I am a very overjoyed, super bubbly, always happy person! It's rare for me to be insanely upset or frustrated (although, it does happen..haha!) I love laughing and making others smile, I love putting all of my energy toward God and His greatness, I simply love being happy!
Now, it's not that I haven't been happy...but I sure have been stressed out!!!! Lately, I've been crammed with more things to do than I ever have before! The school year is ending, I'm going to be attending a different school in the fall, I'm new to a group at school called Warriorettes that simply put: takes a lot of dedication, I just got a job at Chick-fil-A and work at least three to four days a week, I'm usually pretty involved in the church youth group, I still need to make sure to spend time with family, friends, and God, and then I have a million other little things to keep up with as well! I've never ever been a very busy person, because I just never give myself much to do...so I've went from a 1 to a 25 on the stress factor in under a month! It feels like there's always things to be done. (Welcome to the adult world, Natalie!) It's honestly extremely stressful and very frustrating to try and balance all of it at once!!
But, it's not my busy schedule that's bothering me. What I've noticed is that I'm trying to do it all on my own. I've been blaming my busy schedule for not being able to spend time in the bible, I've been blaming being so stressed out for my short temper with everyone. I'm trying to do everything on my own and I've been letting it get in the way of totally relying and being dependent on God. I'm so convinced that I can do all on my own it if I just try hard enough! I've been relying on my own abilities, my own actions...my own "greatness" when in reality I'm not great, I can't do anything on my own! But you know what? The wonderful truth is that I have a great God who I can do anything with!!
Matthew 19:26 says, "But Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
When I look around at my crazy, hectic, busy life I feel smothered with the idea of trying to figure things out, but the thing is- I don't have to! I don't need to rely on myself and what I can do when I give it to God and allow Him to take ahold of my life. The worst thing to do is to lose focus on Him and to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of our crazy lives. (And it really negatively effects you when you do! It makes everything one hundred times harder!!!)
"Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10
God will hold you up when you feel like you're drowning, He will be your strength when you realize you need to stop relying on your own. When you fix your eyes on God, stay constant in prayer, continuously read your bible, and are active in the church...you'll see how much easier it is to deal with everything in your life! I'm preaching the the choir when I say this, but just because things get hard, lives get stressful, and schedules get crammed doesn't mean we lose focus on God. I know, it seems like you don't have time or it just isn't something you feel like doing, but you will fail if you try to handle everything on your own. God is so great and wants us to lean on Him!!! It will get easier! Just decide to let God take control of everything an you'll notice a wonderful change!
Loads of love,
Natalie