we always set goals in our life, and keep searching and seeking and adventuring about this world.

I pray those of you who do not know Our Lord, our God and Savior, that you may meet Him along the way. May God bless you!

Amber

Embracing Femininity

I'm currently in a class entitled "Dealing with Diversity", today I was working on a chapter assignment for the class, our last chapter in fact, and the chapter is on women. While I was reading this, I became rather frustrated because it was an entire chapter on the feminist movement. Now don't get me wrong, I think women should have equal opportunities, but there is something beautiful about being a woman, that gets overlooked into today's society. 

One of my dreams in life is to be a mom, actually that is my most important goal - to be a wife and a mother. Yet, in America today, this goal, this dream is looked down upon. Women feel like they are treated unfair because they want to be treated like men, which is a generalization... I personally do not want to be treated like a man. I want to be treated like a woman. I want a man to open doors for me, to respect me, to treat me like a lady. 

It is a known fact that men and women's brains are wired differently. Women are more emotional, more sentimental; men have a problem, they look for a solution, this why men are better at some jobs then women, and women are better at other jobs than men are. Therefore, women should not feel oppressed or looked down upon because they are not in the same types of jobs as men. Men are probably better at that job than women would be anyway. 

Instead of feeling frustrated, shoved aside, forgotten, unequal, and looked down upon, remember that you are a woman! We are different from men, and that is a beautiful thing.

My dear sisters, we have the ability to bear life! So many women look down on that and see it more as a burden than as a gift, friends, this is a gift! We, as women, have the gift, the joy, the pleasure of giving life! How beautiful is that!? I encourage you to embrace this gift. Reject modern culture. Reject society's belief that we should be able to do and act as men, then embrace womanhood.

You are the crowning of creation! You are beautiful! You are treasured gift! Dear sisters, you are meant to love and to give love. Succeed in this society by jumping off the bandwagon and embracing your feminine nature, embrace your natural beauty, embrace your natural gift of giving life, embrace your natural ability to love; for it is in all of this that you discover yourself, and your true happiness! For our true happiness rests in God, and in leading and living the life of love He intended for women.

God bless!