When it is dark that's when we glow

The world is full of darkness. It creeps into our lives like a disease. A disease that we can't get to go away. We try to fix it. We try to be strong and take control of our lives. Our muscles our strong. But as we soon find out they are not strong enough.

Where is the light in all this darkness?

Right in front of our eyes.

God is the light.

Faith is the light.

Hope is the light.

It offers us a strength we don't have on our own. It offers us peace of mind and a purpose. It shows us we are not made for this dark world. We have eternal life right in front of us. All we have to do is reach out and grab it. All we have to do is believe.

Believe in a love that is everlasting.

Believe in the arms that will never let us go.

Believe in the one true Father.

After that we will outshine the darkness. Because when it is dark that is when we glow.

We are the light of God.

It can be seen by everyone.

We are different than the world.

We are happier than the world.

Because we choose to stand apart from the world.

Our moment is now

We can't change the the past. All we can do is learn from it. We need to live in the present and make a difference Now. If we make excuses nothing gets done. We need to have goals and strive to achieve them. We all have goals right? Something we want to acomplish in life. Wether it is to eat 10 Big Macs from McDonalds in one sitting or cure cancer we all have a goal. I know one of my goals is to spread the love of God to everyone I know. My heart is so full of love and happiness because of God and I want others to have that too. But that is not going to happen on it's own. I have to work at spreading love. Do I like everyone I meet? Of course not but if I want to spread love to EVERYONE that means I have to love the people I don't like. That takes work. I have to find different ways of spreading love and making people feel loved and special. I have to make a game plan. So what is your game plan? What are you going to do NOW to make a difference? What are you going to do NOW to achieve your goals? NOW is the time. We only have so much time and so many opportunities so don't let them pass by. We all have leadership qualities in us and we all can make a difference. We just have to put our words into actions. So set your goals and make a game plan. Your future will be bright my friends if you do something with that passion of yours. Take your passion and turn it into something amazing.
Love,
Rachael

My sibblings in Christ

Some of the most important people to me are my family. I am my dad's princess and I can always count on his help. I love him so much. My mom is one of the sweetest and caring people you will ever meet. She is dear to my heart. My borther is very entertaining and  I know he is always there for me. I love my family more than anything. But I also have another family. A family in christ. My brothers and sisters in Christ mean the world to me. They are my support system and without them I don't know what I would do. They are my best friends and the people who understand me. They are a blessing from God. Be thankful for your brothers and sisters in Christ. I thank the Lord everyday for them. Also embrace them. I know with my brothers and sisters I can be nosey. But it is just because I care. When you find those true friends you can trust don't be afraid to open up to them. God can teach you a lot about yourself through others. Also don't turn away from God or blame Him if things don't turn out the way you planned. If you get hurt. God has a plan and our brothers and sisters are apart of it. Appreciate them and love them with all you have.

Love your brothers and sisters in Christ.. always and forever <3

Live. Laugh. Love.

Life is so important. We can make such a difference in peoples lives especially by loving. Don't you love being loved? Life is so much better when you have people to love and people to laugh with. life is short so why not make it the best life possible?
Just today I found out someone from my school commited suicide and it makes me wonder why? It also makes me want to tell everyone how much they are loved. They can have that life full of love and laughter. God can provide that for them. It makes me think about my friends. Has suicide ever gone through their minds? I could be the one to change that. I have alwyas been inspired to write letters of encouragment but I am even more inspired now.
Have you ever gotten a letter that makes your day? It encourages you and shows that somone sees you for who you really are. It shows that someone cares enough to write a special letter for you. I love letters like those. I keep them and read them when I am not feeling myself. And that makes me want others to have that. Everyone deserves to know how amazing they are. So wrtie a letter today. Tell somone how much they mean to you and what amazing things you see in them. You never know how long you have somone before God calls them home. So make every second count.

Live your life to the fullest <3

A unique gift

We were all born with a gift. Each of our gifts are unique and different from anyone else's. Do you know what yours is? Is it singing, maybe dancing, or maybe you are an amazing athlete? Or is it not physical.. maybe you are really kind, you are compassionate, or you can talk to people easily? Whatever your gift is the point is you have a gift. Everyone does. God gave us these gifts because He knew the we could glorify Him most with our unique gift. If I tried to make my gift sports I would fail because I am not competitive. I don't really care about sports. If I tried to make my gift speaking in front of a large crowd then I would not do so well because I get really nervous. I have discovered my gift by discovering God. I may really want to be able to sing, or dance, or speak in front of people but that isn't the gift that I can glorify God most with. You have to embrace your gifts and use them. My gifts are compassion, working with people, creativity, and making people feel loved and not judged. I use these to glorify God and show people God. Think about your gifts. How does God want you to use them? Don't be jealous of other people's gifts because those gifts weren't meant for you. Embrace your gifts and let them be seen by the world. :)
God Bless,
Rachael

Dancing in the Rain

I just went to an Attaboy concert and it is amazing how God uses little things to make you feel so much better. I haven't been feeling myself for the past week or so and it's because I am hurting. It's something I have been praying about for awhile and God has been verryyy slowwlyyy answering. Have you ever had that? Thought you were talking to a brick wall. I feel like he hears my prayers but is just letting me soak in my pain at times. I know in my heart He has a plan but I question it sometimes and that is ok. Why can't my pain end if I have learned all the lessons I need from it? But after this concert and listening to the song For A Rainy Day by Attaboy I realized that the pain is just kind of apart of who I am now. While listening to this song I just imagined myself dancing with my Father in the rain. And despite my pain and whats going on in my heart I could have fun in the rain. I have to remember that the rain doesn't last forever, and soon the sunshine will come out. But I know that no matter what the weather or situation my Father will always be right by my side. He does hear my prayers but He answers them in His own perfect timing and way. I don't have to sit in the rain alone... I can instead dance in the rain with Him. With Him I can be happy even in my pain. <3 I know eventually I might be fully healed but until then I am going to keep dancing.

For A Rainy Day by Attaboy
When I woke up, I coulda thrown up
The news called for rain
And soon the clouds came
And then I wondered, how does the thunder
Seem to pick the wrong time
To crawl out of my mind, and cover the sky?
Just then, I saw an old man out in the street
He was kicking up puddles, and singing as he shuffled his feet
Toward me

And he said
Hey, what beautiful day for a walk in the rain
And I guess I’m feeling alright in spite of the pain
And he said
I don’t understand
Why it storms again and again
But I can’t stop clapping my hands to the sound of it

Next he told me, all of his story
His wife died last year
The rain looked like tears
And it then was clear
As a fountain of water was pounding down on his face
I could see that
No weather patterns he knows could ever shatter his faith
As he danced away, he said

And then it hit me
How beautiful would it be
If our sunshine through the rain
Is in a hope that doesn’t change?

Breaking of a heart

Heart break can come in so many different forms. It can be from a lover but it can also be because of a friend. Any time you open your heart up to someone there is a chance that it might be broken. When you open your heart you are vulnerable... but that is no reason not to open your heart. You are going to go through pain but that is apart of life. What about all the amazing things that can come from sharing your heart and from loving someone? I have a great example for you. I had a best friend that broke my heart but if it was not for him I would not be who I am today. He taught me so much about myself and loved me for who I was. He did not try to change me and the result was a beautiful friendship. God placed him in my life for a reason and once that reason was fulfilled God had to take him away. Instead of being an influence he started to be a distraction. Of course him being a guy we ended up liking each other. We never dated but it caused problems in the future that then caused our friendship to spiral downwards. I know now that it was for a reason but when it was happening it felt like my world was turning upside down. I barely said two words to him for a really long time. I had never heard a silence that loud and it killed me... but I quickly figured out God is never silent. God used my heartbreak and my brokenness to bring me closer to Him. I could not deal with the pain alone, I needed to lean on Him. I was so distracted by this friend that I lost site of what was really important. I learned that I need to protect my heart because it is fragile and precious to God. I also learned to trust Him. It has been about a year since we stopped talking and God did an amazing thing; he gave me the chance to start over. It just shows me how perfect God's plan really is. We HAVE to trust it or we are not going to get anywhere. I know God will put the perfect guy for me in my life when the time is right. But right now he needs me as a single girl to make an impact on the world and the hearts of others for His glory. Heartbreak hurts. It hurts a lot. But sometimes it can be used for greater things if you let God take your life into His hands. Think about your heart and the things it has been through. Can you let God take over so you can be closer to Him? I hope you can because it truly changed my life. <3
God Bless,
Rachael

The story of me

So this is my testimony. As some of you may be able to tell I am a Christian and very proud to be.  I was born here but I have moved 3 times and in those moves I have gone through many different things. Those things make me who I am today. I have a pretty great family that supports me and believes as I do. I am so blessed to have the loving, Godly family I do. They have been here for me my whole life and have had a major impact on who I am. But back to me moving. I guess I will start with my move to Oklahoma. I don’t really remember how I felt when we moved there because I was in kindergarten, but I guess you could say the major part of my childhood was spent there. I learned how to ride my bike, swim, make friends, and all that fun stuff. I even got plugged into a really cool church. I had awesome small group leaders who I still remember today. They were the first people (besides my parents) to really show me God and God’s love. Then I moved to Maryland. It was really hard for me to leave all of my friends in Oklahoma, but God had a plan. He gave me my best friend when I moved to Maryland. She is like a sister to me (we get asked if we are sisters all the time).  I also started to grow in Christ. We found an amazing church called Mountain Christian and I got very involved. I went to small groups, services, and that’s when I got baptized. This is when I feel I truly became a Christian because it’s when I started to really understand God and what he had done for me. He sent His only son to die for me, so that I could live eternally with Him. That proved to me how much He could love me if I let Him. Everything was going great and I was really happy… and then I found out we had to move back to Michigan. I was devastated because I didn’t want to leave all that I had. I should have known God had something in store for me. I miss Maryland very much but if I could go back I would not change anything that happened. When I moved back here I kind of got distanced from God. We started going to church of course but I did not want to get involved, I would day dream during service, I just said prayers with my family because they told me to, and I didn’t feel God. I was that shy, awkward girl who just moved. I found great friends who I still have today, but I still was trying to fit into a mold the world was giving me. It wasn’t until I found my church (Woodside) that I started to break out of the worlds mold. I knew that I didn’t fit into that mold but I couldn’t figure out why. Was it because I wasn’t pretty enough, I wasn’t sporty enough, I didn’t wear the right clothes, I didn’t have enough friends, or maybe the right friends? But after starting Woodside I gradually found out it was because I am unique. We all are. God started working in me, especially after I went on my first Missions trip to West Virginia. I broke out of my shell and started to be myself, and I started to be comfortable being myself. Since then I have grown so much in the Lord. I have definitely had my struggles: heartbreak, losing friends, my image, my standards, but I have become so much stronger because of all of them. One thing I have learned is that God has perfect timing. I have made some of the best friends I could ever ask for at Woodside. The friends I have are like family and I know they will always be there for me. If I had not moved I would never have met any of them. I have come to know a love that never fails and is greater than anyone can comprehend. I want to spread that love to the world. I have amazing support from God, my family, and my Woodside family that a lot of people don’t have. I want to be that support for you if you need it. I hope you enjoyed reading my testimony and you could relate to it in some way. God bless :)

and me now ;)

My heart :)

To me the most beautiful heart is a heart after God. A heart after God is so beautiful because it's unique. God has a special plan for that specific person that is different than everyone else's. He puts desires, emotions, and gifts in our hearts that He uses to achieve amazing things. Now a heart after God is not even near perfect. We as Christians struggle too... probably even more than a normal person.. because we know that we are sinning. We feel that guilt or that pain. But the amazing part is God can take that all away when we let him take over. He can shape your heart to be perfectly fitted for you and the plans He has for you. I know I have gone through a lot of different things. I have had heartbreak, been stabbed in the back, friends have used me and probably still do... I have been crazy about a guy and put God on the backburner.. but then I have helped lead people to Christ, achieved goals, gone on missions trips, and much more. As you can see I am not perfect and don't have a perfect heart... it's patched up.. but God has used all my heart has been through to make it authentic. I want to share stories my heart has been through and stories that are to come that maybe people reading this can relate too. Have you ever felt like you are going through something alone, or you are the only one who is going through it? Both of these things are false. You have an amazing God who is by your side always and maybe some of my stories will show you that you aren't the only one struggling. I might add other topics as I go along but overall I hope I can inspire you to let God make your heart authentic like he has made mine :)