"...All up on me..."

"God's hands are all up on me...and if it were anyone else it would be creepy, but it's not. It's great!"
This was one of the thesis statements from my weekend. It went a little like this...

Blessing (ˈblesiNG) noun: God's favor, the evidence God is active in your life.

BOOM. God has been consistently meeting me in this way the past week, but here's the overview of my weekend...

On Friday, my wonderful, beautiful sister, Amanda Marie, came and visited me for the weekend!

Aaww...grrreat. :) We played monopoly in the library (twice)- which is great cause that's my favorite game ever (Amanda likes to call me Mr. Potter...if you get this reference, let's be best friends, mmkay?) We went to Applebees, the movies, and took a nap, we laughed, talked, sang, hung out with the Carol...just had a wonderful weekend, and I was just blessed.

Then she left, and I was sad, but I went over to my good friend, Teagan's for a life chat, and BOOM. God showed up. Isn't it great that God is a God who reveals Himself in the everyday conversations we have all the time? Yes, yes it is.

We just encourged one another, spoke about our giftings, passions, and hope for the Church, and realized "God's hands are all up on me..." Well, I'll take it.

Growing pains spiritually are just as painful as physical ones, but I would not have it any other way. And just listening to all the conversations I've been having over the past few weeks it is SO clear God is doing something. And as I seek to be closer to God, to be the person He wants me to be, He brings blessings consistently.

PTL! Praise the Lord for He is good!
"The one who has clean hands and a pure heart...They will receive blessings from the Lord and vindication from their Savior!" Psalm 24:4-5

One way to have clean hands and a pure heart is to make God our focus, purpose, source, and motivation. That is, to serve God because we know He is worthy. WINNING.
Check it.

I love my big sister, and my big God!
And my great friends who are a blessing!
And you.

A friend loves at ALL times...

So today was just grand. For two hours I got to see my very best friend foreverforeverforeverforever43vurr. Seriously, this girl right here...

 has been at EVERY major event in my life (birth, first lost tooth, bday parties, call to ministry, first speaking event, 8th grade and high school graduations...) BOOM. Plus she always knows exactly what to say and pray and do and...blue? Nevermind. :)

Anywho, If I had to look in the dictionary for "Best friend", Janet Leandra's picture would be there! Solid, straight to the source! ♥

So...here's a look at what we did...

That pretty much sums us up. I lalalove her. And am blessed by her.

Proverbs 17:17a, "A friend loves at all times..."

Better Late than Never...

This week I have been Incredibly blessed. And of course by "this week", I mean starting last week on Thursday night (late? Time is not my master. Boom. Jk.☺) Here's what's up:

Thursday Night, after a rivetting time of tap dance and fun, I went to D-Group. To put it in cliche words, we "get together, and just do life". But for realzies. We had a time of laughter, and then testimonies of what God was teaching us, and then some real-real intense time of prayer. Not just going round about the circle. No, one by one, individualized, from the bottom of your heart prayer. LEGIT. It was amazing, and just what I needed. I love those girls. Then after serving ourselves up some holy friendship, we decided to walk over to Stater Bros and pick up the ingredients for some tasty cookies. On ze way back, we saw two people who our leader knew, and we just asked if we could pray over them. In the middle of Starbucks! Heyoooo. It was an incredible time of laughter and fun, and snackage, and then a time of rest, which of course is wonderful.

Friday was a little on the "cray-cray" side. Was supposed to see "The Vow" with the hall, last minute plan change, short adventure through Azusa. At night. Not the best accident I've ever gotten myself into...yeeeeauhh. Then back to my room for a movie and a juice box.

Saturday was soups solid. After brunch with some friends, me and The Brea went on down to TWO thrift stores where I picked up these little beauties...

It had started to rain while we were inside, but had stopped so we decided to continue our adventure to the park. We were on the swingset for days. Many glorious days. Sharing stories and laughs and fun times.

We even played pretend, and cops and robbers. It seriously was amazing fun. (I promise I'm in college). I slid down one of the slides, forgetting it had rained, and was soups bummed when I realized my pants were all wet. But that wasn't the only  thing that got wet...

It started to POUR on our scoot home. SERIOUSLY, at one point the rain was coming in sideways. Vision blurred, brakes not working, bare foot scooting. It was exhilirating to say the least, but it was just grand. We sang tons of songs at the tops of our lungs, and by the time we got back, we were soaked all the way through.

That is just a tid-bit of the adventures I've had this week.
Some are scary, some are fun, all are a ride of a life time.
But you know what?
"This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!" Psalm 118: 24

I'm so blessed to have people in my life that are filled with the joy of the Lord that spills into other aspects of their lives. Seriously they're great. I love them.
I love you.

Being Samuel

Last night, I could not sleep.
PTL I don't have class till 1pm, but there was a reason I couldn't sleep. I started to drift off, and just as I reached a place of unconscious contentment, the Lord woke me up. You know, like He did to Samuel in 1 Samuel 3? He was just a kid then, but God woke him up three times. And when Samuel realized it was God, he stood up and said "Here I am, You called me." The funny thing is, despite the many times I've heard this story, or even preached about it, that happened to me too! I kept trying to sleep, and God kept waking me up. FINALLY, I got it. So what better way to answer God then to follow in suit of Sam-Bam, and say the same thing to God. Have you ever made God chuckle? Well, I'm pretty sure He did at me last night. But anyways, after answering God, I asked Him what was going down, and this is what happened...

"Allison, listen to me."
"I am"
"No, I mean...all the time."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you listen to Me when I have something good to tell you, and you listen to Me when I'm disciplining you, but you don't listen to me in the everyday."
"But, either I'm getting in trouble everyday, or your blessing me..."
"Allison."
"Sorry, God."

After a little more listening, and a little less arguing, I realized what God was saying. I forget to give God my everything. ALL. ZE. TIME. Here's the thing, I say this almost everyday, I just have a hard time following through with it. And lately I have been kinda having a stressful time...no details, if you want to know more, you can ask me here. (But I reserve the right to not tell you)...and my Father has been reminding me

What a blessing! The Lord IS MY STRENGTH! I don't know about you, but I've never heard of anything stonger! And in 1 Peter 5:7, God says "Cast all your anxiety on me because I care for you!" Sometimes we are so apt to forget that! So now, in the brink of my anxiety, sickness, and storm, I will rejoice because

Prasie the LORD, He is a God who wakes us to remind us His love for us is deep, and His desire to protect us is great. He is ALMIGHTY, loving, and knows what's best for us. And you know what? After God gave me a big hug, I had a great night's sleep. Why?

Because I am His, and He is mine, His banner over me is love.

Love.

Wonderous Weekend!

Hello there,
Oh, how I've missed you good friends! Sorry I've been gone. There's so much to catch you up on! Like how AMAZING of a weekend I was so blessed to have! This weekend was an All Access weekend, which means high sCOOL kids and transfers come to visit the campus and ambassadors, like me, host them and help them experience the real-life good times.

So of course, we did! Me and The Brea had six girls in our group, so what do you think would be the BEST way to represent the Fourth North spirit?

That's right, a scooter adventure in footie pajamas!

This was the first night, before we even knew each other. We hopped on our $k00tz and rolled around campus, and did a (boy) scavenger hunt...looking for a ginger, brunette, blonde, guy with earrings...and other stuff.

It was so fun...look at their smiling faces! :)

The weekend was filled with getting to know these girls' plans, dreams, likes, dislikes, and as The Brea puts it on her blog, just "did life". The next day as they were off learning about the school and it's mottos and what not, we current students had an event called "Recess!" We played foursquare, red light green light, had painting done...twas quite fun.

Rocking the Ambie tee and name tag (and don't worry, mom, the dream catcher isn't real!)

The weekend ended with a movie night with the previews that stayed an extra night, and meeting parents who were just wonderful! Plus an impromptu hall dance party in the bleachers of the Acrobatics and Tumbling Meet! I have been so incredibly blessed, despite certain things that have been going on, to experience sincere love and joy and support and fun. And all I keep thinking is

"The LORD is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving." Psalms 28:7

That means in every circumstance trusting Him, and with that comes joy, also in every circumstance. Despite sickness or sadness or trials or whatever, it is so incredible that God fills us with joy! I just love Him!
Anywho...here are some other pictures from the weekend!

Before our adventure!

                                                 

Painted dream catcher from Recess!

Model Behavior.

The Brea and Me with our squinty faces...because we're B.A.'s (get it? B-A...? Never mind).

Anyways, this weekend was so blessed.

My life is so blessed.

You are blessed. Look for your blessing in the joy of the Lord.

Love.