Trust.

Inspired by Alyssa (you should check out her blog - it is lovely!), my theme for 2013 is trust. I feel like this is something the Lord has been putting on my heart. With all of the stress of college, scholarships, schedules, dual enrolling - I need to trust my Father and King!

Join me on my journey discovering trust throughout the Scriptures this year!

2 Kings 18:5 ~ “He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him.”

This verse is talking about Hezekiah, the king of Judah at the time. He was 25 when he began to reign and reigned for 29 years in Jerusalem. In verse 3, “and he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done.” This use of father doesn’t mean his dad; verse 1 said he was the son of Ahaz. Ahaz did not do what was right in the sight of the LORD (2 Kings 16:2). Hezekiah was different, though, “There was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him.” He followed the LORD! Hezekiah removed places used for idol worship, and broke a bronze serpent that people had worshipped. 

Verse 6: “For he held fast to the LORD. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses. And the LORD was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered.”

From Matthew Henry’s commentary, “He trusted in the Lord God of Israel to bear him out in what he did and save him from harm. A firm belief of God’s all-sufficiency to protect and reward us will conduce much to make us sincere, bold, and vigorous, in the way of our duty, like Hezekiah.”

Because Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, he was very successful. You should check out 2 Kings 18-20 to read more about him. At one point he even got very sick. Isaiah told him, “This says the LORD, ‘set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’” In this time of sadness, Hezekiah cried out to the LORD. The LORD “heard [his] prayer, and [saw his] tears” (2 Kings 20:6). The LORD added 15 years to his life (2 Kings 20:6). Pretty crazy awesome, right?!

Lord, please help me to trust in You!

Christmas :: Part 1

Hello friends!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior!

John 1:14
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Isaiah 9:6
"For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Christmas is one of my very favorite times of the year! It is so nice to be able to spend time with family and friends.

Here are some pictures from the season!

Team Santa!

Take 2

Our beautiful Candyland house

Take 2

Admire my skillful placing of M&Ms ;)

Cara reading by the tree

Some families watch Elf or A Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve. Our family? We watch Duck Dynasty. So much quality. Si: "Once I reached down to pat a little dog and when I did it was a five pound squirrel."

After-Christmas shopping with my girls Mimi and Jenny (our photographer). We found some really great sales, including 50% off Vera Bradley!! Very thankful for those girls! They were just what I needed :)

Yummm- egg nog poundcake, chocolate sauce (both made by Mom), and ice cream!

CUTENESS

My December 26th! (see how I changed a foot in between pictures 3 and 4? It was unfortunately not a Christmas miracle... just a bench... 1: Cara! 2. Mimi! 3 and 4. Julia and Rach wearing skates! 5. Cute girls! 6. Chickfila's chocolate chip peppermint milkshake!

Annual Christmas picture!

Going through old pictures and found this little um gem... This was the year I decided to stick my tongue out the full duration of the preschool Thanksgiving performance. Why? Who knows. Poor deranged little Lily... Poor mortified mother... 

Mimi and Jenny treated me to Starbucks and sour gummy worms to cheer me up. True friends right there!

This grammatical error was a little painful. The girl's what? #nerd

Awww cute baby Lil cheesin'. To make up for the terrible preschool picture... :)

Coming soon: more Christmas, MY SENIOR PICTURES!, anddd... a review of 2012!

Meanwhile on the homefront, Julia programmed Siri to call me Princess...

Love,

Lil

Thankful- November 6

"But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ."
Philippians 3:20.

"The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will." Proverbs 21:1.

Praying for our nation and our president. Praying that our country will follow the Lord.

I am thankful that God is in total control and that He is sovereign!

One Thousand Gifts:: Take Thirty-Eight

1302-1328

• 1302. sweet little baby in my lap. 
• 1303. laughing little baby. 
• 1304. enjoying being the choir accompanist. 
• 1305. having spanish class in starbucks.
• 1306. really enjoying math. 
• 1307. being the only one at a container store demo, so i automatically won the $25 gift card.
• 1308. having a nice chat with the sweet lady that gave the demo.
• 1309. thoughtful friend bringing me a note and a starbucks frap after a rough day.
• 1310. finishing my first novel in spanish. 
• 1311. LU students that come to help at grandview even when they don’t have to for credit.
• 1312. said students (new, fun friends) coming for dinner.
• 1313. having a full dining room table.
• 1314. the nice guys that rescued us and taught a class.
• 1315. successfully teaching the computer class.
• 1316. watching the ESL students have lots of fun with clip art. it was so fun to see what they picked. (one guy was stuck on barns)
• 1317. explaining, no, even though i typed my name as an example, you are typing YOUR name, not mine.
• 1318. the guy who copied what i did and typed his name in the curlz font.
• 1319. asking a guy, “are you doing ok?” when he was clearly lost and he says “i am experimenting.”
• 1320. getting to teach computer with my wonderful swim coach.
• 1321. breakfast with lovely friends at fido.
• 1322. sweet thank you gift from a dear friend.
• 1323. His mercies are new every morning.
• 1324. a new week and a chance to start afresh and over.
• 1325. making a life schedule with mom and having peace about it.
• 1326. a clean room.
• 1327. finishing a hard swim practice.
• 1328. sitting at the piano during worship, and watching the little boy to my right try to find the scripture reading. whispering “do you want me to find it for you?” he hands over his Bible. i find it and hand it back. to thank me he waves :) so sweet.
• 1329. lamentations 3:22-24.
• The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
      his mercies never come to an end;
  they are new every morning;
      great is your faithfulness.
  “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
      “therefore I will hope in him.”
  
  
  love, lily
  
  
  (originally posted on my tumblr)
  
  

Sunday Lovin':: Part 2

Hey friends!

I hope you are having a lovely Sunday evening!

BMS Varsity Football game with these super fun people!

The new and Mr. and Mrs. D!

Dad, Nana, and Papa on Dad's birthday!

#college

See my bag? That's my chair in college algebra :) We ALWAYS sit in our same seats. And whenever someone sits in someone else's seat they freak out. "YEAH I SEE HOW IT IS"

Las Paletas with our cousins from Wheaton!!

Nana! I love you!

Love these girls!

#college

Reading this for my Spanish class. SO HARD! It will definitely be one of my biggest life accomplishments ;) - reading a whole novel in Spanish!

Baby Maggie!!

They're super cool

(from Julia's instagram) My first high school football game with my people!

Varsity BMS game- watching our girls cheer!

Yup :)

My favorite guy on his birthday!

Sweet Cece's with this beautiful gal!!

(from my instagram) Love them!!

How cute is she?!

Date with my favorite guy! I love you Dad!

Lovely artwork in my math class

Super cute parents!

Gettin crafty with PicFrame! Sonic with this dear friend! Love you so much!

Senior Year Bucket List!

Remember this? The new and recently updated edition!

Things to accomplish during senior year: 

-go to a public school setting during school hours CHECK! Had lunch with two of my favorite people at BHS!

-go to a high school football game (um never been to one) CHECK! We went to the Brentwood vs Centennial game Friday night :)

-Go to Sanctuary some Thursday night

-Take a picture with the random Brentwood bruin bear in the track field (why? I am not really sure. I've always wanted to? Weird- yup! :) 

Recent Loves:

-Cherry limeade float at Sonic

-Kingdom in Conflict by Chuck Colson

-Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by Philip Yancey and Dr. Paul Brand

-Pandora

-my Disney stamps

-Pumpkin Spice at Starbucks

-making homemade iced coffee macchiatos

-getting my voter's card in the mail

-1D's new video

-instagram

Verse of the Day (from the the YouVersion Bible app)::

Jude 1:20-21 ~ "But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life."

Have you checked out the senior pictures I've taken? So fun! Check 'em here!

Lily

Tuesday Thoughts

Hey friends!

Well, I had my first day of college classes yesterday! Second year dual enrolling and I love it! This semester I am taking College Algebra and Spanish in Healthcare. I like both of my professors!

The other day I felt inspired and decided to make a recipe off of my Pinterest board! (By the way, have I talked about how much I love Pinterest?!)





So I made these yummy and super easy cookies! Check out the recipe here. I also made yummy biscuits for breakfast- and when I realized we didn't have any buttermilk, I decided to make my own! I mixed some Greek yogurt with milk- and tah dah! They tasted great! I was glad that it didn't turn out to be a fail :)

So excited- we have a 3rd car! Meet the newest member of the fam! (we are deciding on a name...)

Coming soon... Senior photo shoot sneak peeks! :)

Here is a picture (PC: Allie!) of me taking Rachel's pictures! :)

Breakfast at Fido with my Theophili girls! So weird- last year we were sending off Megan to college! Now all four of them are going! So blessed and thankful for these girls!

Speaking of Pinterest, here are some things that make me laugh. Check out my Pinterest here.

Some quotes for the day:

“I fall in love with people’s passion. The way their eyes light up when they talk about the thing they love and the way they fill with light.”

One of my favorite verses.

“Stay in the Word. The moment you start letting go of that, you’re on the road to compromise. Stay grounded, remain pure, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.”

—	Adam Young of Owl City

Verse of the day: Deut. 31:6: "Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you."

Be blessed today!

Lily

Thankful.

Monday morning was a crazy morning. It started out with oversleeping almost two hours and went downhill from there. It involved too much traffic, lots of stress, late arrivals, running across LU, and not a very cheerful heart. In a grouchy mood, I realized something as I ran back to where I was parked. Instead of being stressed out, I needed to be thankful. Because how can you feel sorry for yourself and be thankful at the same time? You can't!

I needed to make a list. Starting out is the hardest, because my sinful and selfish heart would rather dwell in a bad attitude. Instead I need to be thankful for the many blessings in my life! So, by the grace of God, He gave me a thankful heart.

So I started making a list of what I was thankful for.

-Jesus died for my sins.
-the Gospel is true.
-my wonderful family.
-my amazing friends.
-that in the one week anniversary of when nana went into the hospital, she is no longer in the hospital and does not need dialysis.
-Chickfila.
-bacon.
-ice cream.
-A/C when it's 88 degrees out.
-my LU friends.
-the green and flowers of spring.

... and it went on. Ok, so obviously bacon is not super important, but the little things count too, right? :)

What happened when I was thankful, might you ask? The inevitable of course! I felt so much more cheerful! You can't be grateful and grumpy!

1 Thessalonians 5:18 "Give thanks in ALL circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

This verse tell us that it is God's will for us to be thankful. He has bestowed many blessings upon us! Even in hard and difficult times, being thankful gives a new perspective and brighter on life.

What are you thankful for?

Love,

Lily

Daily Spurgeon:: Be careful who becomes your guide

We must be all conscious that we imitate those whom we admire. Love has a strange influence over our nature, to mould it into the form beloved. A true disciple is like clay on the wheel, and his Master fashions him after his own image. We may be scarcely conscious of it, but we are most surely being conformed to the likeness of those to whose influence we submit ourselves.

Whoever then your Master may be, dear friend, you are changing into his image: if you choose to be led by the votary of pleasure, you will become more and more frivolous; if you admire the slave of avarice, you will become avaricious, if you feel the sway of the minion of vice, you will grow vicious yourself. If a man who despises the word of God becomes your hero, you will ere long despise it too: while men are gazing upon him with admiration, a kind of photography is going on, and you, like a sensitive plate, receive his image. I charge you, therefore, to be careful who becomes your guide.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Choice Of A Leader," delivered August 1, 1875. Image by Peggy2012CREATIVELENZ on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Sneak Peek from the Retreat!

Quick post with a picture from the retreat! I am so thankful for these dear and beautiful women! What a blessing they are to me! What a fabulous weekend we had!

Philippians 1:3 ~ "I thank my God in all my rememberance of you."

Love,

Lily