Ok so this song, "You are Still Holy" is one of my favorite songs. The basic theme of the song is that God is still Holy and still in control even when our world seems to be falling apart. The first verse says :
"Holy, You are still holy, even when the darkness surrounds my life,
and soverign You are still soverign, even when confusion has blinded my eyes.
And Lord I dont deserve Your kind affection
When my unbelief has kept me from Your touch
I want my life to be a pure reflection of Your love."
This verse is saying that yes, God is still in control but also it reminds me that I am so unworthy of His love because so many times I feel like I need to take control because God isnt big enough to take care of my problems or worries but even in that unbelief God still does take care of me and still loves me. The chorus says:
"So I come, into Your chambers, and I dance at Your feet Lord
You are my Savior, and I'm at Your mercy,
And all that has been in my life until now
It belongs to You, for You are still holy."
The chorus of this song talks about how when we are in trouble how we can bodly approach the throne of God and sit with Him and He will comfort us, take care of us, and have mercy on us. It talks about giving everything that has been in our lives to Him and letting Him take control of it because we cannot possibly live without Him. He wants 100% of our life.
The second verse is my absolute favorite. It has spoken to me so much throughout many sturggles and worries I have been through in my life. It says:
"Holy, You are still holy
Even when I dont understand Your ways,
Soverign You are still soverign
Even when my circumstances dont change.
And Lord i dont deserve Your tender patience
When my unbelief has kept me from Your truth
I want my life to be a pure devotion to You.."
This verse talks about how the Lord is still in control and still is God even when we do not understand why things happen. Like why would terrorists attack America...or a raging hurricance destroy an entire city...or someone's baby dying or anything like that. Why do things like this happen? Well we cannot possibly understand the mind of God or many times His way of doing things but we can know that He is still in control and still loves us, even when circumstances like that happen. The second part talks about how even when we pray and ask God for something or someone to get better, or for something not to happen, but it does, that He still is soverign and in control. Many times in our lives God may not heal our family members or friends or answer our prayers the way we think they should be answered but even in that sadness and worry and grief the Lord still is in control and cares for us and loves us. We have to remember that His plan is better than our own and that His plans are not for harm but for good. Jeremiah 29:11 says "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
My Wonderful Wonderful Weekend :)
ok so I'm gonna get a little sappy on here for this post so bear with me :) well this weekend was wonderful...as you can see by the title :) My boyfriend drove down from Troy, Tennessee on friday and spent the weekend with me and my family. He lives about 7 1/2 hours away from Montgomery. We met over the summer at this camp down at the beach where we were both leaders at. He has been down three times to visit now since then..i coulnt ask for a better boyfriend:) so anyways he drove down friday and got to montgomery around 3pm. I didnt get off work till four...and all of a sudden while i was waiting and waiting for the clock to strike FOUR....a bouquet of roses showed up in my office at work:) 3 lavender roses, 2 yellow, and one red rose. Yes, he brought them by and gave them to someone to put on my desk:) so this is how the weekend started...not a bad start if you ask me:) ok well after work i got all dressed up and he took me out to this nice restaurant in Old Cloverdale called The Chophouse Vintage Year....it was fabulous! :) THen we decided to go see Inception at the Rave. Then we went home. ok so the next day we went to a wedding reception for one of my friends and then to the lake with the youth group from my church. THat was a blast! The best part though was that he was with me:) ok well sunday we went to church, then out to eat with my sunday school class. Then the hard part came....we had to say goodbye. He had to go back home sunday after lunch. So we went to shakespear and walked around a little bit and then to the gas station so he could fill up his car before he left. It gets harder and harder everytime he visits for me to tell him goodbye:( I cried the whole way home..which is about on hour for me...yeah it wasnt pretty. But all this to say my weekend was wonderful:) and I have a wonderful boyfriend:)
Thursday, September 9, 2010
A Must Have-Let Down
ok well I do this alot. I see an add for something and I'm like "OH MY GOSH I HAVE TO HAVE THAT!" yeah....its bad. Well....I did this yesterday in fact....hahah so one of my favorite stores is Ulta..located in Eastchase:). It's a makeup/cosmetics store and I'm a sucker for anything like that. Well the store was giving away this free gift with any $25 purchase of the kind of makeup I wear. And it was this makeup stuff that I had been wanting to try but it was pretty expensive so I had not bought it...YET ;) ok so I go to Ulta and get my $25 dollars worth of my makeup...yes I spent $25 just for a free gift, and they hand me my free gift and to say I was dissapointed when I got to my car and opened it, would be an understatement. It was supposed to be this pretty big container of makeup...well it wasnt. It was probably the smallest thing of makeup they made..like this stuff MAY last a week...MAYBE...and I paid $25 for it. I was not happy. But it taught me a lesson....I really shouldnt go and by something or spend money just to get the free gift that in reality I dont really need anyways. The store advertised this free gift very well though. And they acted like they were giving the actual larger bottle of makeup...oh but NO. So I learned not to trust the stores advertisements anymore as well:) So yes this is something Ashley needs to work on:)....control..and learning to be happy with what I have, instead of always wanting the next best thing.
The Weekend
OK sooo, I had plans for this weekend. My friend was coming back from Mobile and we were gonna go to the Auburn game together and hang out and etc...well I woke up Saturday and felt terrible. So in short, I didnt go to the game. I was not happy cause I was supposed to see like all my friends that I havent seen in a while but sadly that did not happen. Well yes I was upset BUT two of them were going to drive back down to Montgomery that night and come to church with me Sunday morning. Well...Saturday night i got a text from my friend that said they were staying in Auburn and gonna go to church there. I WAS NOT HAPPY. haha I wanted to see them and now i wasnt going to be able to see them and I had no clue when I was going to be able to see them again. So I was really sad...and kinda mad at them, haha but anyways I got up Sunday morning went to church, and as Im sitting there, in walks my friends! haha they lied to me when they said that they were staying in Auburn...they wanted to surprise me:) so yeah anyways I wasnt upset anymore and I got to see them. haha well Monday was great...I did nothing but work on some homework and tuesday I had to work from 1-4pm and then I went to Buffalo Wild Wings. They serve 50 cent wings on Tuesday nights just FYI...its amazing :) Well thats my weekend...Hope yall had an awesome weekend! :)
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
My Own Literacy Narrative
The room was silent, except for the light, bored tapping of pencils and the heavy sighs as my teacher explained our class's assignment. She was assigning our senior thesis, something every one of us had been dreading since the ninth grade. I was not really paying any attention to what she was saying until the words "it must be fifteen or more pages" came out of her mouth. I knew that it had to be that long from previous seniors complaining about it, but when it hit me that I had to write that much, I was shocked. I thought to myself "fifteen pages?!! What is she thinking? I can't write fifteen pages!" Even the thought of having to write fifteen or more pages scared me to death and I knew there was possible way I could do this. During the first few days of trying to think of something to write about my head was spinning and I was already stressing out about this monster of a paper. A thesis paper is not just your regular research paper, it is basically a defensive paper, so of course along with writing the defense we had to verbally defend our paper and opinions on the book in front of a panel of four people. This just packed on the stress even more.
Dr. Klucking, my literature teacher, warned us in the eleventh grade that the thesis would come faster than we imagined, but as usual I did not even take that into consideration and did not worry about it all summer. Then, like a train wreck, the work load hit our class. She began assigning the thesis statement, the first page, and so on. The first step I had to make was to choose what book I wanted to do my thesis on. I chose Gulliver's Travels as my thesis book and decided my thesis would be on the satire of the government in England that Jonathan Swift portrayed in his book. Before I knew it the first page was due, then the first five, and the first ten, then all of a sudden the first draft of the entire paper was due in just a few days. Throughout the entire time of writing this defense I had stressed out moments, anger moments, and complete breakdown moments. There were times that I thought that I was going to fail and not be able to graduate, but finally the day came where the paper was done and that feeling was indescribable. Once my verbal defense was complete and I walked out of that room I felt so free and felt like I could do anything. It gave me confidence in the writing area of my life.
At the beginning of the paper I was scared to death of writing such a huge paper, but thanks to Dr. Kluckings help, guidance, and support throughout the entire paper, I was able to complete it, without dying that is. The thesis paper taught me how to manage my time wisely along with teaching my how to write. I can't just spit out fifteen pages on the night before it's due and expect to pass; I had to write one to two pages at least, a week. Dr. Klucking would have two to three pages due each week which also helped in managing my time. This paper took the procrastinator right out of me; there was no way I could procrastinate with this paper and receive a passing grade. This writing task was difficult and challenged me greatly, but I came out on the other side of this challenge as an improved writer and a confident one. Although I still do not love to write I have learned to like it and to not be scared of a writing assignment given to me.I have confidence that I need for any future writing assignments in college or wherever I go. This thesis paper brought out the writer that I never knew was inside of me and I am thankful, although it was painful, for this challenge.
Dr. Klucking, my literature teacher, warned us in the eleventh grade that the thesis would come faster than we imagined, but as usual I did not even take that into consideration and did not worry about it all summer. Then, like a train wreck, the work load hit our class. She began assigning the thesis statement, the first page, and so on. The first step I had to make was to choose what book I wanted to do my thesis on. I chose Gulliver's Travels as my thesis book and decided my thesis would be on the satire of the government in England that Jonathan Swift portrayed in his book. Before I knew it the first page was due, then the first five, and the first ten, then all of a sudden the first draft of the entire paper was due in just a few days. Throughout the entire time of writing this defense I had stressed out moments, anger moments, and complete breakdown moments. There were times that I thought that I was going to fail and not be able to graduate, but finally the day came where the paper was done and that feeling was indescribable. Once my verbal defense was complete and I walked out of that room I felt so free and felt like I could do anything. It gave me confidence in the writing area of my life.
At the beginning of the paper I was scared to death of writing such a huge paper, but thanks to Dr. Kluckings help, guidance, and support throughout the entire paper, I was able to complete it, without dying that is. The thesis paper taught me how to manage my time wisely along with teaching my how to write. I can't just spit out fifteen pages on the night before it's due and expect to pass; I had to write one to two pages at least, a week. Dr. Klucking would have two to three pages due each week which also helped in managing my time. This paper took the procrastinator right out of me; there was no way I could procrastinate with this paper and receive a passing grade. This writing task was difficult and challenged me greatly, but I came out on the other side of this challenge as an improved writer and a confident one. Although I still do not love to write I have learned to like it and to not be scared of a writing assignment given to me.I have confidence that I need for any future writing assignments in college or wherever I go. This thesis paper brought out the writer that I never knew was inside of me and I am thankful, although it was painful, for this challenge.
Discourse Communities
Throughout a persons life, they are involved with many discourse communities. The discourse communites tell their life story, what a person likes to do or what they are interested in. These communities create a way for people to come together under an idea or topic and discuss it; they unite people. Three discourse communities that I am most involved in or the three most important "languages" I speak are Jesus, music, and sports.
The most important community for me, would have to be Jesus. Ever since I can remember i have been in church and been completely involved with it. My dad was raised Methodist and my mom Baptist. Specifically I have been raised Baptist and grown up in the Baptist church but instead of saying I belong to the Baptist community I must say I just belong to Jesus. So many times it is easy to get caught up in saying the right thing in church or being one way at church and another way at school or with friends. Many times I have tried to hide the fact that I speak Jesus because of what people might think. But over the years I have learned that I should not and can not be ashamed of sharing the gospel with people and that I should not be scared of what people may think of me. Jesus was brutally tortured for me, how can I even think of being ashamed of Him. He has redeemed me and set me free of my sin so I would not have to die, but I have hope that I will live with Him in heaven for eternity. He died for me, so i live for Him.
Another discourse community or language I speak is music. My father has been playing the piano since he was about five years old and has played in bands, for pagents, for churches, and pretty much anything else. His love and passion for music inspired me to begin taking piano when I was eight years old. Throughout the years of practicing and being forced to practice I began to dislike this instrument very much to the point of completely ending my lesson taking all together. This ended up being the best discision i made. After I stopped taking in about the eighth grade, my dad began to teach me and I taught myself as well. I learned more that way than all the years combined of taking lessons. This also taught me how to teach things to myself instead of someone else having to teach me, and this inspired me to learn how to play guitar. I have fallen in love with music and playing instruments, its a refuge for me when i get stressed or iritable. It has also allowed me to be in bands and now lead our youth band at church. I am very thankfull to speak this language, without it, I would be lost.
Sports is another language that I speak, not as well as I would like, but I still love it. I have grown up in the south all my life and college football is almost like a religion here. When football season starts, my Saturdays include nothing but the TV pretty much. My grandmother and mom are some of the biggest football fans I know. My grandmother's TV literally never goes off on Saturdays untill she decides to go to bed. When I meet someone I have to watch myself because one of my first questions sometimes is, "Are you an Alabama or Auburn fan?", just assuming that they are on one side or the other, and I am shocked when they ask "Who is that?'. This discourse community is one of the biggest communites that can bring people together. The huge stadiums filled with people, bars and restaurants filled with people, and homes filled with family and friends yelling at the team through the TV screen. When my family and I begin speaking this language or enter this community we become sometimes completely different people. Anger is very prevelent among us when the game begins, from start to finish someone is yelling. This community probably has one of the fastest mood changes; from anger to rejoicing all in about a minute. But, that is one thing that makes this community enjoyable.
Discourse communities a represented in everyones life. Everyone is part of some kind of community and speaks different kinds of languages. These are essential to our lives because this is what brings us together with other people and unites groups of people. The discourse communites I am involved with show what I am intersted in and gives a little insight into my life.
The most important community for me, would have to be Jesus. Ever since I can remember i have been in church and been completely involved with it. My dad was raised Methodist and my mom Baptist. Specifically I have been raised Baptist and grown up in the Baptist church but instead of saying I belong to the Baptist community I must say I just belong to Jesus. So many times it is easy to get caught up in saying the right thing in church or being one way at church and another way at school or with friends. Many times I have tried to hide the fact that I speak Jesus because of what people might think. But over the years I have learned that I should not and can not be ashamed of sharing the gospel with people and that I should not be scared of what people may think of me. Jesus was brutally tortured for me, how can I even think of being ashamed of Him. He has redeemed me and set me free of my sin so I would not have to die, but I have hope that I will live with Him in heaven for eternity. He died for me, so i live for Him.
Another discourse community or language I speak is music. My father has been playing the piano since he was about five years old and has played in bands, for pagents, for churches, and pretty much anything else. His love and passion for music inspired me to begin taking piano when I was eight years old. Throughout the years of practicing and being forced to practice I began to dislike this instrument very much to the point of completely ending my lesson taking all together. This ended up being the best discision i made. After I stopped taking in about the eighth grade, my dad began to teach me and I taught myself as well. I learned more that way than all the years combined of taking lessons. This also taught me how to teach things to myself instead of someone else having to teach me, and this inspired me to learn how to play guitar. I have fallen in love with music and playing instruments, its a refuge for me when i get stressed or iritable. It has also allowed me to be in bands and now lead our youth band at church. I am very thankfull to speak this language, without it, I would be lost.
Sports is another language that I speak, not as well as I would like, but I still love it. I have grown up in the south all my life and college football is almost like a religion here. When football season starts, my Saturdays include nothing but the TV pretty much. My grandmother and mom are some of the biggest football fans I know. My grandmother's TV literally never goes off on Saturdays untill she decides to go to bed. When I meet someone I have to watch myself because one of my first questions sometimes is, "Are you an Alabama or Auburn fan?", just assuming that they are on one side or the other, and I am shocked when they ask "Who is that?'. This discourse community is one of the biggest communites that can bring people together. The huge stadiums filled with people, bars and restaurants filled with people, and homes filled with family and friends yelling at the team through the TV screen. When my family and I begin speaking this language or enter this community we become sometimes completely different people. Anger is very prevelent among us when the game begins, from start to finish someone is yelling. This community probably has one of the fastest mood changes; from anger to rejoicing all in about a minute. But, that is one thing that makes this community enjoyable.
Discourse communities a represented in everyones life. Everyone is part of some kind of community and speaks different kinds of languages. These are essential to our lives because this is what brings us together with other people and unites groups of people. The discourse communites I am involved with show what I am intersted in and gives a little insight into my life.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Oh The Joys Of Working
Well I got my first job this summer right after I graduated. I had been wanting to get a job for a while, I guess cause it would make me feel older and more grown up or whatever...but dad kept saying, dont have one while its not necessary..enjoy not having to work cause you will have to work the rest of your life...etc. Then, I disagreed with him and thought he was crazy....now, not so much. haha I work at Montgomery Family Medicine, a doctors office over in Sturbridge Commons. I work three days a week, two days part time and a full day on friday. I work in the medical records department...no I dont get to stick anyone with needles or anything like that yet ;) but anyways, I do enjoy my job, just at many times it is stressful and especially now since school has started, I wish I could sleep in when I have to get up in the mornings and go to work. But it does keep the money coming in so thats a HUGE bonus;) Also I am hoping this job will get me some experience since I plan on majoring in Nursing and I hope it will look good on a resume. Well this is my first and only job I have ever had and after working there for a while I now understand what my dad means when he comes home and is so tired after a days worth of work. haha. One good thing about this job is that it has brought in money and I have had to learn how to manage it as well. But all in all this job has been a good experience and I think will continue to be.
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