You would not believe your eyes, if ten million firefliessss, lit up the world as I fell asleeeeepp.

Oneeee more post for the day :)

This blog is going to be quite short, at least, I think. I really just want to say that God is incredible.

I like to take time when it's nice outside to sit and think. I think of all the little things that flood my mind as I stare off to the lake behind my house. A lot of times, I just take a breath and take in the beauty of God's creation.

Do you ever wonder what things would be like if God didn't put so much heart into our world? He could've been like, "Ehhhh... trees? Nah. They won't miss 'em" or "Psh.. Fireflies? Whatevv" (Yes, that's how God sounds to me.. hahah, Just messin') But He didn't do that.

You've gotta understand, when fireflies come out, you know this girl is still catching them at 18 years old, and I'm sure I will until I'm too old to walk. God put so much thought and love into every single part of our creation that it blows my mind. We should take time and rejoice in even the simplest things in life, like fireflies.

God truly adores us. He is  my absolute hero and always will be.

Ohhhh, they can't take that away from meeee.

I've learned a lot about fasting recently. It's so important that we take the time to sacrifice our personal wants and work on our spiritual needs.

My recent facebook fast went quite well. It was surprisingly easy, in fact. As easy at it was, I still feel very accomplished. Yayyy, Hanna!

Anyways, I've decided that I want to do fasts much more often. This summer before attending college, I'm definitely going to fast to prepare myself for all the new challenges I will be facing.

Fasting is not just giving up food to loose weight or giving up facebook because you're on it too much. Don't get me wrong, those CAN be good reasons to give up something. However, fasting is taking away one thing to get more in sync with God's plan. Taking away "noise" is such a powerful thing.

hit me with your best shoooooootttt...

Sooo, on Wednesday we were talking about four "S's"

Simplicity,
Submission,
Solitude,
& Service.

As we were going over each of these, I realized one that I really need to work on. I'm going to be completely honest in saying that my submission to some authority is not too great. There have been plenty of times that I can think of recently that I was not submissive to those who are over me. I've been trying to figure out why that is a lot lately.

When I was a kid I was picked on, pushed around, and underminded quite often like most kids. I had a very weird childhood because I've been in every child situation. Before my older brothers moved in from California and Caleb was born, I was basicly the only and would become the youngest child when my older siblings were around. After four years of being relatively the only child, I became an older sister. Not long after, Josiah moved in then I was the middle child, then Gabe moved in and I became just one of four, then when I was about 7 my older sister moved out here and I became what I am now, the second youngest.

(Yes, I had a bowl cut)

Now, don't misunderstand me, I adore my family. However, I had some issues. I wanted so badly to be able to hang out with my older brothers, but I was their much younger, annoying, sister at the time. I can remember so many times where I was pushed around by their friends and them. Honestly, I can understand why they got annoyed with me, I was little Hanna who was 9 and 10 years younger than them. At the time, it was such a hurt to me. I tried everything. I even did my best to be a punk so they'd think I was cool. I had a mini-skateboard and everything. Anyways, along with these things my little brother was picked on crazy amounts. After a while, I began to stand up for Him. Yelling at people to the point that I almost got sent to the principle's office once (haha, oh, man.) As I got older, so did my brothers obviously, Josiah and Gabe graduated, Caleb could take care of himself, then I started to come out of my shell only to be put back into one by being bullied a lot emotionally by my friends for many years, even recently. (No pity party here :) )

As a result, I have formed this major defense against being pushed around or told what to do. It's extremely annoying sometimes, and other times I can admit that it comes to good use. Sequentially, I have also put this "armor" into use against people over me in ministry sometimes. I just laughed because I realized if I were dealing with me, I wouldn't take it. Hm, I can't say that I'm too awful bad, but I'm worse than I want to be, hence this blog.

As this is brought to my attention, I'm really going to try to find God's grace and put it to use. There are times where I know that my defense will be put to good use, but not when it comes to me simply not agreeing with the rules or something along those lines. This may seem like a forgiveness thing, but it's really not, I'm okay with everything now to the extent of I don't even hurt over it. The problem here is that I washed the wounds, but cherish the scars. So here's to me taking a step to not being so fighty.

AAAAAMEN.

(iiiiiii can't think of song for this)

I was just writing a blog about something completely different than what I'm about to write about and had to completely wipe it out to post this.

Wow, I have so much admiration for this girl now. Last summer my papa (my dad) and I went surfing for my first time and papa's gazzilionth time (he was a beach bum growing up in Cali). Being that I'm a snowboarder, I was stoked to try out surfing! I was doing very well for my first two days. I caught a few waves, and was finally getting the hang of things. On the second day, my papa was trying to teach my youngest brother and I decided to try and catch waves on my own without is supervision. Next thing I know, I caught a wave for a second, fell, then as I stood up, I see my board charging at my face. The most important rule of surfing is "NEVER LET THE BOARD COME BETWEEN YOU AND THE WAVE!" Now I know why, the board slammed into my face breaking my nose. Even now thinking about surfing this summer freaks me out. Then I see this video of a girl who didn't give up after something so physically and emotionally harmful happened to her and realize I need to do the same.

When I heard about Bethany Hamilton, I remember being so exstatic that she didn't let a shark attack ruin her career as a surfer. Now that I know that she's a Christian, I have even more admiration for her than I did. Not just because she a Christian, but because she still is. You can see by this video that she has such a love for Christ even-still.  Her light for God shines even brighter than ever.

Sometimes we often let silly things ruin our relationship with Christ. There are many times I know that I act like a spoiled two year old with the Lord.

He doesn't deserve that in the least. I want to strive to be a Bethany Hamilton. To be someone who takes the bad things that happen in life, big or small, and turn them completely over to God.

I have no doubt in my mind that God was weeping with Bethany as she came to the realization that things will be different. But through this, God helped her become strong.

I will be doing my best to hold strong to Romans 8:28.




My God is amazing.