The Turning of a Page

Well, much has been going on in our lives since the last post. By the grace of God, Jelaya and I just finished another semester of college. Gabby and Victoria are almost finished with their school year...even though they're still in school, I feel that the whole family is already in summer mode. And crazy Hosanna is still the same. She has improved a lot on her speech but she still has a long way to go. We've been attempting to start doing flash cards on numbers and letters with her, but it's still really hard to get her to sit down and pay attention for a long period of time. 


I think the biggest things that have happened recently are: 
1) Jelaya now has a boyfriend. (That sounds very weird to say... -___-)
2) We are in the process of finding a house/moving!


God has been moving greatly in our individual lives and definitely in our family life. I'm not sure how God will continue working but, as the apostle Paul, I know and am sure that "He who began a good work in you (His children) will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus" [Phil 1:6] It has been a great blessing to see the evidences of God's work in the family. Not just in my immediate family but also in my extended one. It is my prayer that all the brothers and sisters will strive for godliness and not lose heart in the battle against the flesh. 


"...His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence" - 2 Peter 1:3

¹ Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

 ³ For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.- Hebrews 12: 1-3

Now I lay me down to sleep...

As I was thinking of a title for this post, I wanted to name it something that related to the time of the day. It is night time right now, and I am about to get ready for bed... *in a soft, eerie whisper* "Now I lay me down to sleep.. I pray the Lord, my soul to keep.." Just kidding! Anyways, it has been quite some time since I myself have posted on the blog. 

I spontaneously wanted to write on here. The idea of doing so popped up in my head as I was surfing the web. Thinking back on the past year and to the present, it is amazing to consider all the works our great God has done. One passage of Scripture that the Lord has consistently used to encourage me and uplift my heart is Psalm 63. 

Psalm 63

My Soul Thirsts for You

A Psalm of David,^(A) when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

 ¹O God, you are my God;^(B) earnestly I seek you;
   ^(C) my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
   as in^(D) a dry and weary land where there is no water.
² So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
   beholding^(E) your power and glory.
³ Because your^(F) steadfast love is better than life,
   my lips will praise you.
⁴ So I will bless you^(G) as long as I live;
   in your^(H) name I will^(I) lift up my hands.

 ⁵My soul will be^(J) satisfied as with fat and rich food,
   and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
⁶ when I remember you^(K) upon my bed,
   and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
⁷ for you have been my help,
   and in^(L) the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
⁸ My soul^(M) clings to you;
   your right hand^(N) upholds me.

 ⁹But those who seek to destroy my life
   ^(O) shall go down into^(P) the depths of the earth;
¹⁰ they shall be given over to the power of the sword;
   they shall be a portion for jackals.
¹¹ But^(Q) the king shall rejoice in God;
   all who^(R) swear by him shall exult,
   ^(S) for the mouths of^(T) liars will be stopped.

Sorry for the weird things in the middle.. but yeah. this psalm makes me wonder how different churches in America would be if all the pastors considered God's steadfast love "better than life". Our pastor just taught on the matter of false teachers (within the church at leadership positions!) and the wicked matters that consume their hearts and dominate their lives. It saddens and angers me to think of how they take God's name and consider it as a business. The psalmist of psalm 119 calls God's word better than life and consistently testifies of delighting in His word. And yet they treat it like a business where they can find self-gratification.. Gah, I'd best be heading off to bed now. Night :)

Just this one old memory

It's 2011 now, how crazy is that? I was reading through this blog, and got a couple of pretty good laughs from it. One thing I failed to put down that I had intended to post sometime after the post "Not Me!" is this memory that I am going to recall now.

Encouragement is a good thing, right? Even when someone fails or does a poor job, an encouragement will help to comfort the person to whom you are talking. Now, my old piano teacher, the one who came to our house in his big green van, did not seem to grasp the idea of encouragement. However he did not put us down with hurtful words really. He neither encouraged nor discouraged us. This is what he would do:

Whenever I finished playing a piece that I was not confident in, he would pause for a moment, sigh, and say, "Let's just move on..."

Oh, I cannot write another word! I think I am going to go to my closet and cry now...

-Jelaya

Update April 14, 2010

Hello! I know it's been a long time. In fact it's been TOO long! Two years or something like that, right?

Well now it's 2010 (has been for a while), and we're all getting older. I'm (Jelaya) 17, Sophia's 15, Gabriella is 9, Victoria is 8, and Hosanna is 4. By the end of the year, we'll all be one year older than we are now!

I am a senior now, and I still can't grasp that. So much has changed! I'm slowly shaking off the shackles of shyness that I've had for so long and starting to experiment with different clothes and things. I still have a ways to go, but God is good! He has grown me a lot, especially since winter camp of this year. He's given me a wonderful discipler who I've had since 7th grade. Also, He's given me accountability partners who challenge me to grow, and encourage me. I pray that He will use me after I graduate in whatever way He pleases.

I've just finished the book The Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney with one of my accountability partners. It was a great book! I learned many things from it, and one of them was that I need to preach the Gospel to myself daily. Even as a believer, I should never move on from the cross. Even though I go through discipleship and learn more things about doctrine, the Gospel should always be my focus. I need to dwell on it in every aspect of my life. And when I sin I need to preach it to myself to remind myself that Christ died for my sins, and that through Him I am justified. This is just something small that I learned from that book. Now we're going through The Disciplene of Grace by Jerry Bridges. It seems like The Cross Centered Life and The Disciplene of Grace go hand in hand! God is just teaching me amazing new things every day, and even though I always fail Him, my standing with Him is not in any way based on my performance. I cannot add any merit or favor to God when I have "good days" spiritually, and I cannot take away from salvation when I have those "bad days".

On that note, God is too good. I hope you enjoyed this little blog, and hope to put another soon!

Summer is Approaching

So, summer is almost here! Sophia and I both passed our college finals, and just found out all of our grades yesterday. We passed each class with flying colors! I'm really thankful for that. Now we're all just trying to finish up our homeschool things before summer starts.

These past couple of weeks have been filled with lasts. Last TFC. Last Crossroads. Last GTC. It's been really bittersweet. But now we're facing the joyous firsts of summer! First volleyball practice (SHAKA!), and soon the first volleyball tournament! I can't wait, but then again I can so that it won't have to go by quickly...This is my second to the last year doing this! Next year will be my last! I pray that God will use me to talk to other girls on my team and evangelize to them. Let's not waste our lives and have a fruitful summer!

Jelaya

Sillyness

Just a while ago I took Hosanna to the bathroom. While on the toilet, she burped. Then, smiling, she exclaimed,

"I farted in my mouth!"

Revelations

A couple of days ago, I was sitting on the couch doing homework. I went over to the kitchen, for what reason I can't remember. Light slipped through the french doors and splashed onto the countertop, and I noticed a few ants crawling around on it. (Don't get grossed out now. Whenever it gets really cold or really hot, we get ant problems, so seeing a few ants on the counter top isn't bad at all. We're always wiping it down, too.) As I watched these ants crawl about, I leaned closer to them. Then, it suddenly dawned on me: Ants have shadows too!

~Jelaya~