"The Glory Shall Be all Your Own, the Blessing Shall Be Ours"

These are some of the words to a song that my choir here at home sings. Today for some reason these words came to my mind. Is everything I do done for the glory of God? Wow. What a confronting question. I immediately thought "no. Of course not. No one is perfect, so not everything is done for His glory." Then I was struck by the thought that maybe it should be! Just because I am not perfect being a simple human being, does not mean that I should not strive to be like Christ - PERFECT. Christ was perfect in every aspect of life. He respected His parents and obeyed them, He did what was right in EVERY situation, He loved other people even when they hated Him. I am very far from that. I do not always respond correctly in every situation, I do not always respect and obey my mom perfectly, and I certainly find it hard to love other people when they do not like me or are mean to me. This was a challenging thought. "Whether therefore ye eat or drink or WHATSOEVER ye do, do all to the glory of God." No matter what I am doing, and no matter who I am doing something for, my ultimate goal should be the glory of God. I should not be doing things to make myself look good. I should not do things so that other people will praise me. I should do everything so that people will look at what I do and say "God did that. There is no way she did that on her own." I know that I cannot do anything on my own, but am I living like that is true? May God get all the glory in my life!

"You are worthy to be praised with my every thought and deed! Oh great God of highest Heaven, glorify Your name through me!"

~ Stephanie ~

   *Phil. 3:13-14*

School is out; what am I supposed to do?

Wow! This first semester at NIU has gone by so fast. I have learned a lot of things, met a ton of new people, made some friends that I will never forget, and some that I would rather go ahead and forget. But most importantly I have grown closer to my God. He has taught me so many things this semester, and even more over break. I have never been humbled quite as much or quite as often as this year. God has brought me through many trials and circumstances that, without Him, I would never have made it through. But if there is one thing I have learned, it is this: His grace is sufficient! He will never bring more into my life at one time than I can handle. He wll always be there right next to me guiding me each step of the way. He loves me with an everlasting love. He is "Lord of the ages, God before time." He created everything, and everything was created to bring Him glory. Even humans. Yes, we as humans were created to bring glory to a power greater than ourselves. That is the beauty of it all! Life is not all about me; it's not all about my friends; it's not all about the movie stars; it's about God! He wants, deserves, and will get all of me; I can simply refuse and reject him, or I can embrace His love for me and live for Him. It's my choice. I love and serve Him because I want to, not because I have to. The best thing about this year has got to be the fact that this is the year that the Lord brought me to a saving knowledge of Him. He is so gracious to do that for me after so many years of me rejecting Him and living life the way I wanted to. I love my Savior more than ever, and this week, on Monday morning, I gave my life to Him. I want Him to have all of me. Nothing more, nothing less. I surrender all.

"I surrender all. I surrender all. All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all!"

~ Stephanie ~

   *Phil. 3:13-14*