Share the Hope

A while ago I talked about Peace. I'd like to discuss Hope a little now. These thoughts are not all my own; some belong to something I recently read by a woman named Enuma Okoro.

Hope is a powerful thing. We all can choose to have hope, or to not have hope. That choice is ours. But having hope sometimes can be difficult. Maybe what you have been hoping and praying for for so long has yet to be answered. Hope is choosing to continue praying for that even when it seems impossible. Hope is believing in God and His love, no matter the situation. It's being unrealistic and ignoring logic. Hope means trusting in God's promises even when it's tough.

However, there is good news. As children of God, we don't choose hope all alone. God is always with us and we have each other to rely on in faith. We are all the body of Christ and hope is ours to pass to everyone who needs it and help them to carry it if they can't by themselves. And our brothers and sisters will always be there for us if we can't carry hope by ourselves. These are some verses that talk about hope.

Psalm 31:24 is one of my favorite verses. "Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD."

Psalm 33:22 - "May Your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in You."

Psalm 71:5 - "For You have been my hope, O Sovereign LORD, my confidence since my youth."

Jeremiah 29:11-13 is a comfort many times when I feel depressed. "For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me, and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

Romans 5:1-5 - "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us."

Ephesians 1:17-18 - "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints."

Sugar

Sugar was my baby boy, my pet guinea pig. He'd been in my life for 5 and a half years. This afternoon he passed away. He will be dearly missed. I love you Sugar.

I honestly don't know what to call this...

Life has been having its ups and downs lately, but I think things are headed up. I'm now out of that impossible July-summer-break-laziness and I've promised a few people I will have cleaned up my life by the time I start high school, August 25th. So it's down to work for the next two weeks.

I've got a few pictures to share with y'all from Cape Cod. Then it's back to cleaning my room I believe. These are of some sunsets on the beach. Enjoy.

The Price of Peace

[Note: Sorry for the awkwardness of the post. This is new to me and I've been working in this since April. I hope it doesn't take away from the message.]

What is peace?
This is the definition from a dictionary:

1. freedom from disturbance, quiet and tranquility, mental calm; serenity
2. freedom from or the cessation of war or violence

A close friend of mine, upon hearing this definition replied, "I totally disagree with them. 'Cause man, my life has been full of pain, crap and almost open war with church-goers. And yet I've been peaceful at times."

We had been discussing the idea of peace after realizing that peace (real peace, explained below) is a very hard thing to come by. My friend agreed and said that along with that, you had to decide how much it's worth. You had to decide if peace is worth everything, or if there are other things that are worth more.

Like truth. Or hope. Or love.

Is truth worth more than peace? Or is peace worth more than love?(and so on) To answer these questions, you have to have a definition of peace. You have to know what it is. The above definition doesn't seem to work. I think peace is a feeling you get in your soul. A sense of bliss, clam and joy. It's "not worrying even during the pain and struggle."

Or does it go deeper than even that? My life always seems to be too dramatic to be peaceful. The only peace I can find is when I look to God and let him lead me and love me. In church, my pastor begins the service by telling us to greet each other and pass the Peace of Christ. So, the Peace of Christ is something that can be shared. And if you ask me, the "Peace of Christ" seems to match the definition I came up with.

Now that we have a definition for the Peace of Christ, can we answer those questions? Is there something worth more than peace for you? Is love, or hope, or truth that important? Would you be willing to give you that feeling of calmness to feel loved? To feel hopeful and optimistic? To be dealt with honestly? I don't know about you, but I feel like peace is a package deal. When I am peaceful with God in my heart, I feel loved, I am hopeful. With the Peace of Christ in me, I feel Truth in my soul. So maybe, just maybe, we don't need to decide if peace is worth more or less. Maybe, the price of peace is just believing in God and Jesus and giving our lives to them.

I Will Be Here

I love Stephen Curtis Chapman's music. I Will Be Here just played on my iTunes and I thought of something my sister BethAnn did a few weeks ago that seemed to work with this one. I didn't include names, but there is a certain name to go with each.

Tomorrow morning if you wake
up and the sun does not appear
I will be here

~My friend, one of these days the sun will start shinning for you.

If in the dark, we lose sight of love
Hold my hand, and have no fear
'Cause I will be here

~My brother who lost his way and lost his true love because of it.

I will be here

When you feel like being quiet
When you need to speak your mind
I will listen

~My sister, you've always done this for me; now it's my turn.

And I will be here
When the laughter turns to cryin'
Through the winning, losing and trying
We'll be together
I will be here

~My sister, no matter what comes of our current challenges, we're only a phone call away.

Tomorrow morning, if you wake up
And the future is unclear
I will be here

~My sister who isn't sure of the right path for her future.

Just as sure as seasons were made for change
Our lifetimes were made for these years
So I will be here

~My brother, 14 years is not long enough.

I will be here
And you can cry on my shoulder
When the mirror tells us we're older
I will hold you

~My friend who dreams of a time when things were simpler; when we were younger.
And I will be here
To watch you grow in beauty
And tell you all the things you are to me
I will be here

~My best friend forever, you are becoming a beautiful young woman, and I hope one day you will be able to see that too.

I will be true to the promise I have made
To you and to the One who gave you to me

~My brother, I will keep my promises and I thank God for you everyday.

Tomorrow morning, if you wake up
And the sun does not appear
I will be here
Oh, I will be here

Purity Ring

I got a purity ring today!!!! It's pretty :D

It says True Love Waits on it. For anyone interested, I am going to be wearing it on my left hand ring finger(wedding ring finger) and do not plan on taking it off very often.

Now to decide if I'm going to that dance...

Abraham Lincoln

Hmm, well yes, I knew Abraham Lincoln was a genius, and well yes, I knew it would be hard to translate his works to english 8th graders can understand, but I didn't realize it would be this hard! I mean, I already knew that most of my peers don't have a large vocabulary, but honestly!

Alright, so it's not as hard as I would make you believe. The project is due Thursday, and I think there's a chance I'll survive it. I decided that I'm going to shorten and make the speeches "modern" and present some facts for each. Hopefully, I can present it to the class in under 15 minutes and still make it interesting... I'm doing four speeches:

• Emancipation Proclamation
• Gettysburg Address
• Second Inaugural Address
• Last Public Address

So far so good! Maybe this will work out after all.

So very quickly, I wanted to share a few things I've learned about Abraham Lincoln. Some of you may be familiar with his famous "House Divided" speech, so named for the statement, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Well, this is a shortened quote by Jesus in the New Testament. Mathew 12:25 "Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, 'Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.'" (NIV) I also wanted to share a few quotes from him that I liked:

"I now wish to make that personal acknowledgment that you were right, and I was wrong." Imagine if present-day politicians were this humble.

"Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail." Ain't that the truth!

And finally, my personal favorite is the understandably irritated statement from President Lincoln to General McClellen. "Dear General, if you do not want to use the army I would like to borrow it for a few days."

I bid y'all good night, with a question for any Uncommon members(however many there may be left): What's up with the site?

And now... back to work!! :D