Teaching

It was confirmed on Thursday night that I'm going to be teaching the kids' Bible study at home group.

I'm really excited, but sort of nervous at the same time.
I'm excited because I know that God is going to use me for His Kingdom, and I'm excited to see what He's going to do with this, but on the other hand, I'm nervous because I don't want to teach them incorrectly, that they won't respect me, and that they won't learn anything.

However, I'm stil excited because I know that God is in charge, I know that nothing is impossible with God, I know that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I'm praying that God will use me in a huge way through this, and that I would grow in Him through teaching.

To God be the Glory, Forever and Ever, Amen.

Reflections

I wrote this in my diary the other day, and although it's not perfect I decided to share it anyway.

"The throne of God is at the centre of the universe, and empires and emperors are among the creatures of the outer circle who exist to give praise to God."*

This sort of gave me a new perspective on things: I exist to give praise to God.

Everything I do: The way I act, dress, talk, and think, all of these things should give glory to God. They should be evidence that my life is about giving praise to God.

If I say crude or perverted things, yell at my brother or sister, talk back to my mum, say something negative to/about a friend or myself, or bludge when I should be working or studying, then how is that going to give praise to God?

If my life is about giving praise to God, then I should be saying wholesome, encouraging things, speaking kindly to my brothers and sisters, respecting my parents, encouraging friends, refusing to say negative things about people and about myself, and believing that everyone (including me) is precious in God's eyes.

This would then prayerfully change how I feel about my family and friends, and how I react to them and speak to them. People should see a definite difference in my life, I would know that my worth is in God, and all of that would be bringing praise to God.


* Quote from "The God I Don't Understand" by Christopher J. H. Wright. pg. 64

My Dirty Car

I got my car in late October. I bought it from my older sister, and although she was going to clean it before she sold it to me she didn't end up cleaning it because things were hectic for her around that time.
Fast forward 3 months later, and I still hadn't cleaned it. Need I mention that it was filthy?
I kept meaning to clean it, but kept putting it off because I didnt' want to clean it by myself.
However, on Tuesday morning, my Mum called me out to my car and told me to bring a microfibre cloth so that I could clean the bonnet of my car. She told me that if I didn't clean it, my paint would deteriorate, and it would cost heaps of money to repaint my car.
So, like the good girl I am, I cleaned the bonnet (after Mum had lovingly chucked a bucket of water on the bonnet for me), and then I decided that I couldn't have my bonnet looking clean and the rest of my car filthy, and I proceeded to clean the rest of my car. Only, while I went around and cleaned the doors, boot, spoiler, etc. I had conveniently forgotten that the roof needed cleaning too! Well, much as I wanted my car to look perfect, I wasn't about to clean my roof and then have the grubby water spill all over the rest of my clean car!
So, the roof on my car is still grubby, and so are the windows, but I plan on getting my tall little brother to clean my roof (somehow without water :P), and I'll clean the windows soon :)

This year

I just came back from music practice about 1/2 an hour ago (boy, how time flies when you're on the computer!), and it was great. It's so good to be back singing, and having fun with my friends. In devotion, Mr. Stacy talked about looking for the hand of God in your life.
Well, this week I've felt God tapping me on the shoulder saying "Julia, I want you to focus on me. None of this brushing me off stuff. Just look for me."
I've found that the more I read my Bible, the more I want to read it. I'm doing a study plan to read through the Bible in a year, and so far it's really good, but I seem to want more. I guess it's sorta like, when you drink water and you just keep drinking because you're thirsty. Like the times that, no matter how much you drink you just keep wanting more. I feel sorta like that, but I keep putting off studying the Bible.

I don't know why I wrote all this, but I guess what I want this year (God willing) is to focus on him with my whole heart and not to let things (like guys) get in my way..... so, please pray for me :)

Over a month...

That's how long it's been since I've blogged! Sorry, Rach!

In the past month a lot has happened.

We went to Stansbury on the 19th of December to spend Christmas away from home. Michael, Mel, Caleb, and Tim all came down on the 23rd, and we celebrated Christmas on the 24th because Mike, Mel, and Caleb had to go back that night.
We played tennis on Christmas Day, and ate 3 types of roast meat for lunch.
I got a CD player for Christmas, a nice top, a picnic rug, and a few bits and pieces.
We got back from Stansbury on the 26th, and Kristy and I went into Koorong with Rosie because of the sale :)

We left for McLaren Vale on the 28th and spent a very fun week there camping with people from church. We celebrated Mum's birthday on the 31st, and New Year's Day on the 1st. We were struggling to stay up until midnight, but we all managed to do it. Just.
We left McLaren Vale on the 5th, and were home for 4 days before leaving for Mt. Gambier on the 10th. It was great being down in Mt. Gambier and catching up with Kristy. I read lots of books, and we got icecream at Badenocks (spelling?). The coolest thing was that on Sunday afternoon, we had just gotten icecream from Badenocks and we spontaneously decided to go to Portland (about 1 1/2 hours away in Victoria). We hung out there for most of the afternoon, and we went into this little cafe that had HOMEMADE ICECREAM! We were soo wishing that we hadn't bought icecream earlier because they had Apple Pie Icecream, and Coconut Icecream, and a whole bunch of other flavours, and they all looked absolutely delicious!

We got back from Mt. Gambier on the 14th, and it's really nice to be done with travelling. I loved the time away, but it's nice not to have to pack up and ride in the car for a couple hours anymore :)

P.S. That was a really run-on post :P

100th post

I have two choices:

1. Take my hair down because I believe that it being up at the moment is giving me a headache

2. Sit at the computer, eat lollies, and hope that the headache will go away because, hello! my hair is finally out of my face!

I'll leave you to decide what choice I made :P



In other news, this is my 100th post!!!! Yay! Let's have a party!

That's actually quite sad considering I've had this blog for over a year.

Hmmm.... anyone getting the feeling that I need to post more?

Last Saturday I went to Kapunda with Rach to hand out juice, balloons, and stickers at a street party. Rach works for Flow FM which is a radio station. Flow FM were emceeing the event and were handing out free stuff, and so Rach asked me if I wanted to come and help.

I had so much fun! We walked up and down the main street about a hundred times, which was probably a good thing because we ate three doughnuts each, and had a steak sandwich for lunch. It was great to be able to hand out free stuff, and see little kids smiling. We were smiling all day :)

At one point, Lisa's (she and her husband Wayne own the radio station) shoe broke, and so we went with her to see where we could find a pair of shoes that she could buy. First we went to the chemist, but all they had were some ugly masseuse (?) shoes. However, one of the women working there said that the op-shop at the AOG church were having a sale, and so we headed on down there. When we got down there, they had some good shoes that both Lisa and Rach loved. What was most exciting though, was that all their women's clothing was $1 each!!!! I got a gorgeous red dress, and a pair of 3/4 bright yellow pants, and Rach got a few things as well. The great thing about the red dress was that it would normally cost at least $30, but I got it for $1 :)

Another highlight of the day was that I got to hold a snake!! Twice!

I got a little creeped out when it started to turn its head my way, and again when a kid brushed it up against my arm when I wasn't expecting it, but it was so cool!

Some kids finally got Rach to hold one as well, and we got heaps of photos of both of us holding the snakes, and also other kids holding the snakes.

We got heaps of photos from the day, but I have to get them off of Rach first.

It was a great day, and I'm so glad I went :D

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day is held on the fourth Thursday of November in America.
We don't celebrate Thanksgiving Day in Australia, but I thought that I would post about some of the things that I'm thankful for:

My parents
My brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law, and sister-in-law
My nieces and nephews
A house that we can finally say is ours
My own room
Friends that accept me the way I am
Friends and family that put up with quite a lot from me
Wise parents whose advice I can trust
The fact that even though I may have to make a hard decision, my friends and family will back me up in it
The colour yellow
Spots and polka dots
My church
My church family
Friends whose advice I can seek
People that love me
My future husband
Babies
Children
That Kymberley got off safely this morning
That I got to TAFE early instead of late

And the list goes on and on and on and on......

I need......

SLEEP!

And unfortunately, I don't see it in the near future....

You didn't know I could see into the future, did you????

My Birthday!

Okay, I'm a little late in posting, but yesterday was my birthday!
I turned 17 :)

It started out with getting woken up at 5:40 by Mr. Fisher sending me an SMS saying happy birthday. After sending him one back saying he was crazy, he apologized saying that he didn't think I'd have my phone on.
I went back to sleep and slept really well after that until 6:45 when I had to get up to get ready for TAFE. Mum came in at about 7:10 and said breakfast was ready! She'd made me bacon and eggs for breakfast :D Normally I'm the one making them for someone else's birthday brekkie. I got my presents then.
I went to TAFE, and then I went out for lunch with Aunty Di, Mum, and Lisa. It was really, really yummy.
After lunch I had to go back to TAFE for the rest of the afternoon (by the way, I think it should be against the law to go to TAFE, school, or work on your birthday) and then Mum picked me up at 4. We went out to the Fisher's so that Rach and I could catch up, and then headed on out to Auburn. We went out to Auburn to have tea with Dad, Jo, Jimmy, Dave, and Josiah (my dad, brother, and the guys that are working with them). It was so much fun! It was great seeing Dad and all of them on my birthday. The hotel that we went to for tea was in an old house, and they'd set us up in a separate room.
It was so great.
It was a really good birthday!

Oh man!

Whoa! I can't believe it, but I almost forgot to blog about something really cool that happened to me yesterday!

I got my P's! I passed my driving test!!!!

Apparently I didn't break any laws (which means I didn't creep over the speed limit. YAY!!!), and even though my parallel parking was a little shoddy, I still passed :)
We got back after the test and John (the guy who gave me my test) turned to me and said "You passed", and I replied "Are you serious?!"
I was so stoked! I'd been praying so hard.

Funny story: Mum and I went to exchange my certificate of passing (passification??? lol) for a sheet of paper that I get to keep til my driver's license comes in the post, and after I had my photo taken for my driver's license photo the guy who was taking my photo turned to me and said "Have a great day next Tuesday". I said thanks and walked out with Mum. As we got out of the Department of Motor Vehicle Registration (mental blank. Is that the right title?) I turned to Mum and I said, "What's next Tuesday?". She looked at me like I was absolutely crazy and said "Um, your birthday?!". We lost it. It was so funny!
In my defense of my absolutely over-the-top blonde comment, it WAS a random stranger saying it. You don't really expect a random stranger to be wishing you a great day on your birthday.
Even though it made me look really blonde, it made me laugh.