Fear(Part 2): Through the Goo and into Victory!

If you haven't already, please read "Fear(Part 1): Thick, Black Goo"  here before reading Part 2 in this 2 part series. :)

So last time I explained what fear is and why we are all affected by fear. In truth, fear is a terrible emotion but a fairly common one, as everyone experiences fear in their lifetime. Some people experience it more than others, but when it comes down to it, everyone is affected by fear. Though there are different degrees of fear, there is not a single person on earth who has not been affected by fear at some point or another. So the question is, how do we get rid of this feeling of fear?

To find that answer, we have to start with Hope. Hope is the exact oposite of fear. Let me repeat that.

Fear and Hope are Opposites.

So for us, that's wonderful news. Knowing this truth is a huge step in the right direction to knowing how to combat fear. Here is the definition of hope. Hope: A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Trust. Expectance. Promise.  At first, hope can seem kinda iffy. It's easy to think, "Okay so hope is just wanting something to happen." Actually, take a look at that end word there in the deinition of hope. Promise. Hope in something or someone can also be a promise of being taken care of. So for us, when we are combating fear, who is it that we should put our hope to get through tough times? The answer here, is as simple as Jesus.

"O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. " Psalms 119:130:7

This verse here tells us that we need to put our faith and hope in Jesus, but it also tells us why. He has unfailing love and is full of redemption. In short, redemption means the act of being saved from sin. So the Bible is simply saying here that we should trust God and have our faith in him, simply because he has love that will never end and he has saved us from sin. I don't know about you, but It sounds like this is a reliable place to go to when it comes to being afraid. Perfect love casts out fear. Jesus is the very definition of perfect love, as stated here in 1 John 4:18 that states, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." and 1 John 4:8, "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

So now we know that we need to go to God when we are afraid. Here are some different ways that I have found can be really affective ways of going to God in the face of fear.

Prayer. Talking to God is always one of the best ways to go. There is nothing better than talking to a God who understands you so well and knows exactly the problem you are going through. With God, there is no questions. You don't have to explain yourself when it comes to God. He just gets it and it makes sense. The thing is, he is ALWAYS there with you and already knows each and every detail of your problem you may be facing. In the direct fact of fear though, God will give us peace. This is stated in Psalm 34:4, "I sought the Lord, and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears."

Reading the Bible. Reading the Bible is good for every occasion, and is something that you just can't go wrong in doing. But expecially in times that you are scared and afraid, pulling out your Bible can be really calming. There are so many good BIble verses on the topic of fear, trusting in God when times get hard, and leaning on God to take care of you, it's really hard to close your Bible still feeling stressed and worried. Here is a sample of all the wonderful Bible verses on the topic of fear and how to handle it.

Psalm 27:1, "The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?"

Joshua 1:9, "I will be strong and of good courage for I know that you are with me wherever I go."

Call Out to God(Outloud). This one is so powerful. When afraid, taking a moment to stop what you're doing and verbally call out to God is so helpful when dealing with an overwhelming sense of fear. For me personally, I have found that once I do this and call out to Him, a lot of my fear if not all of it disapears completley. You don't have to get fancy with this one either, but even something as simple as "God", or "God help me" should do the trick. Remember that God can hear you, and you don't need something huge to get his attention. He's already focused on you 100% and looking out for you.

Stay Close to God. This one is one of those that helps in the long run. It can most certinly help at the time you are going through fear as well, but the closer you become to God, the more you are going to trust Him, leading to you being less fearful. It's a beautiful cycle and all starts with getting to know Him better. This can be done by reading the Bible, talking to God, singing praise songs and just getting to know your Creater and Father better in any way.

Fear is just such a huge topic, there is so much that could be shared on the topic of fear itself. I'm not going to go into it all here, but I may post some sucess stories from teenagers like you that have gone through a scary situation and gotten through it by the grace of God. So be on the look out for some of those stories here coming up! And if you want to share a story yourself, please send me an email at angelicaspassion@aol.com with the title, "Fear Story" and share your story of how God helped you through your fear. I'd love to share it!

In the meantime, here are some extra verses to look up on fear if you are needing a place to start.

Proverbs 29:25
Psalm 86:11
Jeremiah 32:40
Isaiah 41:10
2 Timothy 1:7

If you have a topic that you want me to write about, I'd love to hear about it! Please send me an email at angelicaspassion@aol.com with the title "Topic Suggestion" and I will get back to you! :)

Unequally Yoked: Relationships

As teenagers, we can sometimes tend to fall for someone without thinking long term. We see examples of this all around us when girls fall for a guy, they start dating and then break up with each other a few days, weeks, and in few cases months later all because it didn't work out. If we were to really stop and look at this pattern of dating someone for such a short amount of time and then breaking up with them, we would see that most of the time, these people were not right for each other from the very beginning but because they started dating each other anyway, it became a bad cycle that did not end very well at all.

As Christians, hopefully we are not going around and dating a bunch of guys to find the right one. We need to be trusting that God will bring the right one along when the time is right. But there are some things we should and should not be doing as we wait for God to bring us that special someone. The main thing is that we don't need to be getting romantically involved with people that are not equally yoked, or not Christians themselves.

"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" 2 Corinthians 6:14

When we attach ourselves to someone who does not have the same belief system, we are setting ourselves up for the relationship to eventually fail and for us to have a broken heart. Sometimes, even when we decide to get emotionally attached to someone, they are not the special person that God has chosen for us in our future. It is also very important to note that we are not supposed to completely forget about these people or decide not to be friends with them just because they don't believe the same thing you do. We are not to forget about these people, but are supposed to be there to befriend and support them. But there is a fine line that needs to be drawn here. We can be friends with unbelievers but nothing more.

When God does not want us to be romantically involved with unbelievers, this is not to punish us or take away our fun. Instead, God is trying to protect us from getting hurt and getting dragged down by them. Most often times when a Christian and an unbeliever start dating, what eventually starts happening is the more and more time they spend around each other, the more and more that the unbeliever starts dragging the Christian down. We need to be together with someone that will lift us up and help support us in our faith, not eventually drag us down.

You might be sitting there thinking, "Okay, this makes sense. But what if we start dating and then they will eventually become a Christian?" Although this is a nice thought, most of the time this is not the case. I'm not saying it's not possible, but more then likely this person will end up bringing you down, no matter how strong you are to begin with. This is where we need to trust that the person God will bring to us will not have to change their beliefs just to be in a relationship with us, but instead, will already have their beliefs set in stone by the time you are supposed to start dating them. We need to have trust in God that he will bring us someone who is way better then we could have ever imagined. Someone who will lift us up instead of drag us down. Someone who will not only respect your beliefs, but agree with them. :-)

"Do not be deceived: 'Bad company ruins good morals.'" 1 Corinthians 15:33

Good luck girls, I'll be praying for you all in the weeks to come. Can you believe that Christmas is almost here? 7 days until we celebrate the birth of our King! <3

Facing the Unknown

Hey guys! :)


I've just about disappeared off the face of the earth when it comes to blogging. Well I finally decided it would be a good idea to get back into the swing of things, and start blogging again! I recently moved from doing an online public high school to a traditional public school system, so I have been trying to get the hang of things there and not get too bogged down with school work and sports. A friend of mine brought it to my attention that I should start blogging again, and maybe start blogging about my experiences at the high school and my transition from going to an online school to a public school. So in the future weeks, I will be talking about topics related to high school students as well. :) So now that you're all updated as far as my school change goes, I had something on my mind that I felt like I should share with you guys. Enjoy! :)


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I don't know about you, but I personally don't like much change in my life. Overall, I am perfectly content to stay in the same patterns and habits that I have been doing for years, and never change anything about them. You might be thinking, "Well why? Don't you want to try new things?" The answer to that is yes, of course. But sometimes I can get into the habit of thinking that life would be easier if I didn't try new things. If I just stayed in the same old patterns that I have been keeping up for years and never change a thing. Sure, I'm kinda right. Life would be a lot easier. But God wants us to be a light for others to see, and for me, this meant going back to the public school.

"In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:16(NIV)

Trying new things can be very scary. I think just at anyone you meet can tell you that the unknown can be a little nerve wracking, if not downright frightening. As humans, we try to take control of the situation and make sense of everything ourselves. As soon as we can't make sense of something ourselves, we panic. But when life changes and things start working a little differently then we're normally used to, why do we panic? Doesn't God tell us not to be afraid when trouble arises?

"Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand." Isaiah 41:10(NIV)

When we are placed in scary situations, it is very important to really remember just how big our God is. Why do we freak out when we're moving to a new school, a new city, a new state? Why do we freak out when things don't go as planned? Because even though they are unplanned on our part, they are all apart of God's plan. Keep these things in mind the next time you start to worry about something small and trivial. We have a BIG God. Why do we worry about the little things? God says that he will always take care of us, no matter what happens in our life.

"Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are?" Matthew 6:26(NIV)


** Another good passage in the Bible to read when you are afraid or worried is Psalms 23. :)

Setting an Example

You should be an example to the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. -- 1 Timothy 4: 12

What comes to mind when you think about a role model? Some would think of celebrities, actors, actresses, your pastor, a family friend, or overall just someone that others look up to. I mean I'm sure we all have someone in our life that we can honestly see as a role model. For some of us, this could even be your mom or dad. But have you ever really stopped to see what the word role model really means? Let's take a quick look at what a dictionary says a role model is.

Role Model- Noun: A person looked to by others as an example to be imitated.

A person looked to by other...as an example to others. Hmmm... go back up and read the Bible verse in 1 Timothy. You might find a few similarities with this definition and that Bible verse. God calls Christians to be role models in Christ to shine His light to others. I'm sure for most of you, this is not any new news. But I have a crazy idea for you, that you might want to spend some time thinking about this month.

Have you ever maybe thought that YOU could be setting an example for someone else?

Honestly, I don't think this question comes to mind very often. We know that our little sisters or brothers tend to look up to us. We know that we have other people we look up to. But have we ever really stopped to think that we are setting an example for someone else? I know for me, I really never thought about it. Maybe you're in the same boat too. Stop and think for a second. Do you go to church, or youth group? You are setting an example there. Walk into Wal-mart? You're setting an example there too. Go to the local mall with your friends? More examples being set.

The thing is, we can set a good example, or a bad example. Of course, as Christians, we want to strive to set good examples everywhere we go that will shine all of the glory back on God. Sometimes it is easy to get trapped into the lie that we don't set an example for anyone. But believe it or not, you are setting an example to many, many people. You just might not know it yet, but you are. :) I wanted to take this post to encourage you today. We are all setting an example, but what kind of example are we setting? We want to strive to be setting a Godly example in everything we do. You never know who you just might be setting an example for.

God's Fireworks

So every 4th of July, our family always takes everyone out to go see fireworks. Sometimes it is not always the same place every year, but every year we never fail to see firework displays somewhere. In a way, it is one of the family traditions our family has for the 4th of July. I have always thought fireworks were so cool. So beautiful and captivating in a way.

Well around 3 to 4 years ago, on the 4th of July, we were on our way home from a fireworks display. Everyone was so excited and chatty about the beautiful display we had just seen. Everyone had a different perspective of the display as well. I had looked up into the clear, starry night sky when I saw bright flashes of light in the sky. There was no explanation for them, because there was not a storm cloud in sight. I thought they were the coolest thing and had told my parents, "Look Mom and Dad! It's God's Fireworks!" Everyone had laughed and agreed.

Well now, 3 to 4 years later, these mysterious light flashes still happen. Always on the 4th of July. Never failing. (: Tonight we all thought there would be none of God's fireworks because, one again, there was not a storm cloud in the sky. Well when we were driving home, just as I had turned and looked at the sky, I saw God's bright flashes of fireworks in the sky. We saw them 3 to 4 times before they were done. It's something so simple, but something that I hope continues to happen for the rest of my life. Just a little something that says, "I love you, this is just for you." Keep on the look out for little things that are "God's Fireworks" for you. They may or may not be the same thing. But do you have something that happens that you can just tell it was God? Be on the look out for these little things in life itself, not just the 4th of July. You never know, you might form a tradition with God. (:

Run TO God

Earlier today my little sister was crying over some school work she was frustrated with. She wanted to give up and throw in the towel. She was flat out done with trying to complete the lesson and wanted nothing more to do with it. My little brother who is almost 5, walked in the room after hearing his sister cry. "Are you okay?" He asked her, his eyes full of concern and worry. "Go away!" She had screamed back at him. My poor little brother had turned around and slowly walked out of the room.

After watching this happen as I got ready to do some school for the day, I realized something. All of us are a lot like my little sister. At times we can get sad, frustrated, and angry at God because we can feel like everything we are going through is all his fault. We blame God for things and problems that he is not causing. And I think this is all because we want someone to blame. If we can't blame our father, mother, or siblings we want to blame someone. And in this case, it can easily be God. And you know what God does when we yell and scream at him? He backs off, and waits. He waits for us to come running to his arms, and he will never leave. He will never turn around and walk out that door, but he will wait for you to decide to come to him. He loves you more then you could ever imagine. If you are in the middle of running away from God, I encourage you to stop and do the opposite. Run TO him. He cares so much about you, and wants to be closer to you, not further away. :)

5 down, 4 more to go!

Hey family and friends,
I am very happy to announce 5 out of the 9 performances are officially over! That means we are over half way done with the performances. It's wonderful news because when this is all over I will be able to focus on school work more, on the down side though..I will miss all the great people I have gotten to know through this amazing experience. But overall, I am really glad God placed me where he did with these people. :) it has been a life changing experience, that's for sure. Tonight went really well, and there is little I would have changed. I am slightly nervous because tomorrow or Sunday-my parents are going to be watching-that's a cause for nerves! But, when you think about it-they are going to be a lot less judging than most in the audience, and most of the time they are going to be sitting there thinking, "That's my girl, on stage-doing something she never would have thought she would have done" So overall I think they will be proud. :) I am energized after a good performance night tonight and can't wait for tomorrow or Sunday! God Bless guys, keep you posted! :)

Flash to the past....

Hey Family and Friends,
Tonight before bed I spotted my old diary from the year 2008 and decided to read it. Some of the posts made me laugh, smile, and even a little sad. I decided to use the time to read the bible and talk to God about the choices I made in the past. I realized that things seemed like such a big deal 2 years ago, when in reality they are not a big deal at all. I also had to laugh as I realized that, the same thing applies now. 2 years ago, it was time to freak out when my little sisters told me they hated me, now it's time to freak out when you feel left out by a guy. I realized tonight that I need to get my priorities in order more than I have before. Not only do I need to trust God in what he's doing...I also need to realize that everything is going to go just fine and he's in control. Sure, there may be a fair share of tears down the road. But that doesn't mean he's not right there drying them as you cry. God is always with you. :) Love and prayers.