Time is of the Essence...

I have been very busy over the month or so. I have my first set of A-Level exams in just over a week and a half and well, I have focused all my time and energy on them making sure that I get all my revision done and panicking at the same 1) that I'm never going to get it all done, 2) I'm going to fail, and 3) this is never going to end!! It's been a very stressful and busy month for me and now I am near the end I have had a revelation...this is going to end! I won't be stressed out forever and relatively speaking these exams will last for a very short time in comparison to the rest of my life. And also, if I don't get it done or if I do fail it's not the end of the world...God still has a plan for me.

Now I'm not saying don't stress out at all and wing it, which is tempting, but there is a limit! I still get stressed now but I just focus on the positives...IT'S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD!! Stressors will come into our lives all the time but it's how we handle it. I will admit...I'm not the best at dealing with stress but I have learnt so much over the past month. But the way I have learnt to deal with it is to focus on the end...see myelf at the end of the race and focus on the fact that once it's all over I can relax and that it WILL end at some point, it's not going to last forever, there is a light at the end of the tunnel!!

I have put my all into revising over the past month. Time. Effort. Energy. But this mornings service made me stop and think. The speaker said this;

"Sometimes when I go for a walk I like to put my headphones in and listen to the radio but there are times when all I hear is static. Sometimes on our walk with God that all we hear is static, we have to tune our hearts the hear Him."

For the first time in a long while I just stopped. I stopped thinking. I just sat and looked around. I had pushed everything and everyone away and had souly focused on myself and my exams. I have been meeting up with my friends less during the weekend, but I see them during the week at college but i had seen my family less as I was either, at college, in my room revising or at work and only really seeing them at meal times. Also I had restrcited myself to how much and how long I was to spend time with my boyfriend. All these had been tough especially not seeing ym boufriend as much but I knew at the end I'd be able to spend as much time with him as I wanted. But I had also stopped spending as much time with God, this is not necessarily a great plan. I relaised this morning that I had tuned my heart away from Him.

The fact is that God is with us all the time, unlike family, friends, boyfriends/girlfriends when we can spend time apart. God is there constantly and even though we may tune away from Him, He is constantly speaking words of love nad comfort to us but it is our job to tune our hearts to Him and listen. My challenge this week for myself and I also challenge you to make time for your loved ones and for God. Stressors will come and go but family, friends and God will be always!

New Year, New Start?!

So it's the beginning of 2012, the beginning of the end of the world right? Not that I believe this stuff about the end of the world, beginning a Christian I believe that we don't actually know when the earth will end but I hope it's not this year, I have so much planned for the rest of my life. There's a common phrase, "live each day as if it was your last". I think this is an amazing phrase but it is not a philosophy I hold to my own life and I wish I did and maybe this year is the year?! Who knows! But why not live this year as if it was our last? I was sat in the car with my parents on the way back from a day out, the radio was on and the news came on and what a depressing load of rubbish! The headlines were; a shooting of 4, a stabbing of 1 and the death of a sportsman. Great! All that is in the news these days is murders, resession, climate change, death, war, uprising. No wonder we are so depressed these days. I'm not saying that there isnt happy stuff in the news but it very rarely makes the headlines. I think everyone would be much happier if we sharded news about the better things in life, love, engagments, birth, achievements etc. but hey, I'm just one person voicing an opinion but isn't that what all this here's about, voicing an opinion.


So a new start for me....I'm rubbish at making New Year Resolutions, so this year I haven't. I'm just going to try and get through this year and at the end of it not having to think "well i didn't stick to that" "I failed and doing this". No, at the end I'm going to think "I achieved this", "I survived my A-Levels" (which will be a HUGE success for me). But so far I'm looking forward to this year, there haven't been any major troubles...yet... but I don't want to speak to soon! I know this year will tough. Hell, I'm sitting my A-Levels, it's going to be one of the toughest yet but I know I have the strenght to get through...some how and I know that God will give me the grace to do so :) So I ask myself, and I challenege others, is this really a new start or are we going to just carrying on like we did this time last year or are we actually going to make a change so we can truely say at the end of the year, "2012 was the year I made a change"? Is it really a new year, a new start?