Busy

Lately, my life has been crazy!!! I have school, which is alot of work, and of course gymnastics. I'm trying to get ready for high school gymnastics which I'm not nearly good enough to do. I've just been practicing, practicing, practicing! In addition to those two, I'm preparing for a Mexico mission trip with the other students from the Johnson Ferry High School Ministry. There's so much preperation that still needs to be done before that trip! As you can see, there are alot of exclamation points. Even just talking about all this stuff stresses me out because I know that after I get off my blog, there's something else I need to go do. Sometimes it's really hard to just relax because there's so much to do, but I find that if I can just sit back and maybe even read my Bible for 10 minutes, the day is so much better. Of course, I try to start and end my day with Jesus, but in the middle of the day it's great. When I'm rushing around, trying to get homework done before gymnastics, sometimes I'll just remember to pray. Writing it on your hand is great! I just try to stop, consentrate on Jesus, and remember that all these things are in HIS hands. If HE wants me to be 5 minutes late to gymnastics, I don't need to freak out. It is ok because HE knows what HE's doing way better than I do. So just remember that as I pass on a little advice to the 3 of you that read my blog (haha, lol), when your feeling stressed, try to remember to chill and give it to God!

Believe, Trust, Hope

There are a lot of things that have hit me pretty hard lately. The first thing, also being the hardest, is that gymnastics is over. My parents decided that I would be aloud to go back to gymnastics about a week ago. After they e-mailed the director, he said that there wasn't enough room in my level anymore and that they couldn't take me back. I was not expecting this at all!! I am still doing gymnastics, but on a little less serious level. This is not what I wanted so it's still really hard to face reality on this one. The next thing that I found out the next day was that one of my best friends is moving at the end of May...to Pennsylvania. This is something that I'm unfortunatly used to but it doesn't make it any easier. I can name one friend K-8th (now 9th) that have moved away. It always seems to be a close friend too. I don't really know what God is doing but I have to keep trusting. This is not always easy at all, but it's vital in my relationship with Him. This leads me to my title: Believe, Trust, Hope. This is somethig that I have to do constantly. The first step to changing how I feel is believing that God is in control of every situation that He has put me in. I can't doubt for one minute that He has put me in a situation that I can't handle. The second step is that I need to trust that He is going to carry me through every situation without fail. He will never leave me and I can't go relying on myself because I don't trust Him to do what's best for me. The last thing I have to do is hope. I can't just live my life without hoping that something will happen. This comes somewhat naturally with believing, but I still have to look for something in the future. I have to be patiently waiting but being allert to what He might do in my life.

That's it for now = )
-martha-

Falling In

I went to a private Cristian school from Kindergarten through 8th grade. This year I started high school at a public school. I have found it very hard not to "fall in". By this I mean turning into the people around me. It fells like this is all new to me. I've learned it's extremely hard to be around something and not do it. I never cussed through 8th grade; 3 weeks into school I found myself disobeying all the morals I have every had. I still have time to turn around, I haven't messed up to bad, I just hate that I am following the way of the world. My wittness is stressed if not failed. I feel like I have failed the Lord. I want to turn around my life before I get worse, but I won't lie...that really hard when you've been around cussing and cussing myself for even a couple months. I'm pray for strength and help to stop this pattern, but it's so hard!

That's all I have to say...thanks for listening!!
L8R!

Stop The Violence!!! *In loving memory of Stacey Lauture*

Today one of my friends had to go through something that no person should have to go through. She had to go to court even though she didn't do anything wrong. On June 24, 2008 my friend's sister was killed by her own husband. After he killed her, he commited suicide. They had a 2 year old child that now has to grow up with neither of her own parents. The reason they had to go to court today was because they have to talk about custody of the child. Currently, the grandmother gets her, however, there is someone who is trying to take her. I am very upset about this situation and no child should have to experience this!!! I looked up some interesting statistics that I thought I would post.

* 75% of violent children have witnessed violence between partners
* 63% of the young men between the ages of 11 and 20 who are serving jail sentences are there for homicide--for killing their mother's abuser
* 40- 60% of men who abuse women, also abuse children
* 70% of children are physically abused
* 20% of children are sexually abused
* 90% of children abused are killed during domestic disputes are under the age of 10, half of those are under age 2.

HOW TO HELP STOP THE VIOLENCE...
1. Contact a shelter. They are in dire need of help. Volunteer your time, as much or as little as you can manage. Donate to food drives and clothing drives. Donate money if you can spare it to enhance programs at shelters designed to help battered women get back on their feet.
2. To learn how to stop Domestic Violence in your community, call 1-800-END-ABUSE and ask for information on what you can do locally.
3. Learn about domestic violence and how to recognize when it is happening.
4. Not talking about the abuse is the WRONG approach! Handled with care, the situation needs to be reported immediately and never kept quite.
5. If you are being abused call the following hotline; it is open 24/7 365 days a year in all 50 states.
-National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)

"Never think his violence is your fault,
Domestic violence is a crime!"

**Statistics from http://www.angelfire.com/nj3/stoptheviolence/**

I hope you will keep this in mind and take it to heart!

Family Time

This was a hard week to say the least. A week full of conflict in the presence of extended family is always a struggle. I find it almost painful to thank God for our family prior to Thanksgiving dinner. I live for the day that I won't have to work so hard to love the family God has blessed me with even in the midst of screaming and fighting. However, I have learned one thing that I have to constantly remind myself of; sometimes the action comes before the feelings. By this I mean that sometimes I have to perform a loving action before I will feel love for this person. An example in my life would be hugging my mom back when she hugs me after school. I have slowly developed more and more affection towards my mom by forcing myself to do something I am not in the mood to do. I've found that this also works in my relationship with the Lord. To get up in the morning or stay up at night when I'm tired is hard especially when I'm not deeply in love with this God that I'm supposed to spend time talking to everyday. Despite this, remember, sometimes the action comes before the feeling. I have fallen more in love with Him after spending more time with Him. It has become less of a chore and more of a pleasure.

That's about all I can write right now!
L8R!