Christ, Coffee, and Cornfields

  God is the single thing that keeps me sane. He is what allows me to get up in the morning, sleep at night, and keep my head up in times of trouble and in normalcy.   Life has been throwing quite a few curveballs lately, with work, school, and my personal life. It is EXHAUSTING! Seriously. Some days I want to just stay in bed. But then I remember that life keeps going whether I want it to or not, so I get my butt up and about. And no matter what happens in my day, good or bad, God uses those hours to show me how blessed I am by His Graces. The Lord has blessed me by the fact that I am alive!   I never regret living. Never .   I've been thinking about this a lot lately, mostly because I feel like my life is a small disaster (in fact, it is not; I realize that lots of people have it worse than I do.) You see, I have fallen victim, like so many people, to the feeling of wallowing in self-pity and thinking that my issues are the most important thing in m...

  Lots of people use “YOLO” as an excuse to party, get drunk, and hook up. Those aren’t good reasons to use YOLO. Think about it; we do only live once, but after that you will get judged by our Creator on how we lived. We got put on this earth to glorify God, being made in His image. God doesn’t get drunk, lie, steal, cheat, backstab, or hook up. So why does our culture say it’s okay? Fact is, that stuff isn’t okay. If you died today, where would you go? 2 choices—Heaven or Hell. You choose your destination. Don’t believe me? Read the Bible. Say you’re a hung over 17 year old who gets shot and killed. When you go to talk to the Big Man Upstairs, what’re you going to say to Him? “Come on, God. I was just having some fun. YOLO?” And give Him your best smile and wink. Not gonna fly.   Just because you accept Him as your Savior doesn’t mean you can screw off and not be a good person for the rest of your life. You gotta live for Him. Everything you do, say, and thi...

  It was recently International Women's Day. What even is that?! I think it's kind of silly to have all these days celebrating random things (I saw where there is also a National Give a Girl Your Sweatshirt Day. What?), but at the same time, I also think that it is very important to celebrate womanhood. Turns out that IWD is actually meant to celebrate women and how much we have accomplished, especially in the socioeconomic spheres. That's great, but personally, I want to celebrate it differently. So I did!   I celebrate being a woman as God created me, as He created all women.   I celebrate the fact that God created women distinctly different from men every day! The Lord chose the woman to be His last creation, the crown jewel on Earth. That is so legit. It's also an honor. Upholding the honor of being God's highest earthly creation is a great responsibility. As, women, we are created specifically for things that only we can do (sorry guys)! We have t...

  Serving others is what every Christian is called to in some way or another. Some people are called into the mission fields of third-world countries. Others are called to be domestic servants, helping those in their own community. And all of us are called to be servants in our families. As parents. As siblings. As friends.   Christians have the example of Jesus Christ to show us how to be servants. He defined the word by how He lived. Jesus constantly desired the well-being of others. He was always putting others' needs before His own. And He lived a very full and prosperous life as a human being. His followers saw the life Jesus lived and how it not only bettered the lives of those He served, but it also was very beneficial to His own. They then strived to live a life like His. Did it tire them? Sure it did. Were they worn out because they served so many? Of course! But it had to be done, and in serving others, the followers of Chris...

 Awhile back, my mom and I went to a workshop on charisms. Many people are unfamiliar with that term, so I'll explain! Charisms are basically gifts that God has given you that help you to serve Him and others in the best, most efficient way possible. When exercising your charisms, it gives you energy and happiness! That's the short version.  I've been thinking about life quite a bit lately. As a young adult, I haven't quite figured out where I am supposed to be headed. The topic of charisms popped into my head today and kinda stuck. Here's my thought:  God gave us gifts for a reason. If we recognize those gifts and follow them, our life will be headed in the direction God planned for it to go.  I'll give an example. Personally, I know one of my charisms is writing. It's a gift that God gave to me and I love love love to do it! I love writing just to write or to get my thoughts out. I really love to help, encourage, and guide people through my writing. ...

  It is really rare that I have the opportunity to actually write my thoughts down as soon as they pop into my head. It's after one in the morning and I don't feel like sleeping, so God decided to use that as incentive to write! My revelation is actually quite hard for me to come to grips with because I have to realize all of my failings and how sinful I am. Here goes...   College sucks. I'm just gonna throw that out there right now. It is definitely not my thing, insofar as belonging there. I don't feel God's presence, which is ironic since the Catholic Church created the university system. I will admit some good has come from it (like going to Daily Mass twice a week at the Cathedral!) but for the most part, it's a hell hole. I've been feeling rather depressed and at odds with God and my mom lately, none of which are holy. So what am I still in school for? Good question....Anyway, I'm getting off track.   I used to be a super smiley happy person wh...

  Soooooo when I started brainstorming about what to write for this post I was in the middle of a pretty rotten day and my post was essentially going to be a pity party for me. I was super tired, got up late, felt like nothing was quite right all day and finally tonight I was at a gathering of friends where I was not feeling accepted at all. It was sort of the last straw, and I was like, "God, what's the deal here? Why are these people not liking me when I've tried so hard for so long to be accepted by them?" It was rough. On my way home, I realized something that in the back of my mind I knew was the problem.   I didn't give God my life through prayer today.   Recently, I created a solid prayer life and my world has drastically changed since then. Whenever I don't pray, my whole day is off and I feel like everybody is against me. That's what the deal was today. I hadn't really prayed hard core the last couple days, just meal prayers and bedtime pr...