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 :)