Change cometh

In a split second, things can change lives forever. Nobody knows how many ways. Last night my brother Si lost part of his right trigger finger. It's tragic, even though some people would say "it's just a finger". It's more. It's a part of him that he has to learn to live without now. Deer hunting starts soon. He was all ready to go out and get a big buck. He was excited. And now his dreams are crushed till next year. He will have to miss a bunch of school. Losing part of a finger not only affects him, it effects everyone else, too. All the things that he could do before, he can't do them for a while, and then he has to learn to do things with other fingers. He will still have feeling in the end of his finger once it heals, but it will still be hard to adjust. I don't know why  I really wanted to post on here, but I thought it would make me feel a little better. It did. Just writing out calm plain facts helps.

.k grace.

Staying in Tune

Anytime I go to my Grandma's house, I get her old guitar out of the top shelf of the closet and do a little bit of general maintenance on it before I play. Sitting for so long, it always needs tuned up and often new strings. Anytime something sits in one place, it starts deteriorating.
Even after a week a guitar will usually need tuned. It's the same way with your relationship with God. When we ignore him for a day or a week we get out of tune. We fall away from that fresh, beautiful place. I've been working pretty hard lately on staying in tune and thought I would share some of the fruit...

We were having a relaxing evening at home with my Nana and Papa when the phone rang. Mrs. Nice Lady had called because the other nice little old lady down the road had gone missing! She asked us all to come down and help search for her. As this as had happened multiple times before, I really did not want to, but did it anyway. As I was riding my XR-100 down the road, I felt like God told me that I was going to find her. When I got there only a few people were there searching! I set off down a trail through the woods, calling (we'll call her Maggie May)'s name. After about an hour or so, it was getting dark and I was getting nervous for her. I dropped to my knees and starting praying in tongues. As I was praying I saw a vision of Maggie May in the tall grass holding a stick, her dogs all around her. I continued to search for awhile until I came to a meadow. A big, fluffy dog came to the edge of the meadow. I followed it through the tall grass where I found Maggie May! She was confused, but I was able to lead her by the hand back to the trail. I fired three signal shots with my Ruger 45. Colt, then left her on the trail with her dogs. I ran into Mr. Nice Guy and the neighbor kid who had radios. Walking back to Maggie May with Mr. Nice Guy, I filled him in on the details. Somebody drove a truck in to get Maggie May. She was pretty healthy, but tired.
I was glad that I heard God and went to bed that night feeling pretty satisfied.
~Kiana

Sometimes I feel like jumping off a high place and flying somewhere far away...

uh oh...

Oh no I got a facebook! Will my blog suffer because of it? I hope not!

.k grace.

Interesting Stuff

Hey!
So lately I've been looking into scholarships I can apply for, it can be kinda frustrating!
Last night I found this website www.scholarshipexperts.com
It's pretty cool =) Sometime if you're feeling ambitious, fill out all the info on their site and get pages of available scholarships based on your profile!
And best yet, it's free! Yipee! =)
~Kiana

A story teller's story

Sometimes I feel like posting but think I have nothing to post. So I post something I have drafted previously, maybe changing something here or there. And then I realize within usually 5 minutes that I have something to tell the world after all. I thought about removing the previous post but it is exactly what I need to be thinking about so I'll leave it and just post for the second time tonight.

Shortly after I posted about faith, my mom asked me to brush my five year old brother (JD)'s teeth. Not an unusual request, I do it almost every night anyway. So I set aside the laptop and went to brush his teeth. He started to act a little stubborn about it, but I ployed him with a reminder of mom's promise to read him stories after his teeth were brushed. That got him moving, but still, it wasn't enough. He wanted stories NOW. You see, in my family I am the storyteller. I always have been.

When I was little, younger than 5 probably, I began making up outrageous stories that no on would believe. It's a good thing though, because they were never true. I have just always been a storyteller. I used to share a room with my two younger sisters and to get them to sleep I would tell them stories. When my brother JD was a baby, he would get cranky in the car and so I would whisper in his ear, just making things up as I went. By whispering he would have to stop crying in order to hear what I was saying and then stay quiet because he wanted to hear. It didn't ALWAYS work, but most of the time. After I switched bedrooms, I no longer told them stories. As JD got older he was better in the car. I didn't have the occasions when I needed to utilize that gift. But more recently, in the past months or year, I have had to pick it up again.

I remember the first time in several years that I had to call on that gift. It was this year. I had to put my sisters to bed and my youngest sister Em asked for a story. I racked my brain for something, ANYTHING. I got nothing. I walked away wondering, "What happened?" I used to be able to come up with a story on a moment's notice. And now? I couldn't anymore. The next time she asked I told her my version of a long joke about turtles. But I still wasn't satisfied. I felt like I had lost a huge part of me. So the next time one of my younger brothers or sisters asked for a story I made one up. It was stupid and sounded stilted and I had to stop often to think of what to say next. But I worked at it and became more fluent as time went on. Now tonight when JD asked for a story I felt good. Because I have rediscovered a part of me I had lost.  I thought fast and told him a story about a snurtle and a porculinus who got all stuck together with superglue and  had to use toothpaste to unstick themselves. It felt  like a rebirthing moment. One of those moments when you have just come out of the forest and marvel at



the light breaking through,





the sun in your face,




and the wind in your hair.

 I just felt good about that and wanted to share that little piece of joy in my week.

.k grace.

note: all photos I post are my own unless otherwise noted, please do not use without permission.

Faith: Living what you believe you believe and making it count

I feel like such a faker sometimes, you know? I know what I say I believe, and I know what I show the world that I believe. But when it comes to believing what I believe I believe, it doesn't work out exactly how I thought it would.

I mean, don't you just decide to believe something and then believe it? Nope. Doesn't work that way. Believing is all about faith and faith is all about actions. No, I am not saying your good behavior's gonna get you into heaven. But how is the world supposed to know who God is, if the people who are supposed to be His followers aren't reflecting Him? Our actions are supposed to be the very REFLECTION of HIM. Not our wants or needs.

And if our faith is driven by actions....well by ourselves, it's a hopeless mess. What I mean by this is that without the "works" our faith is "dead", remember that verse? I can't remember the exact place to find it, but somewhere in John, I think, there is a verse that, simply put, says, "Faith without works is dead". Therefore if we don't put that faith into action it's worthless.

Just like the scientific principle that if you are pushing something, but it never moves, you have done no work. The proof, the actions, are what drives the whole thing. But this doesn't mean you have to see it to believe it. Because to even make the faith work, to do the actions that make the faith valid, we must step out.

As Fireflight's song, "Unbreakable", says, "Faith is moving without seeing, can I trust what I can't see, to reach my destiny". I believe that's the cry of every teen trying to live for God. Can I step out and trust that He's gonna have me in His hands? Can I believe that He's really gonna catch if I fall? Will I see another tomorrow if I take this risk? Yes, you can. In a world that tells every Christian "you can't believe that, you can't do that, you're a failure, you just simply can't do that", I am telling you YES YOU CAN. Because of Him and through Him.

It's time to step out. Maybe it's not stepping outside the box, maybe it's stepping back into the place where you felt so unsure of, and believing that God is gonna bring you through. This is what I believe. This is what I try to put into action every day. But unless I truly do it, not just TRY, my believing that I believe won't do me any good.

So I keep going back to square one. And once I have passed square two, I know I don't have to go back to one.
Believing is not seeing, nor seeing believing. Believing is you making your decision to essentially do or die. To live what you believe or die trying. Like Cassie Bernall. Live like today is the day you will have a gun put to YOUR head. Live like today you will be asked if you believe in God. Show the world that they don't even need to ask. When you walk into the room something changes. When you walk away from spending time with someone and they say "wow, she really walks what she talks". When people clamor to be around you because they know you're the real deal. This is when you know that you are truly fulfilling your destiny. Your destiny to live for God every day, every moment.

.k grace.