Where The Light Comes In

Day twenty-four of #30daysofThankfulness: My pastors. I am so very blessed to have not one but TWO amazing pastors. They have been such a great influence on me and they have helped me grow closer to Christ. They have both been a BIG part of my life and I am SO Thankful to God for them! Brother Gary has been such an amazing, funny, happy, loving, God fearing pastor and friend. I love the way he teaches and the way he makes everybody smile. The church I go to now is a little church in Lavaca AR. I never would have thought that I would end up loving it as much as I do. A lot of my love for our little country church is because of the people there, they are ALL such WONDERFUL Christians! But the BIGGEST reason that I love it there is because Brother Gary teaches me (and the rest of our church) about the truth. That truth is sometimes VERY hard to preach. I know that but I also know that no matter what, Brother Gary is ALWAYS going to preach truth and wisdom and I am VERY Thankful fo

Day twenty-three of #30daysofThankfulness: Singing. I am so Thankful for singing. For the ability to sing and the joy that singing brings to my heart. I love to sing and I love to hear other people sing, especially this time of year! God has given me so many opportunities to sing and to share my singing. I LOVE hearing other people sing! God has blessed us with a voice and I feel like when God blesses you with something you should take advantage of it and use it for His glory. So that's what I'm trying to do, that's what I want to do, I want to sing praises to His name! I want to try harder to sing in front of people, I want to try harder to overcome my fear of singing in front of people. I want to worship God by singing! I can't wait to sing in the "Keyboards at Christmas" event that is going on December fifth through seventh! It is going to be AMAZING! If you would like to join us, you can find the details here: https://www.facebook.com/event

Day twenty-two of #30daysofThankfulness: I am so Thankful for this...   ...this tiny little pill keeps me safe, it keeps my brain working, it keeps me, well, me.   I take one of these a day and it keeps me from having seizures. I like taking this little thing because it keeps me safe. God has used this tiny pill to get me where I am...over a year seizure free! God has gotten me this far and no matter what, I know He always has my back and He always has a plan. I also know that no matter what comes my way God will be there. Even if I did, Heaven forbid, have a seizure, He will be there, He will always have me in the palm of His hand and He will always have me close to His heart. I take comfort in knowing that no strings attached He will always be there. God has kept me safe, God has kept me sane, God has kept me here and gotten me through this and continues to get me through this. I love that, I really don't have anything to worry about anymore. God continues to amaze m

Day twenty-one of #30daysofThankfulness: Mrs. Kay, Mrs. Jane, Mrs. Jo Ann and Kathy. I am so Thankful for these sweet, amazing, inspiring, loving, giving, caring, gentle, PATIENT, ladies! I love them, I love talking to them and getting their wise advice. They are some of the most wonderful people I have ever met! God gave me these amazing women because He knew how much I would need them and how much I would truly need their wonderful advice. God is SO awesome in the ways He provides! They are always there and they are always caring. They have been such an amazing influence on me and have inspired me to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord. I am so blessed to have them in my life! I am SO BEYOND Thankful for the blessings they are to me. Mrs. Kay is SUCH a blessing to everyone she talks to. She smiles, listens, understands, gives great Godly advice and loves everyone so much! I can see Jesus in her. I can see through the smiles, the joy she has in her heart, th

Day twenty of #30daysofThankfulness: Learning. Learning is a gift. Learning is something I am SO Thankful for, not just because it's fun but also because it is something not everyone has the mentality to do. I am so Thankful to God for blessing me with the ability to learn! Learning is a gift, one that unfortunately, some people aren't able to have. With that being said, I think we need to never, ever, even for a second, take for granted the ability to learn. God gives us gifts and I truly believe that learning is one of them. Learning is FUN! I love to learn things that will one day help me be a better mom. I love to learn more about God. I love that feeling of wow! I just learned something totally cool and I enjoyed it! My mom tells us that she wants us to LOVE to learn. And you know what? I do!I love to learn random stuff that will help me be the BEST version of myself. Thank you God for the ability to learn.

Day nineteen of #30daysofThankfulness: Jeremiah 29:11, I am so beyond Thankful for this verse! "For I{Jesus} know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." I love this verse! God gave me this AMAZING verse when I needed it most. He gave it to me when I was going through the WROST thing I have EVER been through in my entire life. God gave me this verse to cling to. God gave me this verse then to give me peace and comfort through a hard time and now with all the struggles of having a seizure disorder, this verse still gives me an amazing peace and comfort that a lot of people don't understand. God has blessed me abundantly with this verse. God knows just when we need wisdom, encouragement, comfort and peace and He knows just when to give it to us. Thank you God for this verse and for all of the peace that it has blessed me with.

Day eighteen of #30daysofThankfulness: Happiness. The definition of Happiness from Wikipedia: Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. The definition of Happiness by me: Happiness is smiling, giggling, skipping, running and jumping randomly, singing at totally random times in the day, laughing all the time, twirling and simply loving the life God has blessed you with. God gave us Happiness for a reason, He gave us Happiness to share with the world, He gave us Happiness to help people when their having a bad day, He gave us Happiness so that we could use it to share His love. God is awesome in the ways He blesses us and the things He blesses us with. Being happy is awesome and truly a gift from God. Anyone who knows me knows, I like to smile, a lot. I love to smile, I love the way smiling is contagious, the way people smile back when they see me smiling, the way ev

Day seventeen of #30daysofThankfulness: Tae Kwon Do. I am SO unbelievably Thankful for Tae Kwon Do! I love Tae Kwon Do, SO much! Its something I love and something I am very dedicated to! I have wanted to do Tae Kwon Do for so long, I can't even remember a time when I didn't. God has blessed me beyond words with this opportunity! My family and friends have been so unbelievably supportive, they are such a blessing and I am so grateful for them and their support. Tae Kwon Do is such an amazing sport, it teaches so much, and it's SO FUN! With this seizure disorder it can be hard to focus and one of the many things that Tae Kwon Do teaches is focus. It has helped me so much! I absolutely love that Tae Kwon Do helps me  and teaches me so many great things. I love Christ Frist (where I do TKD) and I would HIGHLY recommend it! If you are looking for an amazing Christ centered place to do Tae Kwon Do with amazing instructors and a great price go check out https://w

Day sixteen of #30daysofThankfulness: Kids. I am SO beyond Thankful for kids! I love kids. I love all the little weird things about kids, their giggles, their smiles, their craziness, their snuggles, everything about them. I have loved kids my whole life. I used to help mom with my little sisters, I used to carry around a doll everywhere I went, I would play with every baby I could get my hands on. That's me now minus the doll and my sisters aren't little anymore so its a bit different. Now I get to hang out with kids in children's choir at my old church (which we still go to on Wednesdays because we don't have Wednesday night service at Grace). I love hanging out with them every Wednesday and I look forward to it every week. Kids are such a blessing...even when they're throwing a tantrum. ;) They are a gift from God and I am so Grateful and Thankful for them! God has blessed me with having a gift or bond with kids and I am so Grateful for that! Kids

Day fifteen of #30daysofThankfulness: Freedom. I am SO Thankful for freedom. There are so many people out there in this big world we live in that don't have the freedom that we do here in America. I think I for one take the freedom we have here for granted. I know the freedom we have here might not always be the way it is right now. I am Thankful that we have the freedom to worship God in public places, to sing Christian songs randomly in the middle of the store (yes, we actually do that), I love that we get to go to church and worship God every Sunday and every Wednesday and all the random times in between. I love living a relatively free life with my amazing family, worshiping an Awesome God. I love this picture and this one   Pete and I thinking and remembering

Day fourteen of #30daysofThankfulness: Health. I am so Thankful for good health. I have a seizure disorder, so I guess being healthy for me means BEING SEIZURE FREE FOR OVER A YEAR! (I love saying that!) I am so Thankful to God for keeping me seizure free for so long; God is so good. I love the way God works, how He has kept me safe through every seizure, how He has worked through me, and how He helped me remember He was ALWAYS going to be there. I am also very Thankful for the health of my family. God has kept each one of my family members safe through every sickness, every ailment and every big illness. God is so AMAZING! God helps us get through every big and little thing, whether we realize it or not. I love watching God work. Thank you God for blessing us with good health. us happy and healthy:)

I'm a little late tonight and I am really tired so I'm going to make this a bit shorter tonight. Day thirteen of #30daysofThankfulness: Safety. In this world today everywhere you go people are watching their backs because this world is so unsafe. This world is a mess! This world is full of unbelievers and people who are very "worldly" and there's our problem right there. THIS WORLD NEEDS JESUS! This world is unsafe because people don't have a love for Jesus, people aren't striving to live like Jesus did. So, the fact that we are safe makes me SO Grateful and Thankful! I thank the Lord for keeping my family and friends safe, for keeping us all safe. I know that there are so many people out there who are not safe and that makes me realize how unbelievably blessed I am to live in a safe place with the people that I love safe. Thank you, God for blessing us with safety.

Day twelve of #30daysofThankfulness: Hannah. Hannah is one of my BEST friends ever, like in the world! Hannah is so sweet, kind, loving, giving, beautiful inside and out, she has such a love for Christ, a love for people, she is so good with kids, she has an amazing voice and I love her to pieces. Here's a little bit of our story: To be completely honest a lot of our back story is kind of a blur, because I think that was just after the whole seizure thing and a lot of the time after that, is just a total blur but here's what I remember: Hannah and I met at church. I noticed she was SO nice to everyone and she was absolutely GORGEOUS. Someone invited her and her brother (Harrison) to church; they came and not too long after joined (my old church:)). Hanny and I are both kind of outgoing, so we just started talking and really, that's just how it happened. Hannah is really, really good at listening and giving really good advice. She is very polite when giving advice and just p

Day eleven of #30daysofThankfulness: Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn is one of my best friends in the whole wide world! I love Kaitlyn so much, she has been there for me no matter what. Kaitlyn is such a GOOD LISTENER, she's smart, funny, loving, kind, PATIENT, caring, compassionate, totally beautiful inside and out, AND she has a love for Christ! Kaitlyn has a love for Jesus that you can see through her smile. Here's a little bit of our story: Kaitlyn and Peter (my Brother) were best friends, then I came along and after awhile of me trying to fit in with them and tagging along on all their little outings WE became BEST friends. We even had the same car seat! Kaitlyn and I have been through SO much together. You know how in people's wedding vows they say "through thick and thin, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad"? Well, that is kind of how I describe our friendship. Kaitlyn and I have been through thick and thin, sickness and health, good AND bad. We've alw

Day ten of #30daysofThankfulness: Ammah Grace, my sweet, sweet baby sister. Gracie Bear is so kind, giving, loving, sweet, she loves kiddos, she is so artistic, crafty, beautifully weird and unique. Gracie is a miracle. Quick back story: Gracie was premature, she almost died (I know that's a little dark but it gets better), she had a brain bleed, SHE IS OUR MIRACLE. The doctors said she would probably never walk, talk or eat on her own. Well, guess what? She does ALL of the above. She not only walks but she runs like a champ! She not just talks but guess what? She knows how to yell, too! Not only can she eat on her own but she can also eat more then probably every other 10 year old like, ever! I personally think that's totally GREAT! Because that just proves God is good and He always has a plan! God gave us a Miracle the day He gave us Ammah Grace. There are two big reasons why God puts us through bad stuff. Number One: to teach us something, God uses bad, hard things to teach

Day nine of #30daysofThankfulness: I am so Thankful for Emlyn. She is so sweet, loving, caring, SELFLESS, smart, so beautifully unique, colorful, artistic, funny and happy. Quick story:  With this seizure disorder I have to be careful not to get really worked up because seizures feed off of adrenaline. So, if I get really scared and my adrenaline skyrockets I could have a seizure. I get scared of having a seizure with no one there with me, so someone has to stay up with me at night until I fall asleep, and if I wake up in the middle of the night I have to wake someone up to stay up with me until I fall back asleep. Emmy is always there. She stays up with me EVERY night without question. I'm so Thankful for our conversations and laughs during that time. I love our time together(even if it is in the middle of the night;)) I love the things we talk about and the way we freak out about every little thing. She is so Beautifully Unique, I love all the little weird things about her! So,

Today marks the one week anniversary of me getting my Green Belt! Quick back story,  I have wanted to start Tae Kwon Do since I was six years old but everywhere we looked was SO expensive, like 100-ish dollars a mouth expensive and so at the time I guess that was just God's way of saying "I don't want you to do this right now, I want to wait until just the right time", so, we prayed and prayed and prayed and then one day my mom walked into the bedroom on a Sunday morning and said she and my dad had a surprise for me when I got up. When I got up I went into the dining room and they told me that I could finally do Tae Kwon Do! My mom found the place on Facebook, a friend had posted about it and how great it was. My mom got in contact with her about it and so, here we are... It has been an amazing journey! I love Tae Kwon Do, I love my instructor, the friends I've made, the things I've learned, I love everything about Tae Kwon Do. Tae Kwon Do is about focus, det

#30daysofThankfulness day eight: My Brother, I am SO Thankful for Peter and the awesome friendship we have. He has always been there for me without hesitation. I have been through some pretty rough stuff, and no matter what Peter has always been there to hold me when I cry, to listen when I need to talk, to give advice when I don't know what to do and to give the simplest hug. I love him so much, not just because he is my brother but also because he is one of my best friends in life! I can't even put it into words how unbelievably thankful I am for him. Peter has been with me through this whole epilepsy ordeal, he was(and still is) always right there holding my hand through it all and for that I will be eternally grateful and thankful. I love you Petey and thank you for always being there! I cried when I saw this just now.                                               during a photo shoot with my mom   at church camp   this past Easter  

#30daysofThankfulness day seven: My mom, I am so Thankful for my mom and the sacrifices she has made for me and our family. She never hesitates to make a sacrifice, my mom has given up so much for us and for that I am so Thankful. She is always there no matter what, she always has good advice, an open heart and open ears. My mom has such a giving heart, so much compassion, love, kindness, advice, wisdom, a hard working attitude, a love for people, and most importantly she loves the Lord with her whole heart. My mom loves God and shows that love for Him to the world. She is so good at whenever we have something going on bringing God into the equation and reminding us that this is just part of God's plan for us and I am so, so beyond Thankful for that! She is such a good example! So, for today, tomorrow and for always I am Thankful for my mom!  

There is a meaning behind the name "Pure Life" and here it is. The meaning behind the name is simply that I want to live a Pure life, I want everything I do and say to be Pure. I want to live a Pure life for Christ. Jesus Christ died so that I could live and I feel like the least I could possibly do to repay Him for that, is to strive to live a life that is Pure and therefore pleasing to Him. Also when I was trying to come up with a name I sat down at the table and saw a Pure life water bottle and made the suggestion to my mom and then when I said it out loud I was like no way until my mom reminded me that my middle name(Katherine) means Pure and then it all made sense. Then as we got to thinking more about it, it made even more sense because as a Christian we should all want to live a Pure life. P.S. I had a blog a long time ago and it had the same name and that was the meaning behind it as well.

So, I'm a little late posting this but here it is nonetheless. Today and for the next seven days I will be talking about specific people. Day Six of #30daysofThankfulness: I am so Thankful for my dad! He is such a good person and has so much to offer the world. I love him so much and I am so Thankful that God gave him to me. He is amazing, hard working, sweet, loving, caring, always aiming to please, totally great, and did I mention amazing? And best of all, an Awesome Christian! My dad loves the Lord with all his heart! He has helped us grow closer to the Lord. I am so Thankful because as I look at the world today I see so many dads abandoning their families, I see irresponsible dads, dads that don't care about leading their families to God. So, the fact that I have a dad that is here, always here no matter what, a dad that is very responsible and a dad that strives to lead us closer to Christ makes me so beyond happy and Thankful! I also see some families who don't have

Day Five of #30daysofThankfulness: I am so Thankful for The Bible, The Word Of God. The Word of God is so amazing, so helpful and full of so much wisdom! The world today is such a dark place and the Bible brings so much light and shows us so much about God! God uses the Bible to give us wisdom about life and about Himself, and I thank Him for that because we as human beings need that knowledge of Him! God also gives us the Bible to give us peace. God knows just when we need peace and He knows just when to give it to us. God has blessed me with so many copies of His word and I thank Him for that because there are so many people out there who would love to have a Bible but unfortunately have no access to one.                                                          

So, I'm a little late but I'll try to catch up. Day One of #30daysofthankfulness: I am so Thankful for Jesus Christ, for the love and conviction He blesses me with. Having God in my life has given me hope for a future that is so much better than anything we as humans could ever imagine. God reminds me constantly how much He loves me and how He will always be there for me, to take care of me and to get me through the challenges of this life. Day Two: I'm Thankful for my family, they have been there for me through everything and I am so beyond blessed to have them. They have gotten me through so much pain and have helped me overcome so much and I Thank God everyday for them. Day Three: I am Thankful for my True Friends. God has blessed me with true friends, some I've known my whole life, others I've only known for a few years, some only a few months, but they have all been there for me when I need to talk(which I like to do;)), or when I need to figure stuff out