Lets close this chapter!

Today closes a huge chapter in my life. One that I am thankful I will never have to revisit. I am official done with High School. Sunday I will walk across that stage, and receive a piece of paper that says I have survived 4 years or horror... no it wasn't that bad. I guess that everyone gets a little sappy and sentimental when they graduate and I am no different. I have grown into a young woman over these past few years. I know that I still have much more growing to do, but I am proud where I am now.

Tonight I decided to get out the box that holds every thing important from preschool to the end of my senior year. I got quite a few laughs at myself :) But I realized tonight how perfectly and wonderfully God has created me. I have been given many gifts from Him. One gift in particular is my ability to articulate words and put them together in such a fashion to create a piece of art. I think I have been writing since I could hold a pen. Reading everything I wrote as a child makes me appreciate my teachers and my parents for pushing me to be creative and to let my creativity flow onto paper. I love to write. For me writing is a way to express myself. I hope that I never lose that passion.

As i lay my head down on my pillow tonight, I am going to say a huge prayer of blessing over everyone that helped me become the person I am today. I am so blessed to have the life I have. Sometimes I literally feel the love surrounding me. So here is my thank you to my wonderful parents, Susan and Roger who have raised me in a home that is a true likeness of the person of Jesus. They pushed me harder than anyone else and I would not be here today with out them :) Thank you to my little sister, Claire for being a constant friend, confident and comedian in my life. I have been blessed with the coolest little sister ever!! Many thanks to my Grandma and Grandpa Walterhouse and my Nanny and Papaw Beals, to my aunts, uncles and cousins, to all my pastors, Sunday school teachers and youth leaders and to my very best and true friends!

Words can not begin to describe the emotions that are in my heart tonight. I am so blessed.

<3 Char

Frustration

I am really frustrated at myself tonight. I can not sleep. I have noticed that the past few weeks my relationship with Christ has not been where it should be. I have slowly been isolating myself, thinking I can deal with my problems on my own. I by no means have this figured out and as I am sure you can guess, I am failing miserably at being my own "savior." I reread all my journal entries from Honduras and I want to find the girl that I was when I was there this summer. Something changed in me. I have never felt the Holy Spirit on me in such a powerful way as I did when I was overseas. Please capture my heart JESUS!

I was talking with my mom a few days ago about my future and my past... they kinda go hand in hand. I have been healed from many childhood fears and insecurities that I struggled with and I find those things creeping back into my life. I just want to scream: satan get behind me! you have no authority to be in my thoughts or my actions! Its so freeing to say that!

I know deep down that when I stop trying to control everything around me that God is going to step in and rock my world like crazy, but recently it has been difficult to hand Him the reins to my life. I am continuing to pray that God clearly directs my path and I know that He will.

So tonight I ask all of my friends and family to intercede on my behalf and ask God to reveal Himself to me and capture my heart again!

<3 Char

#YOLO

I realized today how much we have in to offer this world. Think about it... there are like 7 billion people who are on this planet and God made every single one of them different. Not one human being is the same. Can you just picture God in Heaven intricately working to create someone unique and special? Someone that He will love forever? The thought blows my mind. I can picture like a huge cabinet with all these jars labeled with different personality traits and God just sprinkling us with ones that He created for us! Its crazy to think that we are all different.

But in a way arent we all the same? Dont we have a heart that beats and a brain that functions? Weren't we all created for one incredible purpose?  I love how different we can be and yet how alike we all are.

Every year, at some point, I start to worry about what my future will look like. Its really a ridiculous thing to do, but I am human and far from perfect. Today I was worried that by getting an intercultural studies degree, or missions, that I would be getting the most pointless degree offered. What can one do with an INTERCULTURAL studies major in America? Then I was reminded that if God created me and knows everything about me then He probably has a plan for my life and a reason for me to major in intercultural studies.

See that's the incredible thing about God,  He has all my days planned. He has everything that He wants me to do scheduled. And thats why tonight I can rest in His arms knowing that He is in control of my past, my present and my future.

You only live once... and i'm choosing to live for Christ