These are a few of my favorite things

You asked me some questions about favorites, so I am answering them in this post.

• What is your favorite animal?

I like dogs and cats as pets. I also thibk dolphins are pretty cool. There's probably more but I can't remember them all right now.

• What is your favorite color?

Purple, but I also like several other colors, such as blue, green, yellow, and pink.

• What is your favorite constellation?

The big dipper is the one I've had the most exposure to and I think it's pretty cool.

• What is your favorite flavor of spaghetti?

Spaghetti is spaghetti... I like the kind with tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese, olives, mushrooms, etc.

• What is your favorite thing to do outside?

So many things!!! Get exercise, in several different ways...
Read, be with my friends, just hanging out.

• What is your favorite scripture, and why?

Wow, this is hard to choose. But one of my favorite verses is 1 John 1:9. It says "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

• What's your favorite thing about Jesus?

There are so many things, but I just love that He is so loving, He is pure love and that is so comforting to me.

How to be "strong enough" --- Accept that you are weak

    The important thing is to remember, first and foremost, that His strength is perfect. God is the only one who can hold us up and make us strong when we are weak. We need to be able to accept our weakness, but we can only do that when we know we are securely held in a loving embrace.
 
Once we know that we are loved, then we can stand strong and lift each others up also. As a society we are so focused on how strong we can be, but the reality is that we are weak. We can't do it all alone. We need God and we need people. Sometimes, it might look like we are strong, able to do it alone, but it is a lie. When we are prideful, that is when we fall. We need to always lean on Jesus to be our strength.

One of my favorite songs says "His strength is perfect when our strength is gone. He'll carry us when we can't carry on. Through His power, the weak become strong. His strength is perfect, His strength is perfect."

Please, always remember that it's okay to ask for help. It's okay not to be strong enough.

Love, Sara

Love your neighbor as yourself

Sorry that it has been so long since I last wrote. I have been busy, I know that is no excuse, I just haven't made time to write. But I need to write, and I need this community. I have been dealing with a lot of stuff and it isn't right to keep it inside. I feel better when I write. So here I am again.

I wanted to share something about loving others. This isn't easy to do, it requires self-sacrifice and perhaps heartbreak. It's true, people can be mean. I have experienced it. When I was 18 I wrote this:

"Right now I'm dealing with a lot of emotions..excitement that our Christmas program went well, and that I get to go home in a week, yet wanting to do well on all my tests..and then there's the nostalgia of knowing you're halfway through your last year of high school...and besides that, a little girl I had grown very fond of is moving, and I just found out today was her last day, so when I go to school next week, and after break, she won't be there anymore :(needless to say, I'm dealing with a lot of emotion and stress, and it's not pleasant! But something I've gathered from this, at least for me..there is no way I can ever replace the love I have for this little one...but I would rather love than close up my heart and refuse to have friends. I've been hurt many times, leaving friends or them leaving me, whether on purpose or not, but my life has been richer for allowing myself to love. I wouldn't give up those experiences for the world, even though I miss them terribly! It's better to love and be broken, than never to have loved at all.."

This isn't the only experience I have had. I have had to deal with people who weren't always there for me, who sometimes said one thing and did another. It is difficult sometimes, but it can be done, especially with God to support you even when you feel alone. But my life has been richer because I have loved. Those who don't allow themselves to love, are empty inside, and they are not really living. We were created to love and be loved. 

Something we should ask ourselves, is how are we loving others. It's easy to love those who love you. Not so easy to love those who don't. But everyone on this earth is your brother or sister. It's like the song Brother by The Brilliance. Sometimes we have to step out of our comfort zone in order to be blessed, and in order to do what God asks us to do. Sometimes we need to be uncomfortable in order to see the greater picture. 

Who is God asking you to love? Go do it and be blessed! Your life will be changed, and you will change someone else's life. So get out in the field and change lives! Go love your neighbor, your brother, your sister, or even your enemy, as yourself. 


If God is for us, who can be against us?