Splash of Sunshine Blog Party!

I'm entering the Splash of Sunshine blog party!  All you have to do is answer these questions!
1. What word are you totally loving at the moment?  None, I've been trying to come up with a word and I can't think of any.  

2. Any tv shows/movies you are excited for this fall? Leverage.  I really can't get enough of this show!  It's so modern day Robin Hood.  And not in any creepy or weird way, I'm in love with Parker.  She really makes the show so much better!

3. Anything that symbolizes something to you? Not right at the moment.  

4. Two favorite songs at the moment? Two!  Only TWO! This is quite a challenge.  I would have to say, 

Desire- by Deas Vail 

and...

You'll Always be My Best Friend- by Relient K

5. If there was suddenly a world taker over by an evil dictator what would you do? I'm a born rebel, therefore I would rebel.  It makes me a little bit irritated when my sister tells me to do something, so an evil dictator would not be cool.  

6. What is your favorite summer activity? Highest Praise!  An amazing three week singing tour with my favorite christian college, OCC.  

7. What has been your favorite summer vacation? Beach trips, or mission trips.  Both are amazing!   

8. If you received an unlimited shopping spree to any store, what store would it be for? Oooo...That's a hard one.  Probably Forever 21, since we don't have an H&M around these parts.  That's probably a good thing though because if we did, I would be broke.  

9. What is your favorite summertime food? Cherry pie and homemade ice cream!  I always ask my mom to make it instead of cake for my birthday :)

10. What is your favorite summertime movie? The Master of Disguise, you really CANNOT watch this movie to many times!  It's so dumb and amazing at the same time!  I'm the only person in my family who really likes it so I don't get to watch it to much.  I'm pretty sure if I lived alone I would watch it everyday.  

Highest Praise!

Most of my friends already know that I was on a three week singing tour called Highest Praise.  It was so much fun!  Now, when it was time to sign up for Highest Praise, I didn't want to go at all.  I struggled for a while with really deciding to go or not.  My reasoning being, I didn't want to be away from home for that long and that I didn't want to be gone on my birthday.  Silly reasons, I know.  Well after I actually got there time seemed to go by SO FAST!  All the days ran together and before I knew it, it was time to hit the road for tour.  Tour was SO MUCH FUN!!!  You all get on this huge charter bus and spend every single moment of the day together.  By the end of tour you know a lot more about the people you were with and a bunch of other stuff.  Did you know that grape juice is a dairy product? You even see peoples grumpier sides when you have to be at the church by 5 in the morning.  BUT, before you go on tour, every night you have worship and lesson time and then family group time.  Family group time, in my opinion that was the best part of Highest Praise.  You just get to hang out and talk about the lesson and most of the time our family group would end the night playing chubby bunny.  For those of you who have never heard of it you need to learn all about it, go here.  Another thing that made Highest Praise so great was having a awesome super cool roommate and best friend, thanks Emily!  Another person that made Highest Praise so fun was my other best friend Tristen, she is so funny! There was never a dull moment when Tristen or Emily was around.  The worst part about Highest Praise was probably ironing crew, and even that was fun most of the time!  Another neat thing was host homes.  After you were done performing that night you would get assigned host homes and they where so much fun!  You really got to bond with the people you meet and the girls you stayed with.  Overall, Highest Praise is just amazing!  I love it so much and I can't wait until next year to go back!

Let it Snow!

I started listening to Christmas music long before Thanksgiving, but I decided to hold off on Christmas blog backgrounds.  But I found this fabulous tutorial by Emily Grace over at her blog for some snow!   She also has some other neat ideas and great tutorials.  One of the other tutorials I've used by her is the Signature at the bottom of your post.  She always explains what the html code means which makes it super easy to use and make your own.
This week we were supposed to get some snow, but so far we only have the cold temperatures.  I'm hoping it will warm up some tomorrow because our church is going caroling.  Last year we went when it was only about 20 degrees outside and it was miserable.  I'm sure that I'll post again before Christmas but if I don't, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.

A Towel and a Wash Basin

Last night was our High School Bible Study.  We watched a video sermon done by a student at Ozark Christian College.  It was all about how Jesus always had a towel and a wash basin in His hands.  Always ready to do the dirty work of cleaning others feet instead of having others clean His.  While watching this I realized how we think that were making Jesus famous but we're really just making ourselves look better.  We're always working to get ourselves higher up on everyone's respect list so that others will listen to us, when really we should be doing the small things, washing the feet.  It doesn't have to be something big like taking a mission trip to a foreign country.  It could be something as small as talking to the new kid in school to opening the door for an elderly person at the store.  This is something I really need to work on, I realize more and more how unwilling I am to wash feet.
Since my parents are the Youth Pastors at our church, my sisters and I will often help them set up for activities on Wednesday night and then help pick up afterwards.  When I was laying in my bed last night before I fell asleep, I was thinking about Bible study and the message from that night.  I became convicted because I realized how often, I'll say to my mom, "Why can't someone else set this up?"  or "Why can't you have some of the other kids from Youth Group stay to help pick up?"  I saw how selfish I was being, how unwilling I was to  wash feet.  I see this and it makes me sad because when I think I'm finally getting it right, God will show me where I'm going wrong.  I thank the Lord for showing me how wrong I was in my thinking and asked Him to help me be more willing to wash feet.

Courageous

This Sunday we went to see the new movie Courageous with our church.  It was a FANTASTIC movie!  It had all of the makings of a great movie.  Our whole family liked it!  I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone.

Javier Martinez was by far my favorite character.  I wish that I could have faith in the Lord like he does.  He trusts in the Lord for everything he needs, money for the rent to food for his family.  He also has the funniest part in the entire movie!  I'm pretty sure that everyone entire movie theater was rolling around in their seats, people were laughing so loud you could barely hear the movie.  

While this movie is enjoyable to watch it also has a great meaning.  Telling the fathers of the world to step up and be the spiritual leaders of the family like their called to.  My dad is a wonderful father, I think that he already does everything that the movie talks about.  I only feel sad for those who don't have a daddy who's as loving as mine.

I hope that you'll go and see this wonderful movie and support the people who produced it.  We need to send a message to the world saying that we want more movies like this.