Julia morgan

It's Harder than it Looks

2/14/2015

The past couple of weeks have been crazy. My life has been crazy. So crazy I haven't really had any down time, and when I have... I've been lazy. So I'm sorry I haven't written in a couple of weeks.

Three weeks ago our family decided (with a lot of prayer) to welcome an unsaved foreign exchange student from Korea into our home for second semester. Her name is Jin A (pronounced Jee-na). The agency she went through to get here was actually through our school, she also attends where my sister and I attend, which has been nice. I've heard about other exchanged students going to different schools than where their host family goes. At first everything was going great. She was like another sister, and then... a week ago, she realized just how hard the English language is, and just how hard school is going to be, and how much her life is changing. Ever since this "revelation," she's been quiet, withdrawn. And I feel for her (in some ways).

From the beginning of this new challenge in my life, I've learned a few things. Since Jin A has been very quiet and unwilling to be a part of things lately, I've been hearing one of my friends' favorite sayings whisper in the back of my mind, "The Lord is testin' me."

And that's exactly right. I have no doubt. The Lord is working in and through our family through this difficulty. It's hard. Really hard, especially for my mom (who amazes me with that Super-Mom Mode she totally rocks). It's just so eye-opening to how a non-Christian can change the dynamic of a family. Because that's exactly what's happening in mine right now.

If you're going through a tough time, it may be that the Lord is challenging you so He can draw you closer to Him. I mean, I have to choose everyday if I'm going to be nice and willing to serve, or if I'm going to get upset and frustrated. Mostly I choose to be selfish and get frustrated, but God and I are working on it...

What kind of tough problems are you dealing with? Are there any verses that have helped you through those exhausting, spiritual-growing times?

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Four P's to Help You Find the Right College

1/10/2015

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Hey, guys! Sorry I haven't posted in a while. It's been a very long week for me, trying to get back into the groove of school. Anyway, I'm a junior this year, and I'm just starting to seriously consider where in the world I'm gonna go to college, and what in the world I'm gonna do. So, in case you were looking for a professional who has long-since been through the "finding the right college" part of their life, you may need to know I do NOT have my college career all figured out. It's actually kind of scary thinking about it all. If you've already been through this stage of your life, I'm sure you remember the major stress you went through. I mean, I'm not exactly to the point where I'm as tight as a spandex, but I'm definitely in the bathing-suit-tight stage, and the all-my-relatives-just-want-to-know-what-i'm-going-to-with-the-rest-of-my-life stage for sure. So anyways, I've come up with a little strategy to help me through the next couple of months, especially. If you're where I am, these four tips should hep you out as well. :)

1. Prayer

Well, this one should be your first step. If God is the One in the driving seat on the road to your future, then it will definitely help to have a lot of chatter coming from the passenger side, if you know what I mean. Talk to the Driver, and eventually He'll show you where He wants you to go.

2. Persistence

Don't give up! Please, please, I beg you, don't give up! Along with that, keep moving ahead, inch by inch if that's what it takes. Sometimes it's going to be really hard, and you're not going to know which college to choose, but if you keep researching, if you keep learning and gaining knowledge about your choices, it'll help.

I received a little tip only a few days ago that should help. Use a notebook when going through college choices, and jot down pros and cons, money amounts, interesting tidbits about the programs you're looking through... etc. (If you want, invest a couple extra bucks in the notebook of your choice. A colorful one can symbolize how bright and exciting your future is going to be!!)

3. Patience

It's going to take a lot of patience, especially in the "This Is Your Future" department. Unfortunate as it is, there's a 99.9% chance that the clouds will not spell out the name of the college you're going to go to. Stinks, right? So this is where it takes a lot of time. Sometimes answers to prayer take a looooong time (I know this personally from my own experiences). And sometimes research is overwhelmingly slow and there's just not enough of it, and some of it hasn't come in the mail (yeah I've been waiting ages), and, and, and...

I hate waiting. But I'm learning... slowly.

4. Pip's Advice-
Don't Do it All at Once

This is my personal favorite. "Don't do it all at once" means that I can take a breath! Which breathing... it's relaxing. It's good. Yeah, breathing is good. My Pip (a.k.a. my grandpa) gave me this advice when talking to me about my college choices. He asked me which ones I was looking at and I all about fell from my seat trying to come up with an intellectual-sounding reply. Which ones was I looking at?

Well... at the time? None. Zero. Zip. Nada. Terrible, right? I'm a junior and at that point you wouldn't have found a single college name in my Google history, nor would you have caught me dead reading any college billboard signs. And I definitely hadn't even considered checking the clouds for any college names. ;) As Pip looked at me, waiting a reply, I was desperately searching for a response that could please my grandpa, but I had none! I wasn't prepared for this question, let alone college!

And then he started talking to me. Helping me. The notebook tip? I got it from him. The "don't do it all at once" advice? Him. He sat across from me and gave me tips on how to search for what I wanted. I thank God for my Pip. With him laying it all out on the table like that, I realized I was going to be okay, and I could do it... I could research and learn and dig deep. I just wouldn't do it all at once (because I wouldn't have to).

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Someone Else Hurts When You Hurt

12/31/2014

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Everyone feels alone at one time or another. But maybe... you feel alone every night. Every time the lights are turned off and the only glow comes from the almost non-existent moon in the sky from your window above your desk. The black abyss you've fallen into is even colder than the scratchy sheets encompassing you.

You don't even want to close your eyes, but the tears keep coming and you're forced to squeeze them shut. Someone hurt you. Whoever they are, you wish they'd hurt, too. You wished they'd know your pain so much they wept with you. You just wish that someone... anyone... would feel what you're feeling. But there is no one....

Right?

Guess what? You're really not alone in your hurt, as much as it seems like that right now.

Your heart is breaking, and Someone else's heart is too.

"In all their suffering He also suffered, and He personally rescued them. In His love and mercy He redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years." ~Isaiah 63:9 (NLT)

YES! YES! YES! How can you NOT smile?! Jesus promises that WE AREN'T ALONE. We don't have to suffer alone.

You don't have to hurt alone.

I know that God doesn't promise to take away all of our pain all the time. Our hurt grows us, strengthens us into what God has planned for us, so not always is He so quick to take the suffering from us. But He does promise us that He hurts with us. That He will be with us wherever we are in our lives- figuratively, physically, and spiritually. In our hurt, we can be assured that we don't have to suffer alone. Even if you feel like you're the only one that could ever possibly feel this way, God feels the exact same way.

It's such a comfort, isn't it? To know that we aren't alone? Especially on those nights when doubts plague us, and the lonely feeling in the pit of our stomach squeezes hard. Because no matter what we're feeling, God is there. He always has been, and always will.

Maybe you've felt like you were alone before. Do you have any verses that might have helped you? I'd love to heart them.

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Weebly Blogger Say, "What?"

12/27/2014

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So I'm kind of new to the whole blogging thing. I've only been blogging for about two months. My website is only two months old, and some of the features weren't right when I started out... and then I was told Weebly secrets. Secrets that have made my website cooler!

How did I learn of these secrets, you may ask?

Well, I'm not really sure I even know how I came across this website... but I subscribed to get emails from them, and now every few days I get cute little easy tutorials that tell me secrets about Weebly! All of the tutorials I've watched are literally under five minutes (not that I've watched a million of them, but enough that it's safe to say they're very quick videos).

DivTag Templates is awesome! It's awesome I'm telling you! I don't even go "WHAT?" on any of their tutorials, and that's saying something because I'm not at all tech savvy.

Having a Weebly blog is great, because I really am not technologically smart at all, but these short videos I subscribed to get in my emails make it even easier. Most of the time I'll have a con with the pros on my reviews, but I haven't found any yet. Their stuff is really amazing.

Jeremy and Connie (the tutorial guides) are A+ kinds of teachers!

Do you have any insights on this website and their tutorials? If you do, please comment!

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Christmas is "About the Cross"

12/24/2014

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It's Christmas Eve, and as most holidays, I am reminded of God's love for me. How much I really do need Him. How much He has done for me (I mean, He kinda created me and set me in a wonderful family and everything).

"It's not just about the manger
Where the baby lay.
It's not all about the angels
Who sang for him that day...

It's not just about the presents
Underneath the tree.
It's not all about the feeling
That the season brings to me.

It's about the cross, it's about my sin.
It's about how Jesus came to be born once,
So that we could be born again."

~About the Cross (by Go Fish)

How true these lyrics really are. I like to think I remember this every time I think about Christmas, but I don't. I think about the presents, giving and getting, about my family, about the warm fuzzies I get in my stomach, about the hot chocolate and the snow... and the lights. I love Christmas lights.

See? I even have a picture of them on my phone and I just felt it was worthy of this post. But anyways, back on point. I can so easily forget the sacrifice that Jesus made on Christmas day. God sent Him to earth. I don't think I could ever understand how...

He left a throne of gold encircled by a rainbow of colors to be nailed to a wooden cross encircled by hateful sinners.

Taking time to think about that just boggles my mind. Why would He come and lay in a mucky manger and have to suffer the pain of the world? Why would He do that? He had everything in Heaven, more than we could EVER imagine, and yet... He came to be bound by time, to be bound in sufferings and heartbreaks... for us. For you. For me.

Christmas really is about Christ. As a human, I easily forget. But not right now. And I am so thankful for what He's done for me. Aren't you?

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The Skinnier the Prettier, My Favorite Lie

12/22/2014

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I was flipping through a wedding magazine (yeah I don't know why it was on my counter either, but it was), and, while daydreaming about the wedding dress I hope to one day wear (years and years from now), I stop at a certain page and blink. There's a list of words that catch my attention (though I don't remember all of them).

Elegant.

Graceful.

Lovely.

And then I realize. It's a Weight Loss advertisement. HOLD UP. WHAT? A WEIGHT LOSS-

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I have to lose weight to be elegant and lovely?!

When did society go so wrong??? 

Girls, that is ridiculous! I should know. I believe the lie, too. I believe it a lot, actually. I look at myself in the mirror and think I need to lose weight to be... perfect.

Yes! I want to be perfect! God, why didn't you make me skinnier? Everywhere I look there's a picture of a girl with a perfect body and perfect skin and perfect... everything. Why can't I be like them?

The fact is: IT'S ALL A LIE. This is why it's my favorite lie honestly. It's because every bit of society's "lose weight to be beautiful" is ALL a lie. Not just half of it. Every. Stinkin'. Part.

You know why? Because the girls in those pictures? NOT REAL. Okay, so the girl inside the body is real, but the body? FAKE. Do I have to spell it out for you?

F-A-K-E.

Comprende? Understand? They take pictures of the girls and then alter them to make them look perfect. Yeah, I don't even understand that sometimes. I STILL believe the lie that they are prettier than me... everyday. And honestly, it gets exhausting. I hate having to analyze every single thing- from "this ADORABLE sweater makes me look fat," down to "which watch makes my wrist look smaller?" It's actually really frustrating sometimes. And guess why? Because I believe the lie that skinnier is prettier.

Of course, we're not talking healthier is prettier, because that sure is definitely not a lie. It's truth. We (girls and guys) should strive to be healthy. God says to take care of our bodies in 1 Corinthians 6:19:

"Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body."

God made you beautiful just the way you are. Society really stinks in the area of helping girls feel they are worthy of love. God says we are all loved by Him more than we could EVER imagine, and I think that's the best truth of all (one of my favorites).

What's one of your favorite truths from God?
What has helped you stop believing the lie that skinnier is prettier?

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It's Harder than it Looks

Four P's to Help You Find the Right College

Someone Else Hurts When You Hurt

Weebly Blogger Say, "What?"

Christmas is "About the Cross"

The Skinnier the Prettier, My Favorite Lie

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It's Harder than it Looks

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Someone Else Hurts When You Hurt

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