Astronomical Grace

Well, the plan to blog once a month has obviously failed during the craziness of October and November. But thank goodness for time off in December! I recently read Indescribable by Louie Giglio and Matt Redman. It covers the wonder of creation in the Universe - sun, moon, & stars - and how all of these reflect the glory and majesty of the One who made them. Before this, I had never even considered how vast the Universe truly is. I am now absolutely blown away by how great and powerful our God is.
For example, did you know that there are way more than 7 billion stars in just one arm of the Milky Way Galaxy?
Or that there is a star named VY Canis Majoris that is SO huge you could fit seven quadrillion earths inside of it? That's enough Earths, if Earth were a golf ball, to cover the entire state of Texas in golf balls - two feet deep. Think that's a big deal?!? Hang on!
Psalms 33:6 says, "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host." Did you catch that? God breathes out stars that big! Oh. My. Lanta. Now for the really crazy part.
Out of all of this giant Universe, God chose you. All of creation reflects His glory but He chose you to be created in His image, to be stamped with His divinity, to make His name famous and to reflect His love and grace to a broken world. WOAH. I am blown away by the crazy love and astronomical grace of my Savior. He is SO good. Run to Him. Worship Him in wonder. Give your life to Him and reflect His glory as the Moon reflects the Sun. He deserves it. And He is worth it. Trust me.

Break Through Those Walls.

Alright, starting off my 6th week here at good 'ol DBU (Can you believe it?!?) with a heavy blog post. This has been on my list of things to write about for about 5 weeks - so bear with me as I dish all of this out. It's worth reading to the end - trust me.
For as long as I can remember, I've struggled with 3 main things: Pride, Trust, & Anxiety. These things trip me up SO bad in my walk with Christ. I can't tell you how many journal entries I have dedicated to my struggle with trusting the Lord, relying on myself, and worrying about the future. It's seriously ridiculous. My first week of school here, I really dug into why I am the way that I am. I really examined my past and tried to figure out where all of these issues stem from. It hurt to find the answers - but I'm thankful that I found them. I'd been hanging on to some hurts for a while. And I didn't want to let go of them. There was a night where I spent before the Lord just upset. Why couldn't I beat this? Why is it so hard for me to trust? Why can't I just get the heck over myself and surrender to His will? I was messed up, ya'll. All I could do was pray. And I asked others to do the same. Fast forward a few days.
School starts, and I'm enrolled in a class about Christian Leadership. Basically we discuss qualities of a good Christian leader and what could hinder us from that. Day 2 of class's subject: Pride, anxiety, and trust. It was then that I realized that all of my issues were linked together.
Here's how my teacher explained this truth that completely shattered my world. Pride is any kind of focus on yourself - negative or positive. A lot of people think that humility is thinking less of yourself, but it's not. It's think of yourself LESS.
1 Peter 5:6-7
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting ALL your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.
Here's the breakdown: Any fear, stress, worry, is a trap from Satan making you ineffective. When you keep your anxieties to yourself, you're saying you don't trust God to handle them. We think WE can do it on our own. Hey! That's pride! Worry is also a sign of distrust. If we're anxious about something - we are NOT trusting it to God. Therefore, bringing us back to our prideful assumption that we can handle it and He can't. Wooh! Truth. So we have to humble ourselves and realize that we're not strong enough to handle our anxiety and give all of our fears, worries, issues to HIM. And at the proper time, meaning Heaven, we will be rewarded for the lives that we lived in total surrender to an Almighty God.
This truth right here, has literally SET ME FREE! The Lord is faithful!
Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about ANYTHING, but in EVERYTHING by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the PEACE of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." 
Let me close by saying how thankful I am the Lord has brought me to DBU. He is working in my life and changing me from the inside out IN CLASS. How crazy is that?!? I love it here and I can't wait to see what the next 6 weeks will hold. Pray for strength, endurance, and energy for me, as my schedule is  level 10 crazy. Thanks so much for reading this!
Alyssa

The Lord spoils me with His love.

Welp. Today marks 2 weeks that I've been living in Dallas. One week full of camp-like activities and this one filled with first classes, new Professors, new spiritual revelations, and both full of new friends. I can't tell you how blessed I am to be here at DBU. The Lord is EVERYWHERE here. His hand is all over this campus. Professors who pray for me BY NAME and ask me for prayer requests at the beginning of class? You've got to be kidding, right? Nope. It's a reality here at good 'ole DBU. And I LOVE it.
A couple of days ago I got an e-mail from a Professor in the Education department. She told me how at the beginning of the summer she picked a bracelet with my name on it from a pile of all the incoming freshmen's names and has been wearing it on her wrist and praying for me every day since then. Talk about humbling! Seriously. The Lord has definitely gone before me here. He's proven His faithfulness to me over and over again and I already feel as if I've grown and matured in my relationship with Him in just 2 short weeks. He is blowing my mind with the things I'm being challenged with.
Please continue to pray that the Lord would lead me to my new church home quickly and for an upper classmen mentor for me. I've got so many stories I want to share that I just can't pick - so I'm sure I'll be blogging again soon. Until then....
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge HIm, and He will make straight your paths." ~Proverbs 3:5-6

Fresh Pages.

I move to Dallas tomorrow! All of my stuff is in various boxes- ready to make the transition to college life at Dallas Baptist University. This next year won't be easy, but I'm ready for the new challenges that will come my way. I'm SO thankful for this time in my life. Time to grow academically, yes, but more importantly time to grow spiritually. I'm so privileged to able to bask in this season of life and enjoy becoming who God's called me to be. I couldn't be more excited! I'm ready to see what the Lord has for me at DBU - whatever it may be. But most importantly, I'm ready to see more of HIM.

Do me a favor? Pray that I would find an upperclassmen girl at DBU who can mentor/disciple me. One of my greatest desires for this year is to find someone to keep me accountable, ask me tough questions, and guide me in my walk with the Lord. Discipleship is such a blessing, and I pray that God leads me to just the right woman for the job.

Look for more updates on college life soon!

A Powerful Love Letter

So. This post is one I've been waiting to write for about a month. A month? Yes. Life keeps happening. What are you gonna do? Moving on... 
I've recently realized how important it is to memorize scripture. I knew it was on the "Good Things Christians Do" Checklist, but I never really got why. Here's a clue from the Bible itself: 
"I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." ~ Psalms 119:11 
Listen. King David. Everyone knows you memorize scripture to get Awana bucks. Or a piece of candy in Sunday school. Right? WRONG! The whole purpose of memorizing Scripture is to combat the little lies and temptations that Satan throws at us day after ever-loving day. How can you recognize a lie from Satan if you don't first know the Truth? Mmm. Ya can't! You have to know what God says about you first before you can push away the things this world tries to convince you that you are. 
What if someone wrote you a big long love letter? One filled with only truth; No embellishments or exaggerations. Word for word how that person felt for you. And what their heart desired for you. You would totally want to rip that sucker open and read it right? YES! Well we've all got one. Waiting for us.  It's the Word of God. And it could change the world. If we would only read it, memorize it, and apply it to our lives. 
So I've started memorizing verses that speak to me personally. I write them on my mirror in dry-erase markers. And after two days of reading the verse every time I pass by it, I know it by heart. It's awesome! And so easy, it's insane. So I challenge you to do the same. Rip open that love letter and dive in! 

Get your guns up!

Ladies and Gents, I am now an official DBU Patriot! 
This past weekend I attended my orientation & registration session on campus, singed up for classes and rang the DBU Liberty bell - making me an official Patriot! I can NOT wait for the fall semester. Oh. My. Lanta. The last semester of my junior year in high school, I started looking for a Christian school. I had a list of things I wanted in a college. And it was specific. S-p-e-c-i-f-i-c. Exactly one year ago, I toured DBU on a whim, and found everything I'd been praying for. God had matched everything on my list. Even the one thing I was afraid to put down - dance. Listen, ya'll. God can do anything. Way more than we can ever even imagine. He can make your wildest dreams come true. Even the ones you're afraid to wish for. But guess what else He can do that's even better than that? He can make HIS dreams for YOUR life come true. And that's actually the amazing part! He has so much better for us than we can ever imagine. His love never ends. His faithfulness is limitless. His grace knows no bounds. So what's the point in saying all this? Trust Him. Believe He is who He says He is. And watch Him change your life. 
Oh, and, GO PATRIOTS! :)

Welp. Here goes.

First blog post ever. No pressure. :)
I've thought about starting a blog for a while. Mostly because when friends of mine blog, like Monica, it makes my day. As a new high school graduate, headed for college in just a few short months, I'm experiencing a lot of new things. Which is making my relationship with Jesus THAT much more important. And I want you to know about it. All of it.
This will be a way for all my Oklahoma friends to stay up to date with what's going on with me. And hopefully in the process it'll challenge you, make you laugh, or want to start blogging yourself. I can't promise how often I'll post, or what exactly this will entail. But, in a nutshell, this blog is about the life that I live, the things and people that I love, and the ministries God's given me. Life. Love. Ministry. (Clever, right?)
Anyways, I'm starting to get ready for college. Cleaning out closets, drawers, and attempting to prepare myself spiritually for what's to come. So with that said, what's your advice for how to best prepare for college life? It can be anything! I need it all.
Thanks for reading this and come back for more soon!
Alyssa