A Gift from God

I lift my life, lift my life up

I give it all in surrender

I lift my heart, lift my heart up

You can have it forever

All my dreams

All my plans 

Lord, I leave it in Your hands

I lift my life, lift my life up

~"Lift My Life Up" by Unspoken

  I was listening to this song last Tuesday night.  For some reason, I really listened to it.  I'd heard it before, but the words stuck out to me and I prayed the words in my heart.  It's funny - looking back to that night last week.  Just the night after I listened to that song again, but that time as praise - for what He'd done between Tuesday and Wednesday evening.  A twenty-four hour period.

  In December I had the privilege of meeting a woman who was such an encouragement to me!  She was interested in LIVE and asked me about the girls' group and other leadership opportunities I'd had.  After our meeting, she kindly told me she'd be praying for LIVE and myself.  I felt very encouraged by her words, especially since we barely knew each other.

  Last Wednesday night came and my phone went off.  Sometimes my phone goes off and I get excited for no reason because it's an ad of some sort or I got yet another email from Crafts Direct.  You know the kind.  But...this was a Facebook message - I saw it was from this gal and I was excited to hear from her again!  The reason for her message?  She wanted to invite me to something called World-Changers' Summit.  This is "a four-day event held every two years designed to provide practical training for young people in key leadership positions within Christian ministries around the world in how to move to the next level of effectiveness in all areas of Christian leadership."  I will be hearing from and meeting great Christian leaders such as John Stonestreet and Dr. Jeff Myers.  I have taken two of Dr. Myers' classes for college and have enjoyed them immensely!

  But!  Not only did she want to invite me to World-Changers' Summit...she wanted to personally pay for both my registration and airfare there!  Honestly, there's no way for me to accurately describe the gratefulness I feel for her and her husband.  There's no way for me to accurately describe how blessed I feel that not only she would choose me to sponsor but that God would choose me!!

  While this gift is extremely exciting, it's not the most exciting thing of all!  I strongly believe that God wouldn't send me this opportunity nor send me to the World-Changers' Summit if He didn't think I need to go.  He wouldn't send me there if He wasn't going to use it to prepare me for something greater.  To be honest, I'm only realizing this more and more as I'm typing this out.  :)

Take my life and let it be

All for You

~"Lift My Life Up" by Unspoken

  I came into this year desiring to bless others in some way or another.  Turns out, I got quite the blessing this year!  I will get to meet other young leaders and we will be able to learn from each other in ways I'm so excited to see!  I will also possibly have the ability to be coached by one of the keynote speakers.  

  I am so excited for this opportunity to learn and grow as a leader!  I know that what I learn will be applicable immediately as I come home to 23 girls in LIVE who I lead on a bi-monthly basis and as I mentor two girls individually on a monthly basis.  But then I know that somewhere in the unknown future, what I learn in those four days, will be applicable wherever God places me and uses me.

  For His Glory,

     Sierra

Imitators of Christ

  Quite a while ago, I watched a Youtube video (unfortunately, I couldn't find it) of a mom and daughters on a talk show.  This trio were Christians, yet spent the entire time on the show spouting out judgements.  Their judgements were made in a very inconsistent manner and were also not made in a Christ-like manner.

  After finishing the video, it wasn't hard for me to believe that some people have a hard time with Christians.  As humans, we set stereotypes...perhaps especially after seeing a video such as the one I watched.  It's no different for anything else!  If a Mormon, atheist, evolutionist, homeschooler, etc. were to go on TV, we'd probably come to believe that all Mormons, atheists, evolutionists, homeschoolers etc. believe exactly what they do!  But that's not true!  Not all Christians believe the exact thing, nor do all Christians act the same way.  I know people who judge others a lot and out loud and have often felt judged by them myself.  But not everyone is like that.

  Sometimes, on Pinterest, I'll run across a pin that sort of has a controversial saying...or people think it does.  It's interesting to read the comments on the pins (although you have to be careful of language sometimes).  Recently, I was scrolling through comments on a pin about a specific person.  There were a few people commenting who claimed to be Christians yet the words which followed after that claim included curse words along with very rude and unChrist-like statements directed towards that person and also a group of people.  Again, after seeing those comments, it's not hard to imagine that people have a hard time taking Christians seriously.  If we're claiming one thing, and then acting another way...should we be taken seriously?

  The following four verses/passages often remind me how important it is to not judge others.

"When they kept on questioning Him, He straightened up and said to them, 'Let anyone of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.'"

~John 8:7

  And then comes this verse which puts it all to rest.

"As it is written: 'There is no one righteous, not even one.'"    ~Romans 3:10

  And in Matthew,

"For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."      

~Matthew 7:2

And another:

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."      

~Matthew 7:3-5

 Now, I do not claim to never cast a judgement on someone.  This post is a reminder to me just as much to anyone else.

 Today, I saw this quote and it inspired me to write this post:

"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.  Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

~Gandhi

  Honestly, I wouldn't be too open to someone who claimed to believe one thing and saw their actions said otherwise.  Not everyone, but a lot of people know what's in the Bible.  They know that the Bible says to not judge others.  So when they hear or see us making a judgement, it isn't lost on them that we just went against the Word that we claim to be our life book!  When they see how we are rude to others, strangers or acquaintances, they recognize that we've gone against the Lord's second greatest commandment.

"Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

~Matthew 22:37-39

The last verse I want to share pretty much sums it all up:

"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children."

~Ephesians 5:1

Let's strive together to show the world how Jesus would act towards them.  He loves them just as much He loves you and I.  Let's be imitators of Christ.

In Christ's Love,

    Sierra

So Far So Good

  Yesterday morning, I didn't really have any "resolutions" or goals to complete in 2014.  For the first time, I created a strict budget that I wanted to stick to, but that had more to do with situations that will be presenting themselves this year than, "This year, I want to spend my money more wisely." (although I do want that, too).

  However, this morning my mom informed me of something my church is doing together (I didn't attend this past Sunday so I hadn't heard of it yet).  Our church is encouraging the congregation to read the Bible every single day, no matter how much.  They've suggested three different ways to do this, although if we had our own way, it would still count.  The three options they presented were: 1) read a verse a day and one "story" a week; 2) read an overview of the Bible; 3) read through the Bible in a year.  Because I already have an app for a verse of the day, I decided to read through the Bible in 2014.  This will require reading about 3 or 4 chapters day, and because I'd like to walk away with more knowledge, I'm taking notes.

  Thus, a resolution or goal was started!  Tomorrow, I will continue with Genesis, chapter 12.  A few months ago, my mom gave me a new study Bible that she had received, brand new, for free.  During my Bible study on Tuesday nights, the footnotes, maps, charts, and other tidbits have allowed me to dig even deeper into God's Word!  I'm looking forward to reading the entire Bible and learning more and more about the God I serve this year.  I've never done this before, but it's definitely something that I need to stick to.

  But there's a second goal that I made.

  Around 1:00am New Year's Day, being the weird person I am, I was looking through my own Pinterest boards -- mostly reading quotes I'd pinned in the past.  I came across this one...

  ...and I thought to myself, What a fun goal that would be!.  It wasn't until later that afternoon when I ran into Target that I thought of it again.  I made a friendly comment to the cashier and in reply, she smiled at me and said, "Thank you for that!"  I guess it doesn't take a lot to make someone's day a little brighter.  It can be a friendly comment to a stranger, a sweet note to a friend, or a "thank you" to a family member.

  I hope and pray that no matter what your goals are this year, that you are able to stick to them. :)  I'm usually not very good about sticking to my goals, but I'm hoping that since I just picked two, I'll be able to.

  Love in Christ,

  Sierra

The Best Year of My Life...So Far

   2013 has been an amazing year!  I look back at this year and can smile and praise God for all He's done.  There have been some difficult things such as losing my grandpa to cancer at the beginning of this year, and some friendships have not lasted, but God is good and has provided exponentially more things to thank Him for!

  At the beginning of this year, I made a cute little jar to fill throughout the year.  On little slips of paper, I wrote down special times which stood out to me; days I learned a lot, or just had a great time.  It was a super fun thing to do, and looking into the jar now, makes me realize just what an awesome year I had!

  I wanted to type them all out here now.  I have to admit, the main reasons are 1) because I love reading them, and 2) I have a weird need to make lists.  They make me happy. :)  But I also thought maybe some of you would enjoy seeing what happened throughout 2013 in my life.  I'm a pretty sentimental person, so these will be going into an envelope to be kept and I will continue doing this for as long as I can. :)
  So...here goes!

• picking Erica & Gilmar up front he airport (and the car-ride with Terri & Sandi!)
• going through pictures with my dad
• tubing at Wild Mountain with my family, Erica, Gilmar, and the Slacks
• passing Principles of Marketing CLEP
• getting pink roses on my 18th birthday

• the entire day of my 18th birthday :) (and the fact I turned 18)
• started going to Westwood -- I couldn't be more grateful for the people who are there.
• CollegePlus gathering in Virginia

• Bible study on Ephesians (one specific evening was really good)
• Friday night hangout -- Scavenger hunt!
• passed the Biology CLEP (finally!)
• spent the day with Megan & baby Piper

• LIVE's Minute to Win It party
• graduated high school (!)
• passed ALEKS Statistics in 2 weeks -- brought my credit count up to 51
• sleepover with Brooke, Ashley, & Jess
• my high school graduation party

• Christine invited me on the August mission trip to Haiti
• laser tag with my family, Lynda, Daniel, Marcos, and Gislaine
• paintball games with my family, Gislaine, Marcos, Daniel, Blake, and Jenna
• helping Gislaine and Marcos with their English homework
• game night playing Ticket to Ride with my dad, Frankie, Aidan, Blake and Jenna
• Trollhaugen adventure park with my family, Marcos, Daniel, and Gislaine
• River walk in Haiti

• New Jerusalem and climbing mountain in Haiti and going to Power Girls there
• swimming in the Caribbean Sea in Haiti
• alright...the entire trip to Haiti :)
• laser tag and whirly ball with my family, Marcos, Gislaine, and Jônatus
• Valley Fair with Aidan and Jônatus
• became a college Junior!!
• trip to Florida (and Disney World!) with my dad

• Bible study on Mark 8 at community group (Westwood)
• evening with Lindsey: Noodles & Co., Grace Unplugged, and Cold Stone
• LIVE meeting on modesty
• girls' night with Ashley and Jess and helping Jess move

• a late dinner at Applebee's with Lindsey
• CollegePlus Texas gathering (dancing, card games, meeting friends, etc.)
• phone call with Lindsey and making lists :)
• swimming with the manatees in Mexico

• snorkeling in the reef at X-Caret (Sea Turtles!)
• Trainer for a Day at Xel-Ha
• day at Xplor - zip lining, ATVing, and paddling through stalactite caves
• the entire trip to Mexico
• getting 75 credits before Christmas!
• our first Christmas as just our family
• LIVE's Christmas party

 I know, that was a lot. :P  I'm looking forward to 2014 as I will get to travel a bit more this year, continue in school, continue to develop LIVE, as well as develop new friendships.

 God bless you in 2014,

    Sierra

Vacation 2013: Mexico

  From December 12th to December 20th, my family took a vacation to Mexico.  We haven't been on a family vacation in a few years and we've never gone anywhere like Mexico.  So...we all packed our bags and headed down to the wonderfully sunny, warm, and sandy Play del Carmen.  It was a wonderful escape from our cold, snowy, negative temperature Minnesota. :)

  Many of the days were spent by water and since my camera is bigger, I left it at the hut and just took my phone.  So once again, my cell phone photos will have to do most of the time.  Also, not all pictures are mine -- some are my sister, Frankie's.

  Chichen Itza was our first stop on Friday.  It was beautiful there, but my favorite was Ek Balam (below).

Ek Balam is the oldest discovered Mayan civilization.  Ironically, it was the only one of the two (Chichen Itza and Ek Balam) where you could actually climb the buildings.  The bottom photo is the view from the top of the "pyramid" (left-side photo) -- they still haven't finished digging it.  The steps are super narrow and at one point, at the top, my legs literally would not move, but I eventually made it down.  The top photo has been reconstructed.

We also got to spend a little time (only 15 minutes) in a cenote!  It was beautiful...and cold. :)  We only jumped off the "cliff" (~20 feet) twice because it took us so long to get up the nerve since it was so cold.  It was a blast, though!

  On Saturday, Aidan, Frankie, my Mom, and I went to Dolphin Discovery where we spent time with dolphins and manatees (my personal favorite).  It was so much fun!  We were dragged by the dolphins' dorsal fins and also got the foot push.  With the manatees, we got to feed them and when they want food really badly, they'd wrap their fins around your legs and hold on for dear life.  It was awesome!

  After we met up with my dad again, we all headed for a walk on the beach.  It was gorgeous!

can you tell i've found picmonkey.com?  awesome!!

  Sunday was spent at X-Caret.  It was a beautiful day and we got to go snorkeling in a cave and then we took a snorkeling tour in a reef.  That was the highlight of the day -- maybe even the trip.  We all loved seeing life under water...but my personal favorite was the sea turtles.  I saw three and they were so close we got to hold them between our hands!!

 Now, Monday was an interesting day.  It was not my favorite, but I found it very fun and adventurous!  My mom, Frankie, and I were supposed to go spend the day with more dolphins and my dad and Aidan were to go ATVing.  However, there was a mixup of pickup locations for us girls and we didn't end up going.  And the boys' activity was rescheduled for later in the day at the last minute, so we decided to just spend the day as a family instead.  We ended up taking a ferry to Cozumel.  Before we boarded, we were told that we would be able to help release baby sea turtles into the ocean and snorkel since it would be nice on the other side of the island.  So when we got to Cozumel, we rented a car...

...a 35-year-old, falling apart Volkswagen Beetle.  All five of us piled (literally) in and we just couldn't help but laugh.  When we got to the other side of the island, we discovered that we had been taken for a ride as there were no baby sea turtles to release and, by george, it was just as windy as the other side of the island!  We stopped at a beach-side restaurant and then Aidan and I did some body surfing -- at least the waves were still enjoyable for something!

  Tuesday dawned nice and sunny.  We spent the day at Xel-Ha and spent over three hours snorkeling that day.  And although the day started out sunny, it down poured three different times while we snorkeled.  At Xel-Ha they have a large lagoon for snorkeling, a small rope course that Aidan loved, a few small zip lines, and cliff jumping.  Aidan and I decided to try cliff jumping and took a few plunges from 40+ feet -- that was FUN!!!  Although the second time, I lost a strap to my flipper and therefore had to go without flippers for the next hour and a half.  Swimming with no flippers in a windy rainstorm is not easy.  At one point, I was kicking with all my strength and was seriously staring at the same seashell at the bottom for about 20 seconds.

  Wednesday ended up working out for us girls to spend the day with dolphins at the program, 'Trainer for a Day'.  We spent over three hours in the water with them and also got to see a couple trainers training their dolphins.  In the water, we got foot-pushed more, got dorsal-dragged more, participated in training them (I made a dolphin jump! my highlight), and got to snorkel among them.  It was a day well-spent...we all had a blast!

 Our last day of activity was spent at Xplor.  This was definitely a tiring day but it was SO.MUCH.FUN!  We went on over two miles of zip lines, over six miles on ATVs through caves and water, and went paddling through a stalactite cave.  All three activities showed gorgeous proof of God's beautiful creation!  Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of this; it was such an active day that we didn't really have time nor the ability to take pictures.

  Friday morning was beautiful and us girls went out to the beach to take a few last photos before we headed to the airport.

  We all had such a good time, but we were definitely tired!  We all agreed that we should have taken one more day to just sit on the beach.
 
  And now that we're home...there's so much to do!  Christmas is only a few days away...I have a ton of school to do, I have so many opportunities for this coming year my head could explode, and I have a lot of things for LIVE to plan and look forward to.  I'm so excited for 2014...but more on that later. :)

  Sierra

Happy Thanksgiving

  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  Every year I think about what God's blessed me with the past year and this year my list keeps going!  I feel so blessed by all that God has done in my life in 2013.  Below is a list of just a few of many things I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving.

I'm thankful for....
:: the precious time spent with my grandpa before he passed away in January
:: my dear, sweet LIVE girls - I've so enjoyed seeing them grow up
:: all the opportunities I've had this year to travel
:: I'm especially grateful for the opportunity I had to travel to Haiti.
:: my family and all the support and encouragement they've shown me
:: the great Bible study/community group I've become a part of and all the friends, role models, and spiritual growth I've gained from it!
:: the opportunity to do college at home so I can participate in many of the things listed above :)
:: the way the Lord has revealed Himself to me this past year

  May you have a blessed day with your family as you recognize all that the Lord has blessed you with over the past year.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Sierra

playing catch-up

  Hello again!  :)  The last time I've posted about what's going on in my life was the post about Disney World.  Wow!  That was almost two months ago - I can't believe it!  So much has been happening!  I'm going to try to cover most of it in the following photos (which, again, are taken with my phone).

I took a couple girls I'm mentoring and my sister to a conference 

in October.  A couple old friends joined, too.  It was an 

awesome weekend.

Went to a Jared Anderson concert with several others from my 

Bible study I attend.  It was such a wonderful night of worship.

My dad's cousin visited from out-of-state in October, so we spent 

the day down in the Cities with her.  We went to the Science 

Museum and then out to eat.  It was a fun day!

The past couple months have contained several sleepovers with 

Jess, Ashley, and Brooke.  Movies, talking, tests, games, and...

...ice cream out of the carton!  That was a fun night. :)

This is what a lot of my days consist of: studying.  

I now have 69 credits as of yesterday when I passed 

Organizational Behavior.  I now have a goal of earning 

3 or 6 more credits before December 5th.

I've been working on a lot of things for LIVE, including making 

these photo books for the girls.  I enjoyed doing it and I love the 

idea of the memories that will fill those books. :)

Had my Bible study group come out for a fire and 

games at the beginning of this month.  That was a lot 

of fun!  After coming in from the bonfire, we played a few 

rounds of the Family Game and a few rounds of Mafia.  

I've gone to a couple movies with Lindsey, as well as 

gone to Cold Stone, Fridays, her place, my place, etc. :)  

I think we have more movies on the list, right? ;)

 Other things I've been up to:

      :: having LIVE meetings and preparing for them

      :: brainstorming

      :: getting ready for my trip to Texas in less than three weeks!!!  I'm going for a CollegePlus gathering and I'm getting pretty excited!

      :: trying to plan as far ahead into 2014 as I can.  So far, I've gotten as far as May.  :D

      :: getting ready for our family vacation to Mexico in less than a month!!!  Yep, we're pretty excited for that, too. ;)  

      :: going to Bible study in St. Cloud

      :: teaching a couple Wednesday night lessons at church

      :: slowly getting back into reading...and then finding more TV shows to watch instead. :P

      :: making a budget

      :: making lists :P

In Christ,

     Sierra