You have been my help! ~ from Spurgeon

...I beg you, do not, for the glory of God and for the comfort of tried saints, keep back your testimony, but say, “I was brought low, and he helped me, and, therefore, blessed be his name.” We do not talk enough about our deliverances. When you get home this afternoon, after dinner, if a friend or two should call in, you will go over your bad times and your troubles, but you will not recapitulate your mercies. Have we not had enough of complaining? let us touch another string, and bless the Lord for all his lovingkindness.

 What a tale some of us could tell of his mercies! No novel that was ever composed could possibly equal in interest my own experience of God’s goodness, and I think there are many here of whose lives the same could be said. Rich with incident, crowded with wonders, crammed full of miracles have our lives been, for God has dealt so well with us that we often stand astonished at what he has done. “Thou hast been my help.” Oh, yes, I will sum up the whole of my life in the one sentence, and, as we have seen a portrait sketched in a few lines, so will I give you my whole career in miniature: “Thou hast been my help.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Mighty Plea," delivered November 23, 1873. Image by itslegitx on Flickr under Creative Commons License.




http://www.thedailyspurgeon.com/

How to make accent marks on a Mac

I have Googled this countless times and finally figured it out and thought I would share!

(Note: For Macs!)

~ Accent mark: Click OPTION/ALT then "E" and a yellow highlight should come up. Type in which letter you want to accent. Examples: ó é í ú á

~ For ñ: click OPTION/ALT then "N" and then "N" again to put the little squiggly over the n!

~ Upside down exclamation mark: Click OPTION/ALT and then the 1/! button = ¡

Play around with your OPTION/ALT button!

For example...

œ∑´®†¥¨ˆˆøπåß∂ƒ©˙∆˚¬Ω≈ç√∫˜µ˜≤≥÷≠–ºª•¶§∞¢£™¡ (cool, huh? :)


Questions? Leave a comment!

The Gulf is Bridged

Beloved, many are a long while in distress of soul, because they do not remember that there is a Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus. God is thus glorious, but he is not far from any of us; for there is one who is God, and at the same time a man like ourselves, even Jesus, who has compassion on the ignorant, and on those that are out of the way. Cease ye then to fear, for the gulf is bridged. You may approach the Lord, for Jesus has paved the way.


From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Good News For The Destitute," delivered November 9, 1873. Image by Ernst Vikne on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Want to sign up for the Daily Spurgeon emails? Go here and look for this:

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One Thousand Gifts:: Take Twenty-Four

674-732

674. wonderful Sundays

675. super fun leadership meetings

676. dance parties

677. Rhapsody

678. very fun games

679. being back in the pool with my Makos

680. rain

681. clean pool with new water

682. seeing my people

683. not having the almost-most-mortifying experience as church pianist... accidentally hitting the demo button on the piano and stopping it before the piano bust out some tunes... :)

684. my Spanish class

685. the Beaman Library

686. my absolutely wonderful Whitver family

687. dying laughing practically my whole day

688. Julia, "I can hear you laughing several rooms down..."

689. stick figures representing physics problems

690. Snow White songs, Aladdin, Abu falling off the carpet, "call me," lots of laughter... :)

691. Julia stealing my ring and random people giving it back to me... :)

692. much needed catch up time with my dear friend Jenny!

693. laughing so hard I cried

694. awkwardfamilyphotos.com

695. sketch pizza guys

696. catching up with dear friends

697. sugar free: cookies, ice cream, soda, caramel sauce, etc

698. sweet baby falling asleep while I'm holding her

699. "I'm going to tell you a funny story!"

700. celebrating the birthday of my dear Dad this Tuesday! He is the best dad in the whole wide world and my favorite guy! I love you Dad!

701. the highlight of my history Keynote project being the bouncing arrows/fire

702. discussions in lit class

703. my wonderful teachers

704. my amazing friends and family

705. "gazing" at the stars with Julia and Rachel and having deep discussions

706. playing piano for Cara to sing

707. game nights

708. very fun friends

709. new phone!!

710. games at the end of practice

711. letters to send to sweet friends at college

712. skype

713. snail mail

714. free Bath and Body Works stuff thanks to a coupon!

715. first college quiz

716. Pancake Pantry with dear friends

717. my adopted sisters and brothers :)

718. movie night at the Sherrys!

719. "I do not know this man"

720. Me: "My life might get so crazy this year I might run off and join the circus!" Riley: "Lily, what would you do in the circus?" Me: "Umm make cookies?"

721. study hall chats

722. my study hall clean up crew!

723. "I do not appreciate your tone right now"

724. "Time to make a grand exodus with all of your belongings!"

725. lab partners with the wonderful Joelle!

726. interviews for Spanish class

727. getting to do Spanish three days a week!

728. friends- old and new

729. excellent preaching and teaching- on the Holy Spirit (SS) and David (W)

730. mercy and forgiveness from our heavenly Father

731. Romans 8:28

732. Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

... and many more things- thank you Lord for so many blessings and things to be thankful for!!!

What are you thankful for this week?

Soli Deo Gloria!

Love,

Lily

Happy Videos Part 2.

Here are some more videos that make me happy... and I hope they make you happy too :)

Yup, I like group dancing videos :)

Other things I like:

~sugar free cookies

~diet (sugar free) coke

~sugar free ice cream

~fun evenings with friends

~being back in the pool with my Makos

~feeling like I was coming home when I went to the ISC for the first time in months

~shopping with Mom

~my Spanish class

~laughing

~new phone

~dear friends

~playing games at the end of a hard (for someone who is really out of shape haha) practice

Love,

Lily

....more coming soon....

Happy videos.

Sometimes we just need some happy videos of laughing babies, dancing babies, and sneezing baby pandas.

How can you not watch this and not laugh?!

...coming soon... more videos that make me happy... :) and maybe a real blog post... :)

I hope these made you smile because they made me laugh :)

Today was wonderful. I <3 my people.

~ "Don't wells make you think of Snow White?!"

Love,

Lily

Wednesday Love

~ my Spanish class at Lipscomb

~ Lipscomb's Beaman Library, my new favorite place to do work

~ sugar free vanilla ice cream and Nutella

~ seeing God work in super cool ways and answer prayers

Verse of the Week- from Keith Beauchemin

Psalm 70:1

Make haste, O God, to deliver me!

Make haste to help me, O LORD!

We can turn to God with any need and at any time. God is never too busy to listen to our prayers. Whether our needs are small or great our Father wants to hear all of our cares, because He cares for us.

We can come to the Lord with urgent requests. The Lord loves it when we spend our daily time in prayer with Him. But, He also loves the short urgent prayers throughout our day: "Give me wisdom", or "Deliver me from this temptation", or the shortest prayer of all, "Help!"

So, I encourage you, call upon the Lord any time, day or night, for He always has a listening ear.

Does sin trouble you? - from Spurgeon

Does sin trouble you? Then remember that it is written, “All manner of sin and of blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men.” Remember this again, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” And hear yet again this word, “Come now, and let us reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

Do you know, I feel right happy to have to talk to you about this, and yet I feel a dart going through me lest I should not speak of it as I ought to do; for, Oh, I would that poor troubled sinners would see that sin need not deter them from coming to a reconciled God. The blood of Jesus Christ has already removed from before the throne of justice all the transgressions of all those who come and rest in Jesus. If you believe in the Savior sent of God, your sin is already gone, and you are accepted in the Beloved.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Clearing The Road To Heaven." Image by Leo-setä on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Posts coming soon... One Thousand Gifts, Lipscomb, a sugar free cookie recipe, and my new favorite app!

God will supply strength to us- from Spurgeon

Times of weakness will happen to us all: a great strain may be put upon us, and we may become exhausted, or, under severe depression of spirit, we may imagine ourselves to be ready to die; but at all such times God will supply strength to us: our extremity will be his opportunity; our time of famine will be his hour of plenty. Is not his strength made perfect in weakness? Is it not written that “he giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength?”

David sung in the One Hundred and Third Psalm, “He satisfieth my mouth with good things; so that my youth is renewed like the eagle’s,” and he expected it always to be so. “He restoreth my soul,” says he in the Twenty-third Psalm. Often do his psalms which commence in painful depression conclude with exultation, because heavenly love had poured fresh life into his swooning soul. From many a soul-sickness had the son of Jesse been recovered, from many a sinking had he been lifted up into holy joy.... Expect this, then, my brethren, that God will give you new strength as you shall require it. “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Fresh Grace Confidently Expected," delivered July 20, 1873. Image by Earl Wilkerson on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Saturday ~ Update

Hey friends!

Whew this has been a busy week!

~Thursday was our first day of school!! It made me so happy to see my dear Whitver family! I had a really great first day- yay!

~Wednesday I had an interview with a Lipscomb Spanish professor! She is lovely and I am so excited about taking her class! Mom and I got super lost trying to find her office... I am officially registered to take Intermediate Spanish 1 at Lipscomb! My classes, which will be three days a week, start this Monday! I am very excited!!

~My deep thought of the day: why are the pie crusts/filo/puff pastries in different sections at Kroger? Why not all together? Like who thinks, "I need puff pastry! I bet it's by the frozen cakes!" umm what? I do not think that way. I think logically and go look in both pie crust sections... :)

~Our summer reading for lit was The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne! I didn't think I would like it but I did. I loved watching Hester transform into such a wonderful woman! It was beautiful to watch that. Chillingworth was a CREEP. And Dimmesdale needed to be strong and own up to what he did. Pearl was crazy. :) I loved how it said that Hester named Pearl because she gave up all she had for her. Um presh?! If you haven't read it you should!

~Have I mentioned how fabulous my Whitver family is?!

~Whoa colleges are really amping up their advertising... I got FIVE letters/flyers from five different colleges the other day! Craziness! What's REALLY craziness is that I will have to start looking at colleges this year...

~On Thursday I "adopted" more sisters :) I like having lots of sisters :) (and I have one "adopted" brother :)

~I got a Google+ account several weeks ago. I am still as lost as I was when I got it. I have not spent great amounts of time trying to figure it out or anything... All that's happened is some creepy people have added me and I don't know how to block them from following me... help??? I might just delete it... What are the chances that Google+ is the next Facebook?!

~Julia, Mom, Rachel, Ms. Laura, Jenny, and I are not doing sugar for three months. Yes, you heard (read? haha) me right. Three very long months. I am having sugar withdrawls... Today is only day 6... We are working on having a healthier lifestyle! Devotions, exercise, etc every day. We can have one treat per week :) My treat this week was delicious Mocha Punch (tasted like a frosty!) made by Lydia today at Mandy's baby shower!

~Yesterday I was feeling kind of sad. I had a sad shock of reality- sugar free caramel sauce is nasty. It is nothing like real caramel sauce. SAD. So I decided to buy some Disney music with some iTunes gift cards from my birthday (thank you Mom and Dad, Cara, and Christina! :) and then go for a "run." (why is this in quotations, might you ask? I am not a runner. That is why...)

~So in my attempt to be healthy and get exercise I went for a run/walk yesterday. And what happens? I almost get hit by a car. A guy let me cross the street and so I ran across. But a guy coming up to the stop sign (and it was NOT his turn) was texting/looking at his phone and not focusing on braking at the stop sign. My body started screaming "get out of the way!" and the guy looked up just in time before he might have hit me. He wasn't going fast enough to kill me but I would definitely have been in the ER last night... It really shook me up. It is a weird thing to see your life flash before you.

~I was SO thankful that God protected me!! I am so thankful that He had His hand on me and protected me. Thank you, Lord!!

~I am also thinking maybe this is a sign I should quit the running thing... Anyway I am sticking to the Y from now on! (and swimming and walking.)

~After kind of a sad day, we had a super fun evening- Game Night at the Jacksons with the Graves and Adams! It was so much fun! I even won the game I played- which was funny since I was probably the least competitive of the group I played in :) Thank you guys so much for having us over! We had a blast! Love you all!

~I really want to see The Help!! Have you seen it?

~Today we went to the baby shower for Ava Kate! I cannot wait to meet her in a couple of months!

~‎Promise I am thankful for this week:

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

~"How many times have you told yourself you were going to learn a foreign language?

How often have you wished for that job position, but there’s one catch – you have to speak Chinese! Are you a student and dreading taking the required foreign language? Have you already started studying a language and become discouraged? What if you were given some keys that unlocked the process?"

Check out this website! I highly recommend it and the e-book! Senor Durham is a tutor at Whitver and he is amazing!

Love,

Lily

One Year Anniversary of the Nashville DHT

Wow- I cannot believe that this weekend is the one year anniversary of the Nashville Do Hard Things conference!!

Check out some of my posts from last year about the conference here...

Here is a very happy post from a few weeks before the conference.

In applying for Lipscomb, I had to write an essay. I decided to write it about the conference! As I wrote it, all of the memories were coming back. It was SO amazing to see God working on our behalf!! My friends, we serve a FAITHFUL God.

Here is a little recap of the days leading up to the conference and several days after!

A few weeks before the conference, only 300 people were registered.

July 27th- the count was 452.

August 9th- here is part of an email from Rich, the national conference coordinator.

"Awesome numbers came through the weekend!!

Over 300 registrations came in.

We are now at 1025 pre-registrations + Scholarships = over 1040.

Our estimate at this time could be 1400 to 1700."

I definitely remember screaming with joy when I read this on one of the Greystone Kitchen computers :) It was stressful being in North Carolina during the last two crunch weeks!

We had been praying and really pushing all of our publicity efforts. God heard our prayers!

August 13th- part of an email I sent to my publicity team:

Hey friends!

We are home! Whoo hoo! We had two very intense and amazing weeks at camp!

WOW!!! I cannot believe that tomorrow is the big day! Y'all- God is SO amazing! He has done so many mind-blowing things! The last registration count (this past Monday) was over 1040! WOW!

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING EMAILS!!

I am looking forward to seeing y'all tomorrow!!! (and p.s. I am exhausted... ~:-)

See you bright and early tomorrow!

If you have any questions/comments/problems/thoughts please let me know!

Blessings!!!!

Lily :o)

Three important emails about tomorrow:

From Christina- the prayer coordinator

Hey Everybody!

We are REALLY close! The finish line is in sight. God is on the move! To God be the glory!

Alright, now down to business. I have decided to volunteer all of you and all of your teams. :) We need volunteers to pray in the prayer room and I need to know when people are available. PLEASE let me know when you are going to have people to spare at various times in the day AND when you are available. We're hoping for even just 15 minutes of time - but we will take 5 if need be! Alot of the Captains are preparing schedules of their team's assignments. Feel free to pass those along. :)

Thank you,
Christina

From Meagan

Below is the updated plan for Friday and Saturday. Don't forget to pray at 6:00 today!

Please print this out and show it to your parents and your ride!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Side Note:

An interview went out on Channel 4 today at 1:15 and just to let y'all know how amazing God is: Less than an hour later Alex Harris got an email from a woman saying that she and her daughter saw me on Better Nashville and signed up for the conference!

Here's the link:

http://www.wsmv.com/video/24581389/index.html

Thank you for all y'alls prayers!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Revised in Red:

The Plan

FRIDAY:

Arrive at the church at 3:30; come into the main entrance -- building #2 (opposite side of the highway)

Work, work, work and pick out t-shirt. Caution: the pink shirts and the blue with the wheat are smaller than normal t-shirts. Get at least one size larger (I got two sizes larger).

Eat dinner: We'll be brown bagging this one. So bring your dinner and we'll have cookies and waters for y'all

Work till it's all set up!

Out by 9:00

SATURDAY: (wear DHT t-shirt)

Arrive at 7:30am (Yea! 1/2 hour more sleep!)

Doors open at 8:00

Conference starts at 9:00 (Y'all should be able to hear every talk, missing maybe the first and last 10 minutes.)

Lunch: You will have to eat as you can. The Bookstore, the Refreshments, the Touch Team, the Prayer, and the Hospitality Team will still be operating; most of the teams. Yea for shifts!

We have Bluecoast Burritos donating (hopefully 38; at least 25) meals and Chick-fil-a donating 38...be praying! Any meals we don't have donated will be provided for by Sholeen (my wonderful mother!)

Last lecture ends at 4:45

Sanctuary doors at 5:00

All doors close at 5:30

We break down

When everything is back to normal we can head out and go to bed! Should be out of the building by 6:30-7. It depends on how fast y'all move!

SUNDAY AND MONDAY:

SLEEP!!!!!! AND PRAISE GOD THAT EVERYTHING RAN SMOOTHLY!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We did it! Set-up is tomorrow and we are going to have a conference!! Thank you all for all you help! There would be no conference (definitely no calm conference) with out each one of y'all.

~Meagan

August 14th- the big day! We had just gotten home from two weeks of hard work at camp the night before and I was SO EXHAUSTED. The day was kind of a blur! We got over to Two Rivers and I could not believe that after a year of planning and work, the conference was about to happen!! We had a team prayer and then it was time to start registration! It was AMAZING to see people start flooding in- we were praising the Lord! There were SO many people! We even had to open up the balcony!

Pictures!

Conference!

Sweet friends!

One of Jared's cool book displays
Tshirts! (I remember at one point I went under the tshirts table to find more tshirts in boxes. It was quiet under there, very unlike the madness in the church's foyer :)

Johnna, Brett, and Lily after dinner with the coordinators and Rebelution team

August 16th- email from Meagan:

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Y'all were amazing this weekend! The set up on Friday went smoothly and Saturday was astounding.

God is so good! Everything that had issues was resolved in a matter of minutes! We give Him all the glory!

We had so many complicates from Joseph, the speakers, the Two Rivers Facility, and the attendees. They all told us how wonderful the volunteers were!

It was such a blessing to be able to bless others and have God work through us! God was everywhere and people could tell!

May God bless you for your work,
~Meagan Wuest

Coordinator for "Do Hard Things" Nashville Conference

When we got the final count I could NOT believe it. Actually, I could! :) --> God is so good!

August 19th- here is part of an email from Meagan, the head Nashville coordinator:

"Rich said that the numbers at the conference were close to 1500! Can you believe that just 2 weeks before the conference there were only 360!

God is amazing!"

Some thoughts and thanks... :)

I was (and still am!) SO incredibly thankful for my AMAZING publicity team! They helped spread the word, came to meetings, helped find a facility, gave up their time, handed out brochures and posters, talked to churches, called restaurants, made PR statements, got us interviews, kept going when pastors and secretaries hung up on them, did not get discouraged, came from another state, worked on their birthday, prayed, and more. They were willing to do whatever! They helped with registration, the bookstore, refreshments on the day of the conference- guys, you were amazing. I could not have asked for a better publicity team! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!

Ashley Rogers, with the Rebelution in Oregon! Ashley was WONDERFUL. She encouraged me and gave me great ideas for publicity! After every call I had with her I felt 100x better and ready to get back to publicizing :) She prayed for us and was always willing to help. Thank you so much, Ashley, for everything you did for us (and me)!!!

The whole Rebelution team from Oregon- thank you all so much for coming to Nashville!! It was such an awesome conference! I am so thankful that you guys came to Nashville!! Thank you!!

The other Nashville coordinators!! Guys- I am so blessed that I got to work with you all! You guys are FANTASTIC. Registration, bookstore, refreshments, prayer, facility, hospitality, and touch teams- you rocked!! I so enjoyed getting to know you guys and planning this conference together!! Thank you so much!!

To my dear family and friends- who always were cheerful and encouraging! Thanks to everyone who was supportive and positive when I was overwhelmed and stressed (sorry to the people I freaked out on... :). Thank you for praying for me, encouraging me when I was upset about negative responses from churches, getting excited with me, giving me ice cream... :) Thank you so much for helping me! I love you all!!

And, most importantly, a thousand thanks to God- our faithful, loving, and merciful King!!! Thank you for using us to bring this conference to Nashville!! To You be ALL the glory!!!

There is SO much more I could blog about!! I could go on and on! It was one of the best experiences of my life! This was something I will never forget! I am so blessed that I got to be part of the Nashville Do Hard Things Conference!!

I just want to remind you that God is FAITHFUL! He will provide! He is in full control of everything! He hears the cries and prayers of His people!

Be blessed today!

In awe of our King,

Lily

Wednesday Love

Wow- I am posting on time so far this week! :)

This week's Wednesday Lovin' is on a new movie coming out September 2nd!

Thanks to Grace Hill Media, the four Scott ladies saw a free screening of it last week! Check out Grace Hill Media here. Want to get in on the free screenings? Sign up here for their email updates!

Seven Days in Utopia- coming out September 2nd!

Story from the website:

SEVEN DAYS IN UTOPIA follows the story of Luke Chisolm (Lucas Black), a talented young golfer set on making the pro tour. When his first big shot turns out to be a very public disaster, Luke escapes the pressures of the game and finds himself unexpectedly stranded in Utopia, Texas, home to eccentric rancher Johnny Crawford (Robert Duvall). But Johnny's more than meets the eye, and his profound ways of looking at life force Luke to question not only his past choices, but his direction for the future.

Based on David L. Cook's best-selling book Golf's Sacred Journey: Seven Days at the Links of Utopia, SEVEN DAYS IN UTOPIA also stars Melissa Leo, Deborah Ann Woll, Brian Geraghty, Jerry Ferrera, Joseph Lyle Taylor, KJ Choi and Kathy Baker. The film is directed by Matthew Dean Russell from a script by Cook, Rob Levine, Russell and Sandra Thrift. The film was produced by Mark G. Mathis (Brick, Precious) and Jason M. Berman (The Dry Land).

Check out IMDB for more about who's who in the movie here.

Check out the blog here and here.

And here are some trailers!

We laughed and we cried. It is rated G - quite a rare find these days!

This was a fabulous movie and I highly recommend it! Go see it on September 2nd!

One Thousand Gifts:: Take Twenty Three

631-673

631. sunshine

632. cooler weather

633. rain

634. a glorious, fun-filled, and fabulous summer

635. quality time with dear dear friends

636. lots of laughter

637. birthdays and celebrations

638. DTF and Pinkerton with my favorite Christina on her special day

639. photo shoots

640. fun times at leadership

641. watching the Incredibles

642. Haven pointing at my earrings: "Arrings!" Me: "Good job Haven! They're called pearls!" "Curls!"

643. long chats about college and nursing with the fabulous and super fun Lydia! (can I be you when I grow up? :)

644. great preaching and teaching

645. Skype- when we haven't seen Nana in too long and when Dad isn't feeling well

646. playing with the "worship band" at church :)

647. making lunch with Mom

648. homemade basil lemonade (with fresh basil from the garden!) like at The Silly Goose

649. wedding of one of my favorite teachers ever! What a gorgeous bride and beautiful wedding!

650. 42 colorful and bright umbrellas blocking the groom's view of the bride as she approached the aisle

651. seeing dear and old friends

652. free movie screening of a fabulous movie (more info to come!)- Seven Days in Utopia- thanks to Grace Hill Media

653. fun new neighbors

654. our first shrimp boil- YUM

655. precious baby we babysat

656. hanging out with my dear sister Riley!

657. being accepted to Lipscomb University for dual enrollment!!!!

658. having twelve sisters, two parents, two daughters, and one granddaughter- according to Facebook ;)

659. hanging out with the lovely Jenny and EJ!

660. artsy moods

661. cute and creative cards that come from said moods

662. awkward moments that make me laugh

663. going to Nana and Papa's

664. Disney music thanks to Pandora

665. long chats till 1:30 am with Julia

666. playing the "guess that Disney movie" game with Dad :)

667. Disney's SceneIt with Julia, Cara, and Riley

668. family movie night

669. Mom's great sense of humor

670. new school supplies

671. the "it's a small world" connections

672. excitement to see my Whitver family this Thursday!

673. Daily Verse from Faithful Provisions: ". . . I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us." (Philippians 3:13b-14)