Thursday, April 30, 2015

Making the Most Of Time

As I have grown as a young adult, the sickening reality sunk in a little deeper each year. Maybe it's obvious, as much as technology has taken over the world, but it's still hard for my stubborn mind to realize.

I waste a lot of time.

Time, of course, is fleeting. I see it pass every day of my life and yet, I don't truly see it. Sometimes I underestimate the precious moments of life: Laughing with my family. Being outside. Reading the Bible.

With that thought in mind, here are a few things I have come up with so that we can make the most of our time. And the thing is, most of these things are incredibly simple.

Be open minded. This might be the thing I struggle with the most. I am a very thoughtful person, but I am also easy to influence. The problem is, once I get something stuck in my mind, I don't want to change. Suggestions that my ideas could be wrong almost always rub me the wrong way. But I come to see that if we get a new perspective on things and hear others out, our whole world might just get flipped around. Which brings me to my second point...

Listen. Sure, talking and expressing yourself is great, but you can only talk about the things you know. I would probably sound very stupid if I talked about a lot about things I don't know. This is hard to understand sometimes, but we can only learn if we listen. I have learned many things from many people, just by listening. We can accomplish much by speaking and writing, but without listening, we'd have a hard time creating anything at all.

It's okay to be optimistic.  I heard someone say that being pessimistic is the best thing because "you'll never be disappointed and sometimes you'll be happily surprised." That sounds fine, but often, the reason things don't work out is because I didn't have the right attitude to begin with! Our attitude effects our actions. Trust me, our actions will lack if we are not the least bit. Sure, you will get disappointed, but you will find that being happy and hopeful is worth the disappointment.

Be excited to learn new things. I know, I know, school seems to be the curse of this world, but where would we be without it? If you stop and consider it, the things we learn at school are actually quite amazing. And there are other people all over the world that wish they could know more, but don't have the resources. We are blessed to have school, people, no matter how hard it is. Everything has a purpose and we learn about those purposes every day.

I hope you enjoyed my list. Time is passing and we need to make the most of it. My apologizes for checking out of blogging this week. I had a story to write. But thank you ever so much for 47 followers

What do you think of these points? What are you doing to make the most of your time?
 


Monday, April 20, 2015

Beautiful Words #7

"Yeah, forgiveness is a hard thing," he said. "But I've learned that it's one of the few things in life that doesn't hurt."

This is a quote I have yet to put in a book. It is inspired by a lesson I am learning daily.

Thank you for reading.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

The Taylor Swift Book Tag

Hello peoples! How are you? I am happy to be on Blogger today because this morning, I found one of the best book tags ever created. THE TAYLOR SWIFT BOOK TAG!!:)

No, I was not tagged for this officially, but who could I,  a loyal bookworm and Swiftie, pass this up? It's combining two of my favorite things in entertainment---books and Taylor Swift!

I found this tag on Dreaming Under the Same Moon, an awesome review blog, but the idea came from Bekah at Will Bake for Books. This is a wondrous idea and I had to try it!

Let's "begin again" with another awesome book tag, shall we?

1. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together- pick a book or series that you were pretty sure you were in love with, but then you wanted to break up.

The Maze Runner Series by James Dasher:  This series started off great with its debut, but the next two books proved to be emotionally abusive. They were so horrifically violent and sad. But it was incredibly intere
sting so I finished it. And... The Death Cure sucked the pieces of my heart into black hole. So I'm just like... this is exhausting, you know?

2. Red. Pick a book with a red cover.

The Battle of the Labyrinth: One of my favorite books in the Percy Jackson, which isn't saying much because all of the books are my favorite, but still... It had red it in it.

3. The Best Day. Pick a book that made you feel nostalgic.

Ramona's World by Beverly Cleary: This was my first favorite book. Many of Ramona's problems were little upsets  compared to issues I read about nowadays. It reminds me that everything changes. Some things I thought were just a big deal when I was younger seem like unimportant now. Life is fleeting.

4. Love Story-Pick a Book with a Forbidden Love: The Matched Series by Ally Condie. Forbidden is a popular and touchy topic to me, but I didn't mind it much in this series because of how much it changed Cassia. Before she fell in love with Ky, Cassia didn't even consider ma
king choices for herself. But over time, she found her own voice.

5. I Knew You Were Trouble- Pick a book with a bad character you couldn't help but love. Legend by Marie Lu. Technically, the main character, Day, was supposed to be a criminal, but I adored him! He was indescribably awesome. But unfortunately, I learned that he does some bad things in the last book in the trilogy, Champion. But the truth is--I still love him in Legend. So.... shame on me no-ow:0

6. Innocent- Pick a book that someone ruined the ending for you. Allegiant by Veronica Roth: Okay, so maybe I never exactly read this book, but quite a few people told me that a certain character dies. This friend who told me the sad truth was a fangirl and made it so totally tragic... waaaa!

7. Everything Has Changed- Pick a character from a book who goes through extensive character development . Ooo... the best that pops into my mind is Tobias from Divergent.  If you have read the amazing collection, Four, you know what I mean. Tobias learns how to be brave and how to love. "Fear doesn't shut you down. It wakes you up!"

8. You Belong with Me- Pick your most anticpated book release. Winter by Marisa Meyer. After blasting through both Scarlet and Cress, I am beyond thrill to read Winter! It's the conclusion to the amazing Lunar Chronicles and it has even more new characters! Bring on the pain and excitement. The only problem is... I have to wait till the end of the year.

9. Forever and Always- Pick your favorite book couple. Peeta and Katniss, of course. Because they need each other in such a beautiful way.

10. Come Back, Be Here- Pick a book that you would least like to lend out, because you would miss it  too much. Mocking Jay by Suzanne Collins. I know, I know, that book broke me, so why I do adore it so? But the truth is, I could never part with it. It now serves as my mouse pad.

Hope you like this:) Fingers crossed that nobody minded me doing this. Heehee. "It's like I got this music in my mind saying it's gonna be alright."

What is your favorite read of 2015 so far?

P.S. Sabrina Carpenter's album of perfection finally came out and I just love this song!

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Beautiful Words #6

And we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If his grace is an ocean, we're all sinking.
And Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don't have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about the way...


He loves us,
 
 
Last month, I went to the Roadshow 2015 and watched this song get performed live. These lines are pure poetry and I love to hear them whenever I get the chance. God does love us in a way we cannot comprehend. The whole night was amazing, almost every part of it. I even met Jamie Grace!
What's your favorite song?
 

Sunday, April 5, 2015

He Rose Again

While I was waiting for my church service to start, I found myself needing to write something. Over the past few days, being Good Friday and all, I felt like I needed to focus on God more, but was distracted by material things. So I wrote this prayer in a poem, expressing my need for Jesus. It helped me to see the wonder of Jesus and why Resurrection Day is so important. I hope you enjoy it:)

Lord, what you did,
My simple mind cannot comprehend.
The way you gave yourself for us
Even when we didn't trust,
And you conquered sin.

But it's too much for me to think about.
My mind wanders away.
The way You gave everything you had,
Knowing the price and taking the pain.
I cannot dwell in Your presence,
By myself, when all the  light fades.
I cannot be truly like You.
But because you died for me...
I don't have to.

And when all the good had gone away,
The darkness seemed to be here to stay.
No one understood what You did.
But then,
You Rose Again.

"Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:4-6


How was your Easter Sunday?

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Beautiful Words #5

Ten months sober, I must admit. Just because you're clean don't mean you don't miss it. Ten minutes, older, I won't give in. Now that I'm clean, I'm never gonna risk it- Taylor Swift, "Clean"