A Little Bit Of Nerves And A Lot Of Trust

I'd like to say I have it all figured out. 
I'd like to confidently say that I know where my life is going. 
I'd like to sit here and tell you that I know what I'm doing with my life. 


But I don't. 


I've never been in total control of my life. Even now, as an "emancipated adult" with the right to vote or to buy a lottery ticket or a pack of cigs or move out of the country if I wanted, I'm realizing more and more that I'm really not free, in control and able to do whatever I want. My choices have consequences, and the part of me that longs to be spontaneous, free, and wild, unfortunately must be kept in the back of my mind. 


I wanted college to work out. I wanted to go to an amazing, expensive, Catholic college and be a nurse for the United States Army, immersing myself in God's love, learning more and more about Him while pushing myself beyond my limits physically and mentally to better myself and the world. I wanted that to happen. And  you better believe I tried to make that happen. Four months later, I'm sitting here at home... thousands of dollars in debt from one single semester, no more college or Army nursing, and no more Franciscan. I went there with my whole future ahead of me, thinking I could do whatever I wanted, and anything was in my grasp. Classes got the best of me, I made some poor choices, I fell away from God even though He was more present than He's ever been before, I let myself be taken advantage of... and I lost part of what makes me...me.


I left school for many reasons. Part of the reason I left, was that I needed to find myself again, and maybe paying $30,000 a year wasn't the best way to do that. So what am I gonna do now? I'm gonna do what has been on my mind since I was a little girl: U.S. Army
I learned a lot of things at Franciscan. In the ROTC program, I learned that I can do more than I ever thought possible. It hurt like hell to push myself so hard, but to feel that fire in my soul, to feel my muscles ache as I push myself closer to my goals, felt good. And it made me a better person. 


I'm not gonna say I'm not scared. I'm not gonna say I don't doubt myself. I'm not gonna say I'm confident that Basic Training won't be that bad. And I'm not gonna say that the aspect of deployment doesn't make my stomach twist. 


But there's something that underlies all of this. There's a passion in me for this. To me, this parallels Christ's struggles. I'm not doing this just for me. I'm doing this to make something of the life God gave me, to bring glory to His name, to serve this beautiful country in which God put me, to make my family proud, and to be a witness. Yes. I'm scared, just as Jesus was in the garden, knowing what lies before me: a long road of pain and exhaustion and heartache. Yeah, the thought of going through a gas chamber or carrying a 50lb ruck sack on my back for 8 or 10 miles in the heat makes my nerves freak out just a little... but if I can push myself to exhaustion to save someone someday, IT'S WORTH IT. And I'd do it any day. 


Basically, life is what you make it. And there are a lot of roads that lead to our Destination. Franciscan didn't end up being the right turn for me right now in life, but everything happens for a reason. I met the amazing people I did for a reason, to bring something into their lives, and for them to bring something into mine. I'm thankful. I made some great friendships, learned a whole lot about myself, and ended up touching a few lives too. :)
At the end of the day, I live for God. No matter how many times I fall, He picks me up. And I'm gonna return the favor by making something of my life. 

I trust Him.

Once More Into The Fray...

     As most of my readers know already, and as I mentioned in my last post, I recently watched a movie that touched me deeper than I could ever communicate to anyone. The movie is called The Grey. It's about a man who has given up on life, who has come to the end of his rope, and wants to end it all... but somehow finds it in himself to keep going. He not only keeps going, but helps 6 others to keep going as well. Most people who have seen the movie find it very depressing and dissatisfying, because the main character seems to live for no reason at all, but I found it to be the most moving, heart-throbbing, captivating movie I've ever seen.
    There's a short poem in this movie that particularly touched my heart. Though the main character in this movie is an atheist, and his father, who wrote this short poem, was an alcoholic, I find this poem to be extremely Christian:

Once more into the fray
Into the last good fight I'll ever know
Live and die on this day...
Live and die on this day...

     I've meditated on this piece quite a bit, and I keep finding new, deeper meanings to it. It's so beautiful. And actually, it's incredibly in line with the title and purpose of my blog. As a devoted follower of Christ, I find life, though it is beautiful and wondrous, to be exhausting and trying. To follow the path of salvation through the corruption in which the world has been consumed is the most difficult thing on this earth. 
     Each day I wake up and face the day. Some days are better than others. Each day I find myself saying, "Once more into the fray..." because life IS a constant fight; it's a continuous struggle to push through the mob of sin, of despair, of corruption that tries to envelope us every moment of the day. We are to live in the present, not to dwell on the past or anticipate the future... so each day that I look sin in the face is the last good fight I will ever know, the last push to hold on to God's hand. And each day, there is life and death. Not just in the world, but in me, in you, and in Jesus Christ. The title of my blog is, "He lived to die, so I die to live". Do you see the correlation? When you wake up in the morning, your heart beats for a purpose. God gave you a mission. You are to live. You are to thrive. But you are also to die... to die to your former self, to your sinful tendencies, to the original sin that grasps at your heels each second. A continuous fight. But a rewarding fight.

A seed can not grow unless it first dies. (John 12:24)

I hope this touched you as much as it did me. 

God bless!

Thoughts

I have a lot on my mind.

College. The future. Family. Thanksgiving break. My vocation. Desires. Crosses and sacrifices. The path I am to take next. My job. Music. Snow. Tattoos. Christmas. Food. Friends. Coffee. My best friend. Life.

Oh, how quickly life changes. One minute you're off to college to become an army nurse... the next, you're an undeclared major with exercise-induced asthma and facing the possibility that the military won't have you. One moment life makes sense, you have it all mapped out and you're finally peaceful... and in the next moment, you're completely and utterly lost, and you don't know how to take the next step forward. How does that even happen?

I find lately that I just want to drop everything and start a new life somewhere else. Maybe a change in scenery would allow for me to discover something in me that I couldn't see before, some talent that God intended me to use for the rest of my life. Italy sounds nice.

But then, someone once told me that God put us where we are for a reason... Would it be prudent to pick up and leave the place He set me? You gotta branch out eventually, right? The world is there to be explored, to be touched by the Light shining in us.

The light is dim in me. I don't know if that's because I've let other things take precedence in my life, or because I'm just not on the right path yet, there's no peace, and I can't see God.

But I'm not sitting still. I'm still reaching for Him. I can't rest until I rest in Him. And while He's far away, I won't stop 'til I find His arms again. But maybe I shouldn't be trying to find Him. Maybe I should just let Him come to me. But He's already here. So why do I search? Why am I not peaceful?

My brain hurts.

All I know, is that where I am right now in my life, doesn't feel right. Things aren't meshing together. I spend more days uneasy, distant, crying, than happy and full of life. It shouldn't be that way.

I'll figure it out eventually....

I want that tattoo... La Vita è Bella. Those words saved me for a long time.  No matter how restless I get in this life, no matter how drowned in darkness I can get at one time, that realization that life is beautiful, pulls me through every time. I'm gonna get it as a tattoo.

I love music. I take it for granted too often. I watched a movie last night, and in one scene, the main character heard music for the first time in his life, and he broke down and cried. I feel like that when I hear particular pieces that touch my soul. Like the theme song from the movie The Grey. It makes me want to cry, yet at the same time it touches me so deep no tears will come. What a paradox. I love it. The idea that a combination of mere sounds can impact us like that. Music is awesome.

My mind is going at a million miles per hour, probably because I'm drinking a monster and trying to sit still at the same time. I'm exhausted at the thought of trying to put everything in my brain into words, so I'll stop while I'm ahead.

Goodnight, world!

The Tomb

   At my college, there's an area set apart from the whole campus where we have a perpetual Adoration chapel, a shrine devoted to the Infant Jesus, a shrine for Our Blessed Mother, a beautiful path to pray the Stations of the Cross, and a shrine that contains the Tomb of the Unborn. I make it a point to escape to this peaceful sanctuary often, to relax in God's love and reflect and pray. I have been particularly drawn to the Tomb of the Unborn. I frequently visit the tomb, where I sit on the cold ground, surrounded by a forest of trees with golden leaves, and I rest. I pray for the souls that never got a chance to simply be. I reflect on what it would be like if I never got to see the colors of Autumn, or visit My Lord in Eucharistic Adoration. Visiting that shrine renews my appreciation and realization that life is sacred and beautiful.
   I wrote this reflection from the point of view of a girl who's older brother was aborted before she ever got to know him:

To The Brother I Never Knew:

Light. Sunrise. Dew. Arise.
Feeling the wind on your back and the warmth of the sun on your face.
Smelling the smell of early morning coupled with the fresh, awakening scent of dew.
Holding a steaming, warm mug of coffee in your hands, as you are enveloped by a soft, fuzzy blanket.
Hearing the birds chirp away and the rustling of crisp leaves on the cold ground, covered in an autumn blanket.
Seeing the colors of fall all around you, surrounded by the most beautiful shades of gold and red.
Feeling the stiff, worn, wood swing creaking underneath you as you rock back and forth.
Taking a deep breath of refreshing, crisp air, slowly exhaling, and feeling your entire being relax into the forest around you.
Thinking about God's beauty and goodness, simply being one with nature and nature's Lord.
Being wrapped in the loving arms of the One who created you, knowing He loves you and treasures you.
Smiling because, despite the struggles of living day to day, life is beautiful, God is beautiful, and He created you, beautiful.
Yes, life is beautiful. Life is beautiful and good, and brother, I wish you got to experience this.

Simplicity

We live in the 21st century... the age of technology, fast cars, loud music, smartphones, and every device you could possibly imagine to make things a little more convenient. Noise and distractions everywhere you turn. And it seems like everyone's eating it up so eagerly. It makes me sad. But I fall into the snare of technology, too. I don't go anywhere without my phone, I'm almost always listening to music, and if I didn't have a car and had to walk everywhere, I'd probably get really fat because I just wouldn't go anywhere....Just kidding. Kindof. :) But in all seriousness, occasionally when I ponder why my heart feels so restless, I come to the realization that it's mostly because I just spend way too much time on my phone or facebook, or listening to the radio, or driving every which-way and being fed distractions from the moment I wake up to the moment I close my eyes for the night... and at the end of the day when I'm lying in bed waiting to fall asleep, there's God in my head, simply asking why I didn't make time for Him...

The point is, now more than ever in my life, I can see clearly that the devil loves to work through the technology of today to capture our attention-spans that seem to be growing ever shorter. In the 21st century, cell phones, facebook, internet and TV are the golden calves that people are worshipping....

I think about things like this when I get a healthy dose of God's beauty in nature. Anything from a walk in the metroparks to seeing pictures I took of Myrtle Beach at sunrise set my mind reeling and tonight, I decided to turn it into this blog post.

 Yeah, It would be too easy to put ALL the blame on the idols and gods we've made for ourselves in this day and age. It would be effortless to say that "the devil made me do it"... but it takes two to tango. For every temptation to be distracted by something, you DO have a choice: will you let your phone take you away from a moment where you could be praising God by praying, or singing, or simply thinking about Him, or will you stop and say, "God, have mercy. This is for You. This is for me. This is for us."?

 There's a quote that goes something like this: "Every moment spent unhappy is a moment wasted, one that you will never get back..." That quote relates perfectly. Every moment you spend in a day consumed by the world....is a moment wasted. We are not of this world. I personally DO NOT want to be part of this world. I don't belong here. But I'm human, just like we all are. I am weak. And I fall to all the distractions of the world that we all do. When I'm lying in bed at night, realizing that I wasted every moment of the day because my attention was held by things so foolish, instead of my attention, my heart and my soul being captured by my Beloved.......I almost feel sick to my stomach. But the amazing thing about God is that He loves me the exact same those times as when I'm in Adoration pouring my everything out to Him. He still loves me. And that's enough to end every night on a good note and to resolve to make the next day better. Even 5 minutes spent enveloped in My Jesus' arms at night is enough to get me through the next day.

God's good like that. But even still, sometimes I wish I didn't have my phone, or internet access, or a facebook, or even a car, just so that the lure of every technological distraction would be drastically reduced and I could focus on God more... 

Sometimes I wish I was like Pocahontas and lived in the forest, or a hermit who lived on a mountain, or a cloistered nun who lives every day as the Bride of Christ, or even a beach-dweller who spent nearly all her life carefree and barefoot with windswept hair. When I'm surrounded by God's artwork, also known as nature, I long for simplicity. I ponder what it would've been like to live in a time when nature and my loved ones was all that was around me. And I wish for it. 

Yes, I do realize that if I lived like Pocahontas I'd probably be a human dart board for killer mosquitos and eventually eaten by a bear. And if I was a hermit, yeah I'd probably get pneumonia and die a slow, painful death because there was no cure for it...

Every age has its problems. All things considered, we have it easy living in the world today. And even though sometimes I swear I should've been born in a different century, I know that God gave me this life for a reason- the most perfect reason there could be. I trust Him in that. So although I can't have the life of a farm girl in the breath-taking Swiss Alps, without the pain of technology and such, God has given me the chance to experience His beauty and His simplicity......... 

.....All I have to do is turn my phone off, get down on my knees in front of a Crucifix, and rest in Him for awhile...... 

Simplicity.

I Am Here

Tonight, God ever so simply reminded me that He is here....

I had a rough night at work. There was a long line of hungry, impatient customers, I was feeling tired and sluggish from the heat, so I wasn't moving as quickly, and then their unhappy faces and remarks made me unhappy and it all kept piling on. Gradually, it all became too much for me to handle, and I got very stressed out. Then I had to hold back tears. Then I had to force myself to keep going instead of leaving the rest of my team to run the line by themselves and escaping to the bathroom to cry.

In weak moments, sometimes I forget to remember that God is there to pull me through. And sometimes I know He's there, but I doubt that He'll help me because He feels so far away. As I was struggling to hold on, I suddenly had the urge to pray: "God help me." 

...No, there was no flash of light and wave of peace and happiness. The line of people kept growing longer, I was still stressed as ever and the tears were about to start rolling faster than I was rolling burritos....

But then my manager saw me, saw that I was struggling, and told me to take a break. She pulled me into the office and gave me the chance to breathe, to cry if I wanted, to talk about anything that was on my mind, and she reassured me that I was doing a good job. I calmed down, we talked, and I was struck by the kindness she and the rest of my team showed to me in my moment of weakness. My co-workers that I've barely known for 3 weeks took the time to build me back up. They thought I was worth it. They needed my smile back.

I got a bit of food and sat down, pulled out my phone and opened the text from my best friend in response to the angry text I sent him earlier about my work day. He told me that he just spent the last hour at Adoration praying for me....

Boom. There was my blinking, neon sign from God saying "HELLO! I'M HERE!". He loved me so much, that He sent my best friend in the whole world to pray for me for an hour, not even knowing that I was having the work day from hell. If that wasn't enough to get me back on my feet, my friend continued to build me back up with his love and reminders that he and God believe in me, and I can do it. Such a simple example of the pure love that Christ has for each of us... I'm amazed. 

It's been an hour or so since I got off work, and thanks to my other half and the Big Man upstairs, I'm ending tonight on a fantastic note.

God bless, and good night :)

 

La Vita è Bella

Life is beautiful.


That's my motto, my mantra, the phrase I live by.
Every so often, I like to take some time to see my life, the beautiful mess that it is, as a whole. It's a great way to really see God's amazing work in action. Sometimes it's easy to get wrapped up in the drama of living in the 21st century, and you'll easily find yourself discontent with the way your life is.
Lately, I'm finding that my life is kinda like a heart-wrenching movie from the outside. By heart-wrenching, I do NOT mean romantic and gushy. Being a teenage girl, I've always wished my life would be like a romantic movie, with the man of my dreams sweeping me off my feet and showing his love for me in the sweetest ways and getting married in Italy and having a bunch of kids that looked just like him, and us living happily ever after. (I KNOW I'll have a happy ending someday, because I trust God's plans for me) But it seems lately that I'm stuck in one of those movies where your heart just hurts to watch because, though good and happy things happen to the main character, and the main character herself is a happy person, there's something vitally lacking, some missing piece that is needed for the puzzle to be complete. It's as though I'm stuck in a movie where all the parts that are needed to make it a happy ending haven't come together yet. But that's life in a nutshell, right?


And life is beautiful when you CHOOSE to be happy though all the pieces haven't come together yet. 

What a beautiful mess my life is. How blessed I am in more ways than I can count. Besides the fact that I am currently relaxing in a queen-sized bed in an air-conditioned hotel room at Myrtle Beach, after a peaceful day on the beach, with a full stomach, fresh, purified water to drink, a place to call home, a cell phone to keep in touch with friends and family, etc. (the list could go on...), I am blessed simply because I have a God Who loves me. Sure, I could count everything that has gone wrong in my life, and that list could go on as well, but by taking a step back and seeing my life as a whole, it's so apparent that everything that has happened in my life has happened for a reason. God has used everything that has happened to me (bad or good), directly or indirectly, turned it into grace, and opportunity, and I am where I am right now because of that. THAT is beautiful. And He does that to everyone, whether they realize that or not. Life is so beautiful! God is so beautiful! I just love to see Him work.


Perspective is everything. I, like everyone, at times get caught up in everything that goes wrong in life, and I catch myself sometimes wishing things were different, or easier. But my life, the heart-wrenching drama that it is, is beautiful, and I wouldn't change it, or the people in it, for the world.


Don't ever forget that life is beautiful <3

Learning To Let Go

Trust Me. Do Not Worry. Follow My Footsteps......

My favorite priest in the whole world once presented me with a thought-provoking question: How do you expect God to reveal His plans to you, if you are holding onto your own plans with white knuckles while you refuse to let go?

I was speechless.. There was no way to make an excuse and get around the fact that if you are not completely willing to receive God's plans for you into your heart and soul and act on them, then He wasn't going to push them on you, and you'd go about wandering in life, trying to find happiness in something else. 

Before you get discouraged by that (like I do when I think too much about it), let me just say that humanity really has NO idea how much God just wants to be in our lives.He created us out of love, He planned every little detail oriented to our true happiness, and He set up the most wonderful eternity for us, with Him, forever.

All He asks of us in return is to love Him back. That's it. And sometimes, that's the hardest thing to do.

(Now, to prevent myself from going on another rant about Love, I'll just say that if you haven't read my post about it, you should, after you read this :)) 

So how do you let go? How do you accept God's will for you? How do you trust that He's got it all figured out? I know I don't have all the answers......And I also know that it's not enough to just say "Okay, God, do Your thing!"...... you have to truly throw yourself at His feet. You have to keep reminding yourself that you can not do ANYTHING without Him. You have to wake up every day and praise God that He gave you another day to give Him glory. You have to realize that every breath you take is a gift from God....

Sometimes, for me, the only way I'll realize that His will is the only will for me, is when my world falls apart. It's not just a one time thing. Every once in awhile, my life will literally fall to shambles, and I'll be left sitting there, finally realizing that my own plans are not enough. My plans are not fool-proof. But when I realize that, even in the midst of the chaos and disappointment and uncertainty, I feel His peace. 

It is in those moments when I can't put one foot in front of the other, that I realize I don't have to, because God is standing there with His arms open, waiting for the moment I let Him carry me. How could I not be peaceful, then?

Letting go is realizing you can't do it alone. Thankfully, God reminds me of that truth when I get a little too confident in myself and think that I got everything figured out. 

Life is a work in progress. Don't fret. Take each moment, and live each moment, praising God with every breath you take. Make the decision each day to throw yourself at His feet, to keep reminding yourself that you, alone, can do nothing, but with God, you can do everything. Love Him. Trust Him. Follow Him

God bless :)

That's Amore!

"May God break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in."

"We cannot all do great things...but we can do small things with great love."

"Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love."

-Mother Teresa

What is the common theme in these three quotes? Love, of course :) Love might be my favoritest word in the whole wide world. Whether I use it in English, Latin, Italian, or Spanish, it is just the most beautiful, meaningful word you can say. 

What is love? (baby, don't hurt meeee) Love is when you look past yourself to see, to help, to serve, and to give of yourself to someone you might not even know. Love, in action, is charity.

I pray to God everyday that He help me to love one more person each day. My goal in life, is to love EVERYONE, no matter what.

Love is one of the most powerful things that govern people's lives. You can see the effects of it everywhere...You can see love in the homes and soup kitchens and places of work for the homeless; you can see love in the mission trips all over the world administering to the sick and poor; you can see love in the soldiers fighting overseas who serve and protect their country and their loved ones back home; and you can see love when a young couple holds their baby girl for the first time.

....But you can also see where love is lacking. It's everywhere. Selfishness, profanity, disrespect, hate, etc. It's heart-wrenching to see what the absence of love does to this world.

If everyone truly loved everyone, I'm thoroughly convinced the corruption and sin of the world would be decreased an INSANE amount. 

If everyone truly loved everyone, God would be the center of everyone's lives. Think about it- if you really loved someone, you'd see them for who they are, you'd see their inherent goodness, their virtues (but also their vices, in the right way), and you'd see the light of God in their existence. 

Maybe it's just obvious to me, but if everyone lived with love, selflessness, humility, and charity, everyone would see God in each other.......God would shine through each and every person so brilliantly that it would just fill every person with even more love. Maybe that's what Heaven will be like :) 

Love has really saved my life. God has showered me with so many blessings in every beautiful form there is that at the end of the day, I'm literally speechless as I see all the love in my life before my eyes. From the amazing people God has blessed me with, to the countless opportunities He gives me on a daily basis to love others, I often get overwhelmed with true happiness at how incredible God is to me. 

God loved us so much, that He gave us His Son, His Beloved, to pay the price for our unworthiness and our sin, so that HE COULD BE WITH US FOREVER! That's some serious love!

Try to imagine this: 

The King of the Universe, the most Awesome, Powerful, Incredible, Perfect Being there Is, is so deeply and passionately in love with YOU............. that He would DIE.... the most painful death.......for YOU. He would come down to our level and become a poor man who lived with the lowest of the low. He would be hated, abandoned, despised, rejected, scorned, laughed at, spat on, ridiculed, abused, whipped, scourged, stabbed, and crucified......with the weight of the entire world and every single sin there ever was, is, and will be... He took it all on Himself.............................purely out of love for you. All for YOU.... Because He wants nothing more than to be with YOU... For eternity. Forever. Always. Per Sempre.

........Mind=Blown..........

"I would create the whole universe again, just to hear you say that you love Me."

-Jesus in a vision to St. Teresa of Avila

 

This Should Be The First Post....Oops.

I should've realized that not everyone will understand the title of my blog right off the bat....... My bad, y'all! :D

Okay. So, I named my blog "He Lived To Die So I Die To Live".............Obviously the first part is about My Love, Jesus ;)

But the second part, "i die to live" refers back to a retreat I went on a couple years ago....Let me share with you a Bible verse that was introduced to me that weekend:

"I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces much fruit." -John 12:24 

So, what is meant by this beautiful passage is that, if we don't make sacrifices (a.k.a little deaths) here and there throughout the day, dying to what we want and desire for the greater glory of God, our actions will not produce as much goodness as they could. 

I'll give you an example so you can better get what I'm saying: so you come home from school, and you're just ready to throw your 20lb book bag in the corner and turn on the TV with a bag of chips in your lap and just zone out for the next 3 hours....of course what you would like to do is watch Phineas and Ferb for the next 3 hours and let that book bag collect dust as it sits neglected in the corner........but when you say "You know what, Jesus? I'm gonna study physics first, because I know that I have a physics test tomorrow, and I know You want me to ace that test. This one's for You!"

...that was you dying to your desires for love of God. And these deaths come in all shapes and sizes. (...yeah that sounded a little weird...) Every day God gives you opportunities to die to yourself and increase in His graces and mercy. He's kindof amazing like that :)

 

 So, that's just a little explanation of the title of my blog for you guys :) I hope that cleared things up a bit! God bless!

Oh, Life...

Alright. First of all, I'm not gonna sit here and talk about God and my Faith like I have any authority in the matter at all... because the truth is, I'm struggling like we all are. But I'm here to try to give glory to God in any way I can...

I admit that I am a sinner. I am weak. I fall every day and I'm beaten into the ground by satan all day long. Some days I'd rather not be awake. I'd rather not have to deal with the dull, throbbing pain of being alive. But that's the cross I bear. It matters not what I go through on a daily basis, but how I offer it up to God, and if I allowed God to hold my hand through the pain of each day. 

Take today, for instance. I woke up feeling like there was a weight the size of a semi-truck sitting on my heart. The last thing I wanted to do was get up and face the day. There was no way I was gonna have the strength to smile or look anybody in the eye. It was gonna be one of those days, I guess. And I could feel the devil pushing me farther and farther away from God with each passing minute. And in all humility, i think the devil's beating me in the game today. The score's gotta be something like 17-12..... but so what? I got knocked down.....what now? I get up. And I keep going. Because that's life. And you can't give up, because once you stop moving, you have let not only yourself down, but all those who love you, and most importantly, God. Yeah, I had a rough day (and the day's not over), but with God's help, I'm gonna make it through today like a champ. 

As my amazing best friend reminds me when I need it......
Because if God didn't think I could kick today's butt, He wouldn't have woken me up this morning....Same goes for you :)