Blessed.

I'm really blessed, I truly am. My friends and I go out to eat every Friday, and let me tell you something, I'ts the highlight of my week. These people in my life are really quite amazing. This summer was pretty rough, even though God was in control then, like he is now. I feel as though we only praise God (I'm guilty) but we only praise him and come to him when things are looking up. So often during the bad times, we forget he's there at all actually. We say "Well if you're here, why's this happening to me right now?" Sadly, so many people turn away from him when things get rough. He's like that mega-knows-the-future-parent who still lets stuff happen in life. Believe it or not, he know's it's going to happen to you, just like when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. God isn't stupid at all, he knew that they were going to eat the fruit because we're all pretty sinful. He let it happen anyways. Adam and Eve still lived a pretty decent life after the whole exile thing though, right? God still took care of them. I believe that he's taking care of me, like with my amazing group of friends in this new town. God gives us so many blessings, and these people, yeah they're a huge one.

I'm reminded every day that God knows what he's doing and he's been taking care of me for my entire life. I'm so blessed.

-Emma Jane :)

Blessings are Basically Everywhere

So today, my best friend from my previous town texted me and told me that she would be in a town near me today (only a 30 minute drive) . Moral or story, we hung out for 5 hours. It was truly a God thing, He's so amazing and I really have been blessed today. God is in control and knows what he's doing. Ya'll, he's got this in the bag. "He's got the whole world in his hands, he's got the whole wide world in his hands, he's got the whole world in his hands, he's got the whole world in his hands. He's got you and me sister in his hands, he's got you and me sister in his hands, he's got you and me sister in his hands, he's got the whole world in his hands" You know this Sunday School song? It's pretty catchy and cheesy, but it has a great point. He has the entire world in his hands, including you and me. Blessings come in big and small packages and opportunities, remember that. God will always take care of you no matter what society is telling you. #TrustInHim

-Emma Jane-

Doors

Lately, I've come to discover that God opens some doors and closes others. The hard part is figuring out which one is which. Well, obvious a closed door for me would be the whole moving thing. That's a for sure closed door. I mean like stuff happens in life and sometimes we don't have the slightest power to control it. It's something that sometimes drives the control freak inside of me crazy. Personally, I've learned that when you give all of the control over to God, life gets easier. It gets much better, and your happiness increases.

Personally, football games are hard for me because of the homesickness that comes with every single one. I haven't figured out the blessing in that feeling yet- but it will come to me since our God is amazing beyond words. He really is. He knows what he's doing, even If I personally feel pretty awful at an event geared towards having fun. He's probably thinking "I have plans for her, she's just gonna have to tough it out for a while even though I'm watching over her." I don't know, I wish I knew what was in his mind, but he's so great and powerful that fathoming it is nearly impossible. You know what's amazing as well? There are so so so many people in this beautiful world that He created himself. And you know what? He cares about all of us. We aren't very reverent most of the time, realizing how powerful God actually is, you know? He's so powerful and he's so amazing that it's so hard to believe that he loves every single one of us with his entire heart. Well, he's got to have a whole lot of hearts or something. I don't know. I only know that even when I'm feeling down and upset about my control or my town or something that I can't change, He's always going to be there. God doesn't give up on us, he's the only one who doesn't, honestly.

 I just can't imagine or wrap my head around how much he loves us all because man, I've screwed up.  I've screwed up and hurt many people tonight and even though "We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19) It just gets harder and harder to love the ones who love us even. If we love because He loved us, than who's there to hurt? Hypothetically, this makes sense. In reality, I'm a screw up. I sin like a whole bunch like all of the time. Nobody's perfect, really. It's true, in case you didn't know that. I thank God because of how loving and nurturing and forgiving he is. We have an amazing and forgiving God and that's pretty great- so great that words can't even be used to describe it.

Oh, and my playing in band is getting better. It was rough and I was pretty much terrible, as you can see in my former posts, but I'm caught up to speed and I can feel myself getting better slowly. Just an off-topic note there. Kay, cool.

Basically, God opens and closes doors in your life constantly, you've gotta keep an eye out to figure out which ones those are. Oh, and God is in control and forgiving and just pretty much amazing.

Emma Jane

Romans 5:3-5

Just a little update

Any-hoo, as the title says, this is just a little update on the whole Band Camp thing. I've recently been assigned to the Vibes (like a xylophone-kinda) CLICK HERE TO SEE A PICTURE . If you checked it out, it has like keys and stuff with notes and stuff like that. For the last two years I played the marching bass drum. CLICK HERE TO SEE ANOTHER PICTURE  Now, this drum doesn't have notes and stuff. You just kindly get to hit it over and over again in different rhythms.

Now, knowing this very valid difference in instruments, my first week of trying to play the other instrument at camp well-stunk. It turns out that reading music quickly is a good quality to have. It also turns out that it's not a quality that I particularly have at the moment. Well, that, and figuring out which notes go with what keys. It's all kind of one big, ball of coordination (I probably didn't spell that right). My spelling has been a tad off lately, so sorry. But moving your hands along with all of this is pretty difficult too- if you're wondering. let's just say that the entire thing is hard. Well, harder than I thought it was going to be.

Well, to sum it all up for you- I really struggled this past week. I trust God knows what he's doing though because before you can see the rainbow, He lets you walk through the storm. Right now, yes, that's the storm part of this. My mother also told me some analogy (Pretty sure that's the wrong word, maybe this is a metaphor) but anyways, a butterfly has to struggle in the cocoon(Is that spelled right?)  before it can come out and let it's wings dry and fly and become beautiful and yeah. So maybe I'm like the butterfly right now and I'm struggling, but one day I'll eventually get good at this stuff and be beautiful and yeah. I like to think of it that way at least, you know?


 I guess this one wasn't so inspirational or anything, but hey, just a friendly reminder that God still knows what he's doing.

kay, cool.

((Hugs))

Emma Jane

Don't Worry, Ya'll

Last week I had the opportunity to Junior Staff at Camp Lone Star. We did manual labor mostly all day, just telling you now. You see though, even though we did all of the labor and such (which I'm very bad at and don't enjoy) I still think about the entire experience and I can't wipe the smile off of my face. I loved having the opportunity to serve our Lord by serving other people. Words just can't describe the way that Junior Staffing has impacted my life. I loved being able to wake up each morning and know that I was going to be of service, to the place I love most, all day. Usually I have words to fill my blog page, but this time it's completely different. The spirit has really has been shining into my heart lately and I've learned that he's in control of everything. Lately, some things have happened that I know I can't change, and yet I  have been trying to change them. If we let God be in control of our lives, what's there to worry about really? Now, this doesn't mean sell everything you own, sit around, and be a lazy bum until the glorious day that we get to go to Heaven gets here. How will you glorify or serve The Lord by doing that? Personally, staying in His Word and letting Him shine through me daily by my words and actions has been pretty amazing. I'm not perfect, because that would be impossible. I also just love Our Lord a whole lot and if you follow me on twitter, I've been on a "quote Christian song lyrics 24/7" kind of rampage because I just love the music and Our Lord, so it's a win-win. I don't know, I've been super blessed lately and have put Him in control and life has just been a little bit less stressful. He's in charge and oh, also, I've learned to accept the fact that if God wants someone in your life, He'll put them there. Being in complete control is His job, not ours.

Kay, there's my random spill of the month.

If you're curious, my twitter is @ejane_12

The Letter Writer

Just a few moments ago I finished watching The Letter Writer. The premise of the movie is that the main character, Sam, wrote random letters of pure joy and encouragement addressed to nobody in particular. When he saw someone in need, he would hand them a letter to brighten up their day just a little bit. He used his gift to bless other people. I know it was only fiction, but it made me realize that everyone has a gift. It doesn't have to be writing, but there's not one single person in this world who doesn't have a special something about them. What if the 7 billion people in this world decided to use their talents for helping others? People will probably question this though, asking things like "What about drug dealers? Or strippers? What are their talents?" What we do, doesn't mean that's who we are." I want to be a writer. Is that who I am? No. I'm strong, confident, and a woman who loves The Lord, who just so happens to love writing. Maybe that was a bad personal example. Writing is what I do, a person who loves Jesus is who I am though. Do you see the difference? Now may I ask, who are you and how can you use your talents to help others? (Now say this sentence with me) "Who am I and what talents am I going to use to help somebody else?"


Very good. Very Very good.

Emma Jane

The airport.

So as my title may have mentioned, this will probably be about an airport experience. Yesterday, our flight back home was scheduled to leave at 1:50pm. Nothing hard about that, right? We arrived at the airport around 11, just to make sure that we were in time completely. There were isolated storms throughout our current city and the one where we were headed, therefore the flight was delayed. And delayed. And delayed. Eventually 4:30 came around and it was pretty much time for our scheduled flight. We all got on the plane and then the announcement rang loud and clear "I'm sorry but the pilot can only fly a maximum of 9 hours and his expiration would be in the middle of this flight. An agent will come to explain your options." So yes, after that happened we waited another full 30 minutes in the plane and then we all got our luggage and got off of the plane. The flight was rescheduled for 9:15 pm.

When 8:00 ish rolled around, I noticed that our flight had called off of the screen and it wasn't listed for takeoff anymore. We had then learned that our new flight was scheduled for 8am the next morning. So here I am currently, sitting on an airplane, waiting for it to take off and blogging on my cell phone. I think this was God's plan after all though. He probably knew that the storms wouldn't be safe to travel in anyway. The airline blessed us by giving us a hotel voucher and some money to eat at the airport. Overall, it's a blessing to be traveling in more safe weather than the storms yesterday  and I'm thanking Our Lord and Savior for keeping us safe. God always knows what he's doing, even if you don't.

This is me signing off from my first official Cell Phone blog post!