Tonight, after a summer youth group I attended we closed in prayer like usual. Someone led the prayer and then left it open for other to jump in. At some point I took the opportunity to pray aloud as well.

I used friendship as the body of my prayer. As I prayed, I realized how incredibly blessed I am to be supported not only by God and my family, but by my friends both in real life and on the forums I am a member of. I'm multi-supported! :D

I was realizing how much my friends meant to me this past weekend because I was having a terrible past four days. >_< I felt so incredibly loved and cared for when my friends came to my rescue. For me, I feel that friends are God's physical form of love. Or at least one of His many forms of love. :)

If you have friends, realize just how important they are to you. Don't take them for grant. (Many of us do and have done it.) If you don't have many/any friends, don't be depressed. Go out there and reach out to people! Friendship is one of the most beautiful things God created and it all starts with a conversation. 

I'm learning that myself. It's out of my comfort zone to reach out to people I barely know, but I'm not getting anywhere waiting for them to come to me. I just made a new friend yesterday, because I took initiative and reached out to her and she was thankful.

So get out there tell your friends how much you love 'um!

God bless you all and all your friends!

~Twyla

Ever feel stressed? I do! Although my personality is rather uptight, it's the fact that I let stress get to me is what my problem is.


Sometimes, (like now), I let stress overwhelm me. In reality, it isn't as big a deal as I make it out to be, but that's just me for ya. *rolls eyes* It's all the little things that pile up on my mental list that really dig deep into my brain system and make me think, "There's not enough time in the day to finish everything! Now I'm going to freeze up and distract myself so I don't stress so much! But, oh no! Now I'm procrastinating which stresses me out, and now I'll never get anything done! Ahhhh!!!" Then I sit there pulling my hair, snapping at my family, and feeling overall terrible. 


Stress is not only mentally, but physically bad for you! Here's a link to how bad stress can be for you: http://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/stress-management-effects-of-stress


Bad, bad, bad! Psalm 55:22 says, "Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall." That's something I'm still learning, obviously, and will continue to learn for the rest of my life, but hey, baby steps. That verse was really encouraging to me, and I hope it is for you as well. :)


Take a few minutes to pray to God and cast your burdens onto Him and let the Lord carry them for you. You shouldn't need to carry them yourself. Then, create a list off all the things you want to accomplish in your day and write them down in order of priority. As you work through each item on your list put a nice thick cross mark through it. You'll visually see your progress which motivates you to move onto the next thing with a better mood.


(My mom was the one who taught me that. Love her!) ^^


So don't be stressed, (like me), and enjoy your day!


~Twyla

There are times in your life where you're going to feel God pulling at your spirit to speak to Him, and you won't be able to help but oblige that call.


I had one of those times earlier this week. Don't cringe, but it had to do with a guy. ;)


This summer I became very close to a guy I've known for the past 5 years but never had more than a summer friendship with him because of our job. It wasn't until the end of the summer that we realized we liked each other more than just a friend. There were some issues were didn't agree upon, so we were hesitant to consider a relationship. Yet over a few days, I had become overwhelmingly infatuated that I almost felt sick. I had so many butterflies in my stomach! I became very heavily distracted and felt like I had been thrown into a sea without a PFD (because lifejackets don't always save your life.) ;)


At some point in my emotion overload, I felt compelled to spill out my heart God, whom I hadn't sat down and spoken to personally since the beginning of the summer. I sat on the back porch of my grandparents cabin and prayed softly aloud about what my heart was struggling with, the questions I had, whether I was making good or bad decisions, and what I should do.


Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God." And that's just what I did. After my prayer I sat at the picnic table and stilled my mind so I could feel Him around me. I took in the nature around me and marveled at how much energy was put into His creation. How often I take it all for granted! I was renewed with wonder and curiosity for what He had created and surrounded me with. It was a refreshing feeling.


When I went back inside the cabin, I felt much more at peace. The over-boiling emotions went down to a manageable simmer, and I found I enjoyed my day-no, my week, more. :)
Don't hesitate or push aside the feeling of God tugging at your heart. He wants a relationship with you. In order to do that, you can't ignore Him and go to Him when it's convenient for you because you might miss what He has to say back to you.


It's a rewarding experience and it doesn't take much time out of your day. For me, that meant half and hour with Him to improve my entire week.


May God bless you and your conversations with Him!


~Twyla

Have you ever had one of those moments where God suddenly seems so apparently in your life that you can only stand there in shock and joy? I have. They are precious moments to me, but many times I have let them slip past me where I don't even recognize them. Other times it's like a bucket of water is dumped on my unsuspecting head. Here's one I'll share that I experienced a couple weeks ago.
~
I walked into the grocery store with a mission: to gather cheesecake ingredients. I picked my way down the isle loading things into my arms, having forgotten to bring my own bag. I assumed my tower of supplies was stable enough when I loaded some chips for a potluck atop of the cheesecake supplies. Much to my dismay, the bag of chips was too much and a small tub of sour cream fell to the unforgiving linoleum floor. The pressure inside the tub couldn't take the fall and the plastic seal beneath the top popped open and released a dollop of sour cream into the isle. Unfortunately, I had nothing in my purse to clean it up with.


Just as this dairy episode occurred, a Mexican woman and her two young sons came through the sliding doors where I was at. The woman said something in Spanish to her children who then walked up to me as asked, "Is there anything we can help you with?" I felt elated at the assistance that was being offered to me.


I replied, "Yeah, if you guys could stand here and make sure no one steps in that blob of sour cream, I'm going to let someone know it needs to be cleaned up."


"Okay!" The older boy stood beside it warning people it was there while his younger brother hugged the over-sized stuffed animal.


I let the cashier know it was there, and she assured me it would be taken care of when she had time. At the moment she was checking out items for a customer. I wandered back the the two boys and set my purse down. I began rifling through it to see if maybe I had a scrap of paper I could scoop the blob up with. The boys' mother turned and asked, "You need wipes? I carry wipes, here I give one to you."


I gratefully took the wipe and cleaned up the floor. I let the cashier know I took care of it and threw away the wipe. When I came back to grab my groceries I had left on the floor, the boys asked, "Is there anything else we can help you with?"


"No, I'm fine now, thank you very much! You guys have been a great help." I smiled at them.


"Okay, see you later then!" responded the older boy as he walked after his mom.


The younger boy began to follow his older brother when he turned, arms wrapped aorund his stuffed animal and said, "Have a good day!" Then he turned and chased after his brother.


I was so touched I could only praise God. The random act of kindness I received that day filled me joy and brightened my mood.
~
So the next time you debate whether to the help the girl carrying too many books or smile at the dour-looking old man, just do something! It can mean a whole lot to that person even if they don't acknowledge it! Let your love for God show through your actions. :)


Blessings,


~Twyla