One upon a time...

"I’m going to tell you a story about a girl I once knew. She grew up with a Mom, Dad, and an older brother. When I say older, her brother was 10 ½ years older. This girl loved her brother, but it was hard because he had mental disabilities so she had to be the older sibling. This girl was happy, cheerful, and loved life. Most of all she loved God. Church was her favorite place to be, involved in Awana, choir, bible studies, everything church you can think of this girl did. At the age of 10 everything started to change. People were making fun of her, how she looked, how her brother acted, everything. She wanted to be perfect, for her family and for God. School was very important to her. She always had straight A’s and was the ‘perfect’ child.
12 years old, that seems so young but having to take care of her brother she was quite mature for her age. Her Mom told her she was going to have to change schools. Secretly she was ecstatic, this was her chance! Her chance to change. Moving schools was a huge turning point in this girl’s life; she was being teased at her new school now as well. God was just a distant thought in her mind. She thought God had abandoned her. Church was now a place she was forced to go to. Youth group never was even a thought in her mind. She wanted to change, change everything. The first thing she wanted to change was how she looked.
One less bite of lunch was how it started. Skipping breakfast, turned to skipping lunch, turned to only having one meal a day. 3-4 hours of working out until she felt to faint to go anymore. That is when she would stop. The weight was magically falling off. For a while at least, the weight started not coming off. The toilet was soon her best friend; the laxative isle knew her by name. No one cared about her. Or so she thought. This went on for 4 years with no one finding out. It was her little secret. One day, her secret had leaked, a few of her friends soon found out. The rumor was out. “She has an eating disorder.” Life didn’t get much easier for her. Slowly her body started to fail on her, passing out was too common. She met a woman from church who was willing to meet with her. At first she was hesitant, but she then began to trust her. She soon learned that what she was doing to herself was a sin. She needed medical help and spiritual help. God needed to become her best friend again. Children’s Hospital was soon her second home. Every other week she had to meet with a nutritionist and a doctor. Her church friend kept her accountable spiritually and slowly but surely God was becoming closer and closer. Church was her favorite place to be. But eating was still really difficult. February 4th, 2010 she collapsed in Church. She was rushed to the emergency room to find out she had Gall Stones. Usually common in fat, forty, fertile, females. The only thing that she had in common was she was a lady. Soon to find out that crash dieting was the cause of this. February 12th, 2010 she was having surgery. Ironically always getting sick after she ate, she could eat less than before.
If you haven’t figured this out yet, this girl is me. Brittany. Now on January 19, 2011, I am working on getting better, slowly but surely. Things still aren’t perfect, but I am closer to God than I have ever been. God cares, he cares about me. 1st Peter 5:7 says “Cast all of your anxieties on him because he cares for you.” God cares for me; after all that I did to myself, my friends and my family, God still cares for me. He loves me as well. I realize that things will get better, on Gods time and he has a reason for all of this. Where am I with God now? I have to read my Bible every day. Not because I have to but because I need to! Seeing the extraordinary gift that God has given me, given everyone brings joy to my heart. I am so grateful for Christ and the gift he has given me. Just remember, Everything you do, or what happens to you is planned out by the Almighty who created us in his image. God has a plan. And his plan is perfect!

Signed,
Brittany App"

Maybe Brittany's story comes as a shock to you, maybe it sounds all too familiar and hits too close to home. We all struggle through this life and are tempted to sin, but God has given us a way out. Freedom from the bondage of our sinful, human nature. Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.", Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.", and John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.". (NIV)
God knows the condition of our sin and our hearts. He knows that if we are left to our own devices, we will fail. Which is why he's given us the gift of freedom from our sins through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ.
Brittany's life, like yours and mine, will have struggles, but God is there for us every step of the way. He never abandoned Brittany through the rough patches of her life, even though sometimes it may have felt that way; No, he was right there, he had never moved... She had. By thinking she could make things better herself, her relationship with God suffered because she wanted to control the things of her life instead of giving the control to God.
You are guilty of that too. I'm sure you can think of a time (maybe multiple) when you've tried to be in control instead of letting go and letting God be in control. You and Brittany are not unlike each other.
If you have any questions about Brittany's story or about God being in control of your life or about God in general, feel free to contact Steve Grieme or any of the other youth leaders, and I'm sure Brittany would love to answer any questions you may have too. =)

He gives + takes away

2 Corinthians 12:9-10, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Have you ever imagined the way something would be, and once you finally got there, it was nothing like you expected? That’s the way it was for me and Junior year. I had no idea I would be this busy, it would be this crazy, and my life would become so different!
School keeps me busy, so I get upset sometimes because it seems like I have no time to do fun things. I get angry sometimes too, and I show that through rebelling – don’t panic though; because I’m not running over little old ladies with my car - I just ignore the fine print rules every now and then. It’s hard for me some days to remember that God never gives you what you can’t handle.

A few weeks ago, I was betrayed by someone who promised me they never would, and it’s been really hard at times for me to move on from that friendship. But despite ALL that, I’m happy. I’m happy because I have an amazing God who picks me up, brushes me off, gives me a big hug, and begins to show me how much better life is going to get. I’m also happy because through that hard situation, God has shown me who my true friends are and who really cares about me! I’ve grown closer to some people at my church because of it too, and I’ve received really uplifting words and Bible verses that really encourage me!

Life is messy you guys. We wish big sometimes only to find there was no shooting star going by and we dream for things we are secretly scared will never happen. Sometimes….we put too much faith in people. But no matter how busy we are, we have to spend time with God – because he is honestly our best friend – the only person who will never leave us, never lie to us, never betray us, and will always be there to pick us back up again and show us something better - even more beautiful! We have to lose ourselves in him. We should thank him when something hard or painful happens, because he is going to show us something even better! He takes away, but he also gives! So read this verse again!
2 Corinthians 12:9-10, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Written by Sarah T.

"Bring the rain"

“Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain” (“Bring the Rain” – MercyMe)

Although trusting God completely is not always easy, we have recently experienced that it is the key to a real relationship with him. It is easy to pray and give God a portion of your life, but if you don’t trust that he is in control of all your life and will watch over you then you won’t experience his true love, his mercy, and his grace.

Mason Florence: I realized a few weeks ago that even though I have loved my relationship with God over the last year and I have felt like I have been giving my all to him, something was still missing. I felt good about myself when I witnessed to people and I did not give all the glory to God. I realized that sharing with people that I didn’t know was really easy; however I was not as open with my best friends because I was afraid to fall. I thought I knew in my heart Jesus would catch me but I was not applying it to my life. I realized that if I really did trust him to catch me I would have no fears. I decided the problem was at the root and the reason I did not fully trust Jesus was because I was not on fire for him. I decided it was time that I trust the lord to lead me to him. I laid my fears down at his feet and I asked him to remove anything in my life that was keeping me from him. The next day my XBOX broke (I love my video games and they took up most of my time). I realized that God wanted my full attention. I also asked him to show me that he was in full control of my life, to help me realize that he decides whether or not I take my next breath. A few days later on my way to QFC a guy turned across my lane and crashed into me (and my sister, Emma) at 35mph. No one was hurt at all. This probably would have come across as a surprise to most people but I knew right away that our God was showing me his protection and control over my life. Asking God to make dramatic changes in your life in order to be on fire for him is not always easy, however if we place all our trust, all our fears and all our possessions in his hands, he will take our relationship with him to a whole new level because HE loves US.

Alyssa Doughty: Right after Mason experienced his crash we had a long talk about God. Who he is, what he did FOR US!, and how he really is in control. Mason shared with me what he had been praying about, that God would just take complete control of his life and he told me how he experienced that. Even though these situations were fun, or easy to handle Mason was happy and praised God for his faithfulness and work in his life. This really affected me, and made me look at my walk with Christ. I began praying that God would break my heart, and show me his love. I prayed that he would overwhelm me with his mercy and love. A couple days after that I went in to pay my car registration (after putting it off!) and what I thought was going to cost me close to $100, is actually $300! And that doesn’t sound like a lot, but I’m a kid! I don’t have money. I prayed that God would just provide for me, and that he would be my strength. I put my trust completely in him and praised him for being my strength. I went from being worried and stressed to being content. God is faithful, and I can see him working in my life all around me. I Praise HIM because He is good! Just like Mason said, Ask God to make dramatic changes in your life. Praise him in every circumstance because God is your strength.

Matthew 6:25-34 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 than food and the body more 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 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers 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—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.

Got questions? Ask us!, Ask us to pray for you or with you!

-- Mason & Alyssa

Life by Becca

People are always asking me what God has been doing in my life; how He has been impacting me, changing me, growing me. The truth is, I don't really know what He's doing yet. The beauty of God is that He shapes us in ways we cannot see nor comprehend. It is only when we are lifted out of our valleys onto mountain tops that we clearly see the plans He has to prosper us, and not to harm us. I am in a valley at the moment, but not the kind you would expect. I love and serve God with all my heart and I trust Him with everything. I've been reading my bible more than I ever have before and my faith is more grounded than it ever has been before. But oh, the struggles. I am still being perfected. I have insecurities many girls face of thinking we're either too much or not good enough. I over-analyze and I worry constantly. I'm always wanting to know what future my choices will bring, and I'm always looking for God to show me a sign. But where is faith in that? I’m learning this year especially, to trust God with my future. My future husband and relationships, my future job, my future college. I know this: God is sovereign, God is holy and God is good. I’ve never been an especially stable and grounded person. I base life on what I feel and I act on how I feel. The problem is that what I feel is constantly changing. It’s exhausting and I’m always asking God why I always seem to be up and down all the time. But James said this: “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” James 1:12 NASB And Paul said this: “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12: 10 NASB I know that I am strengthened by these trials, and I’m so excited to be able to look back at the rocky paths and praise God for the beautiful work He was doing in my life. But, though I don’t really know what He’s doing in my life at the moment I do know what He’s doing in the lives of others. I’ve been praying for my school for two years now. Mid-August I just felt and trusted that this year would be a year of fruit filled labor. That after all my interceding and investing in lives and planting seeds, I was going to see some growth. Well God is so so so amazing, and He always does way more than I could’ve ever hoped for or imagined because in this first month of school I have seen more fruit than I ever have in my life. Just last Sunday some boys from my school organized a bus to take 26 people to a youth group I attend in Puyallup. 26 people. God is growing Christian leaders in my school, He is opening doors in my school, He is changing lives in my school. This is a year of many many blessings. This is a year of change. Don't ever lose hope, and know that God answers prayers. He truly does. Just be patient because God hears you. Get passionate, get bold and give it all to God because He will blow you away with His power. “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12: 1-2 NASB . Let that be the utmost cry of our hearts as we run this race.

**Written by Becca G.

Divorced

My toys, my clothes, and everything I owned was packed and loaded into the back of my families little red car. That one April day, changed my whole world forever.

I was 6 years old and much too young to fully understand what was going on. There were two things I knew for sure: The first, I was leaving the small town I had always known as home. And the second, my partner in crime, my best friend, my father, was not coming with us.

From a very early age I began to take are of myself. Growing up I saw my father a maximum of 7 times a month. My mom shortly remarried after the divorce and her priorities became her new husband and his kids. I felt myself slipping through the cracks, and I had no where to go. It was rather obvious that I didn’t fit in with my family, so at a very early age I learned that I could trust no one, but myself.

For most of my life I built up these walls preventing people from truly getting to know who I really was. I didn’t want them to see the real me but more importantly I didn’t want them to know that I was hurting inside. My home life was less than ideal and I felt like I had no one to turn to. My mom was hardly around, and when she was, someone was always fighting. I found that my safe place, my hiding spot, was my bedroom.

I reached a point in my life where I was completely broken and had no where to turn. I was longing for love and comfort but I was looking in all the wrong places. It wasn’t until I turned to Him, broken and beautiful, that I found all that I was looking for. For all my life I looked in all the wrong places to fulfill this gap I had felt. Looking to people in this world to be the father I didn’t really have. When in reality the only Father I really needed was the One who created me, the One who knows how many hairs are on my head, the One, who will never leave me.

These last few years have been a huge struggle at home. I have found that as things at home became more of a struggle my walk with Christ became even stronger. For most of my life I relied on myself, thinking that the only person I could trust was myself, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. I learned that I could trust Christ and only Him. People of this world will always let me down but He never will.

He is my comfort, my shelter, and my light at the end of the tunnel. Weather you grew up with one parent or four, like I did, the only One that really matters is the One that created you and loves you and will never walk away.

I have come to find that my family struggles can have a positive impact on my life, and the life of others. I hope that through all of my pain I can encourage others and let them know that things will get better and there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

** Written by Nicole H.

Fitting in

“Those shoes SO do not go with that belt!” “That guy couldn’t catch the ball if you gave him a bucket!” “She is such a teacher’s pet!” “Yeah, he’s so fat that he has to take a taxi to put on his coat!” These are the kind of statements that rage like wildfire through our high schools and junior highs. We’ve all heard people say things like this and many of us have been on the receiving end of such cruel words. With people these days picking apart every aspect of our lives from the way we dress to how coordinated we are it is no wonder so many of us have such a hard time fitting in.

Fitting in definitely did not come easy for me. In fact, it was probably the biggest thing I struggled with through junior high and high school. I was a pretty nerdy kid who did well at school but wasn’t really coordinated or talented in anything else (or so I thought). So I got made fun of a lot. And this was from kids at youth group and church. It finally got so bad that I stopped going to youth group for my eighth grade year. Then through high school I set about trying to get people to like me. I tried everything from changing the clothes I wore to changing my very personality. I tried acting like other people around me who were popular and that didn’t work. I tried dressing in latest fashions and name brands and that didn’t work. Nothing I did made me any more popular. With each failed attempt I just felt more and more lonely. But God always has a way of coming to our rescue when times seem the darkest. During one of my times of really deep depression I decided to read my Bible and I opened up to Galatians 1:10 which says “For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.” This hit me like a ton of bricks! This was the reason nothing I had been doing to try to fit in had been working. I had been putting all of my effort into pleasing men when I should have been focused on pleasing God.
By focusing on God, He will shape me into the person He wants me to be and HE will put godly, supportive friends in my life.

So just how does one go about successfully fitting in? Well first off, stop trying. Whether we realize it or not, we all have tried different things to fit in. The most common and by far, most damaging, is we try to change ourselves. We find a group of people who we really like and who may or may not like us so we try to change who we are to fit in with them. This may be as small as changing what you wear or as big as completely changing what you believe and how you live your life. This is not the way to live life. God did not intend for us to go through life as chameleons constantly changing who we are to fit in with our surroundings. He created us as beacons of light in the midst of a dark world. Christians are often compared to lighthouses. When we choose to change who we are it is like putting a Starbucks where that lighthouse belongs. Sure a lot of people will like the Starbucks but it does no good to the ships that are about to be dashed to pieces on the rocks below. We are to stand for truth and shine our lights to the world with our foundations planted firmly on the rock of Jesus Christ! The key to fitting in is – be yourself! Be exactly who God made you to be. God doesn’t make garbage. He has made all of us unique and has given us all individual abilities, quirks, talents, and gifts so that we can best bring Him glory in the exact way that He designed us to. And by taking all of your time and energy away from being focused on fitting in you will be able to devote it to serving Christ and furthering His kingdom. God wants us to have friends. He knows that we need other people to support and encourage us. So if you feel like you are all alone right now, remember that your relationship with God is the one in this life that will never change so it’s worth putting the most time and effort in to. And be patient, God will provide. He certainly did for me. And if you have tons of friends and feel like you couldn’t be happier, be careful. Don’t let your earthly relationships become a distraction from your heavenly one. People like people who are confident in who they are in Christ. You don’t have to conform to some mold that society dictates. Be different, be spontaneous, be quirky, be yourself! Just do it all to the glory of God!

--Written by Ryan D.

Through the looking glass

What is true beauty?

In a world that pushes the agenda of outer appearance, one could be quite confused as to what true beauty is. Peer pressure says "wear this" or "buy that". Magazines say, "lose weight for bikini season, guys like girls who are fit and trim." and "got love handles? Don't stress! Your man likes your curves, gives him more to love." With so many mixed

messages, it's no wonder so many girls have image issues!

A girl wakes up in the morning, looks at her reflection in the mirror and see's an average human being with nothing special about her. She thinks she's either too skinny, too fat, too tall, too short, her legs are either chunky or toothpick like, same with her arms. She wishes her eye color was chocolaty brown or crystal blue or a forest green, of course hazel is pretty too, I mean haven't you ever heard Kelley Clarkson's "Behind these hazel eyes"? There's no rest for the discontent. As she continues to examine herself, her hair is always either too straight, too curly, too wavy, too poofy, too thin, too thick, too blonde, too brown, too red... Get the picture?

One minute a girl thinks she needs to look like a stick thin model from a runway. The next she thinks she should follow the trends and look like a skater punk even though she couldn't skate to save her life. What's worse is that a lot of girls rely on what guys think of them as to whether or not they are actually attractive. A comment made YEARS ago about a girls appearance from a guy can still be a huge impact on how she looks at herself today.

So amidst all the confusion, image problems and low self-esteem, here lies the ultimate question.

What is the perfect look?

Is it the tall, skinny models you see on the cover of magazines? Is it the curvy, bronzed skinned beauties that lay out on the sandy beaches? Nope, neither.

It's like photography. I can look at a tree, and all I see is tree. It's got a brown tree trunk, green leaves (depending on the time of season), and lots of branches spreading all over the place. When I take a picture of this tree, you see what I see. You're looking through my eyes. But if someone else comes along and looks at the same tree that I'm looking at, they might see something entirely different. It's obviously still a tree, but suddenly the tree come to life because the sun is dancing through the leaves. Through their eyes, you see an entirely different tree then mine. It's the same tree, it's just been beheld through a different pair of eyes. Their picture and my picture are different.

Translation? There is no perfect look. We are all unique. And every guys opinion of how we look is going to be different. There is no perfect recipe for a beautiful person, beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. Luckily the only person's opinion that actually counts is God's. And he beholds us as beautiful. Whether you like it or not, he's made you exactly the way he wants you. You will ALWAYS find something about yourself that you don't like. And you will ALWAYS find something about someone else that you DO like. Regardless, the important part is to remember that God likes how you look right now. God doesn't create junk. He creates pieces of art. So yes, maybe you will never look like the model on the cover of a magazine, but if you did, you would be changing God's original masterpiece. And you wouldn't exactly be "original" anymore, would you? Why look like someone else? There's only one of you. No one wants to go to an art show and only see pictures of the "Mona Lisa". How boring would that be? Remember, variety is the spice of life.

In my humble opinion there is no such thing as "average". If we are all made as works of art, then "average" is definitely the wrong word.

A girl wakes up in the morning, looks in the mirror and see's a unique (not weird) piece of artwork that has been handcrafted by a wonderful maker who puts a lot of care and consideration into his work. She knows that the most important person in her entire life thinks she is beautiful.

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast the sum of them! ... Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139:13-17&23-24


Girls, do you have any questions about beauty? TTY: via facebook or comment on this article. No question is a stupid question.

**Just for guys**: In a way, this article is about you too. A) Remember to treat all women with respect because in God's eyes we are all masterpieces. B) Never feel inferior because of YOUR looks, because God made you as a masterpiece too!

*Written by Shawna A.