My Everything

Jesus. I say that yours ways are higher than mine. I say that your way is the best and although this year has been full of waiting, I say the way you reveal your plans for my life are beautiful. I say that what you have in store for me is so much better than what I could have planned for myself. You say that I don't have to worry about anything. I just need to trust you. This year has been great as it was and is full of your blessings!

Now as the end of my senior year nears, I will continue to wait and see what you unfold. (:

Without You I have nothing; without You life is gone

Without You I have nothing but these broken words

And lifeless melody

Lead me to this empty song

Will You be the words I sing, will You be my melody

Will You be the song that I sing, the life within me

Will You be my everything

You are the light that keeps me going

You are the reason that I sing

You are the only One found worthy, Jesus

And so my song shall be of You

Something I read a few days ago that caught my attention:

Focus on Priorities

Life can become very full very fast. If we first block off time for who and what is most important in our lives, it can actually free us up to really focus on all the rest. “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”— Matthew 6:33 NLT I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Joe Gibbs, three-time Super Bowl championship coach and three-time NASCAR championship team owner. You could say that Joe leads a very active life—one full of things to do and people to see, whether he’s on the racetrack or on the football field. One day I got a glimpse into one of the rules Joe lives by. It’s something he commits to only after time spent in a personal relationship with God, through prayer and reading his Bible. And that’s his family time. I’ll refer to it as “Pat’s time.” As with all busy executives or famous people, in order to get on Joe’s schedule, you have to go through his personal assistant, and you have to want him on a date not already marked out as “Pat’s time.” What’s “Pat’s time”? Pat is Joe’s wife. As I mentioned earlier, first is Joe’s time with God, second comes his time with family. Everything else comes after those first two. Many people may know Joe as a religious man. Well, I can tell you, he’s also religious about Pat’s time. It’s as simple as that. If you want him for something, at best you will be third in line. The first thing for our soul's health, the first thing for His glory, and the first thing for our own usefulness, is to keep ourselves in perpetual communion with the Lord Jesus. — Charles Spurgeon No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished? — Elbert Hubbard The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. — Stephen Covey You’ve got to respect a man who lives by simple rules and is so true to his convictions. No matter how busy life gets for this world-renowned coach and leader, he has his priorities straight. He chooses to set aside time for what’s truly important in his life and in a particular order he feels is most appropriate. Do you have an order for the priorities in your life, or is everything in competition with each other? Are you so caught up in what’s next that you have forgotten the person next to you? Choose to carve out some “Pat’s time” in your life (whatever this may mean for you). You may find that it's simply the best time of your life.

Do Not Worry

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Matthew 6:25-34

Claiming it. 

* I updated the blog a few days ago - www.mustardseedphotography.weebly.com/blog. (:

Answered Questions || What I learned

The one thing I learned through the winter retreat this weekend was the importance of the voice of God. He desires to daily converse with me through all the decisions that I make, not just through the important ones.

Before going to the retreat, I was struggling with the topic of ambition and contentment. In English, we just read "The Stranger," in which the main character, Mersault has no ambitions in his life whatsoever. So asked God, what should be the balance between ambition and contentment. 

Then, as I followed my Bible reading plan, I read 1 Timothy 6 -

"But godliness with contentment is great gain."

"People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction."

What I learned at the retreat:

• When you spend time with God, he will tell you your purpose and why you were created. 
• This world operations on process of elimination, but if I spend time with God, he will unravel the plans he has to me.
• You cannot separate God's presence without prayer.
• Pain
• allows us to cry out in greater dependency
• cry out for a new reality
• when pain comes, we are to cry out for Jesus to come back
• Worship
• presence
• price: the true price of worship is us. God wants us.
• prize: we come into a place we don't want to leave
• As you respond to God, he will start to respond to you.
• Three things
• Consider God in all things.
• Spend consistent time with God each day.
• Remove anything in your life that is going to hinder God's love.

Being at Bethany Prayer House brought me memories back to the first time encountered God five years ago. Can you believe that? Five years already passed. God taught me so much these pass five years and I'm excited for what he has in store for my future! Through this retreat, he reminded me again that there's nothing better than Him. (:

"I have a plan for you

It's going to wild, it's going to great, it's going to be full of me." 

"I want to know your heart, I want to know your heart."

Valentine's Day

Today there were balloons, flowers, and hearts all over the school. It was cute, but it made me realize that people desire to be loved. It's just that sometimes they're looking in the wrong places. 

I haven't taken many pictures this winter, and so I guess now I'm trying to take more. 

I saw a bunch of these on someone's locker, but I liked this one the best. (:

Prom proposal! I heard there were two big ones today, but I only saw one of them.

Reflection picture. It's been a while!

Preethi. (:

Science Fair

Today marks the beginning of lent and it was also science fair. (:

Even though I never win these things, it was really nice seeing everyone dressed up and professional looking. So here are some pictures from today!

Sonia looks tall, haha.

Mainor & Julie

 They got his name backwards. Let's cook Caleb. (:

Matching

 Best friends!

 Salamander crew + Maya.

 First place winners before we knew they won first place.

Physics. We did nothing in class today.

 Kevin & Catherine

 Sophomores!

 Jordan & Naomi

 Awards Assembly. The seniors basically swept away most of the awards. Good job 2013! (:

Life or Death

It's funny how I was just reading about apoptosis (programmed cell death).

The Offer of Life or Death
    Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, "Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
    See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
     But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
    This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord if your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
- Deuteronomy 30:11-20

In Deuteronomy Moses recaps to the Israelites all that they went through in book of Numbers from coming out of Egypt to reaching the Promise Land. Above, Moses shows his people that there are two distinct paths they can choose - "life and prosperity" or "death and destruction." If they choose to obey God's laws , they will prosper, but if they choose to indulge in sin, disobeying God, they will face death and destruction. Here, we can see that there is no middle ground. It's one way or the other.

In studying the history of the Israelites, I can see that they were prosperous when they obeyed God. On the other hand, I can see how disastrous it was when they began to disobey God by worshiping man-made idols. Reflecting in my life, I can see how God blessed me when I obeyed him and I can also see the consequences of when I chose not to obey him.

An example would be when I chose the wrong major when I was applying to UMCP because I wasn't completely sure what God wanted me to major in even though I knew. Now I have make the effort to go change it. It would have been much easier if I chose the major in the first place.

And then there are times that I obeyed God and he blessed me greatly!

From my own experience and learning from the Israelites, I would have to say it is far better to obey God and receive his blessings than to disobey him and suffer the consequences. God has the best plans for my life anyways. However, obeying God is not easy. To obey, we must constantly deny ourselves, serve, and love others. Nevertheless, Jesus did all these things and he showed us through his own life how to serve and love.

What are you going to choose?

26 Acts of Kindness

On behalf of the 26 Sandy Hook victims, our NHS and SGA are promoting "26 Acts of Kindness." I'm so thankful that God has given me the position as the Vice President of NHS to do something. I'm learning how to plan and work together with other officers (my friends) and it has been fun. However, before we had any idea of promoting 26 Acts of Kindness, I believe God placed this in my heart so it's really exciting that as NHS, we get to encourage others to do acts of kindness.

These are some acts of kindness that I liked that I found online:

1. Smile at a stranger.
2. Talk about what you’re grateful for.
3. Walk around school and pick up some trash.
4. Tell a janitor that you appreciate their hard work.
5. Forgive someone for a minor resentment that’s been bothering you.
6. Write someone a letter.
7. Leave your change in the vending machine for the next person.
8. Befriend a stranger.
9. Strike up a conversation with the person working the cash register.
10. Tell a friend she’s beautiful.
11. Ask a friend who seems down to go for a walk.
12. Allow everyone else to go first all day.
13. Forgive someone a debt--and never bring it up again.
14. Listen with all your senses.
15. Simply say “I’m sorry” when you’re wrong.
16. Encourage someone who seems down.
17. Ask someone “How are you really doing?” -- and then really listen to his or her response.
18. Leave a generous tip for the waiter.
19. Say “please” and “thank you” and really mean it.
20. Give a gift to your mailman.
21. Leave extra money in the vending machine.
22. Bake cookies and share with your friends.
23. Write a thank you note to your bus driver.

I think even though an act of kindness can be small, it might have more impact than I'll ever know. Yet, it takes a lot of effort to do them.

I challenge you to do one act of kindness this month. You have almost the whole month! (:

Energy Input

Biology analogy heading your way.

Whenever we study the intricacy of the cell and its functions, I am amazed. There is no way all these detailed cell regulations and functions happened simply by chance. I stand amazed at God's creation!

standing...

A few weeks ago, I learned the process of respiration in AP Biology. The process breaks down into

1. Glycolysis
1. input
2. output
2. Kreb Cycle
3. Electron Transport Chain

The cell must use some of its energy (ATP) in order to make run through respiration. When we focus only on the energy investment phase, it seems silly to waste energy when we're trying to make more. However in the energy payoff phase, the cell makes even more energy! Then the energy and glucose go through the kreb cycle and eventually the electron transport chain in order to create triple the ATP it invested. I realized it's the same thing with investing in loving people. A lot of people have invested their time, energy, and money into loving me over all these years and it taught me how to love others in turn as well. In his ministry, Jesus did not simply preach to thousands of people. Most of the time, he invested his time and energy into serving the twelve disciples. While he was with them, they lacked maturity and failed to trust Jesus often times. Yet, Jesus was patient with them and continued to invest in them. After Jesus' death and resurrection, we can see that the very own disciples that doubted him became great leaders and brought so many to Christ! I think a lot of times, it gets difficult serving others, but we must not "lose heart." We forget that there's an energy payoff phase! When we serve others, in their own time, the ones we serve will in turn serve many more.