psalm 25.

“To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.

O my God, in you I trust;
let me not be put to shame;
let not my enemies exult over me.
Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame;
they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
Make me to know your ways, O LORD;
teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all the day long.
Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love,
for they have been from of old.
Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
according to your steadfast love remember me,
for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!
Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in what is right,
and teaches the humble his way.
All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness,
for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
For your name’s sake, O LORD,
pardon my guilt, for it is great.
Who is the man who fears the LORD?
Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.
His soul shall abide in well-being,
and his offspring shall inherit the land.
The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him,
and he makes known to them his covenant.
My eyes are ever toward the LORD,
for he will pluck my feet out of the net.
Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.
The troubles of my heart are enlarged;
bring me out of my distresses.
Consider my affliction and my trouble,
and forgive all my sins.
Consider how many are my foes,
and with what violent hatred they hate me.
Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me!
Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
May integrity and uprightness preserve me,
for I wait for you.
Redeem Israel, O God,
out of all his troubles.”
{Psalm 25}

my friend texted me this yesterday and it truly blessed me.

sorry for not having posted in a while. it has been busy over here. but i hope you are all doing well. another update soon!

xoxo
Lo

honestly, i am absolutely [terrified].

…and yet completely filled with JOY at the same time.

let me explain.

first :: meet team THAILAND

these are the [amazing] people that the Lord has sovereignly chosen for me to be able to go to Thailand with this summer. are they not the most wonderful group of people you have ever seen?!

and now let me tell you a little bit about the trip.

for many of you, i sent out a prayer letter that some what explained what we will be doing over there — though many of the actual details are unknown to us! we will be basically interning with ZOE International and working in the children’s home that they have over in Thailand. only the Lord knows what things we will be doing while we are there — so we are just prayerfully trusting in Him.

i am so excited for this trip…SERIOUSLY. but at the same time i am totally scared.

i have realized that this is something that i have to daily be surrendering to the Lord. lately there have been days when i doubt, but can i just tell you :: OUR GOD IS SO GOOD. He keeps giving me confirmation after confirmation that this is His will and that i need to just follow Him and TRUST Him above all other things.

God is so faithful, even though i am not.
He is good, i am not.
His power is perfected in weakness — therefore let me rejoice in weakness, that His power may abound.
when i am weak, then i am strong.

i will continue to keep you updated as things come up here and there.

your prayers would be much appreciated.

love you all dearly.
xoxo
Lo

the thing GOD taught me the most about over break.

when you return from something, everyone always asks: “what stood out to you the most?” or “what was the biggest lesson that God taught you?” etc.

well for Christmas break 2011-2012, God taught be a lot about
{F O R G I V E N E S S}.

it was through a variety of ways, but mostly by the means of a book i was assigned to read for a class–”the pillars of Christian character” {by John MacAruthur}. okay confession, this was the first book i have ever read by him, i  must say i really did love it. it was so deep, yet easy to understand and apply to everyday life. it was one of those books that you read and you’re like: “oh, that is exactly what i needed to hear!” you know what i’m talking about? you get those “a-ha!” moments over and over. the book itself talks about a lot of things that you probably already know, but they are things that you can’t be reminded about enough throughout life.

anyway, back to the subject at hand…forgiveness.

this is a big topic. and i definitely won’t be going into full detail about it on here. but i wanted to share something that i highlighted in the book.

“an unsettled grudge needs to be resolved and reconciliation must occur before we can render true worship to God. we must do all we can to settle any anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness we hold toward a brother or sister in Christ, or that he or she holds toward us. otherwise, we are not fit to come before God or partake of His communion table. that is why the attitude of forgiveness is so critical in the life of the church.”

wow. i was struck when i thought about how often i find it so difficult to TRULY forgive at times–even for silly things. but it really should never be a struggle because of the immense forgiveness that the Lord has shown to me! because of His great love, i should never hold on to things that may have hurt me in some sort of way. i am a sinner and i have been forgiven. this forgiveness should never be taken for granted, instead i should be readily showing it to others in my life.

{this is my prayer:}

o, God, give me a heart of forgiveness…let no one’s actions cause me to not show love and mercy toward them.

xoxo
Lo

PS
if you care to share something that God taught you over break, please do. leave a comment. i’d love to hear about His work in your life too.

wise words.

xoxo
Lo

2012.

i always love a start of a new year. it feels like we are starting off with a clean slate. but maybe i’m the only one who thinks this way…

with this new year, i only have one real resolution:
to be more like Jesus. 

nothing else matters apart from Him.

this is my prayer–that my heart be binded to Thee.

xoxo
Lo

my Savior.

…you who seek God, let your hearts revive. for the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people…let the heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them.
{Psalm 69:32-34}

xoxo
Lo

brokenness.

…a broken and contrite heart, o God, You will not despise.

{Psalm 51:17}

xoxo
Lo

just a few words.

the steps of man are established by the LORD, when he delights in His way. though he may fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds his hand. {psalm 37:23-24}

so i have realized that i haven’t written anything on here in a very long time.

there are two reasons for that ::
1. i feel like people don’t really care to read a bunch of blabbing.
2. i have been SO busy.

…but isn’t everybody. so i guess that is not really an excuse.

but wow. the semester is coming to a close rather quickly. it is kind of insane. tomorrow is december. which makes me very happy for a number of reasons. as i reflect back on the past few months, i just see the Lord’s hand in it all. if you would have asked me what i thought this semester was going to be like, i definitely would never have guessed that it would happen the way that it did. but this reminds me of the sovereignty of God.

He has placed each one of us exactly where we need to be, in order that we are able to learn exactly what we need to learn.

isn’t that amazing?

but i must say, sometimes it is challenging. but it is those challenging moments that always put us back in our place and remind us of how dependent we must be on Christ. and for this i am truly grateful.

God is good no matter what.

xoxo
Lo

evolution. natural selection. charles darwin.

today in my foundations of science class we watched a video about evolution and Intelligent design.

i am not going to lie…it was quite fascinating.

my interest has now been peaked and i have decided that i am now going to research this a little bit more in depth.
i must admit, i have never really been one for science, i have always been more of a history//english person, but after today i realized just how important it is to be able to understand and to defend my faith in the Intelligent Designer.

more thoughts will follow soon…

hope you are all having a marvelous thursday afternoon.

xoxo
Lo

day of prayer.

we get the day off today to P R A Y.

what a privilege this is–to be able to go directly to the Lord & talk to Him…personally.

…in {e v e r y t h i n g} by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God. and the peace that surpasses all understanding will guard our heart and mind.

.philippians 4:6-7.

xoxo
Lo