Hello blog fam!

Long time no post! Life has actually been insane and so much has happened since I last posted, I don't even know where to start. Not many monumental things have happened, just little things that are keeping me overly busy. The only "monumental" thing I can think of is that I went to Haiti!!!
I went October 10-16 and it was UNREAL. I will have to do a whole separate blog post on that, seeing as this one would be far too long, and that is not what this blog post is intended to talk about. 

Something I have learned in the midst of this chaotic season of life is that our God is a God who brings our chaos back into order every. single. time. I have been thinking and talking about how we don't serve a God of circumstance. Our God is steadfast, unwavering, never changing. He isn't here only sometimes. He is here always. We have to find it in our hearts to seek him in every situation. It seems a lot of times as if we only seek Him when we find ourselves in a pickle. Say we are going to fail a test or someone is sick. THEN and only then we find it appropriate to seek God in those times. Then if God doesn't deliver  how you prayed, you get upset with Him. We don't serve a God of circumstance. So with that being said, CLING to Him! He is searching for you! He wants to captivate your whole being. The question is....will you let Him? 

I can tell you from personal experience that having God captivate your whole being is the absolute sweetest and best place to be. It changes your outlook on life, and changes the way you carry yourself. 

1 Thessalonians 5:18 "give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 

-Kaitlyn

Come As You Are

I feel like so often we make it a competition to see who has the most highlighted verses in their Bible, who lifts their hands the most in worship, or who answers the most questions in small groups. But why? There is no "most spiritual person" award. Last time I checked, it wasn't about who is the most spiritual or who worships best, it's about THE Spirit and who is being worshiped. God isn't looking for the most highlighted verses or the most worn out Bible because it has been opened so much. He wants you to come as you are. It doesn't matter about how clean your hands are or how ironed your shirt is. He doesn't say "clean up and then we will talk." He wants you to come as you are! So our dirty hands, messy hair, wrinkled shirts -- he wants it. He wants YOU. After all, He created you didn't he? So why question what He wants? So often we fall in love with worldly desires and put our eyes on what the world says a Christian should look like and forget about HIS desires. When you fall in love with Jesus, you fall less in love with the world. Isn't that the best place to be? Where you are so engrossed with the Father's love that you cannot stand to talk about anything else?! He wants all of us. The messy hair, messy shirt, dirty hands. He doesn't want us to fix anything. He wants us to fall on our knees and say "Jesus!! I'm here! USE ME!!!"

I'm making that my prayer today (and everyday). That He will use me like never before. I want to be a laborer. Luke 10:2 says this: He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." 

Much Love,

Kaitlyn

It's Been a While

WOWZERZ!!
It has been so long since I have posted! How are you? How's life? I start school one week from TODAY!!!! August 4th. I feel like I start earlier every single year. This year,  I am a senior in high school and that absolutely blows my mind. How did these four years go by so fast? College decisions are freaking me out. I know what I want to do, but no idea where I want to go. Well I kinda lied. I know where I want to go, just no idea how I am going to afford it. I just wanted to update you guys a bit! You will see more posts from me soon :)

With Love,
Kaitlyn

"God Can't Use Me."

"God can't use me." 
That is one of the biggest lies the world feeds us and that we feed ourselves more often than not. But it is not true at all. We say things like "I'm too shy" "I'm too busy" "I am not called to do that" or my favorite, "I will pray about it." Every time I think about God not being able to use someone like me, I think about how God has already used me, and I may not notice it! Numerous times throughout the Bible, God uses people who you wouldn't suspect He would use. Prostitutes, beggars, tax collectors, etc. Think of Paul!  He was formerly Saul and HATED Christians. He ended up being one of the most well known Christians ever. So when you think God can't use you, think again. He uses everyone in a unique way. Just because you don't feel called to missions or ministry doesn't mean you cannot share the Gospel. He can and will use you, you just have to lay your life down and say "I give you my life and my trust" and watch the beauty of his glory unfold before your own eyes!

-Kaitlyn

God's Plan for Our Lives

Often times we think we have life figured out, and try to go our own way through life without seeking God's plan for our lives. But why? Why do we try and make our own way when we have someone who makes our paths straight? Time after time in the Bible, God talks about how he knows the plans he has for us and making our paths straight. Proverbs 3:6 says "In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." Isaiah 58:11 says "The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." I could tell you verse after verse, but that could do nothing for you. I just want to let you know that God is good always, and his grace is sufficient always (2 Corinthians 12:9). So knowing these things, why do we continuously try and make our paths straight on our own? We have a wonderful Savior who has our best interest always. He knows what he is doing. We are just living in his world. We are here to serve the purpose he has set out for us. So we should seek that purpose and pray through this crazy thing called life. After all, we are not our own (1 Corinthians 6:19). So let's seek his purpose daily, and pray without ceasing. He is good. 

What is our Purpose?

A friend and I were just talking, and we were both trying to figure out something to write about. He told me to write about our purpose as people. What a question. I think our purpose as people is to serve God in all we do, to be prayer warriors, to share the gospel with all creation (Mark 16:15). Time after time in the Bible, God says to go spread the good news. It is a command, not a suggestion. So that's what I think our purpose is as people. To go out everyday with our armor of the Lord on, and go spread his good news! He is so worth sharing! How could you not want to share about the Savior who died for us ---- paid for ALL of our sins. That is one of the strongest and sweetest things to know. So let's go into each day with the thought in our head of our sovereign Savior who died for us - let's go and share the good news!!!
-Kaitlyn

You Only Get A Glimpse

The photo above is me with my algebra homework I have been working on for what seems like forever now, and it's getting me down a bit as I scroll through Instagram and Twitter.All I have been thinking about today is how you only get a glimpse of everyone's lives on social media. For the most part, you just see the happy times. The times where they are enoing with friends or having a fun game night. And you think "wow they have such a fun life!" I do the same thing. I start comparing my life to theirs and looking at all my bad moments versus my good mountaintop moments and think "I should do more." But really? Everyone has their rough times. Those people who seem to be having the time of their lives 24/7 aren't. We all have our good and bad times. We just tend to show the good more because we don't want people to see the hurt, the stress, the weakness No one wants to show the overwhelming parts of life. This is my attempt to show you the overwhelming part of mine. What I'm trying to say is ---- don't let glimpses of other people's lives make you hate your own. Embrace the stressful all nighters studying. The bad days make the good days even better. Always remember God is good and he makes a way for everything.

-Kaitlyn