:)

dear God,

I am happy.

love,
Ty

water. a necessity for LIFE.

dear God,

i know it's been a while since i wrote via blog...some periods of life are just too private for the whole wide world to see!

so, today im doing a lot of thinking, praying, hoping, praising, feeling...Popi (my grandfather) has been in the hospital for 4 days. started off in the emergency room, moved to icu, then critical care, had emergency surgery & is now unconscious & hooked to a breathing machine...it has been really really hard seeing him suffer so much. You have used this to remind me of many things: You are sovereign, life is short&precious, You are eternal, family is important, friends are such a blessing, prayers are powerful, You bring hope, comfort, strength& rest to those who call upon you...You are all that ultimately matters. i am so thankful You saved me& made me Yours. i am so thankful I have these truths to hold on to...i am so thankful my Popi is also Yours&is comforted by You right now. i know Youre holding Him& have a plan. whatever that means for him in the coming days, wks, months, yrs-life or death, sickness or health-i will praise You.
both Friday & Saturday i watched him suffer i felt so helpless, just stood there praying and kinda looking at the rest of my family standing around. wondering what was going through their heads. wondering who has the hope of Christ in their hearts & who doesn't...it's not always an easy thing to talk about, even with family...

one thing that Popi keep asking for when he was awake was water. he was so thirsty. the best we could offer him was a wet sponged dabbed on his lips...that was heartbreaking...today as i stood in my kitchen making a sandwich for lunch i was reminded of how many people are in need of water in this world...

now my first thought was the literal, physical meaning of this...that there are people all over the world who don't have the basic life necessities....like WATER. food. shelter. clothing. & love. love is essential to life. this makes me angry...and makes me sad and makes me frustrated....but does it move me enough to change it? why is it still happening? why don't we ALL do more to help!? my stomach is turning&my hands are shaking a little bit as i write this. sometimes i really do have the following though, as pathetic&selfish as it is, "im only in college, i dont have any extra money, in a few years whenever i have more money, have more influence, (fill in the blank) ---this is a lie from Satan & if i'm honest a reflection of my laziness, selfishness, etc.... yeah. sickening. so, God, plz forgive me for my in-action & give me strength & conviction to (thru Your power) do something abt it. as Josh said last night at Refuge, "there won't be suffering, orphans, etc in Heaven so why are we ok with that happening on Earth? as the church, Christians, let's bring Heaven to Earth" ----(paraphrased by me)

the next thought i had about how everyone is in need of water was a spiritual one........b/c EVERYONE rich or poor, hungry or well-fed, employed or not, in the States, China, Africa, Brazil....EVERYONE needs Jesus aka...LIVING WATER. as my grandfather was asking for water....so were the souls of millions of people all over the world, even in that hospital room. whether they know it or not, everyone needs Jesus...my grandmother needs Jesus, she was created by Him & for Him & she NEEDS Him...just as desperately as my grandfather needed to have some water.
i have Jesus yet i hesitate to share Him with others sometimes, there are certain situations when it's just easier & more comfortable not to. striking thought: it wouldve been easier for Jesus not to die on that tree...but THANK YOU GOD that He didn't choose the easy & more comfortable way out but obeyed You...even to death...the pain, brutal & humiliating death on a tree. im overwhelmed by the love you showed the world through Your beautiful sacrifice....
everyone is going somewhere...maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually EVERYONE is going SOMEWHERE......one of two places....Lord i know you wanna use me to help point some of those lost souls back to You...open my eyes&speak through me.

Revelation 21:1-8
"Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” 

ok, that's all for now.

love you!

i know youre watching over my Popi & family, and i am thankful  

xoxo, 

Ty

thankful heart

Dear God,

:)

thank you for Jesus! for doing for us on the cross what we could never do for ourselves....thank you for you love...

thanks for family!

thank you for your Word.

thank you for sleep.

xoxo

Merry Christmas,

tyler

sitting.waiting.wishing.

dear God,

im sitting in my bed talking to my good friend Mary. yeah, you know, the amazing one who You sent to be a missionary in Africa. thanks for blessing us with the technology to be able to keep in touch so well. you knew we'd need each other....

but back to my first line-im still sitting here....i feel paralyzed. everything seems a little hazy. time is flying by...or im just moving in slow motion. either way, this is such a bizarre feeling...
it's cold in my room, my blinds are open and i can see the sunshine outside. it looks delightful. but for some reason i cant get myself from here to there. it seems like by the time im ready, the sun has set and it's dark again.

(im not sure what in the world im saying, i know this doesnt make sense, but i dont really care, i felt like writing to You and so im trying)

so basically what im trying to say God is i need your help finding my way out of this fog. nothing is concrete right now. i could go in any direction and i have no idea which one You want me to go in...at this point im not even sure what my options are. i feel like there arent any that seem right. once again, haze.

the title of this post is obviously "sitting.waiting.wishing" that's what ive been doing....literally. lol. and i know it's time to "stand up.take action.make decisions" HOW CAN I DO THAT WHEN I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE TO EVEN BEGIN!? i dont wanna make the same mistake i made at the beginning of this semester. i knew i wasnt supposed to be at lsu but id missed the deadlines for everywhere else and i didnt wanna sit out so i just applied even though it was literally the last thing i wanted to do...and i didnt finish the semester. although You did amazing things this semester and taught me so much...i dont wanna just make a decision i know isnt right for what's next simply b/c im out of time and options. what.to.do.

just told my friend mary (we were talking about schools and learning, etc) "if we went to a good school and were actually learning it would be awesome. i cant just get by. that's not me. im all in or all out. lsu=all out." lol. it's so true! i learned this about myself early on...when i go for something i really go for it. with track.........it was my life! i loved it, trained...put everything into it. but once it was over, it was over. all in or all out. if i cant give 100% i dont wanna give any.
 i dont like wasting time. and i cant help but feel like that's what im doing...but am i? our society puts so much pressure on us (and i put a lot on myself, although i dont always show it)  life is moving too fast. i think we all need to slow down and breathe and check our priorities-and put You first. for real though....im aware that im rambling and that none of these points really flow together. i dont care, im just typing, later ill make sense of what's going on with me today. as you know God, im a slow processor-much to my annoyance. ;)

alright, it's time to pack up, run errands and head to the Ville. Home sweet home is calling my name....cant wait to spend time with my family and celebrate You.

                                      

 
<3
t

story time.

                 picturas.  <3 enough said

xoxo, ty

amazing love

Dear God,

"amazing love how can it be that you, my king, would die for me?"
thank you Jesus....

finished "Traveling Light" by Max Lucado now reading "Radical" by David Platt
shout out to Eva & my beautiful Bible study girls for buying them for me!!! so thankful... learned so much for Traveling Light, help it sink into my heart and change me. really looking forward to reading Radical. the first chapter was so great, the end was my fav. sets up what to expect from the rest of the book:
"In the pages to come, we will together explore the biblical gospel alongside our cultural assumptions with an aim toward embracing Jesus for who he really is, not for who we have created him to be. We will look at the core truth of a God-centered gospel and see how we have manipulated it into a human-centered (and ultimately dissatisfying) message. we will see a purpose for our lives that transcends the country and culture we live in, and will see our desperate need for his presence to fulfill that purpose in us. we will discover that our meaning is found in community and our life is found in giving ourself for the sake of others in the church, among the lost, and among the poor. we will evaluate where true security and safety are found in this world and in the end we will determine who to waste our lives on anything but uncompromising, unconditional abandonment to a gracious, loving Savior who invites us to take radical risks and promises us radical reward."

everyone should read Radical. CANT WAIT TO DIVE IN. open my heart Lord...

it's been an interesting last couple of days. planning on going to the Dreamcenter tomorrow morning (satan is trying so hard to convince me to sleep in) and St. Francisville tomorrow evening for my sister's choir concert...

i hope to honor You in all i do.

i'll write tomorrow night, my brain is shutting down on me

love you so much.

<3 <3 <3
tg

quotes and verses

Dear God, 


today was long but good! i'm tired and ready for bed. enjoyed spending time with you tonight looking up these quotes and verses. thanks for leading me to them. i could write a whole blog on each of them but since i'm so tired, i'm just going to post them. hope they will speak to others.


verses:


"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."
-Romans 12:12


“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
-Matthew 7:24–27


"Godliness with contentment is great gain"
-1 Timothy 6:6


Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
-Genesis 22:2 

Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. -Ruth 1:16

quotes:

God never witholds from His child that which His love and wisdom call good. God's refusals are always merciful- "severe mercies" at times but mercies all the same. God never denies us our hearts desire except to give us something better."
— Elisabeth Elliot

"Restlessness and impatience change nothing except our peace and joy. Peace does not dwell in outward things, but in the heart prepared to wait trustfully and quietly on Him who has all things safely in His hands."
— Elisabeth Elliot

"Waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry wihtin oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one;s thoughts."
— Elizabeth Elliot

"Does it make sense to pray for guidance about the future if we are not obeying in the thing that lies before us today? How many momentous events in Scripture depended on one person's seemingly small act of obedience! Rest assured: Do what God tells you to do now, and, depend upon it, you will be shown what to do next."  — Elisabeth Elliot 

"I have one desire now - to live a life of reckless abandon for the Lord, putting all my energy and strength into it." — Elisabeth Elliot

"If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only... to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, echo, or mirage.

-C.S. Lewis 

God, who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain”
-c.s. lewis 




We say, then, to anyone who is under trial, give Him time to steep the soul in His eternal truth. Go into the open air, look up into the depths of the sky, or out upon the wideness of the sea, or on the strength of the hills that is His also; or, if bound in the body, go forth in the spirit; spirit is not bound. Give Him time and, as surely as dawn follows night, there will break upon the heart a sense of certainty that cannot be shaken. --Amy Carmichael

The breaking of the alabaster box and the anointing of the Lord filled the house with the odor, with the sweetest odor. Everyone could smell it. Whenever you meet someone who has really suffered; been limited, gone through things for the Lord, willing to be imprisoned by the Lord, just being satisfied with Him and nothing else, immediately you scent the fragrance. There is a savor of the Lord. Something has been crushed, something has been broken, and there is a resulting odor of sweetness. --Watchman Nee

                                              i'm holding onto Your truth Lord.

goodnight...

love you

<3 

ty