be the CHANGE

today today today today ! I have a special challenge for myself today ! I figured out my average & all the marks I need to get to boost & let me tell you, boosting your mark is incredibly hard ! It was really upsetting to see that I might not reach my goal GPA any time soon, but I’m trying. I don’t want to freak out, throw tantrums & start second guessing God’s plan for me because of a bump in the road.

So today’s challenge is to find peace & keep it. I need peace in this situation, marks are incredibly stressful & it’s all my fault when I don’t get them & it’s so so so SO easy to allow Satan in there & allow him to tempt you to rip yourself apart from the inside. God made me how I am for a purpose. A bump on my transcript can’t stop his big plan for my life. He’s seen this coming before he created the earth.

So if you’re potentially going to stress WAY out because something isn’t going the way it’s planned, or something amazing was supposed to happen but it might get cancelled, I truly encourage you to join me in this challenge today & just be patient. God reveals his plans to us in HIS time. We must wait on him & let the stress go.

the above verse is amazing. Although I don’t agree with the Message 100% as a credible Bible, I do love hearing the way that it words certain verses. & that was just really really well put & encouraging & pretty easy for us to understand.

Yesterday, I felt like all I wanted in the entire world was a hug. This morning I felt the exact same feeling. But then I read that & realized: God’s arms are always open. We have to hug him back.

Today’s challenge is a HUGE one for me. It’s to release myself from hugging onto to sin & looking for easy gratification & look to God when I long to be embraced. There are so many dark shadows in my heart still & I’m giving them up, yelling at them to get out because my Abba, my Papa is here to hold my heart now. & forever. I don’t want to be a mess anymore & I know that God will take me as I am broken & a mess & basically useless & he will use me even when I’m broken. This is all that I ask for - to be healed & used. Doesn’t have to be in that order.

God is so great ! He truly is. He teaches me so much. Today’s challenge is to allow God to humble me.

The glory doesn’t go to me, it goes to God. When I do something great & awesome, it wasn’t actually me who did it, it was all God. I used to feel so special that God would use me to bring kids to Christ & get to witness. Which is great to be used by God & get out there & do his work. BUT pieces of me loved it because I was the one doing it all. I was the one doing God’s work. That’s not very humble. At all ! God used Paul to guide so many people to His Kingdom. & through Paul, God says that it doesn’t matter about the WHO, it matters about the part all about GOD. I need to take steps back & humble myself so much so that God can use me in the ways he needs to, without my selfish desires in the way.

Today’s challenge is definitely going to be tough !

I’ve realized that after really long traveling days, I tend to get kind of sick, so today I’m taking my last day of reading week to just relax & get rid of this gross gross cold. God wants us to be balanced. Not lazy because he calls us away from lazy christians. But he also doesn’t want us so wrapped up in this world’s schedules that we MISS him. I’ve been missing out on a lot of God’s miraculous things because I’m just so busy.

God’s teaching me to cut back. I see him doing this through the verses I read & being sick way too much. I need to slow down. Today’s challenge is to take the day to relax & take the day for God & me. Just because I’m sick doesn’t mean that I stopped being a Christian. God is always there & waiting.

whoa, so sorry yet again because I said 6 or 8 ish & it’s definitely not that time but you know what? That’s ok because God used me so much today. God is opening me up to talk to others & to becoming a super friendly people-person once again. It’s really awesome to actually write a post about HOW my challenge for myself went instead of just a challenge because I’m so excited to share this with you.

Lately, God has really been using my little calendar that has a verse for every day. Which is awesome because this is my second year with it & last year it definitely did not have this daily effect on me. Today’s verse was so powerful & it was about saying that we don’t just trust in God, we DEPEND on him.

How many times do you find yourself thinking that you can do it all on your own? Especially the little small tasks of life. I am super guilty. But God really had me focus on HIM & not me. It’s not about me. I’m about HIM. Everything in his creation points towards his existence & glory. It’s all about HIM.

Today’s challenge was to go a step above my ‘trust God’ challenges through the past month (because God was really pushing me in that direction to grow. Less of me MORE MORE MORE of him). Today, God stepped in & just said, “Katie, you are missing it.. you’re MISSING OUT on what I’m trying to offer you. It’s more than trust. It’s got to be a surrender of your independence”. God knows how hard I worked to be self- sufficient. He was there my whole life watching me take matters into my own hands, for me to fix it all by myself. & today God showed me that even if I can fix it - I shouldn’t. It’s all his job.

So just surrender. Tomorrow. The next day. Tonight. Surrender & let yourself be embraced in his love. Just wrap yourself in it like a fuzzy blanket on a rainy day.

“I surrender all.. into your hands. Jesus, all for Jesus, all I am & have, & ever hope to be”

I feel so awful when I don’t post in the mornings & now it’s almost the evening & the only excuse I have is that I’m traveling & stuck in airports & I have this one fantastic verse to share from Psalms & my Bible is with me, I just can’t remember WHICH Psalm it is ! GAHHH !

so again, so so super sorry !

I’ll be posting when I finally make my way home, I promise ! I’m delayed & blah.

But God is keeping me safe & fed & surrounded by people & I still feel incredibly blessed & not impatient. I just want to let you guys know that I AM posting eventually today & I’m sorry for those who wanted to follow today’s challenge. Just wait a few more hours (check back around 8pm.. I know.. super late) & I’ll share a lovely challenge & story & AWESOME verse ! ok? ok !

Boom ! Good morning, Katie, this is God speaking..

Yup, that’s how I woke up this morning. The verse for today was staring me in the face. It’s from Deuteronomy 6:6-7. Before this year, if you told me that the Old Testament was actually super relevant to my life, I wouldn’t believe you. But this year has changed so much & I’ve actually spent time studying and processing and connecting the Old Testament to my life & God got me with this one. It’s such a good challenge !

In Deuteronomy, God called his people to constantly talk about him. To IMPRESS his word upon our hearts. This is so relevant to our world today. Not too many Christians actually walk about the streets talking to friends about what they learned in church or the awesome prayer they had this morning & what God had revealed to them. I mean, someone might overhear, right?

That’s God’s whole point ! He wants others to overhear. He wants to the WHOLE world to know him !

Today’s challenge has everything to do with Deuteronomy 6:6-7, impress his word on your heart, then go tell your family & friends. Tell your children if you have them. Tell the children if you don’t have them ! Talk about God when you’re sitting at home & as you walk with someone and when you lie down & when you get up !

Just think, meditate, and TALK about God all of today ! Ok? Deal - lets go ambush the world with God

ughhhhh !

Today’s challenge is to focus ! I have a lot of homework to do, as in reading because it’s reading week & I have over 200 pages to read in 2 day. But in those 2 days I have a bajillion things to do. Woo. All I want to do is work on my mom’s blanket that I’m making for her, or read a good novel, or hang out ALL of the time with my friends..

Today’s challenge is to ask God for focus & dedication to the tasks that need to happen today. I feel like Satan is trying to distract me from the things that are important to me. My grades are incredibly important to me because they are the key to my future. I know God will get me there, but I’ll need to hold his hand every inch of the way. Especially on the focusing/ NO procrastinating part

Also also also - could you guys do me a favour? I need prayer. I need God to heal my body & I’ve been praying so much that I would trust him & be patient, but could you help me pray? This could turn pretty serious & I don’t have my health card with me while I’m home because I left it up north… Please help me pray for healing !

the verse I woke up to today was..

’ wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God ‘     Ruth 1:16

the role of women in the Bible may not span hundreds of pages. Their stories are smaller than Paul’s & most people miss them. But if you take the time to look in the Holy Bible, you will find God’s little hidden jewels which are the faithful & godly women of the Bible. The story of Ruth reminded me of this today. Women do have huge roles within the Bible. Ruth was part of the godly women who God blessed with children. Those children were part of the lineage that lead to a special someone. Can you guess? Jesus !

My challenge today is to look & find a story of the women in the Bible. It could be hidden like Hannah’s story or obvious like Ruth or Esther. Just go & find a Deborah to read about, or whoever ! It doesn’t matter if you are a gentleman or a lady because we all need to understand how God will use us all & the godly attributes & character traits we shall either strive towards or wait for (in the men’s case). Read about a heroic lady today & see the difference she made, even if it seemed like such a small drop in the ocean. God used her.

Have you ever fought with someone & then left everything open-ended because you just stormed out of the room & locked that person out from talking to you for a while? I know I’ve done that a few times when I was younger with my parents, for sure. But on Sunday night, I sort of did that with God. My discussion about camp with mom was also a way of me getting mad at God for not giving me a choice. God does give you choice, but I felt caught because I didn’t want to go the way he was calling me to go. But if I didn’t go that way, I wouldn’t be doing God’s work & that’s not the dedicated Christian I long to be. UGH.

So I had one of those temper tantrums at God. Just like a 13 year old. “You just don’t understand me, Jesus” - of course he does, or else he wouldn’t have loved me enough to DIE for me.

This morning, I had a heart to heart with God. It was amazing. I broke through the wall my heart had put in place between my God & me.

Last night, God led me to read 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 & it encouraged me incredibly for this summer. I have backed away from hardship before. This time, I will stand firm.

My challenge today is to stand firm in belief through persecution. I need to truly be able to stand up for what I believe in & not be afraid of saying no & maybe making someone else uncomfortable. I will stand firm for God. Even through persecution. It won’t last forever:

“We proudly tell God’s other churches about your endurance and hardships you are suffering. And God will use this persecution to show his justice and to make you worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering”

2 Thessalonians 1: 4 & 5

Last night, after a pretty fantastic day, my mom & I had this pretty intense & very long heart to heart. It was about going back to camp. I was incredibly negative about the idea of me going back & mom tried so hard to make me see the positives that could be there if I allowed myself to be open & bold & step out to make a change.

I am terrified about going back to camp. There are so many deep rooted issues with the people that work there & in my mind, I just see it dying away from the beauty & the mission field that it once looked like to me. I’m afraid to go back & be the change that I need to be. Mom made a really good point, that maybe God is calling me back to inspire people to be different on senior staff. Instead of feeling left out of the awful ‘clique’ that always seems to form, I should go for the kids & just do the greatest job as waterfront director & not get involved in the drama & the nonprofessional mood. You might be thinking, why are you taking a camp job so seriously? In my opinion, if the camp environment was to be more professional instead of thriving on gossip & power-trips, I feel like we would be so so SO much more effective in what God is calling us all to do. And the atmosphere for campers & staff would be so much more positive & loving. I’m afraid to exclude myself from everyone to be the change that God could be calling me to make. Isn’t it ridiculous that I’m afraid of being judged & hated at a CHRISTIAN camp for being a Christian? It’s definitely not going to be easy. But maybe that’s what I’m supposed to be.

Today’s challenge, after all of that ranting, is to have a long walk with God. Just go & tell him all of the crap that’s going on & ask him to help, to take it & use whatever is supposed to be there for his glory & for the rest of it to be thrown away. & I thought I was learning to trust him.. Clearly I have a very long way to go ! Please pray for me, as I will be praying for you

Today is such a blessing from God. I’m home & it’s my birthday. I’m turning super old & had to say good bye to my youth.. or just my teenage years. That’s not the good part of today.

Today is a blessing & today’s challenge is to just sit for a bit & thank God for everything he has provided you with for today. ALL of it

I mean, today is just going to be fantastic - my brother was supposed to work all day, but he asked his manager if it wasn’t too busy if he could go home (no one would pick up his shift for him). His manager let him go after an hour of work ! So now we’re able to all eat dinner together on my birthday ! Today at my home church, I was blessed with the opportunity to see A LOT of my friends within my church (which was lovely). ALSO - tonight I get to go play bingo with my BEST FRIEND & that’s just going to be a fantastic time

Today is just a day that is looking up on the bright side & I’m so so so grateful that God loves me THAT much to make today such a lovely day. Birthdays have never meant much to me because we never really celebrated my birthday. But lovely awesome fun days are always exciting ! SO THANK GOD !

it’s another travel day for me ! Yesterday’s challenge is helping me so much today ! Before, flights used to scare me a little bit when we hit turbulence during the landing. But this trip, I just said, “God, whatever happens is in your plan & all for you”

bam. Best trip ever. Not only did I meet a pretty awesome person that goes to my university & lives close to me, I have a super short lay-over time (just an hour ! Not four ! Praise God !)

Trusting God makes the whole world a lot better. Things look brighter, life is life, not a ball of stress & worry.

TRY IT OUT ! Seriously. If you haven’t passionately started trusting God, or you slipped up yesterday, just try again today.

I know this is going to seem a little lame, BUT I DON’T WANT YOU GUYS TO MISS THIS !

Today’s challenge is to REALLY trust God in all things. Maybe you’re not flying all over Ontario today. Maybe you are. Maybe you have a super important meeting, or homework, or a fun day outside but it all depends on how the weather goes. Or maybe you are just taking a lazy saturday & claiming your weekend. Whatever you do, in ALL that you do, trust God. He makes all things work together for our good. Your good. My good. So I will take today to really truly trust in him

ahhhh ! So ok, you wouldn’t believe the day I’ve had so far, allow me to explain & apologize for such a late response:

I worked this morning from 7-10:30, then ran to work at a wrestling tournament from 10:30 - 1:30

which brings us to now, & then I have to figure out my entire life in 2 hours to pack, shower, exercise, bake, maybe even eat. I fly out tomorrow morning & am leaving my house at 7… LIFE IS SO CRAZY !

you know what today’s verse is? It’s about PEACE. ahahaha, good one God, peace on a stressful day?!

He’s not joking. Check it out..

“May the God of hope fill you with ALL joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”  Romans 15:13

Today, I trusted in God and I’ll continuing doing so. Wrestling is stressful from the first aid perspective. Driving around a town & having no idea where you’re going is crazy. But I trusted God that he would provide for me. That he would give me the knowledge to deal with injuries & the sense of direction to get home.

God has never let me down. So today’s challenge (sorry again for it being so late) is to TRUST God. If you put your trust in him, who created all things & knows all things, he’ll give you peace & joy. Not just give, but fill you wholly with it !

man, being purified is tough business !

today, God encouraged me further with today’s verse :  ‘Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory”  1 Peter 1:7

I’m still crying out to God : “PURIFY MY HEART !” but this verse just gave me new eyes on this process. Yes it’s tough stuff. But at the end of this world, God will use your faith as EVIDENCE of his victory. BUT only if it’s been proved pure/genuine.

Today’s challenge is to not only to continue to allow God to purify your heart & for us to keep it pure (which is an on-going, lifetime process) it’s to rejoice in God’s purpose for such a process ! When we are proved to be genuine in our faith, God isn’t the only who will notice/see. Our genuine faith will be used to inspire others ! Think of famous Christians (or just famous to you Christians) who are inspiring your walk because of their faith. & how many people they witness to & how many people come to KNOW Christ & accept him into their hearts because of such a faith

THAT COULD BE ME

THAT COULD BE YOU !

wow. God has such a huge purpose for all things & we only see a small small corner of his awesome knowledge. SO praise God today, it might get tough to stay pure, I will probably stumble a lot, but remember: God will use your great faith for great things !

Create in me a clean heart, oh God

& renew a right spirit within me

That was my favourite song this summer to sing at camp because it was exactly what my prayer was day after day. Purify my heart, Father !

& God did purify me. I saw the changes, but they didn’t last pure very long. Sin got to be once more & I messed up. I can see that the over-emotional person I had become was Satan’s way of tempting me to turn God’s answer to prayer (to wake me up from the numbness) into something not so fantastic. Just recently, I’ve noticed that these behaviours have really hurt the people around me & have caused them to see me as a ticking time bomb… which hurts a lot.

Last night’s prayer & today’s challenge is to allow God to purify my heart once more. Clean out the rubbish that’s begun to make dust bunnies in my mind & just be the person he’s called me to be. No distortions. No allowing Satan in, too. Just Me & the holy spirit

Help me pray? I’ll help you out, too ! Message me if you want some specific prayer !

Good morning ! Happy Valentine’s day !

OH NO ! Please don’t shudder at that ! Did you know that we could revolutionize valentine’s day? Everyone needs love. You need love. I need love. People expect to be loved on Valentine’s day. Or they expect to be lonely.

Lets prove the lonely people wrong. Today’s challenge is to love everyone. Ok, I know that’s been a challenge before, but on Valentine’s day, we all get so caught up with the people we know love us & trying to prove love through gifts & stuff. BUT GIFTS DON’T SHOW LOVE ! Actions show love. Words show love. Paying attention & caring is most loving.

Reach out to the lost & the lonely. Lend an ear, be a friend & show love to someone you wouldn’t have planned to today. Maybe it’ll be someone you don’t even know of yet.

That’s today’s challenge: Make a stranger’s day. Show Christ’s love to someone you don’t even know. We are all messengers of God & we are constantly being watched. So lets act out in faith & set an example for love ! Because it’s for everyone !

” when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour “

Psalm 8:3-5

What is man compared to ALL of God’s great works? Yet he loves us most, he CHERISHES us, he makes promises to us, he forgives us, he loves us. Oh, how he loves us. If you find yourself thinking a little negatively, if you’re a little stressed out (which I am big time) this is today’s challenge:

when life starts trying to bring you down & makes it all seem too much, like you’re not worth it, please remember that God holds you higher than sunsets, stars, & all things wonderful & beautiful. It’s going to be hard to keep a frown on this face when I think about the moon & the stars (which declare how AWESOME he is) & to know that he loves every single flawed part of me. Not only that- I’m not broken in my stress, because he’s going to use me. Even on my stressed out days.

Today has been an insanely amazing day & it’s only 11am !

gahhhhhh ! Where to start.. well ! Today is my mother’s birthday, so I called her at 8 (what a loving daughter, eh?) & I got to start my day by talking to my mom.

After the phone call, the boyfriend & I RAN to the bus stop & the bus was right there waiting for us ! So we were able to get to church on time. THERE WAS A BAPTISM AT CHURCH ! I love baptisms ! They don’t really happen during early service, so this was such a special treat to see.

The boyfriend was all stressed about bus times because he has a ski practice & is getting picked up RIGHT NOW (11:05) & we had to be back home in time. God has blessed him so much with such a talent with skiing & I kept telling him & myself that God will provide. He can’t miss a practice or else he loses his spot on the provincial team. So our mantra was “don’t stress, God’s got a plan” When we booked it from church to the bus stop, a car pulled up beside us & it was his ski coach ! She went to early service, too ! She offered us a ride (it is also FREAKING cold out !) SEE ! GOD PROVIDES ! !!!

ok, so that’s how awesome God is at providing us with so many blessings through his grace. The really cool thing was the service this morning. My church has been doing a challenge- 40 days in the word. So all of our services have been about HOW to read the Bible & just really tackling some of the bigger questions & concerns. This morning was all about ‘does the bible contradict itself?’

the answer? Yea, kind of. BUT only if you read it in ways it wasn’t intended. The bible is a story & it was meant as a narrative & a guide. The big point of all of this was, can you trust the Bible? I agree with my pastor, I can completely trust the Bible because I can prove it. Has God ever given you a verse & it’s exactly the guidance you needed? And then things just kind of turned out for the better & you could see God working in your life because of your obedience? THAT’S TODAY’S CHALLENGE :

Test God’s word. Dive into it. Find a promise, a something in there that you can allow God to prove true so that you can see how awesome & great his glory truly is. AND we can all stand so firm on his truth because it is true.

My challenge for myself today is to stop being so utterly selfish. My emotions consume me & I forget to think before I talk. Words can be like swords. Today’s challenge is to use our words for good, ONLY good. If you don’t have anything nice to say, you should pray to God & ask him to soften your heart with kindness & love.

That will be my prayer today. Sometimes we become so comfortable with the ones we surround ourselves with that we forget to think about the consequences of our words & actions.

Today I will think before I say or do. & all my moves will be dictated by God.