Wake up.

This weekend I was blessed with the opportunity to spend both Saturday and Sunday in a small town called Sayre. This is an old mining community with a very diverse group of people found within its city limits. Our student ministry has had several opportunities to go to to this place in Northern Alabama and serve them in a variety of different areas. Anyone can tell that the way of life in Sayre is different from the moment you pull in- yesterday was a day that we pulled in and although the skies were clear and beautiful- there was still a darkness that hung over this small town. Life for most in Sayre is hard- struggling from paycheck to paycheck, parents trying to keep their kids safe from drug dealings that may be going on just next door, and mixed families to the extreme. I will not go into details about everything that went on this weekend but just wanted to share something that has been on my heart for the past two days and hope that you can find some encouragement and maybe even conviction in it as well---

Meet Kiranda.

This precious girl lights up a room

and has more joy than anyone I have been blessed to come into contact with.

She will help, hug, and love everyone that comes

within just a few feet of her.

She ran around all day on Saturday singing:

"I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart..."

and it brought me to tears.

She has such true joy.

The most amazing part about Kiranda's story is that if we stepped back

and looked at the specifics of her home situation

and the fires she has already faced in her young life-

most would wonder how she finds joy in anything.

Her father is present in her life but is in the middle of a fiery trial

himself and is trying to pull himself out of a pit.

Her mother is not in the picture.

She and her sweet sister, Allie, live with a woman

who takes care of 6 other children as well.

So how is this little girl living in the middle of what some would consider 

a nightmare to happy?

The bottom line is that she gets it.

It doesn't matter who she has or doesn't have or

where she lives and what she lives without-

She realizes that Jesus loves her.

He has a plan for her.

and He will take care of her needs.

So many of my days go by when I allow myself to get down and pitiful about a situation I may be facing- I find myself discouraged if even the tiniest of things doesn't go the way I want it to.

I get so caught up in what I have and don't have and trying to figure out everything that's going on around me---but why?

Why do I allow myself to be bogged down by worry and sadness when I have and have had all that I need in the Lord.

Why can I not trust that by seeking after the Lord's face every day and truly "commit my way to the Lord, trust in him" and be sure that He will act in his time.

I am hindering myself from true joy. Every day.

Kiranda reminded me of the source of my true joy, value, worth, and satisfaction.

Thank you, Sweet Jesus, for this reminder.

You are all we need.

-Ames

This is new.

Blogging.

Something that a friend has mentioned several times before but something that I always seemed to push into the back of my mind because when I write I often do so with a peace in knowing that my words will stay between the Lord and myself. My time spent within the pages of my spiral notebooks are intimate and filled with countless thoughts, questions, and prayers that are weighing on my heart at the end of each day. I often close my notebook each night with many things still rumbling around in my mind that I never seem to have the time to fully write out.

The bottom line is that there is no rhyme or reason to most of my "entries." There are so many days when I have paragraphs upon paragraphs of even the smallest topics that the Lord made so huge on my heart. Even now, I can think of my past few weeks of writing and how they have varied from my explanation of digging into a specific place in the word or trying to figure out where in the world my life is going...(that entry was left with a question mark at the end, along with many others.)

I am no scholar. Most of those who will read this already know that good and well. My thoughts are simple but my desire to know God in a more intimate and powerful way are more intense with each passing day. Writing just happens to be by form of talking with, pleading with, praising, and often battling with the Lord.

So here I go I guess- Who knows where in the world this will lead-
I apologize in advance- my mind jumps around ALOT. Embrace it :)

I will end this first "post"- if I can call it a post- with a brief description of what has been on my heart over the past several weeks...

I am in the middle of Beth Moore's study on Daniel. It has caused me to look at our culture in a completely different way. It is INCREDIBLE to see the similarities between this culture that we find ourselves in and the Babylon of Daniel's time. It has made me ask how this culture has had an effect of me. I have allowed so many days go by when I have walked with raised chin, a stuck up attitude, and overflowed with a selfish spirit, not unlike the babylonians when they proclaimed " I am , and there is none beside me."

We are called to be in the world--but not of IT...but IT just looks so good sometimes.
Oh!- How easy it is to get caught up in looking good, knowing the right people, being invited to the right places, and being successful in a worldy mind-set.Especially as women living in this time- where value seems to be put more on the condition of our six-pack than the condition of our hearts. Our flesh cries out for more, more, more!
But we are called to live not for ourselves. We are called to lay down our pride, desires, and selfish motives at the feet of the Lord everyday- and seek his face in all that we do.

Many, many, & probably most of the posts to follow will have this theme...

Where and How can I fit in here in this culture without being consumed by it?
All I know now is that I cannot fight that tempatation alone-
Spiritual warfare is so so real & happening all around us everyday-
but I often do not even acknowledge the battles that are being fought within my own heart.


During a recent student wednesday night service Job was the topic.
The speaker made a statement that grabbed my heart-and maybe it will do the same for you.

How often I find myself being aware that there is a spiritual battle going on around me-
but I allow myself to slip into the mind-set that the Lord and Satan are equally powerful and have an even playing field? That perhaps Satan will come out on top this time and that I will somehow slip out of the grasp of my Heavenly Father.

This is not the case at all. Satan knows where we are weak-and do not doubt that he will not attack with all his might to bring us to the brink of what we can bare-

But- Fear Not! We will not be consumed or defeated!
The battle has already been won for us.

I desperately needed to be reminded of the protection and constant provision I recieve from the Lord- who somehow can look at me- the wretch that I am- and call me "the apple of his eye."

Wow. What a mighty God we serve, indeed.


I think this wraps up my first entry. I am a little nervous about sending all of these thoughts out into the vast world. wide. web. But chances are that very few people will see this---which is making it alot easier for me to consider clicking "Publish Post."

I am praying for you- whoever "you" might be.

Hopefully I will get the guts to get back onto this and write again-
Until then-

Be blessed.

-Ames

Welcome!

Hello Amy Houston. Welcome to your new blog where you can write what fills your heart. Enjoy!