The Victory in Surrendering

I woke up this morning to this stunning sunrise. This picture doesn't have a fun Instagram filter on it either... it was just that beautiful. Gahh, You never fail to surprise me, Lord. 

Not even within five minutes of going outside and enjoying his beauty, then coming back inside, I felt a war on my mind.  I started getting frustrated over little details, rude things someone said to me, and truly, stupid things that had no right to steal my joy in that beautiful moment with Christ. I believe war can occur on the soul, heart and spirit, so a war on the mind is nothing surprising (Ephesians 6:10-18). It is Satan's way of trying to steal God's glory, like a jealous peer sneering from the corner while the star of the show performs.

"Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise." Philippians 4:8

In that moment, I had to surrender everything to Christ, all over again, just like I have to do daily, hourly, minute...ly? (not a word. moving on). Our thoughts control every move we make, biologically speaking. 2 Corinthians talks about "bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" and that's exactly what we have to do. 

We as Christians must be prepared to fight the good fight against all that seeks to negatively control us, that being Satan. He has no power. He holds no victory over Christ. OUR KING is mighty though, OUR KING is victorious, and OUR KING is strong. (Psalm 24:8).

Don't be discouraged when you feel like everything in life is warring against you. Surrender it over to Christ, let Him fight for you.

"The Lord Himself will fight for you. Just stay calm." Exodus 14:14 

In His strength,
Britta

Moving On or Moving Forward?

{ Although this particular blog is posted during sorority recruitment here at Texas A&M, take relief knowing that this has nothing to do with that process! Writing is just a way for me to catch my breath  this week, exciting as it has been!  Regardless, if you're a potential new member currently going through rush, my encouragement is to please follow your heart and choose the sorority where you feel the Lord is leading you to serve Him best, not where you'll be comfortable.  It's easy to go through college living in a comfort bubble, but when did Christ call us to be comfortable? Be in tune with His spirit, listen well, and go. ("Here I am, send me!"- Isaiah 6:8) }

The concept of moving on versus moving forward has been a spinning concept in my head throughout this summer. You hear people talking about "moving on" everywhere- songs, TV shows, magazines, Facebook statuses, tweets, blog postings. I was driving one day and counted eight songs about moving on in just under two hours. Our world is obsessed with moving on from whatever is holding us back, but rarely do you hear someone talk about moving forward.

 Okay, so what's the difference, you say? I tapped into the strong intellectual skills college has taught me....and googled it.

[Moving]:  capable of or having movement; causing or producing motion.
 [on]: so as to remain supported or attached from; so as to be attached or unified with.
[forward]:  toward a place, point or time in advance; ahead

Put two and two together and you'll see that when you try to move on from a hope, dream, person, situation, you're still attached to them while attempting to make motion. It's like trying to swim across a pool with a huge ball and chain attached to your ankle: not gonna happen. Moving forward, however, brings hope. Nowhere in "forward" does it mention current attachment, meaning you have complete and total freedom in pressing forward toward that place, point, or time in advance!

I don't know where you are in your life right now, but I pray you're striving to move forward instead of settling for just moving on. Agree to surrender it all to Him by laying it at His feet by just being open and honest with Him, then trust Him to break the chains of hurt, bitterness, or confusion in order to help you move forward instead of moving on. Christ breathed freedom into my life this summer by showing me the difference between the two, and although it's not an overnight transformation, it's a work in progress. For me, it means giving my burdens over to Him every morning, sometimes every hour depending on the situation. 

Trusting Him to heal your heart while also moving you forward is more fulfilling than staying attached to all that was holding you. It's not easy, but He is mighty, powerful, and strong.

He loves you. 

"Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest..." Matthew 11:30

"Lord, You're mightier than these problems. You have a plan for my life, and staying attached to this hurt is not apart of Your will. Break the chains. Amen."  

His will be done.

To say I experienced a sliver of heaven's joy tonight would be an understatement!! My heart literally feels like it's going to swell up with not only happiness, but true passion for the Lord's work and plan. My junior year of college is coming up, and at this point in our education, most students have an idea...or at least pretend... like they know where they're going in life. I've been plagued with questions time and time again throughout college as I've tried to piece together what life will look like once I graduate- will I get into Physician Assistant school the first go-around? Should I and will I need to work as a nurse or EMT first? Where will I live? Will I have 20 cats?! They say if you want to give God a good ole belly laugh, tell Him your plans. All I'm saying is that God must have side cramps from laughing so hard at all the ridiculous plans I've devised.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. "

Jeremiah 29:11

His faithful plan rang truer and louder than ever to me tonight though while working and shadowing at one of the local hospitals in the area. It was my second volunteer shift of the week in Cardiac Care, and needless to say I was tired after a long day of trying not to fall asleep studying my anatomy book. Honestly, the last thing I wanted to do was be surrounded by more terms I barely understood, but I felt a tug to pay attention tonight. The Lord stepped in when one of the nurses asked for my help in checking on a patient's tubes. Mid-check, it hit me that we weren't just working with a patient, but a person: someone with a life story, with family and friends, with hopes, dreams, fears, accomplishments, and failures. That patient didn't need another medical professional in there- they needed someone to look them in the eye to let them know that they mattered, that they were loved. I caught a glance at the patient's bedside table to see an open Bible to Psalm 91. God gave me the courage to ask about their favorite Psalm, and even in their few sentences, His love shone mighty and strong in their eyes. In that moment I understood how Jesus had compassion for the hurting, the lost, the sick, the lame, the hopeless, the unloved. He looked at them, and loved them. Jesus's compassion for people ran thicker than blood through his veins, constantly pouring out time and time again for their sake, even literally on a bloody Cross to die an unworthy death for us.  I want that compassion. I crave His compassion, because goodness knows I can't do anything on my own behalf. Trust me, it's not pretty.

Philippians 3:10 defines my heartbeat right now when the apostle Paul says,

 "I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead...to suffer with Him, sharing in His death, so that I may experience the power of the resurrection."

His will be done,
Britta

Scripture Cards

Summertime is the perfect time for crafts, sweet tea, and some good ole Jesus time. I've been really wanting to learn Scripture better, but didn't have a quick, efficient way to learn say, 50 of the most important Bible verses about God, Salvation, Assurance of Christ, Confession & Temptation, etc. I'm a big nerd for flashcards, but wanted something at least a little cuter and portable to put in my purse or bag on trips.

These only took me about 30 minutes to make and put together, not including the time it took to write the verses on the cards. If you wanted to be super tech-savvy, you could type up the cards on a standard rectangle format, then print those out and glue them on the card. But personally, I think nothing is better than handwriting them.

All you need is:

• Deck of cards
• Cardstock (I used pastel and glitter, but you can use whatever you please!)
• Scissors or a Cricut machine (Optional: I used the Cricut to make standard rectangles, but you can cut them out the old fashioned way too.)
• Superglue or a very strong glue
• Holepunch
• Rings
• Decorative sticker letters 

Ready to go? 

 1. Cut out rectangles from the cardstock.

2. Glue them on the front/back of the deck of cards.

3. Holepunch in the corner, then put them on the ring. 

4. Write Bible verses on them!  (I borrowed these verses from http://tolovehonorandvacuum.com/category/character/bible/ - she compiled a list of the 50 most important Bible verses to memorize! So helpful) 

Pretty easy! Feel free to e-mail me with any questions or comments- brittavorhies@gmail.com. Happy crafting, friends,

Love,

Britta 

Confessions of a People Pleaser

I'm a people pleaser.

Welcome to my battlefield. I care about what people think about me. I pretend like I can fix everything to make it better so no one looks down on me. I get upset when someone legitimately dislikes me. Yes, it's a little embarrassing. My face is red just typing it.

I know I'm not alone in this battle though. It's just that no one wants to be vulnerable enough to admit that they struggle too.

Somewhere within each person is a natural desire to make someone happy. It's not about being fake, because there's authenticity in pleasing someone out of love, but the tricky part lies in when we begin pleasing the world out of fear for judgement, persecution, or reputation. There are those of you gifted with the carefree attitude of not caring what anyone thinks, and those of us who care a far greater amount. My father is in the first category- We fondly call him the Captain, and I love him with all my heart. He was a captain in the Air Force during the Vietnam war, and was a commercial airline pilot for almost 30 years, so he faced his fair share of conflict. A visible quality of his is that he leads a life worthy of the calling of Christ, and doesn't let mere opinions or snide comments bring him down. He knows and is aware certain comments and opinions are not of Christ, and literally lets them roll of his shoulders. Now, I'm sure it's not always that easy for him- I'm sure comments sting every once and a while, but he doesn't let them become his stumbling blocks in his walk for the Lord. He keeps going, keeping his eyes on what the LORD says, not what the WORLD says.

Christ modeled the same life during His time on earth.

He was
mocked
judged
spit on
challenged
cursed at
degraded
questioned
beaten
nailed to a Cross.
for the jewish priest. for the prostitute. for his mother, brother, friend. for a stranger. for those who screamed for him to die. for those that cried for him to live.
for us.

He lived a transparent life for all to see, never fearing that someone would judge Him, or heaven forbid, think badly about Him. The benefit of that came in His faithful action of listening to God's calling to die on the Cross for us, and following through with it. Imagine what would have happened had he let the world dictate His life. What would our lives look like if we modeled our lives after Him? I believe more of God's work would actually get done if we tuned out the distractions hindering us. I love what Paul writes in Galatians 1:10,

"For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ." 

I've spent my whole life desiring to please the world, and it's exhausting. I wasn't blessed to get my father's genes, but I do have a heavenly Father who created a Son that lived to please only His Father. I want my life to reflect Him. Our lives don't have to be about pleasing the world. That's such a relief to me. If we think that God can't conquer our problems, fears, or insecurities, then His death on the cross was for nothing. He died for a greater purpose.

  "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20

"But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts."                             1 Thessalonians 2:4

So let's start over.

Hi, I'm Britta. I'm not perfect, nowhere near it. But I'm striving to live a life worthy of the calling of Christ, because He is worthy.

Open Your Eyes

It's that time of year again: finals are here, ladies and gentlemen, and they're about to hit full force. You know what I'm talking about. They've been creeping up on us with that ever-pervasive stench for a couple of weeks now, leading to stressful rants, sleep deprivation, cranky moods, and this disgusting, overall lack of compassion and sensitivity to the outside world. The problem lies in the fact though that we're  living in this bubble where it's appropriate and almost encouraged to "shut out the world" the minute stress is evident in our lives, but that's the most backward thinking I've ever heard. 

We're not suffering from sleep deprivation or stress overload- we are suffering from selfish lifestyles, devoid of genuine kindness. 

I'll be the first one to raise my hand and confess that I'm prone to running away when my life is on overload. Literally. I run away. I escape to anywhere filled with silence or some semblance of peace, and rarely look back. While I don't see any problem with that occasionally, my heart is rarely in the right place when I do go on my "disappearing adventures", because suddenly the world becomes about myself. My problems, my fears, my stress, my this, my that. And that's where I've been so wrong... that's where we're all wrong. 

Compassion has taken the backseat in our lives, creating this awful self-centerdness that hides itself behind the pathetic label of "busyness". The first thing we often defend in our lives outside of family and friends is our schedules- how much we have to do, how filled our day is, etc. Ask someone for something, it can be anything regardless of importance, and the general excuse often has something to do with "being too busy". However, I've learned that you make time for the things that are most important to you. You only have 15 minutes before class? Somehow you'll make time to grab a bagel, check your facebook, respond to that text, check your e-mail.Yet why is it so much harder to serve a friend in need when we only have those spare 15 minutes? 

Or how about this- you know the classic, "Oh my gosh, if you need ANYTHING please let me know!!" phrase? I want to ask you, how often do you follow through? I've been guilty of this. It's incredibly easy for us to make these empty promises of supporting one another, but we lack the genuine heart in following through. It makes sense- we truly feel concern for the person in the moment and truly want to help, but lack the direction for how/when/where to serve them. Let me tell you something though- that person in need probably isn't going to verbally ask you for help. They will, however, plead for your help with their actions or attitude. We have to become better about looking for how and where to serve instead of expecting it to magically be made known to us. We'll say, "I wish you had told me!" And somewhere deep down they've thought, "I was trying to... you weren't listening." We as Christians and human beings, need to start listening not only with our ears, but with our eyes, our intuition, our hearts. Open your eyes to what's going on in the world around you. Look up from your sorrow, pain, stress, whatever you're going through, and understand that God created a world bigger than our own lives. If he conquered death, He can conquer our problems. We're missing the boat by thinking this world is only about us. He wouldn't have created us simply to co-habitate with each other. That would have been a complete waste of time. I believe He created us to first love Him, then love and serve one another selflessly. 

As the school year winds down, let's not lose sight of why we're here. Yes, we need to be diligent to school and our commitments, but that doesn't excuse living life without kindness and compassion. Open your eyes...be kind... listen. Find that person this week who truly and deeply needs love or encouragement. Devote time to actually listening to someone vent. Set aside time in the Word for God to fill you up, and ask for patience this week. I'll be asking for plentiful amounts of it, that's for sure. Finals and stress in general shouldn't be our reason for shutting the world out or failing in our friendships. That would be giving them too much stock. Let's instead put our stock in the LORD, and  constantly remember that His patience, kindness, strength, and majesty is bigger than our problems. He was faithful before, He'll be faithful again. 

"Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." 

Mark 9:35

Love,

Britta

To Those Who Wait

To Those Who Wait- Bethany Dillon

I am waiting on You,
I am waiting on You.
You say You’re good to those who wait.

My heart’s discouraged,
So I come to You expectant.
You say You’re good to those who wait. 

Lord, today You know what I need to do,
But You can do more in my waiting than in my doing I could do.
So I won’t run anymore.
I’m waiting on You.

Oh, wretched man that I am!
Free me from my distractions.
You say You’re good to those who wait. 

Then confession and repentance
Find me in the quiet.
You say You’re good to those who wait.
Now I know You’re good to those who wait.

Lord, today You know what I need to do,
But You can do more in my waiting than in my doing I could do.
So I won’t run anymore.
I’m waiting on You.

Oh, my soul,
Wait upon the Lord.
Keep your lamp filled with oil.
Oh, my soul,
Be not deceived!
Wait for Him.
Don’t be quick to leave.

Lord, today You know what I need to do,
But You can do more in my waiting than in my doing I could do.
So I won’t run anymore.
I’m waiting on You

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9