Canada: June 2013

June 27, 2013

I had a blast being a camp counselor! It is such a blessing to have the little girls in your camp group ask if you can be their camp counselor next year. I absolutely loved meeting so many new faces. One little girl made me smile by accidently calling me mom a couple of times. Also it was kind of cute that one of the little girls reminded me of a little Sexauer girl. She had the same looks and personality. I absolutely feel in love with each one of the kids in my group.

I have officially started training for the mini-marathon. Yikes! I already have shin splints. My shins hurt so badly yesterday that I just cried. It is pathetic, but I think I’m going to invest in some arch supports and possibly a neoprene sleeve because I can’t give up on this idea of walking the mini marathon. Thankfully my shins don’t hurt as badly today as they did yesterday, but I also haven’t exercised yet today. Hopefully I can fix this problem quite quickly because it does not feel very good.

If you know my sister, you know that she loves anything that has to do with nature and animals; and if you know me, you know that I have a black thumb and animals are not a close friend of mine, but my sister inspired me. I actually have a living and real plant in my room right now. I used to have a cactus, but I killed it. I think I may have over watered it, but I have successfully managed to keep my new plant alive for one week. Yea! It is a Tradescantia Zebrina, otherwise known as a red hill. It has green on the top of its leaves with a shimmery silver stripe down the center with a purple underside. I really like it. If I had more sunlight in my room I would have gotten some bamboo, but I’m afraid it would die in my bedroom. Even though I have a big, beautiful bay window in my bedroom there is a big, bulky shade tree right in front of it, so the sun does not come through as brightly in my room as it does in my sister’s room. Oh well.

It’s hard to believe that in three days I will be gone for Worldveiw Academy. I haven’t even started packing, but I still have a little bit more time before I really need to worry about that. Hopefully after this experience I will come back a stronger Christian, who can confidently stand up for her faith in any circumstance. I already think that I could stand up for what I believe in if I needed to, but this training will definitely help the “roots” of my faith grow even stronger.

Before I finish up this blog post I did want to mention something. Hopefully I will say this carefully and thoughtfully as I have pondered and prayed for the right words to say. I’m not sure how many of you read an earlier post of mine that I wrote about three months ago discussing a friend of mine. After I posted that blog entry, I had an uproar of people come and question me about it, which is why I am writing a follow up post. I considered deleting the second half of that post and I have considered giving more details and explaining further what I meant by “I’ve lost a dear friend”. As I’ve thought about it and prayed about it, I’ve realized it is hard to say that I’ve lost a friend considering this person is not dead, thankfully. That would be a whole different most tragic case EVER. To simply restate my previous post, I am not able to see them anymore because they told me we will not see each other FOREVER, which to me means they, for some reason or another unknown to me, do not under any circumstance want to ever see me, hear from me, or communicate with me. With that being my understanding I said that I had lost a dear friend, but as I have thought about it I’ve asked myself what it means to lose a friend. That is a hard question to answer and I believe there are many ways to answer it. I’ve decided that it is technically incorrect to say that I’ve lost a friend when I still have pictures, journal entries, things, and most importantly memories of our friendship still with me. Just because there is distance between you and your friend should not mean that you two are still not friends. Should it? I’ve thought this through a bazillion times and I do believe that I need to correct myself from saying that I’ve lost a friend, but rather let God take care of how this friendship continues, whether that means leaving it were it is at or letting this friendship blossoms into something more. Friends and family reading this post, please do not worry about this because God will take care of everything according to His perfect plan and that is all that really matters in the big scheme of life. Thank you.

To end this post I want to share with you a passage of Scripture my mentor/counselor shared with me this past week. It is Isaiah 43…

1 But now, this is what the Lord says—

he who created you, Jacob,

he who formed you, Israel:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

2 When you pass through the waters,

I will be with you;

and when you pass through the rivers,

they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire,

you will not be burned;

the flames will not set you ablaze.

3 For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

I give Egypt for your ransom,

Cush[a] and Seba in your stead.

4 Since you are precious and honored in my sight,

and because I love you,

I will give people in exchange for you,

nations in exchange for your life.

5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you;

I will bring your children from the east

and gather you from the west.

6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’

and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’

Bring my sons from afar

and my daughters from the ends of the earth—

7 everyone who is called by my name,

whom I created for my glory,

whom I formed and made.”

8 Lead out those who have eyes but are blind,

who have ears but are deaf.

9 All the nations gather together

and the peoples assemble.

Which of their gods foretold this

and proclaimed to us the former things?

Let them bring in their witnesses to prove they were right,

so that others may hear and say, “It is true.”

10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,

“and my servant whom I have chosen,

so that you may know and believe me

and understand that I am he.

Before me no god was formed,

nor will there be one after me.

11 I, even I, am the Lord,

and apart from me there is no savior.

12 I have revealed and saved and proclaimed—

I, and not some foreign god among you.

You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “that I am God.

13 Yes, and from ancient days I am he.

No one can deliver out of my hand.

When I act, who can reverse it?”

14 This is what the Lord says—

your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

“For your sake I will send to Babylon

and bring down as fugitives all the Babylonians,[b]

in the ships in which they took pride.

15 I am the Lord, your Holy One,

Israel’s Creator, your King.”

16 This is what the Lord says—

he who made a way through the sea,

a path through the mighty waters,

17 who drew out the chariots and horses,

the army and reinforcements together,

and they lay there, never to rise again,

extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:

18 “Forget the former things;

do not dwell on the past.

19 See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness

and streams in the wasteland.

20 The wild animals honor me,

the jackals and the owls,

because I provide water in the wilderness

and streams in the wasteland,

to give drink to my people, my chosen,

21 the people I formed for myself

that they may proclaim my praise.

22 “Yet you have not called on me, Jacob,

you have not wearied yourselves for[c] me, Israel.

23 You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings,

nor honored me with your sacrifices.

I have not burdened you with grain offerings

nor wearied you with demands for incense.

24 You have not bought any fragrant calamus for me,

or lavished on me the fat of your sacrifices.

But you have burdened me with your sins

and wearied me with your offenses.

25 “I, even I, am he who blots out

your transgressions, for my own sake,

and remembers your sins no more.

26 Review the past for me,

let us argue the matter together;

state the case for your innocence.

27 Your first father sinned;

those I sent to teach you rebelled against me.

28 So I disgraced the dignitaries of your temple;

I consigned Jacob to destruction[d]

and Israel to scorn.

She had me look at the first ten verses and analyze who God says I am and who God says he is. This is the list I came up with in the time we spent together…

I am…

God is…

W LORD

W Holy One of Isreal

W Savior

W Provider

W Protector

W In control

W Creator

W Infinite

W No one like Him (unique)

W Forgiving

After listing off all of these things, she pointed out to me that God point blank says “I love you” in verse 4. Not only does He say that He loves us, but he also calls us precious. There is nothing more beautiful than knowing that my God loves me and thinks that I am precious. Knowing that gives me that wonderful warm tingly feeling inside and that feeling like I’m floating on the clouds, soaring with the stars, walking on sunshine, smiling until my face hurts, and deeply falling in love with my Savior. That brings to mind a song by Jars of Clay called “Love Song for a Savior ‘08”. Maybe you should look it up and hear about this wonderful Savior I am in love with. Maybe you too will fall in love with Him. That is my challenge to you. Completely give up your whole self to be a bonservant for Jesus Christ and fall deeply in love with Him. Fall in love so much that you always desire to do His will. Think about it. When you fall in love with someone on earth you want to make them happy, so you try and make them happy by doing or saying different things that you think will make them happy. What if you were to try and honor God because you loved Him more than anyone or anything else. You probably would live a different lifestyle than you do now, but think of how pleased God would be with you because your goal would be to glorify Him. I urge you to try your very hardest to always love your Savior. It is the least you could do for someone who gave up their life for YOU.

I pray that all who read this may be challenged to ponder what I’ve said today. With that I shall say goodbye and may you all realize that no matter what has happened to you or what you’ve gone through in life God will always love those who call upon His name because you are precious in His sight.

Taylor

Here are another couple songs that I sang as a child, yet did not realize the great meaning of them until thirteen years later.

Jesus loves me this I know

For the Bible tells me so

Little ones to Him belong

They are weak, but He is strong

Yes, Jesus loves me

The Bible tells me so

AND

Jesus loves the little children,

All the children of the world.

Red and yellow, black and white,

They are precious in His sight,

Jesus loves the little children of the world

Sorry I can't add picture right now because I have to bring my phone that has all of my pictures back to life.

June 6, 2013

(the first part is from last week)

I have been so happy because I was able to go and watch two little girls on Monday and Tuesday. They are the youngest two in the family and they have an older sister. I used to be neighbors with these little girls and I watched them and their older sister at least once a week, but we moved away and I haven't been able to watch them as much. The two youngest girls remind me exactly of Chandler and Autumn. I titled the first day "Messy Monday" because that was pretty much all we did. Of course we made most of the messes on purpose and during nap time I cleaned it all up. We finger painted, made cut-out cookies, played in the sprinkler, blew bubbles, swung on the swing set, and much more. Then I devoted Tuesday to be an outdoor day. We went the park, had a picnic, went to the pool, went for a walk, rode bikes, and took a much needed bath. Their clothes had dirt from the park, their hair had chlorine from the pool, and everything was just gross.

Well my schedule for this summer has already been altered, but thankfully everything is okay. Tonight I have a piano recital, which I am in no way ready for. I have been home almost as much as my dad, and since he’s living in Canada 4-5 days out of the week that is saying a lot. Sometimes I wonder why I don’t just live in my car considering I always seem to have some place to be. Right now I’m typing this from my car while Grayson finishes up baseball practice, then I will go to my piano recital, then someone will want to hang out afterwards, and then I would end up either spending the night at their house or not getting home until really early in the morning. Yesterday I went to work and then I went to a camp counselor training meeting and then I went to a junior leader meeting and then I unexpectedly met up with a couple of friends, which got us talking for quite some time and then I finally came home and crashed and today I was just as crazy. Anyways hopefully you all are getting a somewhat peaceful summer vacation. My peaceful summer day would go something like this… I would love to just lay by the pool or the beach in the morning then walk to a shopping center in the afternoon followed up by a nice sit down dinner in the evening and finished off by lying in my bed talking with my crazy friend over the phone or in person or even over text messaging (Essentially just communicating with them in general). That sounds P-E-R-F-E-C-T!

Well wish me luck because I’m heading off to my piano recital. Yikes! :P

Summertime Loving girl,

Taylor

Sorry I will have to put up pictures later. :(

Canada

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Thursday, 27 June 2013

Monday, 17 June 2013

Thursday, 6 June 2013