{ his good, pleasing & perfect will }

Reading my bible, blogging and listening to Shawn McDonald at Starbucks - what a perfect way to start off my Sunday morning. As I sip my coffee and flip through pages of scripture, I can't help but love life. As each new day comes, I think about my life and what God has planned for me. Lately I've had the future on my mind. How will my current relationships work out? What will I be doing five, ten, twenty years from now? I'm not sure. But what I do know is that I am ready to surrender my goals, ambitions, relationships and live each day according to His will. Last week at LLA, (live life alive - the Christian club at my school, led by one of my friends, Maggie), we talked about Philippians, specifically Philippians 3 & 4. Paul (who wrote Philippians), was a crazy, but amazing guy. His life revolved around God. And he lived each and every day according to the will of Jesus Christ. He was in prison while he wrote this book, yet he still had so much hope and faith in God. And he never doubted that God had a plan for him. { Ephesians 1: 8-9 } says : "...with all wisdom and understanding, He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ." God will show us His will as the time draws near. His will is good, and pleasing. Me and my friend Jon were talking about God's will, and we talked about how absolutely incredible a life lived with God is. And our journey with our Maker is beautiful and INDESCRIBABLE. God surrounds us, He is everywhere. He is there on your best days, and your worst. When the rain falls, when the sun shines -God is present. So I ask myself, Am I going to sit back and live life like everyone else? Am I going to let each day pass, just waiting for my life to get going? Or am I going to take that leap of faith and lay my life down at the feet of Jesus? Living each day with hope and fullness. I don't know about you, but option two sounds like the life I want to lead. I choose to live a radical life according to His good, pleasing and perfect will.

With love, peace, happiness and hope,
rachel

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{ Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will. }

{ big changes }

Mmm..I love cozying up in bed, burning a fall scented candle and blogging :) Fall is definatly my favorite season, and this fall there have been many changes in my life. To start off, I am now officially a high school student! I moved from a smaller junior high where I knew a ton of people, to a huge high school where I knew all of four people. But I was defintaly ready for a clean slate, and a new beginning. I started high school about a week ago, and it's going alright. Not fantastic, but not terrible. I am slowly making friends in my classes, but I feel like everyone knows everyone..like they all fit in. I, however, am not feeling that way. I think we expect to go into high school and have the most amazing three years of our lives, and for some that may be the case, but I think for the majority of people it isn't. Each morning I am trying to wake up with a positive attitude about school, but I still don't seem to enjoy it at all. To be honest, online schooling sounds really good to me right now. I don't know..maybe its just me missing Emily. She left for Texas on Monday..and I'm still getting used to her being gone. Life's going to be so incredibly different without her here. I definatly balled my eyes out a few times this week, and was on the verge of tears a few times at school. There's going to be no one here to eat raw cinnamon buns with at three in the morning, no one to get the latest Indy music from..it's just different without one of my best friends around. I feel like these changes have come at me like a ton of bricks. I thought I was strong and ready for these changes, but now I'm feeling week and not prepared. I just wish life would slow down. I wish there was a pause button that I could press to take a break from life. But, obviously there isn't. So I'm going to have to pray that life gets better soon :)

with love, peace, and some happiness,
Rachel