Emotions and new changes

Written on August 16th.

Wow. How the emotions came flooding in today. Leaving my home of 15 years. But I’m filled with an eternal peace that can only come from the Lord. I have been constantly reminded of how incredibly faithful our loving God is. Instead of being sad about moving I am choosing to be thankful for the blessing of being in one home for so long. Not everyone gets to experience such a blessing. I’ve grown, stumbled, and served in this place and I will always remember these moments. God is SOOO good and through change He will go before me and stay with me forever.

To all my friends (now family) from this place. You know who you are. ❤ Thank you, thank you, thank you! Each one of you has encouraged me, supported me, and loved me for so many years. You are a true blessing! As we move on to new places and adventures, all across the globe, I know God has a plan and He is moving us apart so we can grow to new limits and reach even more people where He leads us.

Though tears may come, I am thankful today for such a blessing as this.

Thank You Jesus!

❤ Mandie

 

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The social media debate

Social media is a huge topic among every person I know. Is it good or bad? What are the benefits or withdraws? I’m here today to speak on this topic. Now I’m am not bashing social media in anyway, because if you think about it right now you and I are using social media (aka wordpress.com). I am just here to share my thoughts. Feel free to leave comments or questions down in the comments!

Now let me start by sharing where I stand with social media at the moment. Currently this blog is my only source of social media that I am fully connected into. I do have a strong opinion on social media, but I will never judge anyone based on them having social media or not having it. Social media surrounds most peoples lives in this generation. All the time I watch as friends sit together but are on social media the whole time. What is this doing to our relationships with family and friends? Now I’m just as guilty as the next person for using my phone in times where I could have been growing a relationship. But what is so important about social media that we rate it above our face to face relationships? Let’s discuss this.

Again I am just stating my thoughts here I am not trying to sway anyone one way or another. First let’s discuss the benefits. If you (like myself) are away from your home town and many good friends are not around; social media is an amazing way to be able to keep in contact with those people. Also many people use social media to share with the world their talents, gifts, and personalities. It is also a great place to share your faith, to encourage, and stand by fellow believers. Because social media has totally consumed our generation this may be the only place a person could experience Jesus, so what you post REALLY matters. I pray that my blog may be a place of light, joy, positivity, and peace to all who may fall upon it. And lastly social media can be an outlet or a safe place in some ways. For me it is a place I can come and freely share my thoughts, prayers, and inspiration with y’all. As you can see there are many great things about social media, so I am not totally against it.

Now let’s look at some of the downfalls of social media. Starting with the most common: cyber bullying. Many people have been faced with the pain of being bullied online from people they may not even know. And that can cause self image insecurities, depression, or even lead to suicidal thoughts. This NEEDS to be stopped. Another downfall it holds is the distraction. This leads back to the relationships topic. Phones are constantly “dinging” with updates and messages from social media. It is a constant distraction from living in the moment we have been presented with. It saddens me a whole lot to see how more and more families tend to be on there phones in one way or another instead of spending quality time with each other face to face. People also ask me many times how I keep up with relationships with people I don’t see everyday if I don’t have social media. Well, I say this. If a relationship between me and someone else is meant to be, God will provide a way for communication. He has lead me back to friends in many other ways than social media.

Let’s take a minute to reflect on one downfall that I have dealt with before. People hide behind their social medias. I’m guilty of it! (read about that here!) How many times do you see a post where a person shares a difficulty they are going through? Now I’m not saying that nobody does it. I have seen some posts about hard times people are facing. But most of the time the happy-go-lucky posts out weigh the raw, honest posts. Doing this can cause so many insecurities in real life that you don’t know how to really speak your mind and heart out.

I believe that social media can be a good thing, it just depends on how you use it. If you are using it because it is popular or because somebody else has it, that’s not a valid reason. It is a choice. Whether you will use social media for good or for bad. Also is it effecting you in a POSITIVE way? You may be using social media in a wholesome way, but other things you experience or see on it may be changing you in a negative way. Again think about what you are putting social media above. If you find yourself spending more time on social media than working on school or developing relationships maybe it is time to refocus and assess yourself. Do you need social media?

Another common question is: Is social media a sin? Some of my friends discussed this topic and I really love what my friend H. said. (This is not a direct quote) Social media in itself is not a sin, but it can become a sin depending on how you use it. If you are putting social media above your relationship with God, that can be a sin. In the Bible we are told that putting anything above Christ is a sin.

 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”                              -Exodus 20:4-6

I am not telling you to get rid of all your social media. All I am saying is to be careful about how you use it and how you let it use you. For me at this stage in my life a blog is the perfect social media for me. It’s not overwhelming but it is a place to share my heart and communicate with others. I choose not to have other social media because for me in my personal life it would be a distraction. Will I ever get another form of social media? Who knows. I challenge y’all today to evaluate yourself and your use of social media. Do you have the right balance of face to face conversations vs. social media time? How are you using social media?

What are your thoughts on social media? Feel free to share in the comments!

Glory to God ❤

Christmas musings

Every year we wait and wait for Christmas to come. And then it comes, and in a split second it’s gone. This Christmas something just felt different for me. Even though I love Christmas time, the giving of gifts, the receiving of gifts, and most importantly the remembrance of our Saviors birth, something just wasn’t right.

I took all my presents up stairs after we opened them. And I stood there looking at them. There were many. Some big, some small. But most important I had gifts. I felt happy, and loved. Right in that moment I began thinking of all of the families that don’t get to experience Christmas the way that we do. There are families that don’t even get food every day. And here I am with all of these presents! I felt so greedy and selfish looking at the presents on my bed. I felt like I didn’t give enough this Christmas. Not the physical gifts. But the more personal gifts. The gifts of love, joy, peace, the gift of Christmas.

I know Christmas is over, but I am still listening to Christmas music, so here are two songs that go with what I was trying to say:

Christmas makes me cry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pem0MP4u_jE

Give this Christmas away: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BVGkb5bxRY

I own neither songs. All credit goes to Matthew West, Mandisa, Amy Grant, and producers. 🙂

Mandie

I’m Back!

Hey y’all! I have missed y’all so much! I am sorry that I left with no explanation. I was struggling to finish all of my schoolwork and have gotten behind in the past two months. I hope that I will be able to keep on blogging and stay in touch with y’all! Thanks for all of the support, I wouldn’t be here without y’all! ❤

Mandie

P.S. I will be continuing the “You Are…” blog series by the end of the month. And have many new and exciting challenges for this next year!

The Amazing You Tag!!! :D

Thank you so much Proverbs31teen for tagging me to do the Amazing You tag! My second blogiversary is coming up soon, too! Let’s get on to the questions! (My answers are bolded so that you can follow easier!)

1. You’re on a deserted island, and you find a cave. What would you expect to find in it? Well, I would probably want food or water, if I’m on a deserted island! So I guess food or water!

2. If you could have one superpower, which would you pick? Teleportation! Because I hate being late to places, so that way if I’m late, or almost late to something I could just teleport there!

3. What one song would you choose for the theme music for a movie about your life? Through All Of It by Colton Dixon. It is such a powerful song, but knowing me it would probably change a couple million times…. 😀

4. You can only wear one color for the rest of your life. What color would you pick? Only ONE color!?! I’d have to say blue, because there are so many different shade of blue, plus that includes blue jeans!

5. What’s one thing you want to do that’s wild, crazy, or unusual? I want to be on American Ninja warrior when I’m old enough!!!!!!

6. If you had to give a speech to the whole world for five minutes, what topic would it be about? Probably about not letting anyone change who you truly are, or how Jesus loves everyone no matter who you are! Most likely the second one though…

7. You get to have lunch with any three famous people, present or past! Who would you pick? You’re making me think to hard, just give me a minute….Only three? Hold on…Okay this was way to hard, because I would want to have lunch with ANY Christian Music Artist! But I finally decided I would have lunch with, Bethany Hamilton, Jamie Grace, and Gabby Douglas! There are so many more that I would love to meet, but I’ll just stick with these three!

8. What is your favorite smell, and why? Fresh baked cookies, bread, muffins…why? Because they smell so good!!!

9. Share one of your favorite quotes. I don’t really have a favorite quote…but I’ll find one! Okay here’s one that I found by Mr. TobyMac, ‘Be Kind. For Everyone You Meet Is Fighting A Battle You Know Nothing About.’

10. Give us two true statements about yourself and one false statement, and see if your followers can guess which one is false. Okay here are my three statements:1. I live in the south, 2. I love exercising, 3. I’m great with computers. You figure out which of the three is the lie and which two are the truths! Have fun!

IF YOU ARE READING THIS I TAG YOU!!!!! 😀

Thank you all for reading this! Bye for now!

Look up! And look out!

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