Today Is Not My Day

Disclaimer: Before this sounds sad and depressing, I want you to know that this entry is not what you think it is. This is not a self-pity, poor me post at all, so if you are looking for that, this isn't the place. This is a positive blog and that isn't positive.

So, you know those days when just nothing seems to be going right? No matter what you do it just seems like all of universe is against you. Lose your keys, lock them in your car, lose your phone, step in puddles, forget something important, trip, whatever it is, you begin to think that you should have just stayed at home. I totally get it! I've definitely been there. 

No matter what kind of day you've had, you have to be the one to determine how your day actually went. What I mean is that no matter if the whole world decides that it is "National Make (your name here) Miserable Day", you attitude about the situation will be the ultimate decider of whether or not it was actually a "bad" day. If you refuse to let anything ruin your positive attitude than there is not anything that can tear you down. It is totally mind over matter!

Now, believe me when I say that I know that is a tough motto to adopt. Where do you think I got this blog idea from? I tend to let a lot of things (really little, stupid things to be perfectly honest with you) get in my way of daily happiness. However, realizing that this mindset does NOT allow me to have an "enchanting" life, I came up with some tips to change my attitude. Here they are:

1. Pray!

              God already know all of your struggles, doubts, and fears and gives them to you so that  you lean on Him to take care of them. You can't do it alone and you shouldn't have to. 1 Peter 5:7 says "cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you". God wants to take cares of you but there can only be one captain of the ship; it's Him or you. Don't half give it to Him either, no one likes a back seat driver ;)  

2. Make a list of ten POSITIVE things that have happened to you that day. 

              THERE ARE TEN! -God loves you unconditionally -Jesus died on the cross for you so you      could live with Him eternally. There's two, I gave you a head start:)

3. Go out of your way to do something nice for someone else

              Doing something nice for others will make them AND you feel good

4. Write a letter

              Write the letter to whoever (or no one at all) about everything bad that happened. Then, destroy the letter! Send it away on a balloon, in a lake, river, or ocean, burn it... it doesn't matter what just as long as you get rid of the thing! This symbolizes that you are literally doing away with your problems and not worrying about them anymore!

5. Talk to someone

              As cliche as it is, we are social creatures. Let someone that you really trust know what is bothering you. It will relief some of the stress and maybe they will even have some good advice!

Well these are some methods I have used in the past. If you have things that have helped you, leave them in the comment box to helps others out. Let's help spread the happiness :)

This Whole "Jesus" Thing.

            So as you may have noticed, in my last blog I mentioned that I was a Christian. However, I just briefly mentioned it, not because it isn't important, but the exact opposite actually. I started to go into it and then I realized that it just needed to be its own blog. So here it is:

          I figured I might as well start with how my Christianity started. I am extremely fortunate in that fact that grew up in a Christian home. My mom and dad took me to church every Sunday and taught me the importance of having a God centered life. I had older sisters to look up to and a great church family as well (Side note: my pastor, Cory Snyder, at Riverdale Baptist Church is one of the greatest speakers of all time. You can listen to him at http://rbcflint.org/sermons/). As I get older and get to make more and more decisions on my own, I appreciate the things I was taught as a child. Before I went to college, it was easy to make the "right" decisions. I wasn't sneaking out of the house, drinking, partying, or any of that because, yes I knew it was wrong, yes I knew it wasn't what God wanted (which should have been #1), but most importantly, I knew if mom and dad found out I might as well just run myself up to the hardware store when it was all over and invest in a pad lock for my bedroom because thats where I would be spending quite a bit of time for, oh I don't know, ever. Not that I think my parents are tyrants by any means, but because my actions would deserve a punishment and I knew exactly what it would be. Anyways, living at home made it very easy to appear to be a "Good Christian". It wasn't until we did a study on lukewarm Christians in my youth group that I realized being a "Good Christian" wasn't enough. God didn't want me to JUST be making good choices, He wanted me to be in His word, talking with Him, trusting Him, following His plans, the whole nine yards. It wasn't a concept that I grasped easily, and still don't, but none the less I knew that some things had to change. We all know the old, overused, beaten into the ground saying: "You can't just talk the talk, you've got to walk the the walk". Well, that completely applies here. Can you imagine if Jesus came to Earth, lived His whole life saying He was the son of God and preaching but never actually put any of that into practice? We wouldn't have the open communication we do now, we would still be doing sacrifices, and we wouldn't be able to repent our sins asking for forgiveness and for the Holy Spirit to come and live within in us to guide us in the path God has for us and taking us to our eternal home in Heaven with Him when we die. That is a pretty big change! Well just as Jesus was sent here to do a job, so were we. Now, clearly our job and Jesus's job are two completely different things, but they are similar in the fact that they need to get done and there is no one else to do them but the one who is meant to. This was exactly the mentality that this study taught me and realized I needed to adopt.
       Now that I am at college, things are a little different. I don't have my parents looking over me as closely as they previously were. This is were everything I had been taught as a child had to kick in. I knew that things were going to get tougher and that it was my job to keep my relationship with the Lord strong now. Luckily, I have my best friend, Ellie, here with me who is also a Christian to be accountability partners with, but all the same, choices had to be made. Getting into the new college lifestyle was a difficulty all on its own. Establishing a new way to maintain a relationship with Christ was on a whole different playing field. I will be the first to admit, devos were not on the top of my priority list and praying was not the first thing that popped into my head on the mornings of those lovely 8 a.m. chemistry classes. I used the excuse that I was just too busy and stressed out, God would understand, right? The old mentality of early high school years started to set in. I wasn't really doing anything "wrong" so I was okay. Thankfully, just as this was becoming a norm, God placed  the Mason's in my life just as He did for my sister Natalie when she was at OC. This brought me to the services at Nashville Baptist Church that I desperately needed to hear. One in particular that Pastor DeGroot preached, was a sermon called "Holy Book". With many verses backing his every point, he taught about sowing the word. What made this stick in my mind are three statements that really stood out to me: 1. "The problem is not with the seed, but with the sowers and the soul." 2. "Never be ashamed of the Bible, its truth is the ONLY thing that can changes lives." 3. "I used to try and hid the fact I was praying in public and now I WANT people to know that I am praying to the God of the universe! I WANT them to know I am NOT ashamed of my Savior." Wow. Talk about conviction. Well for starters, I guess if I'm not in the "Holy Book" I'm really doing anyone any good and that would definitely be considered a problem with (me) the sower! With the second one all I could think was that if I was ashamed of the Bible, that means I'm ashamed of its' author: God, which was definitely not okay. That lead right into the third statement. He mentioned how at one point he was trying to hid the fact he was praying. Being totally honest, I'm so guilty of that; but why? Well, why else would I hid this except because of shame or fear? More importantly, why was I embarrassed to let others know that I was exercising the privilege the Creator of life itself gave me to talk to Him whenever I want? As an imperfect, sinful person being treated as a flawless princess of the Lord of Lords, I have absolutely no right. Needless to to day, this was the a rude awakening for me and I knew that some things had to change.
          Where I am now, finally feeling renewed:
I determined that it was time to "turn over a new leaf". I had some serious, much needed one-on-one time with my Savior. I prayed for forgiveness, help, strength, courage, and everything I could think of. I wasn't sure what exactly I needed but I knew that He did and that was good enough for me. It dawned on me that I really needed some good devotion material. It took awhile to find something that really stuck, but I think I've got it now. Its actually quite ridiculous how long it took me to come up with a devotion to keep me focused to be perfectly honest with you. I literally have a collection of about 15 Christian books sitting on my shelf in my dorm 6 ft away from my bed. When I looked at this neglected shelf all I could think was "You're an idiot, how did you forget about all of these!" Nonetheless I know have material for quite some time. My first pick was "When God Writes Your Love Story" by Leslie and Eric Ludy. So far, its amazing. What they have to say its awesome. They talk about the direct connection between God and your relationships and why it is so important that a relationship is for the purpose of serving and coming closer to God, not your own personal benefit. Another big point is how God doesn't want just part of us, but ALL of us. He wants the Captain's seat and the key to every room and won't settle for less. (For anyone who is interested just contact me I would LOVE to discuss it with you or lend it to you if you want to read it!)
       I think after all of this tying this post into my blog theme really isn't a stretch. Its a simple concept: God is great. His love is above all love, His grace is the greatest gift, and if anyone could come up with something "enchanting", its God. He is the creator of goodness, wonder, and the only definition of perfection. Nothing can compare to the enchanting life that God has planned for you if you allow Him to lead you through it. To put it simply, if you truly want to "Live Life Enchantingly", walking hand in hand with the King of Kings and Prince of Peace is the best way to accomplish that goal.
          Sorry this blog was a little bit longer than I plan on making the usuals (thanks for putting up with me), but even after all of this, I don't think I did my Savior the justice He deserves. He is an indescribable God that I have roughly attempted to put into mere, insufficient worlds. Nevertheless, hope you enjoyed this blog and it puts you in an uplifting, inspired, positive mood and given you some food for thought. :)

P.S. Sorry I am technically posting this a day late, I'll do better next time ;)
       

It Starts.

         Well, I meant to start this blog a long time ago, New Years actually, but things got crazy and busy and it was put on the back burner. For starters, I was getting ready to go back to college (I'm a Freshman going into second semester). Also, long before my winter break had even began, my grandma Gloria, who I was named after, had began to get very ill. As many times as she had made a turn around, my whole family assumed that she would recovery. There just had been so many times in the past that she had gotten better, it was almost  wasn't even questionable. Of course she would get well? Why wouldn't she? It sounds so silly but it is almost like we thought nothing would ever happen to her. This is a completely unrealistic thought to think nothing would ever happen, but nevertheless its what we just assumed. At first, she began to get better, she was even released from the hospital to a nursing facility, but on Christmas Day her health began to rapidly decline again. Much to our dismay, my grandmother passed away on January 4, 2013. It felt so unreal. I almost didn't even believe it to be honest. The women that I spent so much time with, went on all those donut runs with, played restaurant and washed dished with, and shared all those great talks and laughs with, was gone? That couldn't be right. She was a great women, someone I truly admire even now. Life seems so very off without her, especially when I'm not at school. It's strange to not see her when I visit home or have her over for Sunday lunch. Regardless, there isn't a day I don't think about her and all of my special memories of her. I miss her incredibly and love her like crazy, but I know that she is so much better now and is with her Savior in Heaven.  
             Now, back at school, my semester has begun and we are already in exam period. It's crazy to think that the time is flying by so fast. Now that things are beginning to go back to the norm, I figured that I could finally, officially start my blog. First order of business, I want to give a little background on myself. My name is Gloria Elizabeth, I am 19 years old, I love Jesus, and I am currently attending college. I am an Exercise Science and Biology Pre-Med major with a minor in Fitness Management. Here at my college, I am also on the cheer team. Cheerleading is a long time passion of mine so I am thrilled to be doing that. Speaking of things I love, of course family is bound to come up. I have a wonderful set of parents, Marc and Lynn, that have been married for 30 years. I also have an awesome beachbody coach/psychologist sister (you can check out her blog here: http://candispiceandallthingsnice.blogspot.com) named Candice who is married to a super tough military man named Jordan. My next sister is an elementary school teacher for special needs students (major props to her, I could never do it!) named Natalie. This lovely lady was just married this past summer to Aldo (he's Chilean) who is probably the most outgoing person on this planet! Next, is my baby sister, Gabbie, who is the most intelligent 7th grader ever (she wrote a novel and is working on the sequel now, yeah you read that right. A novel: a book with over 30,000 words) and no she isn't married:) That makes up my beautiful little family and I love them dearly. Next on my list of things I adore is Disney. I could watch DIsney movies all day every day and never get tired of it. I listen to DIsney soundtracks in the morning while I get ready, while I'm running, or any other daily tasks throughout the day. I just love it. I want to be a princess at Disney World or on the Disney Cruise line and will hopefully be trying out over spring break. Well, I think that is pretty much the brief synopsis of my life. I will be posting new little things that are going on every Monday. 
             So, as random as this first blog may seem, the point of it is simple. I want to take the challenge to focus on the good; all the positivity around me. I chose the title "Live Life Enchantingly" because I think that is the best way to live. Enchantingly means "in a pleasant way" or "delightful, charming, or attractive". Who wouldn't want their life to be pleasant? Sounds good to me! And I truly believe that anyone's life can be just that if they so choose. I don't believe that life is what you are given; but what you make it into. So if you choose to focus on the positive and to see all the blessings, happiness, and magic around you, that is what your life will become. Each post will have be about something that will hopefully brighten your day, make you smile, and cause you to "stop and smell the roses", if you will. There is a better world all around you if you just open your eyes. Life gets crazy, busy hectic, and can really tear a person down, but hopefully this will challenge you to take notice of the good things that are happening too. So from here on out, it's all up hill, are you ready to make the climb?