Decision and Paper Clips

What if every decision you had to make you also had a paper clip. We would all have millions of paper clips.

Lately I have been put in front of dozens of decisions about not only everyday life but also school and just everything. Decisions are something that each and every one of us are faced with everyday. There is just no running from them. Decisions about what classes to take or what should we do this weekend. They are always there. While I was sitting here at my desk thinking about all the different decisions I have to make I got out my camera and took a picture of my colorful paper clips. Check it out.

Now, I edited it and put on there a quote I thought of. Life's like a bunch of paper clips. These represent all my decisions I have to make in my life. 

We all need to take our decisions to God in prayer and scripture. Sometimes decisions can cause anxiety on us. A couple of bible verses are..

"Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

"For I know the plans I have for you; declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

There are several more verses we can go to but these are just a few. I hope and pray that your decision making goes well for you. 

Hope you have had a great day.

Raeann

Prayer

How do you pray?

There are so many ways one can pray. Last night I was at bible study with some friends and we started off with prayer. But, it is a silent and your own personal prayer.

Do this with me, ready grab a piece of paper and pen and write to God like you are talking to your best friend and telling them what has been going on in your life. Nobody else is going to read your prayer so get up close and personal with God. Tell Him everything. Then once you are done with your prayer draw a line under it, or if you ran out of room get a new piece of paper. Now, think of you best friend and after you have told them everything what would they say back to you? God is your best friend, let Him right you back through you. Let Him guide your hand in what He wants to tell you.

I did this last night and it was really amazing what He had to say to me.

Go pray anywhere. I took this picture the other day and just loved it. It is so peaceful and a great thing to look at while praying. It really shows how amazing God is.

So peaceful to take a minute and pray to God!

Do this occasionally to see what kind of response comes through you from Him.


Hope you have a blessed day!
Raeann

Grandpa!

So, I found out the other day from my mom that my Grandpa Howell reads my blog! People may think that is weird but, I personally love it!

Grandpa Howell is one of the best grandpa's any kid can I ask for! Every time I see him I always get the biggest hugs ever! Since I don't get to see him often I cherish every moment of my time seeing and spending time with him!

He is the funniest guy! We will play a card game (usually Phase 10) and he usually doesn't last through the entire game! ha. Because he gets so mad because he isn't winning! haha. It always cracks me up!

Grandpa is an Elder in the Church of Christ and I look up to him. I don't say that enough. I honestly feel like a lot of us don't tell people how much they mean to us enough. He is an amazing Christian man and I hope to marry a man that reminds me of his Christian self. Also, I hope that my little brother grows up to be just like him! He already has some of those Howell genes. ha.

People call my grandpa Howell, Handsome Howell. I don't think I need to explain that statement. ha. He is a funny guy. ha.

While I have two grandfathers still with me they are both the best! Grandpa Hines is awesome as well! Can't leave him out! haha.

Well, Grandpa Howell, I hope you have enjoyed this! I love you tons and miss you bunches! See you soon!

Have a great day!
Raeann :)

Spring Sing!

Wow! It has been way to long! I am sorry! Life has been so crazy! I was recently part of this big production called Spring Sing here at school. It literally takes over your life! Anyways, Spring Sing is something that OC does every year, and this year the theme was ReRun! It consisted of many different clubs and hosts performing to old television shows.

This year I was privileged to be in the club Pi Zeta Phi! Our theme was a special over Cleopatra on the History channel. Our show was AMAZING! Our directors, Rachel and Audrey, did an awesome job at putting our show together. I mean seriously, us Pi girls are crazy and Rachel and Audrey were patient with us and our show ended up being the best in Pi history!

Our costumes we sweet! We had wigs and totally looked like Cleopatra!

We didn't care what we placed as long as we won something! ha. We ended up getting the Best Costume Award and 4th Place! That comes with a trophy! This is a first for Pi! We have been a club since 2004 and have never won anything in Spring Sing! But, this year we came out and rocked it! We were amazing! I couldn't have asked for a better bunch of sisters than what I have been blessed with in Pi! I love them all!

Pi Zeta Phi! Whoop, Whoop!

Hope you all have a wonderful day!
Raeann :)

Sanity

Today was a beautiful day! God is good! I know, I started out with that last time but seriously today was so beautiful outside! I hope that you were able to enjoy it!

Are you sane? A question we ask ourselves almost all the time. In the Celebrate Recovery bible, todays devotional is on Sanity. It starts out by talking about how at first our coping techniques, when dealing with hardships, may affect our lives in only small ways. But, over time we can develop different hurts, habits and hang-ups that end up with a devastating consequences. In the devo, it goes on by telling different stories of people who have ended up with different consequences. One is about this woman who had just been divorced for the third time. Well, she felt lonely and started to meet men online, which lead to meeting them in person and it ended up in her almost being hurt and having to escape from a car in a deserted area. She realized that she could have been seriously hurt or even killed. Her level of insanity was a matter of life and death. Again, this is from the devo in the CR bible.

In Principle One, we finally faced our denial and admitted that we are powerless to control our tendency to do the wrong thing and that our lives have become unmanageable. It says that in order to gain the needed control we need to practice the second principle on our journey to recovery. And to refresh Principle Two is "Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him and that He has the power to help me recover." We begin to change by allowing Jesus Christ to restore our sanity, order and meaning to life. He gives us strength to change and set realistic expectations that we expect from ourselves.

As we get back to the Christ-centered 12 steps to recovery, step 2 helps us restore sanity. Step Two says, "We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." We do need to know what the word Sanity means in this step. But, first the word Insanity in this context is "doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result each time. While Sanity can be defined as "wholeness of mind; making decisions based on the truth."

Jesus is the only Higher Power who offers the truth, the way, the life, and the power.

The result for admitting to being powerless in Principle One, we can move from chaos to hope in Principle Two. This devotional says that Hope enters the picture when we come to believe that a power greater than ourselves, our Higher Power, Jesus Christ, can and will restore us. Christ alone can provide the needed power over our addictions and compulsive behaviors. he alone can restore order and meaning to our lives. He alone can restore us to sanity.

"It is God who works in you to will and to act according to him good purpose."

Philippians 2:13

Hope you all had a great day!

Raeann

Hope

So today while I should have been doing homework, I decided to go to the park, because today is such a beautiful day! God is good! Today while at Hafer Park many different thoughts and memories went through my mind from being there in the past. Memories like doing a scavenger hunt there and having a surprise birthday party and even taking a nap and waking up to the ice cream man coming and getting a special treat! 
I have been through many different hurts and hang-ups and have struggled lately with having hope and faith in God. Going back to the daily devotional from my Celebrate Recovery bible, todays devo is talking about Hope. In this particular devo the examples used are people who are in prison. It says that they have found hope in God while in prison that everything will be okay. This is the same for any situation. We always need to find hope in God. This devo says that many of us are trapped inside our own walls. That sometimes we are afraid of hope to have a life free of hurt or pain. The devotional now takes us onto Principle 2. Principle 2 is when we come to believe that God exists and that we're important to him. We are to find access to the one true Higher Power, Jesus Christ with this principle. 

Hebrews 11:6 it says, "without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

Psalms 62:5 shows us the source of our hope: "Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him."

We find hope in Jesus Christ and that is why Principle 2 is called the "hope principle." This devo also says that we find that eternal life doesn't begin with death but that it begins with faith. 

Hebrews 11:1 defines faith: "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

All we need is faith, even the tiniest bit, to begin our journey of freedom from the hurts, hang-ups and habits. So the reason I brought up the memories is because things have been rough with some friends lately and this devo has helped me to have faith and hope that in time everything will be better with them. The other day I had a little talk with a friend and that friend really gave me comfort and hope  that it will all be better in its own time. I now have more hope in not only God but myself and friends that everything will work out. So to end todays blog I want to leave you with some lyrics from Pink's new song Perfect about how nobody is perfect and that things will be okay. 

Made a wrong turn, once or twice 

Dug my way out, blood and fire 

Bad decisions, that's alright 

Welcome to my silly life 

Mistreated, misplaced, misunderstood 

Miss 'No way, it's all good', it didn't slow me down 

Mistaken, always second guessing, underestimated 

Look, I'm still around 

Pretty pretty please, don't you ever ever feel 

Like you're less than perfect 

Pretty pretty please, if you ever ever feel like you're nothing 

You're perfect to me!

You're so mean, when you talk about yourself, you were wrong 

Change the voices in your head, make them like you instead 

So complicated, look happy, you'll make it! 

Filled with so much hatred... such a tired game 

It's enough! I've done all I can think of 

Chased down all my demons, I've seen you do the same 

This song, I feel ties into my life and how to have faith not only in God but also in myself. 

It is simply put, life without Christ is a hopeless end; but with Him it is an endless hope.

Have a great evening!

Raeann

Got Friends?

Since today was another snow day it was filled with boredom but also with friends! The first half of the day was spent lounging around in my room and then went to lunch with my friend Jessica. Then sledding with Scotty, Shannon, and Miranda! We ended up having a snowball fight with our sleds (okay they were caf trays). That was so much fun! After that our whole dorm got together to eat pizza and play games! This too was so much fun! A great way to get out of the room! Later on I hung out with Jessica, Olivia, Abbey, and Ashley and we all enjoyed some great laughs! Then to top it off I went to the Pi Zeta Phi "C" team game and the other team ended up not showing up. So, the "A" and "B" teamers who were there ended up playing against them. It was great just to play with my Pi sisters! What a great way to end my night! :)

A prayer about friendship..

Dear Father,

Friendship is truly a gift from You.

Thank you for the friends You have already 

given me as well as the ones You will bring into my life in the future. May 

You be the center of all these relationships.

May we encourage on another to 

see You and grow in You. May our words

and actions honor Your.

Use me to be a friend to the friendless,

to speak encouraging words and point

them to You. You are the best friend any of 

us could ever have, and I love You for it.

In Jesus' name,

Amen

This is from the book that I have. 

A verse is..

Proverbs 17:17

"A friend loves you all the time."

Hope you had a great day!

Raeann