Junior Status Baby

Well hey there. I am so sorry that I have not been keeping up with my blogging! There has been so much going on here in Starkville, NO not the exciting kind of things that keep me busy... but NON stop studying. The library has consumed my life for the past 3 days... just call me a hermit... haha. WELL not anymore.
Today I finished my last exam. YAYAY! so exciting. And yes like my title entails... I am a JUNIOR. Crazy... it seriously feels like yesterday I was a young scared freshman starting a new series in my life and now this experience is close to an end. Though that scares the heck out me I'm reminded that there is a whole new world that awaits for me. 
God's plan for my life is working as we speak... and it only gets better. I AM SO pumped and blessed to have a living powerful God! Thank goodness for His amazing life.  
I can't wait to start this summer... and I promise you I will be keeping up with this blog! I hope everyone is having a wonderful day! YAY for summer time!


Love your newly (I know corny haha) JUNIOR,
Katie 


p.s. go check out my friend Katie St. John's blog! Its brand new and it is so interesting to see what she is doing this summer in Spain!
http://kvstjohn.blogspot.com/2011/04/beginning.html?spref=tw

...what am I going to do?!

So for some reason the past few weeks I've been constantly thinking about what I'm going to do once college is over.  Am I going to successfully become a Meteorologist... am I going to follow in my mothers steps and become a State Farm Agent... AM I EVEN going to find a job?!?! And then I went on, what about when I get a job... will I be equipped enough from what I learned in college to do my job?! What if I decide Meteorology is just not for me after I finish my degree... what do I do then!?
Well as you can see... I completely freaked out... haha... and that's when today I came across some great inspiration while I was reading in Mark.


In the first few chapters of Mark it talks about when Jesus went on the road to find his disciples.  Starting in Chapter 1 versus 16-20 and further it talks about when He calls those certain people to come follow Him...

Mark 1:16-20

¹⁶ As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ¹⁷ “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” ¹⁸ At once they left their nets and followed him.

 ¹⁹ When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. ²⁰ Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. 

As you read that you may think... Katie what does that have to do with anything, but what it told me is that...

1. When those disciples left they had no idea what kind of job they were going to do... BUT  Jesus equipped them with the knowledge they needed.

2. OMGosh... they just dropped everything they did for someone they didn't even know (a stranger to them at the time). Someone they had JUST met.

3. They left their work. - HOW ARE THEY GOING TO GET MONEY?!

4. They left their home/ city! - where are they going to live?! 

5. They left their families in whom they've most likely have been with since the beginning of their life... and also... I believe most of the disciples would probably not see their families ever again because they died for what they believed in.

All these things took hold of me as I sat in starbucks this morning pondering over these things... these helpless disciples who knew nothing, who had nothing, and who were completely dependent on Jesus- that's just crazy to me... how could they just let go so easily... 

then I though about my situation again... okay... maybe I won't get a job... or something of that nature... but I need to learn to depend on God even for the small things, not just when times are hard and rough and terrible, but God is in all things and is working in all things.

I need to learn to be able to "leave at once" if told... and need to not depend on my dreams and wants, but to ask Him what He wants me to do and allow Him to completely lead me.

I want to be like these disciples and fully lean and listen to every Word that God is telling me... I only pray that I can do that... or at least depend on God to help me do that.

I hope that all of you have had a wonderful Tuesday and I hope that your Wednesday is even better! I hope this encouraged you as much as Mark 1 encouraged me. Love y'all :)

Am I allowed to post two blogs in one day?

So after I posted my last blog I forgot that I really wanted to post pictures from this weekend.  This weekend at Mississippi State was the annual SUPER BULLDOG WEEKEND! And it was awesome... so I just wanted to post some pictures of my friends and I! 

My lovely boyfriend and I at the State baseball game vs. Florida.

One of my very best friends from high school, Lindsay :)

Some of my best friends!

Some more of my best friends at Sigma Phi Epsilon's Wild Wild West party!

"The Katie(ey)'s"- Love y'all.

GREAT friends at the crawfish brunch at Sig Ep.

More best friends! Erin and Mary Alice!

Truly an amazing boyfriend!

 I am so blessed beyond measure to have great friends. 

Have a wonderful day on this beautiful Monday that God has made!

through the good and the bad.

The reason this post is called "through the good and the bad" is for several reasons, but one in particular pertaining to that video.  If you watched or you have watched it you know what its about. The song by Tenth Avenue North is something I struggle with everyday as a human being and that is making mistakes.  I personally have made mistakes numerous amounts of times. For me every mistake that I have made usually stays with me for awhile... it convicts me and usually absorbs all my time... by pondering on it, writing about (like right now), and constantly being reminded about it.  Now when it becomes this bad I know for sure its one thing... guilt...

Guilt is something that God doesn't want us to have... of course God wants to convict us about the things we've or about to do (called the Holy Spirit), but he doesn't want us to stay endowed in it forever... that is exactly why Jesus came here is to give us a NEW HOPE and new way of living... He wants us to live freely so that we can worship and follow Him without having the feeling of guilt. 

That is why I love this song so much... every time I've heard it, it just reminds me every time that yeah... I've made mistakes and I am still going to make mistakes (because I'm human), but I mean so much more than that or the future mistakes that may come. 

Though the mistakes we make may seem huge and they may be huge, but in reality God takes care of all things... "we are more than the choices that we've made...we've been remade".

This also makes me realize that I spend too much time pondering about my mistakes... time that is valuable to God that He could be using, but instead I'm stuck in this feeling of sin and guilt.  So please I encourage you... if you are similar to me in this area... take a step back and see that His grace is sufficient for you in all things... even in our dumb mistakes and sins.  

I hope y'all had a wonderful wonderful weekend!!!! and I hope that as you go through this week y'all will be encouraged by the fact that God loves us more than we can ever know or comprehend and that we are WAY more important to God than our mistakes!

it's kinda a big deal.

So... I was just sitting here... about to delete my Facebook... first of all... this shouldn't be a big problem right... I mean it's simply just Facebook right...? Second of all... oh my gosh... I am completely and utterly cut off from the... world?- haha WAIT. Why am I so obsessed with Facebook... yes... it keeps me updated with peoples lives, yes it keeps me informed with my sorority, and yes it takes up endless hours of time (stalking people is so fun haha) in which I could be doing what I've been sent to Mississippi State for my classes. 

Then I began to think of something I discussed with a friend earlier this week...

"Why do I always try to schedule God into 'my world', when this is most definitely HIS world"... I mean seriously! I take up so much time with STUFF... when He gave us all His time and even HIS OWN SON. How crazy. 

So this really convicts me... and honestly I never really saw a bad point to Facebook or really any other extracurricular activities until now... 

I always let the things of this world take my time, when our creator is just sitting there saying... "HELLO!! I created you and I love you more than anything... PAY ATTENTION to me... those things cannot save you in the end... ONLY I the Almighty can." 

So... I encourage you... if there are things in your life that take up all your time and you are completely consumed by it and you feel like if you had to let it go it would be the end of you... re-think whose world you are actually living in... yours? or God's?

and no... I'm not saying if your in extracurricular's you need to let them go... I'm just saying... DON'T make those your idols... be able to have the confidence if you had to let something go... you would be perfectly capable of letting it go because you have something so much greater to hold on to.

"'Has not my hand made all things, and so they came into being?!' declares the Lord..." -Isaiah 66:2

"Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen." - Romans 1:22-23; 25

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." -Luke 12:34

"Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! For you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah." -Jeremiah 2:28

BUT seriously... will our idols save us when we need saving or help us through the worst of times... they may bring satisfaction right now... but what about later...

I definitely know that Facebook... in the end will not have my back... hahaha!

I hope you all are having a MARVELOUS week and are completely excited about tomorrow being FRIDAY! Have a great day!

p.s.- go outside and enjoy the beautiful day that God has made!

(These are pictures of Salerno, Italy.  A beautiful place I visited this past summer.  The pictures just remind me so much of God's glorious creations, but don't take for granted that the place you live is beautiful too! Even here where I am, Starkville, Mississippi!)

(Mississippi State's campus!)

The big storm.

Well hey there blogging world! I am so excited to actually start my first blog. I've been going back and forth with the idea of a blog for the longest time, but have finally decided it was a great idea. There is so much that I have on my mind at all times of the day (being my ADD self this happens quite a lot) and I'm so excited to share with you. This blog will not just represent the good in my life, but I will also be truthful when times are rough. BUT mostly I really hope to inspire those who read this blog to not only live your lives through the good times and the struggles... but live it to the fullest, not on your own, but with the help of one who is stronger then anyone can fathom, the majesty and creator of the Earth, God.


Surprisingly today has been great... those of you that are in my weather conditions may think I'm completely crazy, but honestly... I've had quite a peace today... and it's been really strange to me how I can have a complete peace when in the next few hours or so we might possibly have a tornado... hahaha. NO I am not crazy... I've just been reminded today of a sermon that I heard yesterday in Memphis.


The sermon was on the Glory of Jesus and how there is nothing we cannot face with the Glory of Jesus... (shown in Mark 9).  Also the pastor reminded us that- we live in His world- we are the aliens- NOT Him.  That really hit me hard because I've been trying to empty out space and time for Him when He has allowed me to be apart of His great story (how selfish am I?).  His amazing story that began way back in Genesis and that could end at any moment.  How could I not be in constant gratitude for all that He has allowed me to experience and how could I possibly just keep this GREAT amazing story to myself... WOW! What a conviction. 


So this is what I've been grateful for all day... is that I get to experience Him daily. I get to have a real true relationship with Him that will go way past just this temporal world. Um... I am PUMPED. haha. 


So even though there is a storm outside... He is present... in all His glory, His graces, His mercies, and His most incomprehensible LOVE for His creations.
This takes me back to my little Sunday school days... (now being able to understand how much He really does love me)...

John 3:16-18
 "¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son."


HOW AMAZING is He?! He loves us so much.


SO... GO out there and bask in that storm... because even though it's scary and frightening... He is present... and He takes care of His flock at all times even in times of struggle and being afraid.


Psalms 100:3
"Know that the Lord is God. It is He who has made us, and we are His, we are His people, the sheep of HIS pasture!"