Beautiful

Hello All! Hope you're having a great week!:)

This entire morning I've been outside, enjoying the beautiful day that God created today to be. I find myself thinking about how amazing and talented God is. He created all these things that I am enjoying this morning; the sun that is keeping me warm, the wind that is blowing through my hair, the birds that are making beautiful music, the grass and trees, everything! God is SO creative! So creative that He made each and everyone of us unique! God put a little bit of His creativity in each of us. To think of all the people that are in this world, and that God put His creativity in each of us just shows that He is an ALL powerful and an AWEmazing God!
God has created all things beautiful no matter how ugly it seems or we feel. In Psalm 45:11 it says "The King is enthralled by your beauty." and in 1 Peter 3:3-4 it says "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." God has created each one of us in our own beautiful way and we should be proud of that! Why should we be ashamed of the way that our Everlasting and Wonderful Father created us? We shouldn't be ashamed! God creates all things perfect and you were wonderfully made by the Creater of ALL things! When we believe that we are made with an amazing purpose and that God has a reason for us to be here we can say, " I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well." (Psalm 139:14)
Just felt like sharing some of the things that I've been thinking about lately. I'll talk to you all later!

HIS girl in this crazy world,
Jess

Beautiful by Mercyme

These past few months, weeks, and days

These past few months, weeks, and days have been times for me where I feel God is reminding me that I have to trust Him in all circumstances. There's been some unexpected events that came up and situations where I just had to trust that God knew what he was doing. But I made it through and now with summer here I am feeling much more relaxed and happy! 
Here's what's been going on in my life lately: 

Towards the end of the school year, school was becoming really tough and I just didn't have the motivation to try my best. Knowing that SUMMER2012 was approaching and having beautiful weather outside made it really hard to stay focused on/in school. But I made it!!! I finished school this past Thursday and boy am I glad that I'm done with school for the summer! It's so cool knowing that I am now a sophomore and no longer a "freshie"! I am so thankful that summer is here because I need a break from school! Plus it means that next school year is getting closer! I am actually so excited for next school year because my family has decided to attend a different public school. The school I will be attending is called Connections Academy and it is an online public school. The reason we have chosen to switch schools is that the class sizes at my siblings elementary school was getting too large for our comfort level. I chose to also attend Connections also, because it gives me more flexibility and I most likely will be able to focus better and get my school work done in a timely manor! I have nothing wrong with brick and mortar schools, I've attended them for the first 10 years of my education career! It's just that Connections is a school that will work better for my family and our life schedule at this point in time. We are all super excited to embark on this new schooling adventure! 

 I love my job! I am a skating instructor at the local figure/hockey skating area in town and I absolutely love it! What I basically do is help younger kids learn how to ice skate. I enjoy working with kids so much and so this job is very enjoyable for me! The skating schoolers (kids I teach) recently participated in an ice show that the figure skating club in town was putting on. I was able to help get the little kiddos on the ice and make sure that everyone who was participating was there to skate. I had such a fun time seeing all the kids skate their best! They did fantastic! 

In May, my mom was  having some strange stuff going on with her body and so she went to the Doctor and they noticed something was not quite right. She went in and had a test done and it showed that there was a chance that it could be cancer. We were very, very nervous and wondering what was going to happen if there was cancer. In 1Thessalonians 5:18 it says: "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." This verse was something I was wrestling with during this time. How could/would I be able to give thanks if my mom found out she had cancer? Cancer is a terrible illness to get and I just don't see how I would be able to give thanks. It was a tough time for all of my family members but after some more tests and much prayer we found out that there was no cancer found! We were so thankful that there was no cancer! A few days later, my mom had to go in for an unexpected surgery that would take care of the problem her body was having. Now with the surgery behind us my mom is feeling much better and is making great progress! We are so thankful that God spared my mom from cancer and that she was able to begin recovery smoothly. She will not be somewhat/fully healed until about 6-8 weeks after the  surgery. She is about 3 weeks now and is doing wonderful! 

Oh something else that I did recently is paint my bedroom! My sister and I share a bedroom and so we had to of course both had to agree on the color. The colors we chose to go with are light yellow and hot pink with multi-colored accents! We have one hot pink wall with all the others being light yellow. It turned out super cute and I will be posting pics soon! 

Homework, Homework, Homework was taking up much of my time before school got out for the summer. I wanted to do well on my finals but was SO sick of studying. Well I preserved through it and by knowing that God wouldn't put anything that He knew I couldn't handle in front of me, I was able to make it! Finals came and they went pretty well! During the first semester finals I had had a panic attack but this time I was much more calm and didn't have a panic attack! I was nervous but knew that once I got through these finals I was through with school for the year! They went much better and I am so glad to have them behind me!  

Thanks for listening! I am really excited to be able to blog more this summer and be able to learn how to live out my faith more and more! I already have some more ideas on things I would love to share with you all, so stick around! 

HIS girl in this crazy world, 
Jess 
Sneak Peek: The next blog post is titled Beautiful. 

I'm Still Alive:)

Hello All!!! Whew its been a crazy past few weeks for me! With school, sports, church, homework, and an unexpected surgery that my mom had to have done, I've been very busy! Tomorrow I will be posting a full update about these past few weeks. But for today I wanted to share with you all, what I'll be doing! Hope you enjoy! Also I created a Twitter account that feeds directly to my blog so you all can get quick updates throughout the day! :)

Today I am going to the 4th Annual(I think) Joyful Noise Family Fest! For those of you who haven't heard of it before, what it is is a big music concert! Christian artists of all music backgrounds come to Blaine, MN and perform for a large audience. Its outside and lasts all day! This will be my first time going to Joyful Noise and I am SUPER excited!!! Tobymac (my favorite music artist) is gonna be there and so I am very excited to be able to see him in concert! There are gonna be a bunch of other AMAZING artists there too, so it should be a pretty fun day! Getting together and worshipping Christ with others can be so powerful and I'm sure it will be today! Check the twitter feed or follow me on twitter for live updates! @GodsGirl_Jess
I'll talk to you all later!

HIS girl in a crazy world,
Jess 

Simple and Classy

Simple and Classy by jessb19 featuring a pink flower ring

Print dress
£24 - houseoffraser.co.uk

Michael Antonio high heel pumps
$50 - heels.com

Rebecca Minkoff woven straw handbag
$250 - rebeccaminkoff.com

Wildfox Couture pink flower ring
€89 - jades24.com

Lipstick
$15 - topshop.com

Vera Wang fragrance
£35 - harveynichols.com

Monsoon Set of 2 Hand-Printed Pink Storage Boxes
£18 - monsoon.co.uk

My 40 Days of Water Journey

Hey all ya'll! :) How's your week been going? My weeks been pretty good and I hope that yours has been too! I just wanted to give you all a quick update on the 40 Days of Water Journey that I had mentioned in a earlier blog post. Easter Sunday was the last day of my journey and boy have I come to realize how important water is! 


Participating in the 40 Days of Water campaign REALLY made me realize just how important water is when that is the only thing accessible for you to drink. I am a HUGE fan of coffee and so giving that up for 40 days was really difficult for me. The first few days after I started my 40 Days of Water Journey were the hardest for me because I was having coffee with-drawls. But once I got through the first few days, the rest soon became days where I told people about the mission and encouraged them to try it! Looking back, being part of the 40 days of water campaign was one of the best experiences I have had! It made me realize how lucky I am to have water that is easy to access. I hope that Africa will soon be able to access water easily too!

http://40days.bloodwatermission.com/ 

HIS girl in this crazy world, 
Jess 

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful day! All because Jesus gave up His life for us sinners, we can say "I am happily waiting for that Glorious Day!"

Glorious Day by Casting Crowns

BTW: I will be having a Spring 2012 post coming soon! School/homework has been taking over my free time lately so I haven't had much time to post. Have a great week!

HIS girl in this crazy world,
Jess

Life in this Crazy World

Hello All! How's everyone doing? Sorry that I haven't posted in quite a while! I've had a ton of things on my plate right now and am finally starting to find a balance! Here's some of the events that have happened over the past few weeks:

1) The golf season began! I'm so excited to be able to get back out on the course and hit some balls! I am on the golf team for my highschool and so am really excited to see the improvement that I make during the course of the season!

2) I accomplished one of the items on my bucket list! Singing on stage at the church I attend! I had wanted to do this for quite some time and last week was given the chance too! It was so much fun! I LOVE my church's youth worship team!

3) Homework, Homework, Homework...need I say more??? Nope:)

4) I took/am taking place in the 40 days of water campaign! What it is is that for 40 days the only beverage you drink is water and while your doing this you add up the amount of money you would have spent on other beverages. Then on the 40th day you donate the money that you would have spent and that goes to help build wells in Uganda, Africa! It takes lots of discipline but the end result is amazing! 
Forty Days | 40 Days of Water | Blood Water Mission | Home

So that's some things that have been going on in my life. This coming week is Spring Break so I'm gonna try to post some more posts. :) Thanks for all the feedback! I enjoy reading all the things you all have to say! I am planning a post for tomorrow or Saturday so be looking for that to be popping up soon! I hope that you all have been having a great "Spring" 2012! Never forget that God is with you no matter what and NOTHING can take Him away from us! NOTHING at all! Have a great rest of the week and never lose faith in the Saviour, Christ Jesus our Lord!

Romans 8:38-39 NIV
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

HIS girl in this crazy world,
Jess

Beloved

be·lov·ed/biˈləv(i)d/

Adjective:	Dearly loved.
Noun:	A much loved person.
Synonyms:	adjective.  dear - darling - favorite - favourite - loved noun.  sweetheart - darling - love - sweetie - lover

 Over the last few days I've had this one song...stuck in my head, start playing on my ipod while its on shuffle, come on the radio while I was listening, and then this morning at church the music video was shown. I feel that God is maybe trying to tell me something through that song. Maybe He is trying to tell me to remember that He is always there for me and to listen to Him remind me that I am His beloved. When I lose my way, and I forget my name, remind me who I am. In the mirror all I see, is who I don't want to be, remind me who I am. In the loneliest places, when I can't remember what grace is. These are the beginning lyrics to Jason Gray's song "Remind Me Who I Am". The song that has kept reoccuring in my life the past few days. This song has a wonderful message. A message for anybody and everybody. It doesn't matter how far we have fallin away from God. He will always by there ready to pick us up and remind us that we are His. Even through any circumstance or choice we make God will always call us His. Knowing that we are God's beloved is amazing! But why does He call us His beloved? God wants to have a relationship with us, get to know us, and be an esential part of our lives. He sent His son to die on the cross for us...sinners, ordainary people, EVERYONE. He knew that we would turn away from Him and yet He still created us because He loved and still loves us! To me that is why He calls us His beloved. We may turn away from God at times or feel that we are unneeded, useless, or nothing. When we feel like this ungodly things are more susceptible to come into our lives. But as it says in James 4:8 "Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded people." I like the first few words of that verse...come near to God and He will come near to you. It helps reassure that no matter when or why we come near to God He will come near to us. The times when we have reached rock bottom, it seems are the times when we need Christ most. (I know this from past events that have happened in my life) In Pslams 23:4 it says "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and staff, they comfort me." God is with us wherever we are and in everything we do. Through good and bad, He is there comforting us with His rod and staff. We need to be reminded of who we are to Him and so that's why there is such a thing as the bible. When we are reminded who we are it can heal us, comfort us, restore us, revive us, etc. We are and will always be God's beloved children. Now that is one amazing God! These are just some of my thoughts and interpretations that I thought I would share with you all. Thanks for reading. :)

 

Remind Me Who I Am by Jason Gray

 

HIS girl in this crazy world,

Jess

Looking back on Valentine's Day 2012

Good afternoon everyone! How's everyone doing today? I hope your having a great day so far!

Valentine's day was so much fun! I love my family! My family has a Valentine's day tradition that we started a few years ago and have enjoyed ever since! I really enjoy our tradition because it is something that we can all do as a family and we all have a lot of fun taking part in!
Here's what our tradition is:
A little bit before dinner on Valentine's day we start decorating with some colorful heart decorations we have. For dinner we have grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato/chicken noodle soup. Last night we cut the grilled cheese into little hearts! Then for dessert we had my "specialty" brownies that we also cut into hearts! They were SO good! Oh and I almost forgot! We ate all this on sparkly red heart shaped plates! After dinner we go on a scavenger hunt.  My siblings and I go into one of our rooms while my parents go and hide note cards around the house. Once they're all done hiding the cards we go and search for them and at the end there is a present waiting for us! Last night our present was the movie Dolphin Tale, a notepad with colored pencils and a king size candy bar for each of us! My siblings and I wished we could watch the movie last night but since we had school today we decided to sleep and wait until Thursday to watch it.  After all these fun activities we eventually went to bed. Looking back I thank God for everything that happened yesterday. My family acknowledged our love for each other and praised God for having a HUGE love for us! God's love is the greatest love that we could ever receive! Well I hope that you all had a wonderful Valentine's day too and never forget that God loves each and every one of us!

HIS girl in this crazy world,
Jess 

Update on Life

Hello All! Sorry that I haven't posted lately. After Acquire the Fire on Saturday 2/4/12 I had a major English assignment to work on with a friend that took all the day Sunday 2/5/12. Last week the teachers at school decided that it would be fun to load us down with homework so I was up late every night doing that. And then on top of that I got sick! Yesterday 2/13/12 I stayed home from school and slept almost all day! I am thankfully feeling much better and recovering from the cold I had! Here are some updates on the past week:

Acquire the Fire 2/2/12- 2/3/12
     Oh my word!!!! Acquire the Fire was a blast!!! There were wonderful speakers, great music artists, a well acted out drama, and it was just a really fun experience over all!  The topic for this year was Normals Not Enough. the speakers talked about how we are called to take action and share the wonderful news of Christ Jesus our Lord! The drama that was shown was about his girl who had the "good" life...she had a gorgeous boyfriend, "good advice" giving best friend, and beautiful looks...what more could a girl ask for??? But then one night when she was at a party her boyfriend was hosting, a secret service agent (a.k.a. one of God's angels) told her about all the missions she was failing. She was not showing others the love that God has for each of us and because of that her friends, and people she didn't even know, were making life threatening choices. The secret service agent eventually gets this girl(can't remember her name) to "wake up" and realize that if she doesn't show God to others she will be losing some of her closest people in her life...FOREVER! At the end we found out that if she hadn't had that wake up call she would have died from drunk driving. It was a very inspiring and eye opening drama to how precious our life here on earth is and that we can't take that for granted. Over all Acquire the Fire reminded all who attended that we have a purpose in this world and we need to remember that.

Sunday 2/5/12
On Sunday like I said earlier, I had a big project to do with a friend for English. we reenacted the Balcony Scene from Romeo and Juliet. We dressed up our hands as puppets for the play. It was really fun and we got a good score on it so we were both happy about that!

School has been keeping me very busy! Last week I had a lot of homework every night and didn't get much sleep. This week is starting out better though. Yesterday I stayed home and slept so that I might be able to get over this cold faster! When I went back to school today I found out that I didn't have much homework to catch up on! Praise God! 

Well that's about all for now. In a little bit I'll most likely tell you all about my family's Valentines day traditions and how our Valentines day went. If that doesn't happen tonight though look for a new post in the morning! :) Have a great rest of the week!

HIS girl in this crazy world,
Jess

Living4Him

Yesterday was a VERY busy day. School went by really fast! I was very happy to come home after school yesterday because my mom's parents were coming for a visit! It's always fun when we can get together with them! I love them SO much! The only bummer about this visit though is that I won't be here (at my house) very much because I am going on a short trip with my church. At least I got to hang out with my grandparents for a little bit of their stay! The church trip that I am going on is called Aquire the Fire. It's a big Christian youth event where we listen to some great Christian song artists and then many wonderful speakers! This event has been going on for many years but this is the first time I have ever gone! I'm super excited! I hope that this event will help me remember to keep my trust, hope, & focus in the one who saves me. I'll keep you all posted as the weekend progresses! ~Living4Him~

HIS girl in this crazy world,
Jess

JOY

Today has been such a great day! Way better than yesterday! Let's start at the beginning. I woke up late so didn't get to have my devotion time in the morning. It was ok though because I woke up to this awesome Christian artist called TOBYMAC!!!! (my favorite) His song "Hold On" helped me start my day off great! Once Phy. Ed. started I got kind of nervous again because I didn't want it to go the same way it had went yesterday. (See last post) But praise God, I told one of my teachers how I was feeling about swimming and that teacher was really understanding! Then during class I found out that we were dividing into two groups, one advanced swimmers and the other beginners. This helped a ton! I am now feeling much more confident in myself and not near as worried! The rest of my day went SUPER well and I am SO thankful! I needed it to be a good day today. Yesterday was terrible...ok I need to just forget about yesterday and stop bringing it up. :) I am really  filled with so much JOY that God has a perfect plan for our lives, He helped me make today wonderful! He is so amazing in all He does and all He will do!  God is the only one that will always be with you no matter what choices you make! Isn't that amazing?  Well tonight is my youth groups kick off at our new building so I should probably go get ready for that. I hope everyone is having a great day and I'll catch ya'll later!!!  ~Overflowing with JOY~

HIS girl in this crazy world,
Jess

Hold On by TobyMac 

Trusting in Him

What a day, what a day! Today was the very first day of the new semester at school. This means that there is mass confusion and lots of tension everywhere! I'm really happy that it only takes about 1-3 days to get back into the way of life at my highschool. If it took much longer than that I think I would go even crasier! :) Anyways sense today was the start of a new semester that means that sometimes you'll have new classes. The new class I have is Intro to Business. I also have different teachers for Physics & Phy. Ed.. In Phy. Ed. The teacher that I now have was starting the swimming unit...I was NOT excitied. Swimming is something I'm not really good at and don't do much so this was not a unit that I was looking forward to...AT ALL! I was brave and made it through the class but am so not looking forward to it tomorrow! Swimming first thing in the morning was not a very good start to my day so I'm thinking that maybe I'll need to have my devotion time in the moring so I start the day off on the right track. After Phy. Ed. I had Physics and my day didn't get much better from there on. Though my mom was willing to pick me up from school so that was a plus:), normally I ride the bus. Once I got back home my day was better because I was with the people I love. :) 
     Over all today was a tough day and what I'm realising now is that I didn't put my trust in God. All the worry I had about the day, I kept it inside or told people who probably didn't even care. If I would have asked God to help me with all the worries I had about the day I would have been much more relaxed. In Jeremiah 17:7-8 it says, " Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." I feel that this verse is really talking about when we put our confidence in the living water, God's words, we will be able to stand tall even through the ups and downs of life. We won't worry when bad situations come our way because we are replenished by what God has spoken. And when others around us see that we are calm they will ask about the peace that we have.
      I'm putting my TRUST in the LORD to help me make it through the upcoming months of school because without Him I would be SO lost. I know that I surely wouldn't be the person I am today. If I want to continue to build a strong relationship with Christ I need to trust in Him because He is the only one who will never leave our side and I am so grateful for that! ~TRUSTING IN HIM~

HIS girl in this crazy world,
Jess

Giving Praise

Whew! I made it through finals! Here's how my days went:
Thursday 1/26/2012-
Today was my first day of highschool finals EVER! I was really nervous but put my trust in God to help me through. My first final of the day, Physics, was harder then I expected. I had studied lots but still had a tough time with it. Then came my Phy. Ed. final...it was going good, I felt confident in my answers , but then about half way through I started having a panic attack! I don't really know why, it just all the sudden got really bad. I left the room, got a drink, walked around and it finally started to go away. I'm praising God that it went away quickly, because then I could still have time to finish the test. This attack was my first one that has happened at school. Normally I would get less severe ones at sports events, these I could handle. It isn't uncommon of me to get extremely nervous for tests or competitions but I had never had a panic attack like this. Like I said I am so thankful to God that it passed quickly! After this final it was lunch...which was absolutely wonderful! My mom picked me up and we went out to Olive Garden, one of my favorite restaurants. We talked about so many things, I had a blast! My next class was a study hall in which I didn't have attend and so my mom and I went to Michaels(craft store). I got some new canvases and am very excited to paint on them! I'll post pictures when I finish them! :) When 1:30 started to approach we headed back to the highschool so that I could take my final final of the day, Geometry. That final was a breeze! So happy! That pretty much sums up my day! I'm thankful that I(with God's help) got the panic attack under control! 
Friday 1/27/2012-
Another day of finals...what a joy! ;) Today I was taking the finals for my advanced classes, American Studies and English. I also had my final for Spanish which I was nervous for because Spanish is still a new language to me. At 8:15 I sat in my American Studies classroom and whizzed through the test! I felt very confident in all my answers! It was truly a blessing from God!  I had been stressing all night that I was not going to have one clue about the test, but God reassured me that he was in control. I got done with American Studies and then went to Spanish. The Spanish test went really well too! I had to speak about myself and then answer questions about a passage I read. When I have to speak to the teacher for testing I get really nervous. After I had spoken, my teacher said I did very well! I was so happy! Once Spanish was over I went to English and took that final...the last full final of the day. This is the other one of my advanced classes and so I was very thankful that I felt like I new every answer. After English it was lunch time and so my mom picked me up, we went and met my dad at Subway. It was really fun to be able to see my dad at lunch time because normally I am in school! So we finished our sandwiches and then my mom took me back to the highschool so I could finish the last 5 questions I had on the Physics final from the day before. I finished those up and then was OFFICIALLY DONE WITH 1st SEMESTER FINALS!!! WHOOHOO!!!!

Looking back to Thursday and Friday I can see Christ thoughout each day. He was there when I had the panic attack. He was there when I took my American Studies test...the one I had been SUPER nervous for. He was there when I took the speaking assessment for Spanish. He was there when I finished up the last 5 questions in Physics. God is always with us no matter where in this crazy world we are! HE NEVER LETS GO!!!! I am so grateful that He cares for me enough to never let go of me! PRAISE GOD!!!

HIS girl in this crazy world,
Jess

These Days

You know when you have those days when you just feel like doing nothing. I've been having quite a few of those lately. Finals are coming up on Thurday and Friday and so I've been studying every night...which also means I've been up late the past few nights. With all the stress of doing well on finals I have just wanted to take a day to relax. It's times like these when I start to forget to turn to God and ask Him to strengthen and encourage me. He already knows how I am going to do on the tests and so why not trust that He will help guide me through them. Trusting God with all situations, no matter how big or small they may seem, is something that I could work on. Right now it seems that I forget to turn to Him with the small situations that are stressing me, like school projects, church activities, friends parties etc. The big situations are the ones I turn to God to because they are impacting my life really hard at the moment they come up. I know a few people who have trained themselves to turn to God first, more often then not, and the results they get from doing this are amazing! Praying and devoting myself to His word DAILY will help me(and others) turn to God first. This will take time to retrain myself into doing...but I know that with God on my side anything is possible! I'll be praying for all you! :)

HIS girl in this crazy world,
Jess

A Godgirl

Hello all and welcome to my blog! Through this blog I hope you will see what it's like to be and become a strong Godgirl. Some of you may be wondering " What is a Godgirl?" Well, my definition of a Godgirl is, someone who WANTS to live their life for God. They have a strong relationship with God and are striving to show others His love and kindness. I'm not saying that they are perfect, no one is perfect, but they are going out of the norm and putting their faith in Him. I hope that by reading/following my blog you will be able to be ecouraged to become a Godgirl or Godguy. Then you will feel the excitment I feel from showing/living for God. In life I have learned that there are ups and downs but, by holding on to the truth (God's Word) these ups and downs become 10x easier. Well I will be posting thoughts from day to day so stick around! :)

HIS girl in this crazy world,
Jess