I Am Thankful (Day 1)

So on Facebook I was tagged in a game. The rules of the game were for seven days straight I was supposed to write three things that were positive as my Facebook status. I decided to do this on my blog instead.

1. I thank God for my family. For their love, care, and support and big hugs when the days are rough.

2. I thank God for my job. As of August 12th I will have been at Tutor Time for 1 year. Many wonderful memories and looking forward to the many memories that are still to come. What a blessing it is to love and care for every child who walks through our doors. That is what Tutor Time is all about. I love my job and my coworkers are the best! They make every day a joy to go to work.

3. My God who loves me unconditionally. Who is always right there beside me to lead me and to show me the way.

CHLA

I have always considered myself a dreamer and one who has big dreams which I don't know could ever turn into a reality. I've always felt very much like Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Always wanting something more. Always feeling like there is something more I should be doing.




A while back I tried to think of what CHLA could stand for besides Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. CHLA has always held a special place in my heart for various reasons. It seems like all of my ideas I’ve had always pop out of nowhere or they always woke me up in the middle of the night. I don’t know why. That’s just when they pop into my head. As I was thinking about it this is what I came up with:

CHLA

C= Caring
H= Hearts
L= Loving
A= All

I thought that it would be neat if I could get children around the world to make heart cards and send it to different children in hospitals with words of encouragement and love on them.

I had thought about this idea a few years ago but forgot about it, setting it aside, thinking it could never happen. That it was just a dream.

Tonight, as I was going through some files on my computer, I found the document in regards to this idea again, as I was thinking about what to write. Coincidence? I think not.

I think God could be telling me it's time. Time to see if the dream can become a reality. I won't ever know if a dream can turn into a reality without asking. And if I didn't ask I would always be wondering. Wondering what could have happened if I had taken that next step.

I'm ready for God to use me for something bigger. Maybe this is it. Maybe it's not. I still need to contact the hospital to see if my idea was even possible. But now I'm ready to take that next step.

Will you pray with me about this? Pray asking if God would want this and if so that He would open the door for this to happen. Thank you!

A Sweet Memory

So today I went to work as usual. I work at a school nearby and today I helped out in the Preschool class. We had come in for lunch and I was asked to read the class some stories while we were waiting for lunch to be ready. Well I read the class two stories and played a version of Simon Says and the food still wasn't ready. I looked to my other teacher for an idea and she said that we should do some songs. So we sang "A,B,C's", "The Wheels on the Bus", and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." During the entire time a little girl sitting next to me was asking me to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." I told her that we needed to wait and we would do that song next.

Before I had a chance to start singing the song, the other teacher had announced that lunch was ready and started to assign seating for the children. The little girl started to cry.

I whispered in her ear that "Miss Michelle promises that after nap time I will come back and we will sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star together."

She smiled and said "Okay", tears still running down her face.

The other teacher only seeing the little girl crying asked what was going on. I told her what had happened and the teacher said "Come sit down. Let's stop crying. We'll sing it when you stop crying." When the little girl had stopped crying for a minute the other teacher led the class in singing the song.

This made the little girl cry even more. I went over to her and asked her why she was crying. She said "I want to sing it with just you after nap."

I said "It's okay. We'll still sing it." I gave her a big hug and everything was all better, reassuring the other teacher it was okay.

3 hours passed and I went back to the room to give the other teacher a 10 minute break but the little girl was still asleep.

Another 2 more hours passed and I went outside to the playground to send another teacher home and there was the little girl.

She saw me sitting down to sign in on the paper and said "Miss Michelle."

"Yes M"

"Can we sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star now?"

She smiled and I smiled. I sat her on my lap and together we sang:

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
How I wonder what you are?
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
How I wonder what you are?

"See I promised and Miss Michelle doesn't break her promises."

She smiled, gave me a hug and said "I love you."

"I love you too M" I replied.

She gave me another hug and went off to play.

I will always remember that sweet melody and sweet memory from today. I love my job.

Love

What is love?

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 says "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

This scene shows love. For those of you who don't know where this scene is from it is from A Walk to Remember. One of my favorite movies of all time.



It makes me cry every time.

My family say I am a hopeless romantic. I agree with them. Here are just a few of my favorite love songs. Enjoy!







and my favorite songs of all time...





What are some of your favorite love songs?

A Lukewarm and Doubting Christian No More

I have struggled with doubt in my life.

As I was reading this morning's devotion by Charles Spurgeon, this sentence stood out to me:

"'Make every effort' if you would get assurance for lukewarmness and doubting very naturally go hand in hand" (Morning and Evening, Morning, July 26).

I doubt and therefore I am lukewarm. I am lukewarm and therefore I doubt. I shouldn't be lukewarm in my walk with Christ. Doubt serves as a sign for me, showing me that I am becoming lukewarm again. I don't want to be lukewarm. I don't want to doubt.

But how does one get away from being lukewarm? That is what had been running through my mind. At what point is a Christian no longer lukewarm? I think attentiveness toward God is important in overcoming lukewarmness. My attentiveness toward God should be all consuming; meaning: attentiveness not just in my quiet time, but all the time. Every second. Lukewarmness and doubt are only removed from my behavior and thinking when my eyes are fully fixed on Christ.

How is your walk with Christ? Are your eyes fixed on Him or are you a lukewarm and doubting Christian? Oh God, may I never doubt again! Help me, God, not to be a lukewarm or doubting Christian any more.

You Are Loved

8 weeks ago I started doing an online bible study which I just finished today.  A group of ladies together went through the book You Are Loved by Sally Clarkson and Angela Perritt.  This book was to show us how much God loves us and how we should love others.  This is the first time I have gone straight through a study without stopping.  Being in the Word of God every day is something I truly need.  It helps my attitude when I am doing it the first thing in the morning.

Three things through this study that God showed me were:

1.) I need to trust Him more.

2.) I need to do everything with love and in love.

3.) I pray that all I do may glorify Him!

Also God pointed out one specific person in my life that I need to be more loving to and I hope that my relationship with this person will grow deeper.  Please be praying for me as I show more love to her.  Now I have to go find a new book/study that I can do.  Any suggestions??

Excited

Excited.  Yes that's what I am feeling right at this very moment.  Last night I shared with my dad some very old stories and asked him to look at the content and tell me what his opinion was of them.  He shared with me his thoughts and said that for a person to get better at writing he or she should write every day.  He told me I should write on my blog every day.  Later that night I thought about what I would write.  That always seems to be the hardest part for me.  When I have finally found what I want to write about and it is something I truly care about I can get long winded just like my dad.  Oh well.  LOL.  Like father like daughter.  Hope you all don't mind.  I had a hard time sleeping last night because I was so excited to start writing again.  I only hope I can think of something to write about every day.  There may be days where my blog post has to do with something I've read in my Bible, in the newspaper, or maybe a song spoke to me or something stood out to me in a sermon or a movie, or maybe it might just be something that happened in my day working with children.  But whatever it is I hope I am able to "paint with words" like my dad says writers do.  I hope you enjoy reading my blog.