Living Beautiful and Crafted by God

Hey, girls. 

It's been an emotional roller coaster for the past few weeks. There's been days where I haven't been wanting to write at all and days where I feel the need to. 

First of all, a couple weeks ago, my beloved best friend, Parker, passed away. I know people think it's silly to mourn over pets, but I've had him for over ten to eleven years. Plus, there's over a jillion reminders of him in my house. 

Then, there's the fact that there's this impulse to take action in my passion for music that's held inside. Sure, I'm in a band, school Jazz band, and I'm apart of worship for Rancho, but there's just this thing inside me that tells me that there's something bigger--there's something outside of it.

And then there's finding out that someone who I knew and went to my school passed away. He was crossing the street on his skateboard when he wasn't supposed to and was hit and killed by a car. It's still hard to type it, because I saw him all the time and so many people were close to him. It feels like he's still here. Just the thought of knowing so many people who are affected by this breaks my heart. 

But, this is not supposed to be a depressing blog post. 

I'm here to tell remind you that there's hope. There's a God who has been working in and through our lives since day one. Yes, these past few weeks have been so, so difficult, but I can't sit here and say I haven't seen God do some incredible things these past few weeks. 

God doesn't just come and go. He doesn't just bounce from you to help another person then back to you. No, He's always with you. He is strengthening you and guiding you through the best and through the worst. He knows you can't do everything alone, He knows you'll fail, because He knows you're going to go out into the world and conquer it. He knows you'll be a soldier. He knows that you're his daughter. 

And this is just one of the things that trips me out. How could a God so loving and merciful and powerful love me? How am I any different from one of the millions and millions of other teenage girls out there? 

Because only He is crafting me through my life. Only He is strengthening me uniquely by the way He has chosen to do it.  

The same goes for you. Never be fooled for a second that you aren't, because I tell you that not even a few weeks of stress and loss and tears can break you apart from your own creator.  

Love,