Making Your time - Time for God, By Lauren L.

Making Your time - Time for God

By Lauren L.
 

The lives that we all live are often so overwhelming and busy.
 List of things to do:
1. Homework, revision, exam preparation
2. Visit family members
3. Meet up with friends
4. Tidy room
5. Help out around the house
6. Go to clubs - (Youth club, after schools clubs etc)
7. Get shower/bath and wash my hair
8. Go to the dentist
9. Go to the doctors
10. Help out at church events
11. Go get presents for friends/family members' birthdays
I'm sure you can all relate to the above, or at least a few of the examples, but seriously, do you ever just have those days when you feel so tired and exhausted by everything you have to do and you still haven’t done all the things you wanted to do? Sometimes you might have so much work for school that you can’t do it all and you might just have to choose one school subject to focus and work on, never mind finding time for family, friends or even God! Does this sound familiar?
Yes, it does, because it is! We all live busy lifestyles. But is that an excuse to keep putting off prayer, not going to church or our fellowship groups  or just generally working on our friendship with God? “God understands that I’m busy He wont mind  Ill go to church next week so its ok if I miss this one Sunday,  I’m sure I wont be the only one not there tonight, everyone understands cause they are busy too”.
No! It’s not an excuse! Don’t get me wrong - I understand that it’s so, so, so hard to find time for God because we always have so many other things we need/want to do. But the thing is we don’t always have to make specific time for God - I mean we don’t have to go out of our way to have quiet, chilled time giving God our undivided attention, although that is important to do when we can. When we are busy, it's better to make our time godly time than give God none of our time.
For example, instead of just saying I had too much work to do last night so its not my fault I didn’t have time for God, I could make time in the morning while I'm getting ready or when I'm in the car on the way to school. Pray to God and give him a wee bit off your time! Let Him know that although you have been extremely busy, you will never be too busy for Him! It might not be perfect, but it's better to show God that you are making the effort to find time for Him, than to not show any signs that you even care. Just remember we have a very special, very important and very unique friendship with the Lord our Heavenly Father, and just like all friendships, we need to put the time and effort into them to make them strong.
This is just like anything else - to do well in school, we need to spend time on homework or things we find difficult. How about the gym? If we are dedicated and go there on a weekly basis for an hour or more, we will see better results and feel better than the person who goes once a month for half an hour.
The same applies to us with God... So think! Think, am I making enough time for God to ensure I have the strongest friendship I can have with Him, or am not doing enough to spend time with Him?

Friendship, By Lauren L.

Friendship 

By Lauren L.

What does friendship mean to you? Does it mean having someone there for you through tough times someone to be your wings when you forget how to fly? Does it mean having someone who knows your mistakes knows everything about you but still loves you and accepts you for who you really are?  Does it mean having someone who you know will always be there and will never let you down? Does it mean having someone in your life who always wants the best for you? If I asked you to write a list of qualities that your perfect best friend would have would you your list look like this?

1. Faithful
2. Caring
3. Genuine
4. Trustworthy
5. Loyal
6. Loving
7. Encouraging
8. Forgiving
9. Thoughtful
10. Understanding
I personally think friendship is a very important and special part of life. All the things I have written about above are things I look for in a friend. All my life I have been searching for a best friend just like I have described above but I never found one like that however now I realize that my best friend has been waiting for me all my life, His name is Jesus and He has all the things that I could possibly  want in a friend and I know that no matter what happens I’ll always have Him. I have friends that have some of the things listed above and I know I'm lucky to have them and I always thank God for them. However, I know Jesus is my ultimate best friend. I just needed to open my eyes and see that He has always been there, just waiting for me to let Him be my best friend.

Jesus is my best friend because I can be sure He will never let me down and I can talk to Him about anything because He can relate to me through everything He went through on Earth. He can understand when I am hurt, sad, lonely, happy, joyful, isolated, disappointed and excited because He has felt all these feelings Himself; He is just like us - when He was here on Earth He wept. So when we weep, He will be able to relate to us and feel our pain.

This is a wee song to go with this article…enjoy!

http://youtu.be/EcXURC_nNhc

Worrying and worries, By Lauren L.

Worrying and worries

By Lauren L.

Whether or not we choose to admit it we all worry about things at some point in our lives. I know I worry about things more than most people - that’s just the way I have always been. But a few years ago when I went to church, I realized that having God in my heart and life didn’t mean that I would stop worrying, but it meant that I could be sure that I didn’t need to worry and that God would make sure everything was okay. That was the reassurance and comfort I desperately needed. I still worry about things a lot, but when I start to worry I make sure to give my worries to God and He gladly swaps them for some of His strength and faith. We have to remember that God is our heavenly Father and He doesn’t want us His children to worry - He wants to take all that away. So ask God to take away your worries and put hope, strength and faith in place of them. A little thing to remember when we’re afraid and worried is: Don’t fear, God is here! and have faith - trust Him.
Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up.
(Proverbs 12:25)
So when we start to worry pray and give them to God because worrying is just a waste of the very precious time that God has given us.
Worry replaced by prayer = trust.

Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 4:6-7)


Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you
(1 Peter 5:7)

When we give our worries to God it’s like letting go off a balloon and it just flies away up into the sky and out of our reach and there is no way we can get it back. Just like when we give our worries to God - they seem to fly away and make space in our hearts for His precious love towards us.

The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.
(Deuteronomy 31:8)

A little task to do if you worry a lot like me is to take a shoe box and wrap it with some nice wrapping paper. Then choose some verses and quotes about worries that you like, type them on the computer, print them, and then stick them on the box. If you want you can even stick some pictures on it, too. Then when you have finished decorating your worry box, sit down and really think about what you always worry about. Write it down on a bit of paper, scrunch it up and put it in the box, and keep doing this for any worries you might have. It really helps, but for each worry you have make sure you say a prayer to go with it - maybe even put it in the box along with the worry - it’s totally up to you.
Lastly, just remember, when you put your worries in the box, it’s like letting go of a balloon and the worry is totally out of your reach. But that’s okay because God our heavenly Father has everything in control.

Love and best wishes

God bless you all

Love, Lauren

Kindness That Lasts a Lifetime, By Lauren L.

Kindness That Lasts a Lifetime

By Lauren L.

Kindness that lasts a lifetime ....and anger that lasts only a moment.. who can give us that ...? God can!!

For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favour lasts a lifetime, weeping may remain for a night but rejoicing comes in the morning.
Psalm 30:5

Its so hard to possibly imagine that someone’s kindness towards us could possibly last a lifetime ...but that is the way God’s kindness towards us is. 
We live in a world of sin; we do so many things wrong, and without a doubt we make God sad and hurt him, because he made the world so perfect and beautiful, but we had to ruin it with all our selfishness and bad ways.
Not one of us can say we are perfect or live a sin free life because that is not true! No one is perfect except from God. I have made so many mistakes in life..And will continue to do so, no matter how hard I try not to. But God is so loving to us that even when we really mess up in life and sin, his anger only lasts a moment.
When someone hurts or lets me down, I tend to be sad and angry for more than a moment. But God, our perfect father, his anger lasts only a moment, and very soon turns to kindness and love for us!
So we should not be afraid to ask God for forgiveness and admit our sin, because no matter what we ever say or do God couldn’t give up on us, even if he tried.
He loves us so much that he will never stop doing good for us. He will bless us all our lives and his kindness will make our lives better than we could imagine, because every good and perfect gift is from God’s hand.
So here’s our prayer:
Dear Lord...
We thank you for your endless mercy and love towards us, that no matter what we ever say or do you always and always will love and care for us. I thank you for all the good and perfect gifts you have blessed us with. I pray that even when someone hurts us or lets us down that our anger will last only a moment, and that we will help and be kind to people all of our lives, because this is the way you treat us, so please help us treat others in the same loving, compassionate way you treat everyone.
We love you Lord.
Amen.