Getting ready for 2013.

Well, today is the last day of 2012. I feel like I should probably write a blog post or something to mark the occasion, so here you go.
 
A couple verses have really stuck out for me during the last few days of randomly roaming around the Bible. I guess you could say that I'm going to make them my theme verses for 2013. I know it sounds slightly cheesy, but these verses seem important to me and I really want to apply these ones specifically in my life.
 
 

Mark 4:12  -  "'They may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'"

The context of this verse is that Jesus is talking to his disciples about the parable he just spoke - you know, the one about the sower whose seeds fell: some on the path, some on the rocky soil, some on the thorny soil, and some on the good soil. He's referring to how the Pharisees and "those on the outside" (v. 11) treat the parable and the secret to the Kingdom of Heaven.
 
But the meaning of the parable isn't really what I'm trying to get at here. How often do we do exactly what this verse is describing? Whether it's reading the Word, listening to a sermon, or seeing God's creation, I know I'm guilty of it. I just usually don't really make the effort to understand the deeper meanings of what the Scripture or pastor or whatever is trying to tell me. I don't know, maybe I'm getting the meaning of this passage all mixed up. However, I do know I need to stop just seeing and hearing, but also perceiving and understanding.
 

Jeremiah 10:23  -  "LORD, I know that people's lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps."

This one is kind of a punch in the gut for me and many other people. I'm pretty sure the next year is going to hold a lot of decisions for me, what with thinking about where I'm going to get a job, what colleges I might apply to, and all the other stuff that comes with getting older. I gotta keep this verse in my heart so that when I realize I'm trying to decide things by myself, I remember to give God the steering wheel.
 

Jeremiah 49:38-39  -  "I will set my throne in Elam and destroy her king and officials, yet I will restore the fortunes of Elam in days to come."

Okay. So this past year I've been digging around in the Old Testament - specifically, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, bits and pieces of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, and Daniel. I just can't help but wonder why Israel is so dense. I mean, here's God, delivering you from Egypt, Bablyon, and countless other empires. Then you just turn around and worship meaningless gods! Why?! It's really just unbelievable for me. They serve as an example so that we will not follow in their footsteps, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthans 10.
 
I think this verse is a good reminder for me because, even though things in our lives usually aren't as extreme as losing a kingdom, when God takes away things, it is for a reason. Kind of like Job's story. Let's face the trials in life head-on and know that God will restore us someday.
 
 
And this last one doesn't really apply to me (although it is important to know), but I think this will be an encouragement for many:

Luke 18:29-30  -  "No one who has left home or wife or brothers and sisters or parents or children for the sake of God will fail to receive many times as mcuh in this age, and in the age to come eternal life."
 
 

Alright, that's all I've got today. Have a very Happy New Year and may God bless you in 2013 and many more years to come! Thanks for reading! : )

To love or not to love.

I hope you all had a very merry  Christmas! My family definitely did. We spent a few days down in Oregon with our grandparents and cousins on my dad's side of the family, then came back for  Christmas Day and spent the afternoon and evening with my mom's side of the family.
 
On Christmas Eve night, I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep. I was thinking about how long ago Jesus came - how God had seemed to disappear from them for four hundred years, and how it's been two thousand more years since then. Somehow I realized that, since Jesus was born in 4 BC and I was born in AD 1996, we were born almost exactly 2000 years apart. How cool is that?

Anyways, I just thought that might be interesting to somebody other than me.

So. It's that time of year - the week between  Christmas and New Years. I'm cleaning up my room, Jaci and my mom are going shopping for the day-after- Christmas sales, and we're putting away Christmas presents. Basically, we're preparing for 2013.

And something I've been reading in lately is 1 John. I'd never really read the whole thing through before, and I have found it to really be a challenging book for me.

Especially the passage that really keeps catching my attention, which is 1 John 4:19-21 - "We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister."

See the text that I put in bold font? That's the part that really gets me every time I read this passage. Almost as if I'm in a boxing match and my opponent gives me a good blow in the stomach. Fortunately, it isn't a blow I can't recover from.

Not just myself, but I pray that all of my brothers and sisters have the strength and humility to love each other so that we can, in turn, love God this next year and all the rest of our lives.

And I hope that Jesus had a very happy birthday! Thanks for reading!

Long time, no see

It's finally Christmas vacation! So happy. I'm officially off of school for two weeks and three weekends.

I've been, like, extremely busy. No wonder I haven't posted in more than a month.

I got my drivers license on November 15th. It was exciting at the time, but I've actually only driven by myself a few times. I'm not planning to drive myself to school most of the time, but I run errands or drive my sister somewhere or go to the library to print things. Oh, and  Christmas shopping. Plenty of that, of course.

Between then and now, we took what I think was definitely the trip of a lifetime. That, however, will require a seperate post. So, stay tuned for coming attractions.

After our trip, we had school for three weeks. I missed two big tests and a Spanish vocabulary test, along with a creative writing assignment (I'm really bad at those) and plenty of make-up work in biology.

Jet lag is no fun, let me just say. Since the time difference from Rome to Seattle is about nine hours, just about everyone was up and at it by two or three in the morning every day for the first week. But I was dead tired by eight at night. On Saturday I was out late so I was finally waking up atsix in the morning  like a normal person. Then I got sick and slept a lot. I was so sleep-deprived, going to bed at ten and waking up at three. I guess five hours of sleep a night is not enough.

Now that I'm all caught up, I have almost no homework over the break! yay!

My Christmas shopping is all done, and I'm sitting on a chair by the warm hearth, about to play Monopoly with my family and my grandparents. Tomorrow we will be joined by some more family and have "Clark Christmas" on Monday.

Whoohoo. Now that you're all caught up on what I've been doing lately, go and have some hot cider or spice tea and do something fun!

Merry Christmas!

Italy? Greece? Turkey? Bring it on.

This has been a very busy week, I must say. I've had busier, certainly, but this comes close.

I finished Nehemiah and Esther, meeting my Bible reading goal for 2012 to get from 1 Samuel to Esther! Since I'm not sure where to go next I've just been reading in the Psalms. I think my next goal will be to go through Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. Then Isaiah and Jeremiah. Maybe I'll look into the New Testament for a change, but honestly I think the Old Testament is so much more fun to read.

Anyway, aside from my busy-ness in the Bible, I've also been busy preparing for our huge trip-of-a-lifetime vacation! I don't really like to advertise or show off my big adventures, but since I'm going tomorrow and don't have very many followers of this blog, I think it's probably fine.

So here's our general itinerary: We are flying to Los Angeles tomorrow morning, then an hour and a half later boarding our flight to Paris. We'll get to Paris about one in the afternoon local time, and then sight see for the next three days. Then we'll fly to Rome, board a cruise ship, the beautiful and familiar Norwegian Jade. (We took this cruise ship around the Western Mediterranean two years ago, now to travel on it around the Eastern Mediterranean.) Our cruise ship will be stopping in Greece, then Ephesus, then Istanbul for two days, then Naples. This will take eleven days. We will get off the cruise ship in Rome, spend the day there (yes I know you can't do Rome in a day but technically we are, so whatever), spend the night there, and fly to Amsterdam to Vancouver to Sea-Tac.

It's gonna be so much fun! I cannot wait. Have a good Thanksgiving, everybody! Thanks for reading! : )

And a very happy birthday it was.

 


Sleeping Beauty's Castle has snow!



 



The Matterhorn. I love it, but my dad's back hates it.



 



Uncle Jeff, always the jokester.



 

"How."

 



Space Mountain. Corina's face is pretty intense right here.

 


Our picture after Screamin on California Screamin.

 


Splash Mountain is my favorite ride in Disneyland. I think my face could tell you that without the help of this caption.



 



"Not ready? Too late! 5...4...3...2...1.. ScuhhREAM!!!"



 

 

 

Corina in front of the beautiful Sleeping Beauty Castle.

 

Corina is ready to breave the Matterhorn! Woohoo!

 

 

 

We found a little flower patch in front of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

 

Add caption

One of the Main Street Trollies. I've never been onone but maybe I will someday.

 

Paradise Pier. I think I like it more at night.

The Redskins Rule

	According to White House tradition, the outcome of the Washington Redskins' final home game before an election determines who will be elected President. If the Washington Redskins win, the incumbent president or party will win. If the Redskins lose, the challenger will win. This has happened 17 out of 18 times since 1940. Redskins lost. Challenger wins. Welcome President Romney.

Oh hey there...

Well. It's been a while since I've blogged. I guess it isn't that I haven't had time. I mean, it's not like I have had a ton of time. But I haven't really had a chance to lately.

It's like...

Anyways, during my time of blogging silence, quite a bit has happened.

My birthday party was last Saturday. That was a ton of fun. We went on the "Night on a Dark Trail." It's a haunted trail (in honor of Halloween, which was three days afterwards) on the Ridge. Fun stuff.

 
 
My wonderful friends at MyCakes, Cynthia and Claudette Golpe, made me this amazing cake for my party!

We finished our volleyball season on a high note. This is us after our last and best game.

 

I went to a Sounders FC playoff game last night. Pretty awesome to hang out with some great gals!

And, this hasn't exactly happened yet, but my birthday is in four days! Woohoo!!

So, I finished 2 Kings a week ago. Then I tried reading 1 Chronicles but I got bored so I skipped 1 and 2 Chronicles and landed on Ezra. I finished that today, and hopefully I will be able to finish Nehemiah in the next week or two.

What I'd really like to blog about tonight is something that happened about two weekends ago. My family and I went to the King Tut exhibit at the Seattle Science Center, which was incredible. I loved it! I would highly recommend going - it's open through January 6 and if you go the last weekend I'll bet a lot of the merchandise will be on sale since it's the last time the exhibit will be in the United States before it goes back to Egypt.

But back to my point. While we were at that exhibit, lots of artifacts found in pyramids were in display. It occured to me that when these pharaohs were alive, all they did was plan their life after their death. They spent practically all their money, time, and energy on their tombs.

Why don't we do that? Granted for the Egyptian kings, it was for the wrong reasons. But I think that we as Christians should do that. What does this life mean to us in terms of the rest of eternity? After we die, it's really not going to matter, is it? All the money we spend on clothes. Food. Shelter. Obviously we need those things to survive and we thank God for them, but what about all the extra stuff we store up for ourselves like extravagant homes, the newest iPhone, or our designer handbags and jewelry?

There's a new Toby Mac CD out there. One of the tracks, my favorite of the album, says, "I'd be packing my bags when I need to stay, I'd be chasing every breeze that comes my way, I'd be building my kingdom just to watch it fade away."

I'm just as guilty of building my own kingdom as the next person, but I really believe that we need to be more like the Pharaohs. We need to do what Jesus says in Matthew 6:19-20: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal."

Share Jesus, grow in your faith, and remind yourself to live for eternity and not for today. Let's build His kingdom this week.

Have a great week! Thanks for reading! : )

Seahs and Shekels.

Our Indian summer has come to an end... It's fall, which means I'm wearing a sweater and fuzzy socks, eating soup and watching football (my Cowboys lost... AGAIN - but the Seahawks game was fun to watch!). But I'm behind in just about all of my school subjects so it also means I'm stuck at a desk working to catch up in math, Spanish, ethics, and English. But the weather outside is awful so I don't feel bad about staying inside all day.  : )

 

Some hot chocolate in my Vintage Minnie Mouse mug. Yummmmmmmmmmm

My life seems so boring sometimes. You could call it a rut.

But it really isn't. There's just nothing in my life worth writing about.

Anyway.

I read 2 Kings 7 this week and just couldn't go on because I had to read it over and over. I'm just that amazed.

So basically there's a drought in Israel. The cost of food is off the charts and the people are starving. The Israelites aren't on real good terms with the Arameans. Then one day, when all seems lost, Elisha says, "'Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.'
        "The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, 'Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?'" (v 1-2)

Then the very next day, some Israelite men find an abandoned Aramean camp outside the city. The scripture goes on to say, "They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight. So the messengers returned and reported to the king. Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the Lord had said." (v 15-16)

Does anybody else find this absolutely incredible? Amazing? Anything??

God always comes through on His word, even if He does so in a way that is not at all what we expect. It might even be even more awesome than we could imagine. I know He's done that for me lately.

Well, that's all I've got right now. Have a good week! : )

We don't even have to try, it's always a good time!

I am having just a great week.

On Monday the entire sophomore class went to the Woodland Park Zoo to do some research for a biology project. The assignment itself only took like 45 minutes and we just hung out the rest of the time. It was so fun!

 

Katie, me, Janelle, Laura, Brandon, and Allie finding out what it would be like to live in a meerkat cave.

I think the only bad thing that happened on Monday was that the Cowboys lost to the Bears. Not their greatest game...

Tuesday was okay. I had several quizzes, a test in Spanish, and auditions for All-State and All-Northwest bands. Kind of stressful.

But Wednesday through Friday we don't have school! It's our five-day weekend. All the teachers have a bunch of conferences, so we get a bunch of extra days off. On Tuesday night I got a solid twelve hours of sleep. That was some much-needed rest.

My mom, my aunt Julie and I hiked Rattlesnake Ledge on Wednesday. It's rated a 4-out-of-5 for difficulty, but the climb was oh-so-worth it!

 

Trust me when I say that this picture does not even come close to how awesome the view from up there is.

 

 

 

This picture was taken on a different day (those are my brothers) but you see that ledge up there that I circled in red? That's the ledge I was standing on in the previous picture! Pretty cool. Scary, but cool.

 

 

Aside from all that jazz, I just read 2 Kings 5. It's the story about the man Naaman who has leprosy. The prophet Elisha tells him to wash himself in some dirty water (the Jordan River) seven times to be healed. After some hesitation, Naaman does as Elisha says and he is healed.

 

I've heard that story several times growing up in the church. But I've never heard the rest of that story...

 

After he is healed of his leprosy, Naaman offers Elisha a reward for his help, which of course Elisha politely refuses. Gehazi, Elisha's servant, runs after Naaman a short time after he takes off. Gehazi tells Naaman that a couple young men from the company of prophets have arrived, and Elisha actually does want some stuff. Naaman happily gives two talents of silver (150 pounds) and two suits of clothing (very nice clothing at that).

 

Elisha, of course, does figure out what Gehazi did. So when Elisha asks Gehazi where he went, Gehazi tells Elisha that he didn't go anywhere. Then Elisha chews Gehazi out for doing this, and Gehazi and all his descendants were cursed with leprosy.

 

There are definitely more important things in life than worldly possessions. After all is said and done, where our heart is, there will our treasure be also.

 

Thanks for reading, and have a great rest of your week! : )

Too much to do!!

That's all I seem to be saying these days. Just this past week...

• Ecology project (due tomorrow): Find a bunch of leaves and pinecones and moss and pine needles, glue them to a cardboard box, and label everything. This took me about 4 hours to complete.
• Vignettes (due today): Small, graceful literary sketches. I was given a list of topics to choose from. We had to write three, all on a different topic. 300-500 words each. 30-45 minutes each, total of 2 hours.
• Sensory Snapshot (due Friday): Write a quick piece of literature using all five senses. The story you write about must tell about the sentence: "It was weird." You may not use am, is, was, were, are, be, being, been, or ain't. Took me about an hour.
• All-NW and All-State Ensembles Audition music: Very difficult pieces of music for my flute that I must perfect by Tuesday. I've already spent 45 minutes on it, and I only got the music today.
• Playing test in band (due Friday): Well at least I know the pieces! Still gotta practice a lot. 2 hours so far.
• Read through chapter 4 of Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, and fill in packet (due today): Each chapter takes like an hour to get through, fill out the pages, and figure out every single symbol in the novel so far. We have to read through chapter 7 by Tuesday. 4 hours.
• Unit test for World History on Civilizations (Friday). We must create study guide based on assessment questions throughout our daily reading. Our study guide is due before the test. Mine was 5 pages long. 2 hours.
• Articulo (due tomorrow): For Spanish 2, each month we have to read an article about something with reference to a Spanish person, country, or tradition. Then we get to write a 300-word summary of our article, completely in Spanish. Aaannndd I lost the original file when my computer died since I forgot to save it, so I had to redo the whole thing tonight. 4 hours total.

Add three volleyball games this week, a doctors appointment after school, and Bible study on Monday with my girls group, I'm beat.

I'm not playing well at my volleyball games, I barely have time to get in the Word, and I have absolutely no time to relax and just get a breath of air. I wasn't even able to make it to youth group tonight. But what I love about Jesus is that we can cast all our cares upon Him; we can rest in Him knowing He's got everything under control. It's just one of those weeks when I can dump all this stuff on Him, and He can carry it for my with no trouble at all.

Also my Cowboys are playing Monday Night Football so that makes my week a lot better! :D

Thanks for reading! : )

I'm Sick

"I'm sick... I'm dying... bring me some supplies."
"Okay, okay, what do you need?"
"Bring me medicine... and chocolate."
"Chocolate?"
*cough, cough* "I'm sick..."

As I write this blog, I'm sitting on the couch in my sweats, watching the Sunday Night Football game, blowing my nose every two or three minutes. I really hate being sick on Sundays because I can't go to church, then I'm stuck doing all my homework with a headache, and I can't go to youth group. To make matters worse, they don't usually nationally broadcast the Dallas Cowboys games either.

Today was especially bad because the Cowboys lost. There were like 3 turnovers in the first 5 minutes, Jason Witten dropped three really critical passes and Dez Bryant just did awful. But if my favorite team is gonna get a good beating it may as well be from my second favorite team, right?

Anyways, I did get to get into my Bible today. I'm a ways into 1 Kings, and right now Queen Jezebel is scaring the life out of Elijah while Ahab is in control over Israel. So far I've read through the lives of like six or seven different guys who "did what was evil in the sight of the LORD," and, lately, "did more evil than all the others that had gone before him" or something like that. It's pretty bad.

Throughout the entire Old Testament, God continually shows us why we need a Savior. Especially in the chapters I'm reading. My dad always says that "God gave us the Old Testament so that we can learn from others' mistakes."

What they did do was sin. We sin too. Can't really do much about that. We are, after all, by nature, sinful. But what they didn't do was repent of their sins and go after God. That's where they really messed up.

So take a lesson from those who would tell you to repent after seeing the eternal consequence of their sins. God will forgive you and welcome you with open arms.

Have a good week, and let's hope the Cowboys have better luck next time.

Thanks for reading!   : )

Just Awed.

My, it's been a busy week.

School started on Tuesday. It was so great to see all my friends who live in the Bellevue area that I don't get to see very often when we're not in school. I remembered all my classes, which was quite the accomplishment for me. (Mostly from memory, anyway...)

Then on Thursday our volleyball team had our first game at Vashon High School. It was my first volleyball game since, like, seventh grade. We won the first set, but lost the last two sets so we lost the match. But JV 1 and Varsity both won their game! I love watching volleyball in general, but it's so fun to watch your friends play and win.

 

This is me on the left and my teammate and my amazing friend Janelle on the ferry over to Vashon Island for our volleyball game.

And this weekend was our school's Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Concert Choir retreat at Camp Casey on Whidbey Island. This is my first year playing in the select band, so I met a lot of new people that go to my school. Both the band and choir teachers are new this year too. I had such an amazing time getting to know the people on the retreat. We rehearsed quite a bit, roasted marshmallows around a good ol' campfire, star-tripped, had a fun time sleeping in a bunkdorm with my band and choir buddies, and played Sardines at the old military fort up the hill from the camp.

This picture was taken yesterday evening. The sunset was amazing! I wish I had brought a better camera to the retreat. It's hard to show something so beautiful in just a picture taken with a phone.

Something I really loved about this retreat was this morning. I decided to wake up an hour before our morning devotion and have some Jennifer-Jesus-talk-time and Bible reading. And just let me tell you - 7:00 in the morning on the beach, sitting on some driftwood watching the tide go out, not a person in sight, just a couple birds dawdling along the shore, the first rays of sun touching the water... and knowing that the God who created all of this cares about me? It's the most humbling thing.

So, thanks for tuning in. I've really had a great week, and I hope y'all did too. And a special shout-out to Mr. Benjamin Lee for being my first follower! Thanks bro! :D

Thanks for reading! : )

Labor Day Weekend!

So this weekend, we had some family from western Oregon come and visit us for a couple days. Jaci (my sister) and I are really close friends with our cousins Corina and Elise, so we had a blast hanging out with them. We jammed to their Just Dance 3 wii game, went shopping at the outlet mall in North Bend, played Disney Apples-to-Apples, did some awesome music stuff, and watched one of my favorite Disney movies - Hercules. Good stuff.

 

Me, Josh Hutcherson, and Corina. We found this thing at the Toys R Us while shopping on Saturday. I personally think Josh Hutcherson looks way better as a brunette. But being made of cardboard...that's a bit different.

 

Elise, me, Corina and Jaci visited Snoqualmie Falls after church on Sunday. It's a great place to visit, especially on such a nice day!

 

Funny story I have to share... Sunday morning before church, I couldn't find my cell phone. Since there were thirteen of us, my dad, Uncle Jeff, Corina, Elise, Jaci and I rode seperately. While we were on the drive there, my dad turned around and asked me where my phone was. When I told him I didn't know, he said that he had just received a text from my phone that said, "come to churh.it is josiah." Then I was even more impressed when I got my phone back and saw that Josiah (my 7-year-old brother) had also texted "it josiah i love you." and sent a picture to my cousin Ryan. Wow! I don't think I would've been able to figure that out until I was at least 10. When I was 7, I played Snake on my mom's phone...

Anyways, I am about 6 or 7 chapters into 1 Kings. I'm really enjoying reading through all these books, and I'm amazed at how God is able to work through His servants. I also love seeing how King David and King Solomon are reflections of God. So cool!

I've loved having all this free time in the summer to read my Bible, but I know that as soon as school starts I'm not going to have very much of that because of volleyball and all the schoolwork. So I guess I just gotta stay disciplined in this area of life.

School... ugh. I'm so not ready to start. Summer just isn't long enough. But I have Saturday to look forward to!

Thanks for reading! Tell your friends! : )

Second Try

Time for my second post! Woohoo!

So, what have I been up to lately? Well, I've been at volleyball tryouts all week, and I love it! Volleyball is just so much fun. Unfortunately, the coaches are gonna have to make some cuts. I'm not super concerned, but it's definitely a good motivator to work harder and keep up my game.

And today Jaci, my mom and I are going shopping at Bellevue Square. Jaci's earned a bunch of money from babysitting and extra chores around the house, and now she's ready to splurge for some back-to-school shopping!

Anyways, I've set a goal for my personal Bible reading. I'm going to try and get through 1 Samuel through 2 Chronicles by the end of 2012. If I finish early, I'll move on to Ezra, Nehemiah, then Esther. Right now I'm about two-thirds done with 2 Samuel.
This morning I was reading in 2 Samuel, chapter 19. Verse 28 says, "'All my grandfather’s descendants deserved nothing but death from my lord the king, but you gave your servant a place among those who eat at your table.'"

If you don't know the story of Mephibosheth, basically, he was the late King Saul's son Jonathan's lame son. David and Jonathan made a pact to care for each other's children when one of them died. So when David became king after Saul, the whole house of Saul was killed, except for Mephibosheth and a couple of others.

Mephibosheth, however, was given the same kind of mercy and grace from King David that God gives us when we repent from our sins and turn our lives over to Jesus. I love it! It really goes to show how God has always had the plan to give up his son so that we can have life, and it's hinted at all through the Old Testament. I love it!

Well! You made it to the end of the post, meaning you didn't get bored. Seriously, thanks. You rock! Have an awesome day!

Oh, and tell your friends about my blog.  ; )