Lots of work, very little time...

Hello everyone,

Sorry, with everything that's been going on it has been very hard to just sit down and write.  Balancing school, work, friends, and free time is crazy and free time (without friends) kind of gets pushed to the side.  Posts will be sporadic, but I'll try and do better.  One thing I do want to say is that if any of you ever have a prayer intention, feel free to comment here, send me a message, or post on the Facebook page.  I will willingly add your prayer requests to my prayer journal.

God Bless,

Rachel

His Grace Is Enough

I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth, I promise. I've been so caught up in my school work and all the things that come with senior year that I haven't had much free time for blog posts. Now that school is almost over, I actually have time to write.

So, as I said above, this is my senior year of high school. It's been chaos since the beginning! I had decided to take two AP courses (one was only first semester, thankfully) and my other courses are regular ones, but they're still very challenging. It's been very overwhelming and I've had a hard time keeping up. On top of that I've also filled out college applications, studied and taken the ACT for one final attempt at a better score, filled out a million scholarship applications, and interviewed for a program at my favorite college. I had never expected senior year to be so tiring! But, surprisingly, it's also gone quite quickly. Seems like just yesterday I was going to my first day of school...yet in 22 days I will be walking across the stage to receive my diploma!

Having said all that, I have a confession to make. I get stressed out and overwhelmed very easily. It's been very stressful trying to figure out how I'm going to afford college next year. My mom has helped me by reminding me to pray about it. Praying is a very good way to look at something from another perspective, but I was having a hard time letting go of my worry. I wasn't giving it over to God completely...

Let's rewind to the weekend that I received a phone call saying that I had been accepted for the San Damiano Scholars. This is a religious program at Marian that I really wanted to get involved with. I had learned that I had been accepted and that I would receive scholarship money, but I would not know how much or if I could even afford to go the the campus until two weeks later. The next day my youth group went to an event called Encounter Cincinnati. Our Archdiocese does this youth event a couple times a year and there is praise and worship, a religious talk, adoration, and optional confession and prayer ministry available. During adoration I decided to talk to God about my financial worries. I didn't really expect Him to answer me in some profound way because I know that's not how God prefers to talk to us, but at the same time I was still disappointed when I didn't feel something. After adoration was over, we all stood and sang praises to God. The first song that the band played was “Your Grace is Enough” by Matt Maher. I love this song. I've heard it a million times, but when we sang the words “Your grace is enough for me,” it made me realize that I don't have to worry. No matter what happens, God will always lead me to what is best.

Two weeks later I received my financial aid letter from Marian and my backup school and with scholarships and work study it would actually cost less for me to attend Marian! It was very exciting to realize that my dreams of attending my dream school were actually going to come true! :)

Now let's fast forward to now. Last week my family received some bad news. As usual, I kind of had a little melt down and I was extremely worried about what this news would mean. Worst case scenarios started flashing through my head and I really didn't know what would happen. Then I remembered when I was worrying about paying for college. I immediately stood up, went to my computer, and turned on the song “Your Grace Is Enough.” It helped me to remember that God is still holding us in the palm of His hand. God's grace is sufficient and He's going to take care of us, no matter what. All we have to do is trust. It's not always easy to trust in His plan, but He is taking care of us.

Next time you feel the weight of worry and stress, listen to this song and pray. God's got your back. :)

Gob Bless!

Thanks for reading.

My Apologies...

I want to apologize for not posting in so long.  This school year has been really crazy.  With all the college visits, college applications, scholarship applications/interviews, difficult classes, coaching, and stress, I have had little free time to write any posts.
As soon as I get caught up I plan to start writing again!

God Bless!

GISHWHES-aka a week of chaos

In the beginning of August, my friends and I participated in an online scavenger hunt.  It was called GISHWHES which stands for the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen.  I signed up to do GISHWHES because it sounded like a lot of fun.

Basically, the hunt is a week of chaos.  You are put into teams of 15, my 5 other friends that joined with me were combined with 9 people from California and our two team names were combined.  Then the hunt starts when the item list is posted on the website.  The items ranged from semi-normal things to weird things you could never picture yourself doing.  

During the week I covered my little cousin in popcorn, was covered in melted ice cream, wore a boa and crazy glasses while picking up trash at a park, was dressed as a unicorn so that i could fart rainbows, put together a 100 piece puzzle with gloves on, I made Jared Padaleki's face out of clay and paper-mache, convinced a published sci-fi author to write us a short story, and helped a kitten to get adopted.  

here is Jared's face made of clay and paper-mache

This is our trickle-down-ice-cream-enomics.  We were COVERED in ice cream!!!

But wait there's more!  One of our male California teammates made a bikini out of candy and he wore it.  Another was dressed as a storm trooper and had a "spa day."  We also treated another team to cupcakes and dressed as a werewolf baseball player, riding a horse, while holding up a sign that read "we are all Orlando." We staged a mini-newspaper boat regatta in a public fountain. We got an Elopus (Elephant-Octopus [it was our GISHWHES mascot this year]) recreated in the foam of a café's hot drink.  We got batman to play bingo in a crowded recreation center. We sucked blood from a doughnut. And So many other things.  And we didn't even come close to completing the whole list.

As I've said multiple times on this blog, I am shy.  Extremely shy!  I'm not big on breaking out of my shell.  During GISHWHES it was either break out of my shell or let our team down.  It wasn't easy, but with the help of my friends I was able to do it.  GISHWHES did not only help me that week, but it gave me a little more confidence in my everyday life.  

Somehow, during this week of chaos which had no religiousness to it whatsoever, God found a way to give me strength.  You don't have to go to a religious conference or on a mission trip for God to strengthen you.  Maybe He wants you to step out of your comfort zone and that is how you will gain strength.  Always be open for little messages!

God Bless!

Prayer: A Phone Call to God

So, I'd like to tell you about something funny I did.  But first I have to explain a couple things.  I watch a show called Supernatural.  There is an actor on the show named Misha Collins; maybe you've heard of him or about him, maybe not.  Well, he’s a little outside the box (and by a little, I mean a lot.)  Seriously, just google “meanwhile, Misha.  Here two pictures that might explain a couple things:

He actually tweeted his phone number!  Well, as you can imagine, all his fans went crazy sending him texts and calling.  Just for laughs (and curious as to what his voicemail was) my friend decided to call the number and she listened to his voicemail and told me to call the number so I could hear his voicemail.  Now, one thing about me, I am really shy.  Even talking to people (or the idea of possibly talking to someone on the phone) freaks me out.  So I didn't want to do it at first because I was afraid he’d answer.  haha crazy, right?  Well, eventually she convinced me to call the next morning.  My reasoning was that calling at 8am here is around 6am where he is, so I figured he wouldn't answer.

So that morning, I calmed myself down enough to dial the number and a computer voice says “state your name at the tone and we will try and connect you.”  At that very second I freaked out and hit end call…  haha yes, I hung up at the possibility of talking to Misha Collins…  Well, my friend convinced me to call back (and not hang up) and I got to hear his voicemail which did not ask me my name.  The funny thing is that the second time I called, I wanted him to answer.  I know I'm weird.

……………...

Now, I do have a reason for talking about this on a religious blog.  

I feel like we are sometimes like that with God.  We dial in (pray), figuring we’ll just go to voicemail (that He doesn't hear our prayer), and when we hear (or feel) a response we freak out and hang up (tune Him out.)  Prayer can be many things to different people.  Sometimes we don’t feel anything when we pray, kind of like going straight to voicemail.  Sometimes we hear, or feel, God responding to our prayer, like the few people Misha actually answered.  Some of us who pray because we feel we have to, or we aren't completely open to the idea of God, freak out when we feel His presence, like how I freaked out at the thought of Misha answering my call.  I can go on and on about different reactions and feelings in prayer, but the point here is that it is ok.  Unlike my example of calling Misha, God doesn’t have a voicemail.  God hears our prayers, He even knows our deepest desires that we can't even put into words.

I want to encourage you to pray knowing that God is waiting to answer your call.  Sometimes He is that friend who is quiet and listens while we talk about our problems.  Sometimes He is quiet while we learn from a mistake; God doesn't knock us on our rear and shout “I told you so!”  He waits and lets us decide our path.  There are rare occasions where God speaks to us, when He speaks make sure you pay attention.  But most of the time He leaves us subtle hints.  Like I’ve said before, God doesn't send us a billboard that says exactly what He wants us to do.  No, He tosses toothpicks at us and after a while we are able to step back and say “Oh, that’s what He was doing!”

Try to keep that in mind next time you are frustrated with praying.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.  Amen

God Bless! :)  Thank you for reading!

God's Strength and Wisdom

Last month my youth group went on a mission trip.  Normally we go somewhere out of state like the Carolinas, Texas, Michigan, etc.  This year we stayed in our own state AND our own backyard.  We went to mass Sunday morning and our priest gave us a blessing then we drove 15 minutes to the grade school that we would call home for the week.  It was great!  We were “away” from home, yet still in our hometown!

This year was physically more demanding than my past mission trips.  Most sites only have one crew of 6 people working on their project.  This year I was on a double crew with 12 people and the last two days they sent in a third crew yet, even with 19 people working on our house (including our resident), we were not able to finish in time.  But I will come back to that.

Here is the before picture.  And note that this is only a small portion of the house, it is much bigger than it looks.

First let me explain what we were doing.  This house was huge!  It had wood siding which had been painted, but it was not meant to be painted and they didn't use the correct type of paint...so the wood had rotted and all the paint was chipping off.  Our job was to scrape the paint off, caulk what needed caulked (which was all the edging and a bunch of holes in the wood), prime the whole house and garage, and put two layers of paint on the house and garage.  We spent all of days 1 & 2 scraping and Taylor and our resident, Greg, caulked.  Day 3: I continued to scrape while the others caulked and primed.

Day 3:  We had somehow missed a whole section of the house that needed scraping and I picked the short straw.  By the end of day 1 we were all tired of scraping, by the end of day 2 we all hated scraping, on day 3 when I ended up with a scraper in my hand again I passionately hated scraping.  And it didn't help that I was the only one still scraping.  I was sore, sunburnt, grouchy, and complaining to myself.  At one point I climbed off my little step stool to take a little break and I literally thought “God, I can't do this anymore.  I'm too tired and sore.  I don't have the strength.”  But I knew I still had to do it because no one else was going to...so I got back on my step stool thinking “Lord, give me the strength” and He did.  The minute I got back on my step it was as if I had been regenerated.  I wasn't sore or as tired as I had been and I was able to finish the strip that I had been working on.  It was incredible and I know that it was only by the grace of God.  I asked Him to give me strength and He did!

Day 4: I finished scraping then we all primed and caulked and some started on the paint.  Day 5: we finished priming and caulking, we painted one full layer of paint on the house and scraped, primed, and tried to paint the garage...but mother nature decided to wash the paint off the garage…

Here is one portion of the house getting the finishing touches

Here is the front after it was finished

...and here is the garage after it rained...

 It was disappointing to watch the rain wash our fresh paint off the garage. We had gone as fast as we could, prayed as hard as we could, tried our best to finish the garage too, but in the end it rained and washed the paint away…  At first I was upset, of course I wanted to finish, but then again, I'm sure God had his reasoning.  They had already figured that we wouldn't finish (which, for the record, we got farther than expected) and there was a team ready to go in to finish for us.  Maybe our house wasn't finished because God was going to use someone who was going in afterward.  It’s sad we didn't finish, but I hope that God was able to move in someone’s heart because of it.

Always look at the bright side, even when it doesn't seem like there is a bright side to something.

God bless!

From Recruit to Sailor

My summer started off running and hasn't stopped yet!  At the very beginning of June my parents, my brother's girlfriend Kayla, and I all went up to Great Lakes, Illinois to see my brother, Patrick, graduate from boot camp.  After not being able to see him for two months, you can imagine that we were all pretty excited!  We drove 6 hours the day before and got up bright and early the day of his graduation.  The ceremony was very cool, but also very long.  If I remember correctly, there were about 5 divisions graduating and about 88 people in each division.  So there were a bunch of sailors, all wearing the same thing, who all looked the same!  Needless to say, it was very difficult to try and find one sailor among 440ish other sailors. Here is a picture to attempt to show you just how many sailors there were:

And that's not even all of them!!!

After graduation was over, we only got to see Patrick for a short while because there was still paperwork that needed to be filled out before he could spend time with us.  So we twiddled our thumbs and spent a whole bunch of money on t-shirts, bumper stickers, sweatshirts, mugs, etc that said things like "Navy Mom," "Navy Dad," "Navy Girlfriend," "Navy Sister," "Proud Family of a Sailor," "United States Navy," and so on.  And then when we finally got to see Patrick again that day we got to take pictures, get milk shakes, and talk.  His flight plans had been changed, so we also got to see him the next day.  

We were able to spend a lot more time with him than we had expected, but he ended up staying at Great Lakes after we left because of medical stuff.  They did a blood test which showed he had low iron levels, so Patrick had to take iron pills and vitamin C for a month before he was allowed to fly out to South Carolina.  Well, when they tested his blood again they told him he was healthy enough to fly!  He is now safely in South Carolina and once orientation is over he will begin A school and then he will start nuclear school!

It's been a very long journey, but Patrick is now well on his way!  Praise the Lord for being his strength and his guide and thank you to everyone who has been praying for him!

God bless and thank you for reading!

God: The Master Painter

I apologize for the huge gap between posts. There is never a dull moment in my crazy life!

I’d like to talk about how awesome our God is. Seriously. Do you ever just stop what you’re doing and stand there, amazed by God? I did! My family and I went on a vacation in the beginning of May and I literally had one of those moments. Our vacation was in Canaan Valley, West Virginia. It was incredible. Most people have probably never hear of Canaan Valley, I hadn’t! It’s pretty much in the middle of nowhere. But, in a way, that made our vacation that much better!

One of the catch phrases that I like to say is that God is the master painter. I love to paint, so it’s a great metaphor for me. While I was on vacation, that phrase too on a whole new meaning to me. It was just so incredibly beautiful that words cannot even begin to describe it. I was speechless at the thought that God had “painted” the beautiful mountains, trees, bushes, sky, waterfall, animals, and so much more. It was one of those “Aha” moments that I will never forget. Since I can’t quite describe just how beautiful it was, let me show you. Even though in person is even better than the pictures!

This picture was taken while we were on a train ride on the Durbin Rocket

Black Water Falls

This is a picture from Lindy Point overlooking the Blackwater Canyon and it was 3,047 feet up!

And of course I took a selfie with Blackwater Falls!

Here is the sunset picture I took from the resort

Here is a picture from inside Seneca Caverns

I could just keep going and going with all the incredible and beautiful pictures, but this post is not meant to be "show and tell."  There is a point to this post.  We take beauty for granted and sometimes we even forget about the beauty in our world.  It's important to step back from our everyday lives and see what beauty God has put before us.  

While we were on vacation I was completely cut off from internet and cell phone service.  No joke.  We were that far out in the middle of nowhere that my phone didn't have a signal and there wasn't any wifi.  Haha at first it was weird not texting my friends and checking my facebook every hour, but as the week went on, I didn't really care.  It was kind of nice not being attached to my phone and I was able to just be there and in that moment.  I didn't have any outside "interference" to pull me out of the state of wonder that I had found myself in.  It was really cool.  

It's been a long time since I was able to just look around me and just think "Wow, God!"  I loved that feeling and it made me want to reach for that at home too.  You don't need to go on vacation to see God's beauty surrounding you.  He's always there, whether we see him or not.  Sometimes we just need to open our eyes a little wider.  That is my challenge to you, when life's got you down or you are struggling to see God's beauty, just open your eyes and your mind to the possibilities.  God can work wonders in your life if you just give him a chance.

God Bless all of you!

Thank you for reading!

My Brother is off to the Navy!

Yesterday I said goodbye to someone I've known my whole life.  It wasn't a permanent goodbye; I'll see him again in 2 months, but it still feels like a long time that he won't be here.  Some people may find it really odd how much his leaving has impacted me.  We weren't exactly best friends most of the time.  Patrick and I could fight about pretty much everything.  Occasionally we could play nice together, but we never had that whole "loving brother and sister" relationship.  We usually did our own thing and "occasionally," well, maybe more than occasionally, try to get each other in trouble.

Even last year we were still arguing and complete opposites of each other.  We couldn't agree on anything!  He thought church was dumb; I loved going to church.  I didn't like the school we were at; he absolutely loved it there.  He'd pick on me for being short; I'd pick on him for his big feet.  We had a lot of silly little arguments and we'd both make snide comments that didn't really mean.  It seemed like all we could do was tear each other down.  We also had big fights to the point that I wanted him to leave home.

Throughout his senior year, he spent a lot of his time trying to get all his paperwork and stuff sorted out so that he could join the navy after graduation.  But, there were things he had to do before he could enlist and it took forever!  For those not familiar with the way the military works, everything has to be absolutely perfect and if one thing is not "perfect" then it takes months and months to "correct it."  That was the case with my brother.  He went up to Columbus to get his military physical and all that stuff and there was a spot on his back.  So they sent him home and said he had to get rid of the spot before he could enlist.  Seems reasonable, right?  Not exactly, the military likes paperwork and there wasn't any official paperwork for what the doctor did to get rid of the spot.  So that caused issues that took forever to get sorted out.  Also, when he was up in Columbus somehow his birth certificate was misplaced and he couldn't do anything until either he found his original birth certificate or sent for a new one from Virginia.  So as you can probably guess, Patrick was extremely stressed out during this time.  The more frustrated he got the more we argued and the worse our relationship became.

Eventually everything was sorted out and he was told what month he would be shipping out for boot camp.  It was summer, so April felt like forever away.  At first we kind of just went on like we had been.  But, as Patrick's ship date got closer and closer we became closer and closer.  About 2 months ago we became pretty good friends as well as good siblings to each other.  That's probably when it started hitting home for me.  This kid that I grew up with, who had always been there (even when he was the last person I wanted to see) was going to leave and he wouldn't be coming back to stay.  I really couldn't imagine home without him.

This is the last picture we took before he left for boot camp.
This could probably explain why he picked on me for being short! haha

Now that I look back on our relationship over the years, I see how silly our arguments really were.  I don't understand why we argued, we just did.  There's a million "what if's."  What if we had been closer?  What if we had been nicer to each other?  The list goes on and on, but it doesn't change anything.  I do wish that Patrick and I could have had a better relationship, but I am glad that we were able to bond before he left.  There was a point in my life where I would be more likely to say "who? No, I don't know that kid.  We're not related."  But now I am proud to say "Look! That's my big brother!"

I understand that saying of "you don't know what you have until it's gone."  I had an awesome big brother and I didn't realize it.  (He also had a pretty awesome little sister!)  Now he's gone and I miss him more than I ever thought I would.  Guess the important thing is that he is doing what he's wanted to do since we were little.  He's always wanted to join the Navy like my dad and now he's done it!

Please keep my brother in your prayers!  He's going to need it!

Also, please keep my family and Patrick's girlfriend in your prayers!  We all miss him and it is going to be a long two months.

God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can and wisdom to know the difference.  Amen.


God Bless!  Thank you!

Struggling with your lenten promise?

So, we're about halfway through lent, now and it's about that time that either the lenten promise starts to get easier and become routine or you realize that you're not doing so great on you lenten promise.  I'll have to say I'm both.  I chose to give up nutella for lent (I could literally live off of that stuff!) haha It seems like a funny thing to give up but I knew it would be hard for me personally.  I also chose to DO something.  Lent is not just about giving something up.  You can also do something.  Last year every morning I woke up and first thing I did was kiss the floor and say a prayer for humility (kind of the same idea as Jesus washing the feet of the disciples.)  This year I felt like I wanted to do that again, but it's been hard for me.  I have a hard time remembering to do it!  So, as soon as I remember I just drop to the ground.

It seems silly to me personally that I'm having such a hard time this year!  Lent was a very special time for me last year and I grew in my devotion to God.  Guess I should have kept kissing the floor even after lent, though!  I'm am sad to say that I have been lazy.  When we are in consolation it is so easy to say "yes, Lord! I will thank You for everything!"  But when we are in desolation and we don't feel Him it is so much more difficult.  It that state of consolation we see God in the beauty of everything.  He is in the person holding the door for us or He is the rain that waters the plants; He is in the sunshine that brightens our day or we see him in a teacher or peer.  Consolation helps us to be inspired by our surroundings and we are able to look outward.  In desolation it is much more difficult to see things that way.  Even though God is still there, we look negatively inward and we feel like giving up.  We know deep down that God is with us, but He is not flashing in front of our nose like a billboard sign.  We may feel drained and lonely.

So what do we do when it is so hard to pray and we really don't feel like getting out of bed to kiss the floor?  Be honest.  Tell God that you're struggling.  It doesn't have to be in the form of a novena or some formal prayer.  Just talk to him.  When you find yourself struggling, reach for His hand and ask for his guidance.  You may feel like you're talking to yourself, but I can promise you the He is listening.  Also, seek guidance in those around you.  Talk things out with a friend or just spend time with them instead of being alone.  Spending a bunch of time alone is when most people are at their worst.  It is easy to think about the past and say "well I should have done ____" or "why didn't he/she do ___" or even "Why, God, didn't you help me?"  It is so easy to place blame or focus on regret.  It is important to not dwell on those things.  They happened, but they are in the past: time to move on.

Yet, we're all human, we make mistakes.  I forget to pray sometimes, but I can't let that stop me.  Admit it and say "oops" and then fix it.  I can't tell you how many times I've said "oops!  Forgot to kiss the floor!  Guess now is better than never."  God understands.  Don't beat yourself up over it.  Whatever you are struggling with, give it to God.

God's got you covered!

God bless!

Me!? A Role-Model!?

I apologize for not posting in a while.  Everything has been crazy between school, coaching, and a couple clubs I'm in.

I'd like to talk about being an assistant coach.  I'm still in highschool, so I don't have a child and I'm not old enough to be a head coach.  I love volleyball and I would spend 24/7 playing and practicing drills if I could.  So I asked if I could help out at the catholic grade school I went to.  So, since November, I have been assistant coaching the 3rd grade and 4th grade teams.  It's amazing!  I love being able to help them learn the sport (the 3rd graders are just now starting to learn the skills.  It's their first year.  And for the fourth graders, they started playing games against other teams and are improving on their previous skills.)

It really is an incredible experience to be able to be someone these kids can look up to and who can relate with them in a different way than an adult can.  The one little girl on the 3rd grade team likes to wave at me whenever she sees me at church and she is glued to my side at practice.  Another girl on the 4th grade team likes for me to help her on her serve rather than her mom (who is one of the other coaches.)  It's fun being someone they can talk to.  It makes me feel like I'm making a difference.  

I'm sure every one of us has heard the whole "I'm not your friend. I'm your [coach, mom, dad, teacher, etc.]."  Well, where I'm standing, I can almost do both.  With the 3rd graders I am their friend more than I am their coach.  If they don't understand something, or they aren't doing something correctly, I am able to show them and it doesn't embarrass them as much as if their parent or a coach called them out.  It is a unique position and I love it!  With the fourth grade I typically have to be a little more stern because they're at the age of "I know better than you," but they tend to listen to me because I'm closer to their level.  I'm only 6-8 years older than them, depending on the kid.  Our one coach is more than 7 times their age and the other two coaches are parents of kids.  So we each have a different perspective.  I am in a position to be able to help them in a different way than the two coaches that are parent who are able to help coach in a different way than the other coach who is able to help them in yet another way.

When I signed up to be a coach, I didn't realize how much I would be a role-model to these girls on and off the court.  On the court I have authority, yet I can be a friend to them.  But I'm still a role-model.  They look to me for advice and I show them the correct way to do something.  For example, one key thing in volleyball is to stay low and keep your knees bent.  I've lost count of how many times I say "down" or "bend your knees" or "down and ready, girls" in just one practice.  But if I'm telling them to get down and STAY down then when I scrimmage against them or when I demonstrate for them, then I have to be down too, even when it's not necessary, because it gets the point across and I am being an example.  Do as I say, not as I do? NO!  Do as I say and as I do.  THAT is how they will learn.

I also didn't realize how much of a role-model I would be off the court.  Most of the girls I had never met before I started coaching.  Well, now it's like I see them everywhere I go!  I see a lot of them in church and they'll wave at me or give me that look like "whoa! you're hair isn't permanently in a braid!?"  haha  So they see me dressed up, but still being modest.  I've also seen them at the store or at their school (I occasionally go in and say hi to my past teachers or help out in the library).  It's fun seeing them and seeing their faces light up with that "hey! I know you!" look on their faces.  

I guess where I'm going with this blog post is that anyone can be a role-model.  I'm still in high school and I can be a role model.  The two women that I'm coaching with are parents and they're role-models.  The man that I'm also coaching with is much much older than them and he is a role-model to them.  EVERYONE is a role-model.  You don't have to be a coach, parent,  teacher, etc. to be a role-model.  Look at Jesus, he was born in a barn, in a manger that they put the animals' food in, he was the son of a wood carver.  Yet look at what a role-model he was.  Yes, I realize Jesus was God, but He was also human.  Fully God and fully human.  I'm sure he got nervous too, standing in front of all those people eagerly listening to him.  But I'm not saying that you should go stand up in front of your whole church and give your whole life story.  No.  I'm just saying to be a good example to those around you and be someone they can look up to.

Thank you for reading!

God Bless!

look for toothpicks, not billboards

Recently, I started watching Doctor Who. There was a quote on an episode that I find extremely funny, but also thought provoking.

"Ricky, let me show you something about the human race. You put a mysterious blue box slap-bang in the middle of town, what do they do? Walk past it."

Now, as amusing as that quote is, it's got a point. People can be extremely oblivious to important details. I had seen a show on Tv about how mind tricks work and why they work. In the one example, a man went into store and he talked to a random guy he met. During the conversation the man that was randomly selected was purposely distracted maybe 6 or so times and each time he was distracted the other man would change something about his appearance. He started out with a neck brace, a red shirt, a hat, an eye patch, and a jacket. In the end he had a black shirt, no neck brace, a different hat, the eye patch was moved to the other eye, and no jacket. Sadly, the random guy that was picked to do this didn't even notice. Now what does that say about how oblivious humans can be?

As humans we tend to not notice little things, yet we seek out the big things. But that's not how God works. God doesn't just come down from heaven and say to me "ok, Rachel, here's what I want you to do: you're going to marry this guy, you're going to go to this college for this career and you will never have a struggle ever again." Ha! Wouldn't that be nice? Too bad

As a friend of mine once said, signs from God are like getting toothpicks thrown at you, they may not seem big and important at the time, but later on, when you look down at the toothpicks, they'll spell out what God was trying to show/tell you.

Look for God in the small things that you might normally take for granted. For me, nature is a huge reminder of God's presence. To know that He created everything and that it is all so beautiful.  Have you ever heard the quote "what if you woke up and all you had left was what you remembered to thank God for"? How many of us would be left without anything?

Remember, God doesn't want us seeking out miracles to base our faith on. "Blessed are those who have not seen and still believe."

During a struggle it is easy to be upset with God and to feel like He left you, but looking back on those struggles, we realize that He was there the whole time. Look for the toothpicks! Don't get all down because God doesn't come down to earth and resolve your problem! Look for Him in the little things, He's there, you just have to keep your eyes open!

Are you a Catholic or a Christian?

I hate when people ask me that! I hope to clear up any confusion with this post.

This past Sunday, I was at youth group and it was our first one for the school year and we were playing trainwreck as a "get to know you" game. Trainwreck is a game where everyone sits in a circle and there are enough chairs for everyone except for one person. That person that ends up without a chair stands in the middle of the circle and says something like, "If you go to highschool" or "If you have brown hair," something like that, and whoever has that, does that, or has done that gets up and has to change seats. Or if someone says, "Trainwreck!" then everybody has to get up and move.

Well, while we were playing, the siblings were trying to get each other in the middle of the circle. One sibling's brother was named Christian so he said "If your name is Christian" so Christian had to get up. Well, Christian's response was "If you ARE a Christian" (Now remember this is a Catholic youth group--Everyone should have gotten up). Some people did not get up and their response was "well, I wasn't sure if being Catholic we weren't Christians"...

Let me clear some thing up for you.

->Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
If you answered yes, the you are a Christian
If you answered no, then you are not a Christian

Do you believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth?
Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord: who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary: suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell: on the third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead: Do you believe in the Holy Spirit? Do you believe in the Holy Catholic Church: the communion of saints: the forgiveness of sins: the resurrection of the body: and the life everlasting?


Then You are Catholic! AND Christian! Catholics believe in Jesus!


Thank you for listening, this has been a rant from Yours Truly! If there is still any confusion, please comment or message me.
Thank you again and God Bless!

What Does That Make Me?

While I was on our mission trip, we would have worship every morning and night. There would be music and prayer. One song we sang was Everything Glorious, by David Crowder. This song has been stuck in my head ever since mission trip! Haha which, I'm not complaining. It's a good song! :)

There is one part in the song where he is singing to God and says "You make everything glorious and I am yours. What does that make me?"

It really got me thinking. In the creation story God made the earth and the trees and everything and He said it was good but when He made man and woman He said it was very good. A lot of times it is easy to get caught up in what we think are flaws and what other people tell us are flaws. Good doesn't make mistakes! He made you exactly how He wanted you to be.

My youth minister described it as Good walking around a room with file cabinets labeled hair color, height, eye color, skin tone, personality, etc. and God would go to each drawer and piece by piece design us in His image and when He is done he will smile and say "my child, you are very good."

I know that when you are being made fun of it is a lot harder to remember that. Believe me, I know. As Bob and Larry would say "God made you special and He loves you very much!" (VeggieTales) Whenever someone says something that is hurtful or points out something they consider to be a flaw, remember that God made you exactly how He wanted you to be. Think of good things. Things that make you feel good about yourself. For me, I love my eyes, I think they're really pretty. So when someone says they don't like the way I look, I remember that God blessed me with pretty eyes. Sounds silly, but it helps to me go on. Remember to thank God for everything, even your flaws.

Good bless you :) thank you for reading

The hands and feet of Jesus

When I was at NCYC, I was given a poster with the following quote by Teresa of Avila:

"Christ has no body but yours, 

No hands, no feet on earth but yours, 

Yours are the eyes with which He looks Compassion on this world, 

Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good, 

Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world. 

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, Yours are the eyes, 

You are His body."

I came across this quote again a little while back. People often say "Let Christ shine through you," most of us when we hear that think "don't do this, don't do that, be a good little Christian, What would Jesus do?, etc." And most of us cut off after "don't do..." cause nobody likes to be told not to do something or being told what to do in general.

About a week ago I was on a mission trip in Hastings, Michigan. Before my group left, we had our hands and feet blessed with holy water and were told to be the hands and feet of Jesus. While we were there, it was powerful how much of an impact our actions made on the town and on the residents whose homes we were repairing.

I was working on a home with six other people and we scraped and repainted a house. Our resident and her family were so grateful and it was so great to be able to help them! This was my 3rd mission trip, but I will never get tired of seeing the smiles that come from sharing God's love. :) It is is so great to know that you're making an impact on someone's life and the you are able to share God in the process. :)

God bless you all! Never be afraid to show Jesus to someone. You never know who may need Him right at that moment<3

Steubie Changed my life once again

Hi everyone. :) I hope your summer has been going well. Mine has been pretty crazy so far! The last weekend in June, my youth group and I went to a Steubenville Youth Conference, it was AWESOME!!! It's pretty awesome seeing 2,300 teens praising the Lord with all their hearts! there's just so much passion and love and faith in the air that you just wanna sing! Praise and worship is absolutely incredible! I love the music they play and the energy is just amazing! Our speakers this year were really great too! Father Dave Pivonka, Deacon Ralph Poyo, Sarah Swafford, Bob Rice, Chris Padgett and the Awesome LEAD people who gave their witness. Fr. Dave talked about how Jesus comes to Us, He died on that cross for Us, that Jesus loves Us. Deacon Ralph talked about our chains that weigh us down and keep us from God and how confession takes away those chains, that there is healing in God. Sarah Swafford talked about the crowds on Palm Sunday that shouted "Hosanna!" were the same crowd that shouted "Barabbas" on Good Friday and that during the conference, it's like Palm Sunday, are we going to go with the crowd or against it after the conference? One of the LEAD witnesses I really remember and really hit me was by a guy name Daniel. Daniel talked about how he'd never really felt anything during prayer and so he prayed about it and the number 100 came to him. He realized that God wanted him to give 100% in prayer, not 99.9%, but 100%. His witness really spoke to me and really inspired me to work harder to give God my 100%.

During the conference we also spent a lot of time in adoration. Adoration is my favorite way to pray because Jesus is right there, physically in front of us! It's a very powerful experience.
Every time I spend time in Adoration, something in me changes. On Saturday night, The priest (Fr. Dave) brought the monstrance around the field house. He brought Jesus up every isle. It is absolutely amazing, you can literally feel His presence! During that time I did some major praying and contemplating. Lately my prayer life has been, well, pitiful. I lacked the devotion I felt empty and I was upset. Ever since I left Steubenville, I've wanted to fix my prayer life, or, more like create a prayer life. I decided to do that by opening The book, The Bible. I just kinda opened it, letting God turn the pages for me, And I found this: Psalm 13:1-6

"How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I take counsel in my soul

and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

  Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;

light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,

  lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”

lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

But I have trusted in your steadfast love;

my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord,

because he has dealt bountifully with me."

God is good! He took how I had been feeling and was able to give me peace. I'm not perfect, I make mistakes, but He's still there, walking me through the day, step by step. 

God bless! Thank you for reading!

Summer is almost here!

Summer is right around the corner! For some, it may already be their summer break!

 

Isn't it exciting!?

 

I know I'm excited. A lot of times school and work just seems to jumble together and we feel like we just need a break. During the school year we tend to feel like school is our life, it takes up the majority of our time and then we have to study, or do homework, or work, or do our chores, etc. There's always something.

And then, as summer rolls around the corner we're thinking "hmm, finally! a break! Time to relax!" am I right?

So then the first couple weeks of summer we're all kinda lazy and don't really do much. You know the routine, hang out at home, order some pizza, kick your feet up, watch a couple movies, read a book. Sounds good, right? 

Let's face it. If all you're doing is lying around the house, you're likely to get bored. I know I do.

How about put you open schedule toward something? See where I'm going with this? No point in slouching around the house boring yourself to death! Get out and enjoy yourself! Spend some quality time with family and friends. See where God is calling you to! I'm not saying that you should move to Africa and give all you own to the poor (Unless, of course, God is calling you to that. Then by all means follow your Father to where ever He leads you!)! My point is, make a difference with the life God gave you. If you are stuck inside, say you don't have a ride or everybody's busy. The best thing to do is to spend some of that free time in prayer. Say a rosary. Pray for those you love. Discern God's vocation for you. 

This summer my youth group is going on a mission trip in Michigan. In the past we've gone to the Carolinas, Texas, our own home town, and a couple other places, never out of the country. Most people, when they think of missionary work they think of the people who go to Haiti, Africa, the Philippians, etc. That's awesome that people do that! I actually have a friend who did that (funny thing is I met her at a mission trip in North Carolina). But, where I'm going with this is that you can be a missionary in your own home town, in your day to day life. Christ can work through you no matter where you are; He could be working through you right now!

It's the simple things that often make the biggest difference. My first mission trip My crew was painting for an elderly woman. She had lung problems, she was paralyzed from the waist down, her daughter had heart troubles but on top of all that she was the sweetest person. It meant so much for her that we were painting and making her house look pretty. She enjoyed the company and she loved being able to talk to us. There were 6 people in my crew so we would rotate who did what. One person would spend time talking with our resident and keeping her company while the other 5 painted. On one of the last days, while I was talking to her she told me that us spending time with her and talking with her meant so much more than the painting did and that she really enjoyed that we offered to pray with her.

Always remember that no matter how small an action seems, you could be being Jesus to someone. As my youth minister likes to say, "Be Jesus with skin on!" basically, be Jesus to others, you never know who's going to need Him more in that moment.

God Bless you!

Stop! Sit! Pray!

Let us Pray.

Loving Father, we stand before You in the midst of confusion and complexities of life. Our future sometimes seems distant and unknown. Give us, O Lord, the vision to see the path you set before us. Grant us the courage to follow Your way, that through the gifts and talents You have given us, we may bring Your life and Your love to others. We ask this through Jesus, Your Son and our Brother. Amen

Lately, everything has been kinda crazy. Between everything that's going on in the world and at home, sometimes it feels like you don't have time to do anything! The other day My schedule was just packed yet I could not concentrate at all. I do online school, so not being able to concentrate is BAD! I sat at my computer, staring at the screen and then a thought occured to me. Doesn't the bible say something about placing our cares in His hands? ;P of course! John 14:1 says"Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me."

So that's what I did! I went over and sat on my bed and prayed for Jesus to calm my fears and take my worry. I have a chaplet to St. Padre Pio (He's awesome!) and at the beginning of each set you can add in your petition. After I had finished my chaplet I sat there in silence because first of all, it's hard to hear God if we never hush and second, ending prayers with quiet time is really peaceful to me. Giving everything to God is not easy, believe me, I struggle with that a lot. I tend to be a control freak, so the thought of giving my problems to someone else to handle kinda freaks me out. But when we place total trust in God, we will know true peace.

Praying helped me to calm my thoughts and to know that I'm not alone. This world can be extremely hectic, add that to our personal lives and it's like a nuclear bomb went off in our heads and it tends to cloud our thoughts. When our thoughts are clouded we tend to ignor the fact that God is by our side saying, "Don't worry. I got this." Instead we say "no, I've got this," when in reality we don't have it--at all. 

Saying "I got this" without God is like saying "I can eat this tomato soup with a fork! It's all good!" When in reality, your soup will slip through your fork, you will get a minuscule amount actually to your mouth and it will take you a million-bazillion years to get even close to the bottom of the bowl and you will never be able to get that last little bit at the bottom. But if you say, "Lord, I can't do this by myself. Help me." It'd be like Him saying, "here, have a spoon!" and He'd be there with you.

Yes, I know, I'm weird. But think about it. God is the key to our problems. God doesn't give you an impossible task, without Him it is impossible, but with Him you can move mountains (Matthew 17:20   "...if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”)

Next time you are stressed or worried or feel alone. Pray! You're not alone

Matthew 7:7-8

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened."

God Bless you!!!