Redwoods!

My mother, Felix, and I took a trip to a Redwood forest today! It may be an American tree, but they planted a whole forest of them in NZ. We had so much fun as Felix could run around, get out some of his boyish energy, and mother and I had a great talk. I thank God every day for giving me two such Godly parents, and also for allowing me to have such a special bond with my mother....it is such a precious blessing. I can talk to my mother about anything, and we share so much of ourselves with each other. I find a lot of kids my age feel that they have to ignore and disrespect their parents as that is what society has taught them, but that is the opposite of what God wants for younger people! We are called to respect, obey, and honour our parents.......which is not always easy but is always necessary. I am definitely more fortunate than most teenagers as I have developed such a strong bond with my parents! The more I think about my position and situation in my life at the moment, I am realising that my mother has become my best friend and confidante. And as with all relationships I make mistakes, but my mother is very patient, loving, caring, and just all round awesome with me. As I am homeschooled that also helps as I am around her all the time and we get to do everything together. I am talking about this to encourage other young women to cultivate their relationships with their mothers, as it truly is a rewarding and worthwhile endeavour.......although everyone's situation is different, it is worth the time and effort! I also have a wonderful father whom I also have a great relationship with! The trip to the Redwoods definitely opened my eyes to how blessed I am by my parents....The Lord moves in mysterious ways.

Here are some pictures of our trip non-edited so not brilliant ;) :

I got so much out of this outing today! Stay strong in the faith.

     

16th Birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday :) 16 already! And God decided to make the weather really warm and sunny for me. I had my best friend Amy stay over for the weekend, and we had some family friends over for a few hours in the late afternoon........I was so blessed by everyone. Amy's mother makes fabulous cakes and she made me a special one covered with the most amazing icing roses, I am sorry I didn't manage to get a picture but I can promise you it was absolutely stunning. And everyone gave me the most amazing and thoughtful gifts! It is nice that they all put so much thought and effort into them. I am usually used to spending my birthday with only my parents, so this was a new thing for me :)

 Life seems to go by so fast, and that has got me thinking. When you look at your life are you pleased? No life can be perfect, but our goal in life should be to praise and glorify God and to put him first in all things. I look at my life, and even though I frequently stumble and fall, I know that my intentions are to follow the Lord and try to live a Godly life that's pleasing to Him. I know I am constantly falling short of God's standards but Jesus steps in for me and you. Jesus is the center of my life and is always there to pick me up, dust me off, and point me in the right direction. When someone asks me 'What are you going to do when you're older?' I generally pause, that question rolls around in my mind and I can never think of a straight and easy way to answer. But now I know the best answer I could give: to live for the Lord, to glorify Him, and follow Him wherever He leads me. I don't need to know what will happen in the future because I trust that God will work all things together for my good...even if it isn't quite what I expected. For now I am content to wait. My hopes for the future are to become a wife, homemaker, and mother, but I know that God might have something different in store for me and so I have to be patient. Not that it will be easy ;) As long as I keep my focus on Jesus and what He has done for me I am content to wait! I hope that I have encouraged you in some way and I will hopefully see you again soon!

Bible Marking and Photos!

When I read my Bible I always feel like I want to mark my favourite verses, or verses that have spoken to me, but I don't like it when a pen bleeds through the page as it looks very untidy indeed! So I ended up just not putting anything in which is a shame as I must have missed many opportunities. Over the past few months I was getting very frustrated about this, so I decided to look up different ways to mark your Bible on the internet. And much to my surprise loads of great ways came up...........I have been trying one which appealed to me and it is working really well. I don't know how I didn't think of it before, but the idea is to use colouring pencils instead of pens...............it works wonderfully! Using different colours, you can underline verses without any bleeding at all. It suits me really well and i have been doing it for about a month now and it has made me go alot deeper into God's Word. 

I know I have been awful at posting ;) but I am going to try harder. I thought I would share a few of my photos of our time in NZ so far.............I love taking pics. I don't really like to put effects on my photos, so all of these are raw.......it doesnt make for great photos but it sure is alot of fun ;)

This was a forest in the middle of nowhere.........my family, my best friend and I took a road trip and came across these!

The next 5 pictures were from my Dad and I's trip to Hobbiton :)

My wonderful father!

My adorable baby brother Felix :D

Felix decided he wanted to be Captain America!

My best friend's little sister............exhausting business biking!

                                              Lovely little Felix.........drool and all!

God's Creation surely is amazing!

Who couldn't love that cheeky face ;)

Another thing I have been searching for lately is how to spend my time on the internet wisely, and I thought that maybe I could give other young Christian women out there a few great sites to visit! Now I am big on modesty, so I have a few modesty blogs that I like....to name a few, Fresh Modesty http://freshmodesty.blogspot.co.nz/, and Cover Up For Christ http://coverupforchrist.blogspot.co.nz/. I also want to share this post that Fresh Modesty wrote which I found to be very encouraging which is about the use of your time on the internet http://freshmodesty.blogspot.co.nz/2014/08/lets-talk-inspiration-vs-imagination.html. Also here are some other blogs I enjoy reading: Doodlebug: http://joy-doodlebug.blogspot.co.nz/  Set Apart Girl:http://setapartgirl.com/leslie-ludy/blog Young Wife's Guide: http://youngwifesguide.com/blog/ Proverbs 14:1: http://proverbs14verse1.blogspot.co.nz/ and Michelle Duggar's Blog: http://www.duggarfamily.com/content/michelle_blog 

If you want to read a fun magazine for young Christian women I advise the Set Apart Girl magazine, which you can get for free! Here is the link: http://setapartgirl.com/

I hope this blesses you in some way! Stay strong in the faith,