Baby Got Book

Last night I went to my friend's house for a pizza night.  We had such a laugh watching random YouTube videos and giggling at the 'celebrities' entering Celeb BB and their inability to walk in heels.  Yet as the night went on we got talking about Christianity, our various beliefs and struggles.

We debated whether the Bible is full of rules or guidelines.  Knowing that God's grace will get us into heaven whether we stick to them or not can make them seem less important, but we know they're put there to help us.  Different sins can lead to different problems, heartbreak, illness, being a single parent, prison etc.  We also discussed our individual boundaries in certain areas and ways we can avoid doing anything stupid or getting hurt.

Another thing we spoke about was whether or not we'd take our future children to church.  Some people thought it was unfair to take children to church before they're old enough to make up their own mind.  However, some of us argued that we were raised Christians and still feel we made our own decisions to follow God.

One thing that really helped me personally was talking about being a good example to the youth.  I've always been pretty open about my mistakes because I didn't want to lie to anyone.  People have tried countless times to explain to me how that's not right, but last night, the message finally sank in.  We're not being hypocritical or pretending to be perfect, but we don't want to be perceived as encouraging others to sin.  We talked about how in certain situations, you need to tell people about things you've done wrong to help them on their journey with God, but telling everyone for the sake of being honest can do more harm than good.

I really don't tell my friends this enough but I feel so blessed to have them in my life.  Beth, Sian, Jess, Charlee, Megan and Ben - thanks once again for an amazing night!  

On a less serious note, here's one of the YouTube videos we watched, I must say I'm in love with it:

Snap Back to Reality

I find it pretty ironic that the minute I stop worrying about my future, things start working out.  Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t got everything sorted, but I have a rough plan for the next couple of years:

• level 2 teaching assistant apprenticeship
• church gap year program
• level 3 teaching assistant apprenticeship

In September, I start my apprenticeship at a local school.  It’s literally perfect for me as I can get a qualification and earn some money at the same time.  I just wish it was either less hours or more money.  I’m going to be working 30 hours a week for £75 (term time only, paid monthly) and I have so much to pay for.  I have to give Mum ‘keep’, pay for my FirstMonth (bus pass/ticket thing), save up for my gap year and pay friends and family back money I owe them.  I’m not going to be able to afford driving lessons anytime soon and I definitely won’t be able to spoil my nieces half as much as I’d like to.  As for spare money, I can basically forget it.  I could get myself a weekend/evening job but I’ll have to wait and see how I cope first, cuz I’m definitely going to carry on volunteering with kids and youth at church and I’ve still got coursework/studying etc to do.  I probably won’t be able to pay for driving lessons anytime soon but then to be honest, even if I could, I wouldn’t be able to afford a car, tax, insurance, petrol etc after I passed. 

Advice to anyone who isn’t an adult yet: run to Neverland now before reality catches up with you!

So, I guess, things aren’t actually sorted at all.  But I’ll just have to keep trusting God and remember to make time for Him even when I’m busy working.  Everyone pray, I'm gonna need it!

Sorry if this post seems a bit depressing, it was meant to be a 'Yayy I got a job!' type thing, but it didn't go as planned at all!

thought it was about time I actually started blogging again

So in my last blog post, I said ‘expect a new blog within the next few days. Firstly, the grammar there is terrible, it should be blog post, not blog – oops! Secondly, that was a bit of a fail as here I am roughly six weeks later finally doing another blog post. But to be quite honest, not much was happening in my life at the time and any blog post I could have written would have sent anyone reading it to sleep.

I don’t even know where to start with my life right now. God is starting to work in it again even though I continue to mess up. http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/s/simon_brading/im_alive.html These lyrics apply so much to my life it’s like they were written about me. I can’t find the song on YouTube, but it’s on the Newday – You Reign album if you wanna buy it :) 

So, that’s what’s going on right now.  As for the future, I’ve thought about it far too much about it for far too long.  I mean, for quite a while I’d given up on getting married, and had accepted that I’d end up a single mum living off benefits in a council house (after all, that was all I’d ever known). Then for a while, my attitude was, if I kiss enough frogs, I’ll find my prince eventually. But now I realise that I just need to trust that God will find me someone when the time is right.

As for work and education, I’m still not entirely sure what I’m going to do. I’m still passionate about kids and youth and am currently looking into doing some sort of childcare/education apprenticeship. I’m also planning on doing my church’s gap year program at some point. But whether or not that's what happens is a completely different story.

But none of this scares me anymore. I have faith that God has my future in His hands and things will all work out for the best. Until then, I need to work on myself and my relationship with God.

the reason I haven't been blogging

no, it's actually nothing to do with Charlie McDonnell - but he does explain it perfectly here :)

expect a new blog within the next few days

The Frog Concept

Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.  -  Mark Twain 

It's a simple concept.  If you eat a live frog when you first get up in the morning, you can be pretty confident that you won’t have to do anything worse all day.  If you DID have to eat a live frog, you wouldn’t stare at it for ages first, you’d gulp it down quickly before you could think about what you were doing.
 

So if there’s one particularly nasty task that you’ve been putting off, do that first thing in the morning and don’t stop to think about it.  You’ll have it out of the way and everything else you do will be nothing in comparison.

My frog is definitely the washing up.  I let it build up ‘til it’s taking over the whole kitchen and Mum’s threatening to kick me out.   Then when I finally do it, we eat again and there’s more washing up to do.

What’s your frog?   Are you going to do it first thing in the morning or leave it for another day? 

Five Favourite YouTube Channels - April

This is a bit different from my usual blog posts.  As some of you know, I'm addicted to YouTube, and although I have limited internet usage at home, when I'm at Mum's boyfriend's house I get to watch as many videos as I like.  (Plus I recently downloaded a YouTube app so I can watch 'em on my phone.)  So I'm going to write about some of my favourite YouTube channels and videos that I've been loving this month.

kandeejohnson
Mainly make up and hair tutorials, but aswell as the standard everyday ones, she has some great costume make-up ones (my favourites are Betty Boop and Edward Scissorhands)

JennaMarbles
The first video of hers I saw was on 'how to avoid talking to people you don't want to talk to'.  That video is such a classic and still my favourite video of hers, but another one I love is 'how to trick people into thinking you're good looking'.  My favourite thing about her is that she doesn't take herself seriously AT ALL.

charlieissocoollike
I've been sharing his 'how to speak English' video with my American and Australian friends Marissa and Ashleigh who are moving to England in 2013.

emilyharder
Literally subscribed to her today.  She followed me on Twitter so I decided to check out her YouTube.  She has an amazing voice!  Mixture of acoustic covers and original songs.

AGayADay
Got into this due to Simon's Rebecca Black lyric analysis.  Simon's definitely my favourite.  But I love gay people, so I love this channel.

The Chair of Prophecy

A year or two ago, while I was at MSCF,  I had the privilege of meeting an apostle named Don Crum, and having him prophesy over me.  Back then, I hated the rare occasion where I had to sit in the main meetings at church and was probably going to leave church when I got too old for teen group.  So if I’d been invited to a prayer meeting or something, I wouldn’t have gone. 

But when my friend Hannah invited me to a pizza night, it seemed harmless enough.  Not all that boring grown-up rubbish.  Just chilling with friends and eating pizza.  I knew Don Crum was going to be there, but it was at Hannah’s house, pretty informal right?

So we’re all cotching on the sofas listening to Don’s stories about his time in Nigeria, when he does the unthinkable - he puts a chair in the middle of the room and asks if any of us want to be prayed for and prophesied over.  After an awkward silence someone sits in the chair and from then on – WOW!  He just seems to know everything about each and every one of us and our individual gifts.  He prophesies over all my friends and eventually my feet just kind of take over and I somehow end up in that chair.  Don tells me how glad he is I went up and starts to pray for and prophesy over me.  He tells me God’s plan for me involves helping children.  I look at my friends in shock and they all look back at me, smiling.  They all know what he doesn’t: I’m taking a childcare course at college.  Once he’s finished praying, I tell him this.  Once he’s out of earshot I proceed to ask everyone ‘Who told him?’.  Nobody confesses and I’m so confused; I know these people and they wouldn’t lie to me.  That’s when I realise it’s a genuine word from God.

Well, after that night, everything starts to go wrong at my college placement.  I end up quitting my course.  I try and find other ways of getting into childcare but no doors seem to be opening. 

***

In January this year, I was asked by the youth pastor at KCC to join the leadership of their youth group, LIFE.  At the time, I was just happy that I could continue to be part of LIFE now that I was too old to go.  Now, in April, I’m just starting to realise what a part that plays in the prophesy being fulfilled.  My eyes have been opened to something which, if I’m honest, I was too narrow-minded to see before: teenagers are children too and they need help just as much, if not more than younger children.

I’ve always helped people with their problems.  I never realised that was part of God’s plan for me.  Lately I’ve had a lot more opportunities to help people and I’ve realised God has an amazing ability to use bad things and get good outcomes.  I’ve been able to help young people who are bullied because I’ve been bullied myself.  I spoke to one girl who is so broken by one mistake she made and been able to share some of my own mistakes with her and show her that nobody is perfect but God loves us anyway.

I know that this is just the start of God’s plan for my life and I’m excited to find out what’s next.  So excited, in fact, that while I was writing this, I managed to do this:

I would like to thank some people now:

• Hannah Hunt, for inviting me to the pizza night
• Don Crum, for listening to God for me when I couldn’t be bothered, and telling me what I needed to hear. 
• Liam Parker, for giving me the opportunity to be part of leading such an amazing youth group
• my new found brothers sisters in Christ (all my friends at KCC), thanks for your continual support, encouragement, prayers, cuddles and chats.
• Jess Newson, for coming up with the title for this blog post.
• and last but by no means least, God Himself.  Because without Him none of this would be possible.

Haha, it sounds like I’m famous or something.  Ahh well, it needed to be done.  Also, a big shout out to the youth at LIFE, you guys are amazing!  I genuinely believe you could change the world someday.

(MSCF is my old church, KCC is my current church, LIFE, or living in freedom everday, is KCC's youth group.)