Stars, Amusement Parks, Suicidal Frogs, and God's Best

My title today reminds of my best friends mom's blog. Outdoor.mom's stories are always hilarious and so are her titles. When we were little she had "superkids" stories she would tell us that we couldn't get enough of. Anyway....

This weekend my family had a fire in our driveway (on purpose, don't freak out here!) to roast hot dogs on for supper. I was sitting there mind my own business when all of the sudden my mom goes, "Si, quick get a stick, there's a frog! (Si's my li'l bro by a year and a half) He grabs a stick and tries to guide this teeny little frog away from the rocks around the fire. He would almost get it out and it would dart right back in, over and over. Finally it broke away from him completely and flung itself into the flames. It was awful. Maybe it panicked and didn't know how to get out. But why would it leap for the fire when it was being prodded towards free, open, cool, clean air and freedom? Why do we do that? We start to wander too close to danger and bondage and God starts prodding us back towards freedom and safety. But we are so fascinated by the fire, captivated by the leaping flames. We think we won't get burned, it won't leave scars if we just touch it, just to see what it's like. But no, you can never play with fire without getting burned - or killed.

I was at the biggest amusement park in my state with two of my sisters, a group of teens, and most importantly one of my bestest friends, Saint over at Life as a PK Teen and Our Guts. We have known each other for almost six years and are very close. This group went because my older sister is the leader of my friend's youth group and their church is categorized as Assemblies of God, I guess, and it was Assemblies of God Youth Day at the amusement park, so I got to go with their youth group. (does all that make sense? lol!)

The day had some stressful moments, with drama thrown in for punctuation. But my friend Saint (that's her blog name so I'll just go with that name) was there and because of her I could handle everything the day threw my way. Every once in a while we would find a way to sit and chill together and talk or sit in silence. The highlight of my entire day was not a crazy roller coaster ride or dropping face down from 150 feet in the air. It was laying on the sidewalk with Saint, staring up at the only star visible in the sky. God's Best star, put there just to make me smile and feel peaceful that night. As the group was heading towards a ride that day I was slightly hyper (just cuz bad things happen when I am very tired and not hyper), I was like, "I want to be somebody, who shall I be?" Just before we decided to lay on the sidewalk I knew who I wanted to be. I was walking along in my red plaid flannel shirt, my cutoff denim shorts, and hot pink sandals and feeling good, confident good. I looked up at the sky and just said, "I know what I want to be Saint. I want to be God's Best." And that has stuck with both Saint and I since then. We laid there looking at that star, God's very best star and knew that whatever life had for us, there was someone we could rely on, somebody willing to do anything for us. As we sat in the car a little while later staring up at that star again, we knew even more how great and strong and all consuming His love is for us. So great that He died. Jesus was willing to pay whatever it took, and it took His life. You are worth as much as someone is willing to pay for you. So don't sell your self for less. Because you are worth dying for. YOU are God's Best.

.k grace.