I have a hard time naming these posts...

Ugh - I just get random materials to post now, but I can't get a good summarizing title... :P


[My comments in small purple print.]

Winston Churchill said:
Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

[I really need to work on my perseverance... always.] 

Jim Elliot said:
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.

[I still have to think twice before I can understand that quote.] 

Excerpt from Do Hard Things - 
Alex and Brett Harris wrote:
A Navajo India tradition says that your conscience is like a small triangle inside your heart .  When you know something is wrong, it turns and pricks the flesh of your heart with one of its corners.  But when you harden your heart and ignore your conscience, it keeps turning, wearing down its corners in effort to get your attention.  Eventually, the triangle gets so worn down that it becomes smooth and circular, spinning around and around in your heart but to no use.  You can't even feel it anymore.

[This is scary in a way.  You won't even know how dull your conscience has become!  And how can you make the "triangle" sharp again?] 

Excerpt from Purpose Driven Life - 
Rick Warren wrote:
Paul said, "I die daily." There is a moment of surrender, the practice of surrender, which a moment-by-moment and lifelong. The problem with a living sacrifice is that it can crawl off the altar.  So you may have to resurrender your life 50 times a day.

[This one is helps me to understand why it's a "living" sacrifice.] 

9 ways (or types of people) to draw near to God [Sacred Pathways] -
Gary Thomas wrote:

1. Naturalists
2. Sensates
3. Traditionalists
4. Ascetics
5. Activists
6. Caregivers
7. Enthusiasts
8. Contemplatives
9. Intellectuals

[Which one(s) are you? :D]

Heart of Worship [song]
By Matt Redman
I'll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart


Random: I got my Bible Bee materials in the mail today! WOOHOO!! :D  It's just, I've realized how much I have to memorize, and it wasn't a good idea to do it this year while I'm working on the Psalm 119 project :P .

Oh wow - that was a looooong post. :s

Some random stuff

Here are some things I remember or found or feel and thought worth sharing :) .


Bellybuttons
Eve and Adam
Never had'em.


[Don't remember where I got it from, but I thought it was funny :) ]



Hearty Renunciation
[...]We need only to recognize God intimately present with us, to address ourselves to Him every moment,that we may beg His assistance for knowing His will in things doubtful, and for rightly performing those which we plainly see He requires of us, offering them to Him before we do them, and giving Him thanks when we have done.
~Brother Lawrence~
From his book: The Practice of the Presence of God



Lastly, a somewhat public declaration that I am ever grateful to my mother for pushing me to practice piano and telling me my mistakes and blunders.  I hated it at the time, but if she had not done so, I would be worse at the piano than I am now and would not be able to enjoy the music I play, nor aim for perfection at all times.  Thank you, Ma Ma. And thank you Lord, for giving me my wonderful mother.

(Yes - I know, Mother's Day is past and Father's day is coming up. I'm working on his, now. ;) ).

~Victoria~

"The Call of the Natural Life"

When I said "soon", I meant same day - but as always, things pop up and I don't get to do something I want until later.  But, I'll be pulling one Devotional out of My Utmost for His Highest  by Oswald Chambers again...

The Call of the Natural Life

The call of God is not a call to serve Him in any particular way.  My contact with the nature of God will shape my understanding of His call and will help me realize what I truly desire to do for Him ... ... ... Service is the overflow which pours from a life filled with love and devotion.  But strictly speaking, there is no call to that.  Service is what I bring to the relationship and is the reflection of my identification with the nature of God ... ... ... Service to God is the deliberate love-gift of a nature that has heard the call of God.  Service is an expression of my nature, and God's call is an expression of His nature.  Therefore, when I receive His nature and hear His call, His divine voice resounds throughout His nature and mine and the two become one in service.

So - service is not something we are supposed to find a "perfect job description" for.  It will overflow from a loving God.  Just something to chew on...

...deggaT

The string of thoughts going through my mind:

Eerrhh... I was tagged... a long time ago by India ... forgot all about it until now ... and I don't think people even read my blog... :P ... but I'll do it anyway, since she did tag me... but I'm gonna have to break 66.667% of the rules... 

The only rule I'm gonna follow: List 8 stories or books you'd like to live in (for two weeks or so)
1) Bible - Probably the Garden of Eden
2) Return of the King (JRRTolkien)
3) The Last Battle (CSLewis)
4) Ishmael (EDENSouthworth)
5) Sign of the Beaver (EGSpeare)
6) Little House in the Woods (LIWilder)
7) The Tripods [4 books actually] (JohnChristoper / SYoud)
8) Wulf the Saxon (GAHenty)

Saddest thing - I can't remember all the good books, I've read. It took me forever to make up that list :( .

Expect another post... soon.

Praises

TOTAL HUMONGOUS PRAISE TO THE LORD!!!

I'm not quite sure how to say this, because I want to make sure that I am giving ABSOLUTELY ALL the praise and thanksgiving to GOD and that I don't sound like I'm bragging. So forgive and correct me if this is not stated biblically:

God got A's in Organic Chemistry 2 and General Physics 2 in Spring 2010. *beaming smile*

It is whole truth. With every single assignment, lab report, quiz, and test, I was struggling and I had to give it up all to Him. Especially during my tests, I literally had to pray over every single problem. Unfortunately, I felt very discouraged as the both the classes were getting extremely low averages and I wasn't high above them. It was so horrible after the first 2 tests of each course, I wanted to quit after the withdrawal date (where you would get an F on your transcript which is awful). I won't say I'm a very perseverant person, but for an Asian to want to quit a course so badly that F's sounded okay, means it was baaaaaaaaaaaad. But then, my mother comes in and reminds me, that children of God don't quit. We just don't. What the Father has laid before us to complete, we finish, regardless the result. As she was talking (I wish I could translate everything she said verbatim), I was reminded of the major line in Facing the Giants -

"If we win, we praise Him. If we lose, we praise Him."

So, I'm not exactly winning anything with these courses, but that means, if I get an A, I praise Him. If I get a B, I praise him... etc. If I get an F, I still praise Him. I then knew it in my head, but I still didn't realize it with my heart, because I was still worrying (a sin I need to work on). My mother probably prayed hours for me and I felt it. On the week of finals, I was so desperate, I said, "Ok, God, this is it. I don't care what I get, whether it's an A, B, C, D, or F. I am totally giving this up to You. I can't do it anymore, and You are the only one that can carry me through. May Your will be done." 

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday (NDP), and Friday were awesome days for me. I was free and peaceful. I thought, "Why didn't I do this earlier?!?!" I found out Saturday that I had gotten 96 on Physics (not enough to bring my percentage very high) and 65 on Organic Chemistry. I was able to praise God for both scores. Whatever grade God willed, He would make sure. This morning, before I checked, I prayed, "Lord, I want to check my transcript, but I will still praise You whatever I get." Let's say, I was VERY excited to see the grades and when I told my mother, she was even more excited than I was!! Praise the Lord, for He is good!! He does all for the good of those who love Him and I cannot ever praise Him enough.

I have another praise for my sister Alice, but I cannot elaborate as much on how she was feeling. However, I know God had mercy on her especially with her programming class. I will admit, I took Java after C# and thought it was easier than C# (I look back now and think it's more the probability that the C# professor was the worst I'd ever known), so I suggested that Alice take Java as her "computer class" in her music degree. Never was it made more evident that she and I were created differently. She just didn't get it sometimes, (don't get me wrong, my sister is brrrrrrriiiillliante!!!) and she really did try to understand. Every Tues and Thurs night and Saturday, my Dad spent about 2-3 hours helping her with her homework. I think a week or two before the midterms, my Dad said suggested that Alice quit the course (again, after the withdrawal date). Now, my Dad is NOT A QUITTER (why else do you think he's got a Ph.D. in mathematics and gets addicted to coding programs?!). He was just stressed at work and helping Alice so often was not exactly a relaxing thing to do. Alice also would moan about once a week, "I wish I had never taken this course!!" At which I would cringe and forevermore regret suggesting to my sister to do. But what do you know - Mommy comes to the rescue again!! She speaks similar words of wisdom to Alice and encourages her to press on. (I want to insert here, even though it's after Mother's day: My Mother dear is the BEST!!) Anyways, to make a long story short, Alice continues to study diligently and passes both her midterm and finals with flying colors, i.e. with an A!!! Isn't our God great?! 

He NEVER EVER FAILS!!! 

In Christ,
Victoria


*yipes... talk about long posts...*

Snow pictures!!

Snow pictures... because for some reason - I don't feel like putting it on photobucket, flickr, or picasa... 

Oh - and ignore the dates... all these pictures are from Jan 29th and 31st.

Honda Civic

Toyota Tercel

Snow-covered-road

Icy footprints

Already sorta icy

The tire swing... on the ground...

You can't tell - but those two buckets are next to what WAS a garden plot...

Something funky with the camera and flash function happened...

I was trying to get a picture of the purple sky... didn't work too well ... so I decided to purposely move the camera really fast... and get cool streaks of light!!

The next day... was BEAUTIFULLY GORGEOUS!!!

Wish I could have painted a bedroom that ^^^ color... 

That is my attempt to make a sno - I mean, Ice-Angel... It kinda hurt actually - especially since my head fell over 5 feet off the ground...

A few blades of grass poking out...

I can't remember if Al said these were rabbit or cat foot prints... They are so light!!

A cool shadow ...

How much bluer can the sky get?

Not a single footprint in this yard... I don't think they have kids :P ...

A snow/ice wall that Jane, Al, and I built in about 20 minutes... half of which was built with bare hands. ICE IS COLD.... BRR!!

Al accidentally toppled a section...

That's all... that I'm gonna post.  Blogger takes FOREVER to upload pictures... Hope you enjoyed it :D .

Rhyming...

I am weak,
You are strong.
I cannot speak,
Nor stand for long.

You are my light,
Pray lead me on.
Please help me fight
This battle won.

And Lord give me,
A childlike faith,
Always seeking
Your Holy face.

When I am still
To you I yield
So that Your Will
May be revealed.