highly contagious

yesterday was such an amazing Sunday! PCF started a new Sunday school class on becoming a contagious christian, called Contagious Christianity, and it was amazing! i want so bad to learn how to approach someone and spread the gospel with them without being afraid!! i know this class will help me grow and learn more about being able to do that. as part of the class you watch videos of people being interviewed about Jesus and i could not believe some of the responses from people as to who Jesus is! it broke my heart that some people are so clueless and that they just don’t even care to know! how can that be? how can you go through life and not know Him or care to know Him? that’s why i am so excited about this class, i am hoping it will teach me how to reach people and lead them to Jesus! i want to be contagious, HIGHLY contagious!

2009

my devotion the other day had a great quote referenced

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us”

with just starting a new year i thought this was a great quote. what lies behind us: what happened in the past is in the past; what lies before us: we are not guaranteed another breath, so tomorrow may never come; and what lies within us: i pray that you have everything right with God and that you believe in Him and have asked Him into your heart to be your personal Lord and Savior forever and all eternity! 2009 is the time!

Resolutions

2008 was an amazing year! so many great things happened in my life over the past year. my walk with God has become so much stronger over the past few months and i want nothing more in 2009 than for that relationship with Him to grow and strengthen! of course i have my silly resolutions that i know will be broken at some point or another during the year, but if not i will be very happy. my only other resolution for 2009 is that i want to run everyday or at least 5 days a week for the year. so far so good, but i am only 3 days into the new year! lol! last year my resolution was to not drink soft drinks for an entire year… i did great until November, i fell right off the wagon when mom left a diet coke at my house after my housewarming shower.. thanks mom! haha. i learned at least i can have them every now and then and not drink them constantly! any way my point is that i, along with a lot of people, make resolutions that typically get broken. sometimes we can stick to them for a few days, weeks or maybe even months, but generally we fall off the wagon. maybe i am just talking to myself, but this year it IS different. i now know God is number one in my life and i want nothing more in my life than to grow for Him and in Him! so my resolution and prayer for 2009 is to give it all and my all to God each and every single day! with Him, I know anything is possible!

4 special gifts

my devotion yesterday was based from John 3:16. It was focusing on the gifts that God has given us: LOVE (so much that we can not even comprehend), HIS SON (He gave the gift of Jesus’ life as our example and the gift of payment of our sins through his death), FAITH (the gift that offers a holy hand and shoulder to cry on that will always be there) and ETERNAL LIFE (the greatest gift of all and the gift that we do not deserve or can ever repay).

“If you handpicked a special gift for someone and they pushed it aside or discarded it, I imagine your feelings would be hurt, as would mine. I wonder how God feels when He gives mankind these four priceless gifts and so many choose not to accept them? As we celebrate the holidays, we’ll get excited about presents, even though eventually most of those gifts will be forgotten, broken, or discarded. But God’s gifts never expire, never spoil, never break, and never perish. The gifts of heavenly love, a Savior, faith and abundant eternal life are given to each one of us. We have the choice to unwrap and enjoy them or push them aside.”

a really cool Christmas idea that i found was to wrap 4 empty boxes and on the name tag write each name of the special gift God gave us! Then when you are reaching under the tree handing out presents, when you grab one of these special gifts you can take a minute in all the hustle and bustle to remember 4 of the greatest gifts of all! pretty cool idea huh?

first response

“Prayer should be our first response, not our last resort”

this was the title of one of my devotions i did the other day and it has stuck with me and has become one of my favorite quotes. i guess it has stuck with me so much because if i  heard of someone in a situation, i immediately would try to think of things i could do for them (what can i cook, what can i do, what can i donate, etc…) then i would pray. as a Christian i should pray first because that is the best thing you can do for someone, then whatever God leads you to do for that person, that is what you should do. the power of prayer is so great, i certainly believe in the power of prayer. when i was eight i prayed for two years straight that God would work a miracle in my life and he answered my prayer! God hears every prayer! every single one!

when God says speak up…speak up

some of you know Trav and I recently started attending Potter’s Clay Fellowship. It has been a very unexpected blessing! well, we went last night to Bible Study and we always start off with any prayer requests. i had a prayer request from a friend, and i’ve never been one to speak up so i figured i would just keep it to myself and pray for the prayer request myself… i came up with every excuse during the requests as to reasons not to speak up… i was struggling the entire time as to weather to speak up or not.. first i thought to myself “they’ve started saying praise reports now, so i don’t want to bring everyone back down with a prayer request”, sure thing the next person said a prayer request… “ok God, but i don’t want to really bring up such a sad topic” (miscarriage, because a friend of mine that was there   has miscarried twice),  well… the very next prayer request was for a lady who had miscarried… “ok God, but i just don’t really know anyone here and they don’t even know who i am praying for, i really don’t even know the lady i was praying for, i just knew her situation. ok, i will say it if Trav or one of our friends say one”… then our friend raised her hand and said a prayer request… (i thought man, i’m not getting out of this one) so i raised my hand and spoke of my prayer requests… and guess what…. i didn’t die! why on earth did i struggle with that so much? i can’t believe i was withholding prayers from a lady who needed them for my own selfish reasons! now that i think about that… it makes me mad at myself! it doesn’t matter if i know or don’t know the people around me or even if i know who i am praying for… prayer helps everyone and the more prayer you can receive or give, the better! i will never hold back a prayer request or praise report again just because i am scared or shy or whatever… the power of prayer is amazing and infinite! God is Great and if he tells me to speak up again… i sure will!

restored!

i love THIS song and wanted to share it with y’all!!! i hope you like it too!

mrs. megan mantooth :)

Megan and Zach’s wedding was absolutely beautiful! have you ever been around two people you knew were meant to be together? they are that way! when the doors opened and Megan walked out, i looked at Zach and the look on his face was priceless! you could just see the excitement and love in his eyes! she sang “when you say you love me“, by Josh Groban, to him and sounded beautiful (i cried, i always cry at weddings)! she did such an amazing job! She looked gorgeous! i got to help her get ready today and it was so great to get to be a part of her special day! she wasn’t nervous at all, she preferred to call it “anxious” i just love her! the ceremony and candle light reception were beautiful! what a beautiful Christmas wedding! i pray God will be in the center of their marriage and watch over them and protect them!

“God is Love, Love is eternal, therefore love is eternal, and the sweetest expression of love is marriage, therefore marriage is eternal”

what a beautiful day!

today is her day :)

my friend Megan Taylor, soon to be Megan Mantooth,:)  is getting married today! marriage is such a beautiful thing to me. out of all the people in the world, God puts one special person in your life for you to spend forever with! i think it is just amazing! words can not express how excited and happy i am for her! she is an amazing person and a wonderful friend! i know she will look beautiful today as she enters this new chapter in her life. i pray God will always be at the center of their focus and bless their marriage! 

think about this one…

have you ever REALLY REALLY thought about the fact that Jesus, an actual person and God’s son, died for YOU and me? WOW! that just amazes me! He died for me! and He died for YOU! just something i have been thinking about all day…