The Power of Fear

Fear is real. Everyone experiences different forms of fear. Real fear that something really bad is going to happen or will happen or silly fear, like fear of spiders or fear during scary movies but a lot of people are driven by their fear that something bad will happen. I sometimes struggle with the fear that love ones are going to leave me or pass away suddenly, and I always have a fear that I'm letting people down when I say "no" to things. My silly fears are ALL BUGS, any scary or suspenseful movies or T.V. Shows, fear of tripping or falling (and if you know me well enough you would understand why).

I feel like fear is a really strong emotion that I face on a daily basis. Some of them are the real fears and some the silly fears but I want to take a moment to talk about how much fear can affect our daily lives. Deacon Dennis from St. Brigid wrote in our bulletin this weekend all about fear and it really got me thinking especially because I am a Christian and believe in external life. He says

 "What do we really have to fear? As Christians we believe that this life is temporary. We are made for something more, something unimaginably wonderful in this life to come. A peace and joy that will last forever when we are in the presence of our Creator"

WOAH- this is amazing! And really made me think, why am I driven by fear??....God has a plan for me and I just need to TRUST in Him and His promises and stop constantly living in fear and worry every day. Sometimes this is easy to say and harder to do, but to truly be a Christian I have to stop living in fear and BELIEVE that i was made for something MORE and that it is UNIMAGINABLY wonderful...I feel like there is not much to say about that...the words speak for themselves.

This is a year of changes for me, and I am working on a lot of things...and fear having control over me is something that I am working on changing!!

Change is Inevitable....

So I know it's been a few months since I've written a blog post, saying that these past few month have been CRAZY is an understatement. I want to make a commitment to write more in my blog, since I love reading others blogs and learning so much about myself in the process. 

In a nutshell, here is what my June and July have been like....

June:
Quitting my job at a nonprofit that I had for almost 2 years...going on an amazing long weekend with a bunch of teen leaders from my church that I volunteer at with no cell service the day i quit my job...the most beautiful part of that weekend, seeing teens on fire for their faith and learning so much from them. Another amazing long weekend trip to visit one of my best friends in Washington DC...was fun to catch up with her, be all touristy in DC and go on so many site seeing trips, while on that trip able to see one of my cousins Chris, who i hadn't seen since I graduated from Auburn. Overall one of my favorite trips I've had in a long time! Also started working for my Dad as a front desk manager at his Chiropractic Office and in turn started a 28 day detox cleanse program... (I will talk more about that in July).

Here's a picture of my friend Laura and I on our DC Ducks Tour...Its a truck and a boat in one...we saw the DC on land and on water...it was amazing!!!!

Here's one of my touristy pictures...more pictures to come!!!

Here's a picture of my cousin Chris and I at my graduation from Auburn 2 years ago.... I forgot to take a picture of us together from DC

Here's another picture from my graduation...ALL the cousins on my dad's side in age order...no one was really happy about this picture but since it was my graduation I believe they just smiled to make me happy! :) This was the last time all 5 of us were together at once!!

July:
Had an awesome July 4th weekend, hanging out by the pool, hanging out with friends, going to watch fireworks and see Cars 2...

Then last weekend I went as an adult chaperone on Steubenville Atlanta, which is held at the Gwinnett Arena...Its a weekend conference for high school teens, there is really no way to truly describe Steubenville Atlanta except amazing and life changing... there were over 2400 teens ON FIRE FOR THEIR FAITH AND LIVED THEIR FAITH OUT LOUD and were not afraid to be CATHOLIC!!! I had a life changing experience at my first Steubenville Atlanta in high school and I love being a apart of it now and being able to see the change in the teens that i volunteer with at St. Brigid. Other than that July has been pretty quite...I've really enjoyed getting the know the girls in my bible study so much better, we've been meeting every week for at least 2-3 months now and its just amazing...We've been reading this book "Having a Mary's Heart in a Martha's World" and it is AMAZING- I will blog about it later- But it has a built in Bible Study in the back- so its great for a girls book club or bible study!!

I am in the process now of looking for a new place to live- I am going to get a 1 bedroom probably in the Sandy Springs/ Dunwoody Perimeter area!!!

The other big thing going on, is I've given up dating for ONE YEAR!! I started on July 18th 2011 and will not start dating again until July 18th, 2012. My aunt let me borrow Andy Stanley's DVD "The new rules on Love, Sex and Dating" and it is AMAZING!!!! I will be blogging about that experience as well, it's something new and fresh and since I had decided at the very beginning of 2011- that this would be MY YEAR... I am working on myself, my health, my faith and learning how to become the daughter of Christ I was made to be...I am falling in love with Jesus before I can fall in love with my prince charming!!

A lot of changes have happened over the past few months, but its been an awesome journey...change is inevitable, but there is always something better that happens after the change...

Stay tuned for more updates!!!