kindergarden-preschool-grade 2,3,4,5,6 - 8 - 7,8,9,10,11,12
my education has skipped a few grades, re done a few, and skipped a few more. i should have graduated last november in australia, and yet no time suits me better than right now. eventually the thrills and novelty of high school wears off, and when it is your time to leave, you are ready to go. 

these things will never change: 

God loves you.
we love you.
we will catch you when you fall and put you back on your feet.
we are your family.

graduation is something that i have been waiting in anticipation for, and is something that will bring so much more uncertainty and anticipation. graduation is the end of something and the start of something new. graduation will give me the freedom to find myself, and the reassurance that somewhere along the line i already did.

thank you to my parents, my sister, my family, my grammie, my friends, my teachers.

we could…

Come closer now whisper a secret
A story about a girl
No you don’t need to know what her name is 
I wrote about her before

I wish I were the cigarettes, 
Tucked down deep in her pockets
She’d light me up 
Let me swing from her lips like a circus show

This ain’t a show
No it’s a song for a girl
She’s making my head spin
Making me slur my words.
This is a song about a girl
This is a song about love,

Love la-la-la-love 
I won’t forget her name
I’ll always love her the same
My love, love la-la-la-la-la-la-love
This is all for you. 

Strike the match,
Burn me down till I’m nothing 
Like a vision she swims through
The sheets on my mattress
She sets me on fire through the afterglow
Like a fireworks show.

This ain’t a show
No it’s a song for a girl
She’s making my head spin
Making me slur my words.
This is a song about a girl
This is a song about love,

Love la-la-la-love 
I won’t forget her name
I’ll always love her the same
My love, love la-la-la-la-la-la-love
This is all for you. 

If you want promises baby I got ‘em.
Bought a plastic ring if you want it.
Cause we’re growing up girl,
But damn we’re still young.
If we jump we could fall,
If we jump we could fall in love.

Love, la-la-la-love 
I won’t forget her name
I’ll always love her the same
My love, love la-la-la-la-la-la-love
This is all for you. 

Oh my love this is all for love, la-la-la-la-la-la-love.
Love this is all for you

- The Summer Set <3 About A Girl

the cross.

Jesus was either a crazy lunatic, a liar and a manipulator…or exactly who he said he was.

Easter is a really happy, sweet, pastel-y holiday. But do you think maybe somewhere along the way we lost the point? That maybe there is more than just new dresses and a basket of candy at the end of the day? 

Easter is a holiday that began with a cross. The cross came about because of our sin. 

And there is nothing pastel-y or sweet about our sin.

Don’t get me wrong - the cross gives us joy and something to celebrate. That the God of all eternity would give a sacrifice so great because he loves us, to present to us a mighty picture of his grace and forgiveness. I can’t think of any human being that would go to such lengths to show someone how much they love them. And the incredible thing about the cross is that it doesn’t require anything of us. And we can’t redeem ourselves, we can’t pay back that sacrifice. Nothing we ever do will make up for what we have done, what we are doing, and what we are going to do. 

Someone told me that giving our sins and our burdens to God is a cop-out. It shows our laziness. I disagree. If God didn’t want to carry that weight with us, he would have never sent Jesus. We wouldn’t have been justified through the cross, we wouldn’t experience the grace that we do. But God knew we were going to mess it up. That’s why we have the cross. 

Our sins, our burdens, our mistakes - they are too great for us to carry alone. And as easy as it may appear at first, it slowly eats away at a person. It wears them down. That’s why we have the cross. So that we may experience freedom. Love. Grace. So that we may live our lives, secure in the knowledge that through God we are made perfect. We no longer need to dwell on our sins, we do not need to wallow in pity. The cross - God’s love - they washed everything away. It’s gone. 

The Cross cannot be repaid by us. Not through works or morality or deeds. 

We live in a world that promotes independence and doing things on your own. But we follow a God that doesn’t make that an option. 

Happy Easter. 

not much has changed. 

fun.

I want…

Two years ago, I was afraid of wanting anything. I figured wanting would lead to trying and trying would lead to failure. But now I find that I can’t stop wanting.

I want to fly somewhere in first class.

I want to travel to Europe on a business trip.

I want to get invited to the White House.

I want to learn about the world.

I want to surprise myself.

I want to be important.

I want to be the best person that I can be.

I want to define myself instead of having others define me.

I want to win, and have people be happy for me,

I want to lose and get over it.

I want to not be afraid of the unknown.

I want to grow up to be generous and big hearted, the way that people have been       with me.

I want an interesting and surprising life.

It’s not that I think I’m going to get all of these things, I just want the possibility of getting them. College represents possibility.The possibility that things are going to change. I can’t wait..

I love Friday Night Lights. 

giving up.

“Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you and purify yourselves and change your clothes” - Genesis 35:2

it’s easy to give up on new years resolutions - let’s be honest - those were probably abandoned two weeks ago. but its much harder to give up your lent. for one, lent has a deadline, or a goal. 40 days is much easier to see the end of than 365. but perhaps the strongest reason we have to keep our lent is that it’s not truly about bettering ourselves. 

the second we think lent is about us is when we’ve missed the point entirely

for some people, lent may be a good excuse to go to the gym more often or eat healthier. but lent isn’t about giving up junk food because it’s bad for you or avoiding fast food restaurants because you want to lose weight. its about looking at the things in your life that separate you from God and from who He truly is and eliminating them. for some of us those things are food. or clothes. or money. or time. whatever it is, it’s not supposed to be something that makes you look good. it’s something that will reveal to you who you are as a person and who God is.

the things we invest our time in reflect our hearts. investing in things of the world would suggest that that is where our hearts lie also. but that’s not the way it’s supposed to be. giving up those things, removing it from your life for 40 days…it’s not something we should be doing because we feel that we have to, or because everyone else is doing it. it’s something we do because we value God and his plan for us. it’s something we do because we realize that as humans, we fall so short. we accept and live and feed of off so much of this world. giving it up, if only for 40 days, may provide insight into why we don’t need it. it might show us how to fill that empty space with God. 

20.2.12

i am thankful for the warm weather

for nice people

for a fun city

for my best friend. 

gratitude.

I wrote this to show that…

I know we don’t know each other that much…

I thank all of the things you did…

You encouraged me to have fun like you did. 

…probably one of the hardest ones but you helped me through it…

Thank you for encouraging me to dance…

I remember…I don’t remember…

…teached us a lot of things that I didn’t even know about.

Thank you for teaching us

Come visit us sometime

I learned a lot…

You made meals fun...

I really do appreciate it

Thank you for coming

…best experience of my life

Thanks for keeping me safe

…make me laugh

Thanks for helping out…

….just to be with us

I will miss you. 

shayanne.linda.teddie.azalia.lexi.lynn.mariah.michelle.sierra.angel.selah.danae

count on me.

One day to get it all right
Too wrong and not enough right
Three words we said in the night
Before we held the fire
High five me brother it’s amazing
Her six shooter came out blazing
Seven up and coke on the pavement
Ate my heart out daily baby

Hey I love you, hey I need you, hey I want you, do you want me too?

You can count on me, when you can not see
Let me spell it out plain and simple now
When your numbers called backs against the wall
Pick you up when you call be there when you fall
Singing a b c
You can count on me 
123
You can count on me

Amen we made it this far
B boys in VW cars
See me seeing into my heart
Delighted through the dark
Emails and coffee in the evening
Effort ya brother you’ll believe it
Gee I don’t know your secret
H. I. love you singing

You can count on me, when you can not see
Let me spell it out plain and simple now
When your numbers called, backs against the wall
Pick you up when you call be there when you fall
Singing a b c
You can count on me
123
You can count on me

Add it up, add it up now darling
Come running, running when you’re calling

Mat Kearney