~ Being Filled with Joy ~

Today I couldn't even hold in all my joy! I had to write it here. My devotion this morning asked the question: do you think much about being holy? Why or why not? My answer was - not much because I am assured in my salvation because of Jesus who makes me clean. However I want to do the best I can to be holy in order to please God because I love him so much! As I wrote these things down I could hardly contain myself and my handwriting became very messy, and I thought about how I should try harder not to sin because I truly do want to please God. That alone is His grace in my life. And so the spiritual quest continues... ~ Psalm 40:8 - I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart. ~ ~ Romans 8:13 - For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ~ ~ Romans 12:2 - And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. ~ ~Kendall

~ Putting Him First ~

It seems every day it gets harder and harder to honor God with our thoughts and words...I know I struggle. My gentle friends help lead me back to Christ in every situation. I want to be that too. In this stage of life, girls (like me) want to throw their hearts to the world and say 'heads up!!', which we all know is not the way to go. God should be our everything every day of our lives! That's the hardest part I think. Putting God first above all else. Given to our sinful nature we can tend to make idols out of things that are not God. When I say idols you probobly get an image in your mind like a statue or an weird looking animal of some sort but, idols can seemlessly sneak into our lives and our hearts. Idols like looks, money, popularity...the list goes on and on. Putting God first is going to be rough, but when in doubt,(and even when not in doubt) go to the Bible, and the Lord will speak to your heart. ~ Kendall

~ Guest Post by Neeley ~

“True love stories never have endings.” _Richard Bach Love is is a misused term. We say we love things that We don't mean. What do we really love? Every girl wants to feel loved. But often, we look for love in all the wrong places. As teenagers we are tempted to look for love in ungodly relationships and passions. That's how our world sees love. Something not permanent. Love and marriage are gifts, but they are something worth waiting for. Now we should guard our hearts. We should first seek his love and his kingdom and one day he will give us a husband. Right now we are crazy teenagers who aren't mature enough to have a relationship. We should pray and wait, cause God will one day provide us with a husband who was worth all the waiting. "The will of God is never exactly what you expect it to be. It may seem to be much worse, but in the end it's going to be a lot better and a lot bigger." — Elisabeth Elliot The greatest gift you can give your husband one day is the fact you kept everything down to your first kiss for him. You can say you waited for him. I know this might seem impossible, but it's going to be worth every minute. Now I am not saying you can't like boys. Liking boys is natural and totally okay. I think some girls think it's wrong to have feelings for somebody in particular, when truly if that's fine...til you proclaim it to the world. That kinda stuff you talk to your Mom and super close friends about. Every girl and boy experiences crushes in different seasons of their life. Often we can't help liking someone. My advice? PRAY! This stuff is lovely as long as it doesn't make you lose sight of true love. We already have the greatest Love. He died for us and despite the fact we once hated him, he calls His beloved! Dreams...they have to die. I mean Dreams are okay as long as they don't leave your head. And as long as dreams don't become your reality and your not open to His will. Personally, I am so excited to see what God has for me in the next chapters on the story of my life. I am waiting for my wedding day...one day far away. On our wedding day we will finally understand that it's worth waiting for. Now, we pray... we wait...we surrender ourselves in our every action. It makes me so sad to see teens looking for love in relationships that won't last forever. Only one love will last. A love that you already have. I like to see it as you are betrothed. You already have a husband picked out for you. You are promised to him. So act like you are betrothed. Keep everything for him. It's hard waiting but the will of God is beyond anything we can imagine. He is Great. Neeley A. Moore

~ Church ~

Yay! another 2 hours of the whole week dedicated to worshiping the Lord! Ah, how I wish it could last forever. Such fellowship that we feel weekly cannot be compared to. And I feel like I worship every day but when you're amidst the multitude of voices worshiping one Lord, it's uncomparable! When I learn about God it fills me with such a yerning (sp?) to know more. Sadly, this passion dies away over the week and starts all over again each sunday. I'm blessed in a way that my school is constantly refering to the Bible and I read in the Bible everyday. (I'm homeschooled) But the best part is that the spirit filled amazingness we feel at church doesn't have to end when we come home. Spiritually meditating on the Gospel and reading God's word fills us with that same amazingness. Hope you have a wonderful day! ~ Kendall

~ How the Lord Loves ~

Today I was thinking of the lyrics to a song I like. - ' when the rain comes tumblin' down, will you be around? And when I can't find comfort on being found and I'm on the ground, will you be around?' Now, this song was supposedly sung to a boyfriend who wasn't being supportive. See, we don't need to ask God these questions because we all ready know the answer. YES. God cares for us even when we think that nobody else does. God loves us totally, forever, in amounts we cannot imagine. And one of the things that people misunderstand is that they only have to love God first until they find a spouse, but thats not true! God needs to be put first in everything, what we say, what we do, what we think. This can be hard (given our sinful nature) to understand sometimes. See, He is a jealous God, but this is meant in a good way, he's jealous to be our first love. Not jealous of our possesions as we can be of others. And the crazy thing is that no matter what, He will never stop loving us. Psalm 36: 5-7 ~ Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. (6) Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgements are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O Lord. (7) How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. From this verse we can tell that God's steadfast love is a gift to treasure forever! Often we can take for granted that He loves us so much! It's impossible for us (as humans) to love as God does, unconditionally. Come on, every one of us has had times where we just want to hate someone. Even if we love them most of the time, that's still not all of the time. God is always there for us. Even when things are going okay with us, we still need to pray. Like the song goes - 'Shall I take from your hand your blessing? And not welcome any pain? Shall I thank you in days of sunshine? And grumble in days of rain? Shall I love you in times of plenty? Then leave you in days of drought? Shall I trust when I reap a harvest? And when winter winds blow, then doubt?' The rest of it goes - 'Oh let your will be done in me, in your love I will abide. Oh I long for nothing else as long as you are glorified.' What a great song eh? This reminds us of how even on your best day, God is still sustaining you. (and yes, your worst days too. :) We all see couples well, just about everywhere and that can be discouraging. But, we have something better. (And never a break up either :) Just know that you are loved, no matter what. ~ Kendall

~ Some Encouragement ~

Daydreams, not helpful. Loneliness gets the best of us sometimes. Lets be honest. Tell me you don't dream from time to time of who you might marry one day. Right now people would say 'what? you're just a kid. you don't have to be thinking of such nonsense'. But we do, and thats just how it goes. However, daydreaming and worshiping are two very different things. It's not wrong to wonder what your future holds, only to devote lots of time and effort into what you want your future to hold. We all know everybody is thinking of somebody right now. That's what we need to work on. Isn't it easier just to not like somebody? I know what your immediate thought is - NO!!! But really, it is. It's like, taking a burden off you're back, like saying 'finally! I don't have to worry about that anymore!' Being teenagers, we acknowledge that most of us have obsessed over people in the past, but no more. This needs to end, for everyone's sake. I'm not saying that now you have to hate that person, I'm just saying that at our age, it's more of playing favorites rather than loving someone as a husband and wife do (which we will all hopefully experience). Playing favorites can be hurtful to many people including yourself. And really, you will never be fully satisfied in love unless you run to the Lord. God loves you more than anything else. Run to his love and care and you will be filled with his grace. If we one day thrust all of our high hopes and great expectations on our spouse, we will be dissappointed, after all, they're only human! John Piper writes - God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in him. When we do not find absolute peace in Jesus our savior, the temptations of the world begin again and we become discontent. We will never find absolute fulfillment anywhere but in Jesus whose love is pure, true, and forever. ~ Kendall

~ Welcome ~

This is a blog about a group of teenage girls fighting to stay pure in a fallen world. We love our God who gives us breath and put Him first above all other things. I'm Kendall and for now I am the only author of this blog but I'm sure some of my friends will also be posting now and then. Well, more is coming soon! (as of right now we're just getting started :)

~ Kendall