The best of you.

 "I was too weak to give in
Too strong to lose
My heart is under arrest again
But I break loose
My head is giving me life or death
But I can't choose
I swear I'll never give in
I refuse

Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?
Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?
Has someone taken your faith?
Its real, the pain you feel
You trust, you must
Confess
Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?"-Foo Fighters*

These lyrics are so rich and full of meaning! 



   Now, people, I'm gonna ask you to ponder this. In today's culture it's absolutely outrageous that I'd ask this.  No one has time to ponder; aka they do not WANT to ponder.
 But really, take the words of the quote above,  what are you allowing to get the best of you? What are the thoughts of your mind and meditation of your heart continually filled with?  Worldly things? Perfection in EVERYTHING? Guilt?  Your physical Image? Men? Women? Your pets (You cat people are welcome to say ouch on that one)?  Your career? Is it YOU? Well, while all the things I just named are all things you do need think about and consider, they're all things that shouldn't be getting the best of us and truly messing with us. But too often we let them. 

  
  We Humans each have something or someone that is getting the best of us. It's an innate Human characteristic we all posses. Have you ever thought that maybe this is something we humans have, but more than that, have for a divine reason?  Because, It is. This divine longing we have to allow something to get the best of us, and us strive to give our best to something, is even the way we were meant to be.


    

The chord I want this post to strike in you is this: "What is getting the best of me?" even God's saved children are told to continually evaluate (though not be consumed with) themselves.
Make God, His Love, His word, and His grace (which all tie into each other marvelously) what truly gets the best of YOU! We desperately have this NEED. It's a need for Yahweh!

 And yeah that's cheesy, but fa-realzies.  

*I do not support this band, though these lyrics do have an exceptional meaning.

Known, yet still accepted. WOAH.

1 O Lord, you have searched me

and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue

you know it completely, O Lord.

5 You hem me in—behind and before;

you have laid your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me,”

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place.

When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

16 your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me

were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

18 Were I to count them,

they would outnumber the grains of sand.

When I awake,

I am still with you.

19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God!

Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!

20 They speak of you with evil intent;

your adversaries misuse your name.

21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord,

and abhor those who rise up against you?

22 I have nothing but hatred for them;

I count them my enemies.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

I am memorizing Psalm 139 in school right now.

I have learnt tons from this RICH Passage! I'd like to point out a few of the things this Psalm tells us, that I see as extraordinary.

-You are KNOWN.

Not only does God know us better than we even know ourselves; he accepts us! Seriously, our human nature is not that wonderful.

God knows it all, yet he still chooses US! Us. Unworthy. Disgraceful. and all the other terrible things that we are. He knows. But you know what else? He claims us! As humans, this is something that we'll never fully understand (even if we think we do). God gets YOU. To me, this is pretty astounding.

The Creator of the Universe KNOWS you. Fully and Truly.

-You are NOT ALONE.

He never ever leaves us. Though we may want him to, or think he has, he doesn't. So many times we think we are alone. We think no one understands. We think no one has been where we have been; and the list goes on. But it's not true. God gets us and He is with us!

-You are CREATED.

God put you on this planet. God made you and who you are. You have purpose. We were created to be HIS children!

There are a lot more things in this Psalm that I could go on and on about. There's also a lot I already went on about.  What I went on about does absolutely in no way give us the right to be okay with our sin b/c we were 'made' this way. Though many of you will read this that way.

So, I'm asking that you'll try to read this 'right' and let it sink in/humble you.

Treasures.

Recently me and my family took a road trip. A 3 1/2 week one.

I meet tons of people who are true treasures. There were tons of moments that were gold.  And the things captured are treasures.

All the following photos are treasures. Not because 'It's a good picture, so I'm gonna blog it.', no. These are all treasures because of the memories, places, and people in them.

So, I'd like to present to you photos of my favorite treasures that I am so greatly privileged to have.