Music Monday: The Young and The Brutal

Today is the first day of school for me so I wanted to put out the song I will be listening to all morning: The Young and The Brutal! It's a song by my favorite band: House of Heroes, and the song in some aspects describes my life and is my prayer to God.

I don't want to "sink in a sea of apathy" anymore. God has put me in this suburb with the Xanax teens around me so I can proclaim the gospel to them and show them that Christ brings freedom! I am right where I belong at my High School and so are you. God put you where you are to make a difference, so do just that to the glory of our Father!

Back to School with Ally!

Hi there guys this is Ally!! Summer has finally come to an end for both me and Ashley, but it's okay because I feel this school year will be the best yet, and I believe it's better to start the year out positive! This summer was filled with great memories for me like going I the UK and Ireland, taking a girls trip with my mom, spending time with friends, and most importantly maintaining and strengthening my relationship with God. More now than ever I believe God is an important part of my life, and especially during this school year I know He will be there with me whenever I call on Him, and He will give me peace. I pray all of you will have a great year and continue to check out God's Grace! God bless!!

-Ally :)

"And God's peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." ‭Philippians‬ ‭4‬:‭7‬ (AMP)

I'm Back!

I guess I should have announced my summer long hiatus… but I was too lazy to. And that is honestly why I’ve barely posted this summer: laziness. And that is a sin so… I guess I should honestly pray about that.

Anyway school is about to be back so I will once again have a sense of deadlines which means I will once again get blog posts out. Since it is my junior year (the quote unquote “hardest year of the best four years of your life”) I may not be able to do my normal post every Saturday, however I will give my best efforts to have memory verse of the week and  music Monday. Speaking of Music Monday, I will probably be doing a lot more than that. This summer I found a lot of sick bands and songs that I can’t wait to share with all of you, so look forward to see random music up on the blog on any random day!

This summer was the busiest one I’ve ever experienced.

Highlights of my summer:

• Church Camp at Panama Beach Florida
• VBS (I volunteered, didn’t attend. Even though wanted to…)
• My 1^st Mission Trip

And in between all of that I filled my time with church activities. (This is the first summer I can remember my family didn’t go on vacation. Gasp.) Basically I have been totally boxed in from the world. That is both good and bad. Good because I have really gotten stronger in my relationship with God this summer and bad because August 25, the first day of school, is probably going to be a total culture shock for me. But I am looking forward to it!

The last thing I want to share is what God has taught me this summer (or reinforced into my mind):

1. God is enough and He fills me up

• I finally grasped this, a couple of days ago, after an incident with a friend and I have never felt closer to my Heavenly Father! Explaining this is impossible and to be honest, I don’t think anyone can truly understand how God is enough until they go through something and God shows His faithfulness more than ever.

2. He truly does use me

• This summer I was able to meet a lot of really amazing people and from our conversations, or just me listening to them, I realized God is using me. I sin every day and fall so woefully short of His glory but He redeems me and USES me for His kingdom! Seriously, me! It is truly amazing to see how many lives He has touched this summer from someone like me!

3. Pray
Pretty straight forward here. Prayer is one of the most important things in a Christian life and I don’t do it enough.

• This summer three of my friends and I all made prayer journals together and it has changed my life. I will hopefully do a post about the prayer journal soon.

4. Community

• I am totally shy but a lot of people don’t know that because I love people so much (and honestly, I fake confidence sometimes)! I am blessed to live in an area with so many Christians, not just people who go to my church, but all Christians. The Body of Christ is such a blessing and this year I am definitely going to take more advantage of it.

5. God is power

• Looking back at my prayer journal or my normal journal, I see God’s faithfulness and power. It is something that makes me wants to cry tears of joy and laugh out loud because He is SOO powerful and it just blows my small mind!

This summer I am 100% convinced that God has been preparing me for this upcoming school year. There is going to be some crazy faith at my High School and I am so stoked! Stay tuned for more posts coming up soon. I’m back!

Music Monday: Clear the Stage

The song Clear the Stage by Jimmy Needham cut me to the heart. I was not expecting it to impact me in such a way but this song makes me question, what are my idols? Why have I let them become this? And what am I going to do to get God back on the throne of my heart?
The lyrics at the end of this song are truths that I do not hear spoken a lot today:
"Anything I put before my God is an idol
Anything I want with all my heart is an idol
Anything I can't stop thinking of is an idol
Anything that I give all my love is an idol"
Words like that need to be proclaimed to the Church and I hope more people like Jimmy Needham will speak this truth. It is not just a suggestion to put God first in our lives, but a command:
"You shall have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20:3)

Memory Verse of the Week: Micah 6:8

I have struggled a lot lately with my purpose. Like does God want me to be a missionary and go into different countries, proclaiming the Word? Or does He want me to work at a homeless ministry and spread the Word of Jesus on the streets? There are so many options for ministry but no matter what job I end up with, there is the question of how He wants me to live. Who should I be friends with? How hard should I try in school? What time should I go to bed? There are so many choices and I don't know what He wants from me!
But... There is a simple answer to my dilemma and it is right in His Word.

Micah 6:8 (NKJV)
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?



He spells it out simply in His Word what He wants and the only reason I didn't know was because I wasn't reading it. I may not know exactly what my job will be and I may not have answers to all of my other questions but I know without a doubt that as long as I am walking humbly with Him and doing justly and loving mercy, I am in His will and that is exactly where I need to be.
This is a very important verse to know so you can bring it up whenever you begin to wonder about what God wants. He has already told us.

Music Monday: Nothing is Impossible

I am so sorry I have not posted in like forever! Last week I was in Panama City, Florida for Church Camp. I had no phone, and honestly no time to post anyway. But I am back this week, a little late... Haha! But this is still Music Monday (Tuesday)!


Today's song is Nothing is Impossible by Planetshakers. This song proclaims that with God, we can do anything! If we live by faith then miracles happen and God makes everything possible!

God, Our Example of a Father

A commercial interrupts my YouTube marathon and I quickly skip over it at the five second mark. Ads are all over the websites I visit but I quickly skim over them. The signs are everywhere, yet they are so nonchalant I don’t really notice. If it were May no one could escape the impending holiday. But it’s June, which means Mother’s Day has passed and Father’s Day is here.

If you are reading this blog and reaching for your cell phone to check the date, don’t feel alone. Father’s Day sneaks up on you and before you know it you’re sitting at the dinner table with your dad awkwardly looking at you waiting for his present. Awkward…

It’s not hard to notice that Mother’s Day gets so much hype and Father’s Day just doesn’t. Most Mother’s Day church services praise mothers for sticking with their kids and encourage them to keep doing so. The service for Father’s Day, though, typically urges fathers to step up and stop ignoring their kids and stop slacking.

It seems logical that we should make a big deal out of Mother’s Day; after all we have a commandment to honor our parents. … But parents are plural. We have to honor both of them. So Father’s day should be just as big as Mother’s Day. God definitely believes fathers are important.

God calls Himself our Father:

Psalm 68:5(ESV) Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.

Isaiah 63:16(ESV) For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name

Romans 8:15(ESV) For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

The word “Abba” in Romans 8 most nearly equivocates to “daddy”. If God wants us to associate Him with our dads we know there must be something cool about the relationship of father and child.

Due to sin that relationship is broken like all other relationships. The only way anyone can experience a perfect father is from the one true Father who sent His Son down to earth to make us His children. On earth, however, we don’t always experience this sacrificial love from our fathers. But despite that, we are called to honor them, just like we do with our mothers. So let’s take a look at what the Biblical dad is. In the Bible a lot of times God explains His characters with the character of a father so we can learn something from those verses.

Fathers should:

Be Compassionate: Psalm 103:13(ESV) As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

Help Us: Deuteronomy 1:29-31(ESV) Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.

Teach in a loving way: Ephesians 6:4(ESV) Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Even if our fathers do not do any of those things we are called to honor and love them. This Father’s Day we shouldn’t drag our dads in a guilt trip, we should uplift them. Yes, they will never beat GOD, but through God, our fathers can be compassionate, help us, and raise us up to love God!
Just like for Mother's day I am posting a video to watch about Father's Day!