My 18th Birthday!...

Tonight my parents took Steelley and I to El Coyote for my 18th birthday dinner. It was almost a week late...but I'm not complaining cause you just can't complain about steak. If you've never been to El Coyote let me just tell you...you NEED to go! Save up your money and go there! If you drive past the restaurant on any normal day you wouldn't know that they have good food. The outside isn't very fancy or anything...it's just a hole in the wall. But despite that...it has THE BEST filet mignon I have ever had in my 18 years of living. The filet mignon is so tender it almost melts in your mouth! It's very delicious and I strongly encourage you to go sometime and get that. Besides all of that I am now headed home to watch "October Baby" for the first time and eat my birthday cake that my mom had Holly Butts make me...I am beyond excited to eat this cake! It's always a treat when you get even just one bite of the moist deliciousness she makes so well! I am so blessed and thankful to be spending this wonderful evening with people I love so much!! 

Acceptance & Not Fitting In...

Not fitting in and/or not being "accepted" is something a lot of teens have to deal with, some more than others...but everyone handles it a little differently. Some act out and some just hide in a corner and cry when no one is looking. I honestly find it sad that everyone can't just get along...but unless everyone wants that, it's not going to happen...and a lot of people are content in their situations. 

I can honestly say while I have been a victim of not being accept, i'm ashamed to say that I used to be one that made people not feel accepted or wanted when they walked into my youth group on Sunday mornings or Wednesday nights. I am embarrassed to admit this because I'm a born again believer...I claim the name of Jesus and yet I wasn't acting very Christ like...I'm supposed to accept everyone for how they come, treat them great, and show them God's love...but I wasn't doing that. It's not that I was intentionally trying to be mean or anything, but I was content in my situation and I didn't really need anyone coming along trying to squeeze into my little "clique" thing. 

In the past year I've had to go to people and apologize for how I treated them in the past. Around a year ago I realized my youth group needed change and the only way change was going to happen was if both sides came together as a group and loved each other despite each others flaws and differences...like we're supposed to as Christians. How are you able to love outsiders if you can't even love the people you sit in church with every Sunday?? Now don't get me wrong.. my youth group is GREAT, but just like any youth group there are groups of friends and whoever doesn't "fit in" with those groups cling together and become "the outsiders on the inside". I hate division...it's really not cool to walk into a room and see the obvious segregation. 

So one Sunday I decided even if nobody else was going to try and make a change I was going to....because everyone needs love and I thought that anyone who didn't "fit in" wasn't really getting that much love from the group. So that Sunday I switched from my side of the room...I left my comfort zone...the place where I was content....and I sat on the other side of the room. I began talking to people that any other Sunday prior you would've only seen me throwing a fake smile in their direction...sometimes. 

I began making friends...true friends that accepted all of me, and while I was trying to make a change for them, they made a change for me and made me feel something that I didn't really feel from others. While I was trying to show them love and acceptance...they showed me love and acceptance. I began to see that some of those kids knew love and acceptance more than I did, and while I was trying to show them...they were teaching me. 

No one else has yet to join me on my mission....but I am still sitting there every Sunday with "the outsiders on the inside" and although it's weird to say "I have become one of them"...I have. Those are the people I talk to the most because they go out of their way to speak to me, we all make an effort...those are the people who go up and speak to the new kids who come to class every week. They make "the outsiders" feel accepted and I am glad that I can say I am now a part of a group that seriously show's love to others. The change that needed to happen ended up changing me for the better...and there's nothing wrong with a little change!  

Best Cupcake Ever?...well you can decide that!

This evening I was on Pinterest and I kept seeing pictures of yummy looking desserts, so I decided I was going to make something! I wasn't sure whether I wanted some type of cookie or a cake. I Google'd "cupcake cookie" and my first search result was from Allrecipes.com "The best cupcake ever!" It looked good so I chose that one! Everyone wanted the cupcake cookies pretty quickly so I didn't get to follow the recipe to a T. I didn't chill the cookie dough balls for 2 hours, I’m not sure if it would have made that big of a difference but I guess next time I make them I will find out. I also didn't have cupcake papers so I just sprayed the silicone cupcake pan I used and they slid right out after they cooled. (Which silicone cools pretty quickly so I think it makes the cupcakes cool faster, personal opinion.) My cupcake cookies didn't look as fancy as the ones in the picture on the website because I made my own chocolate icing instead of using icing from a can. After all of the baking/icing process we finally got to eat them and they were very good! I would make them again and I’d recommend them to anyone. If they aren't "The best cupcake ever," they're pretty close to it! 

Hope you try them soon!

Yours Truly, ~ Emily ~

Something so simple....yet so hard to do at times.

What sparked me to write about this topic was the newly released song "Forgiveness"by Matthew West. I've heard this song on the radio for a few months and have recently memorized almost all of the words because they are so true! Why is it so much easier for us to hold a grudge against someone, instead of saying three simple words "I forgive you" or simply forgiving someone in our hearts? Maybe because we're human, but to me that's not a good enough excuse. Everyone at some point in their life has been guilty of holding a grudge against someone, for 5 minutes or over 10 years. Maybe someone hurt you so bad or did something so awful to or against you, that you think "I could never forgive them!" But when we think that, we aren't having the right heart about it. In Matthew 18:21 Peter asks the Lord Jesus "how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?" In Matthew 18:22 Jesus replied to Peter "I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven." Seventy times seven is four hundred ninety. If we follow what Jesus said, and can forgive someone four hundred ninety times surely we could forgive multiple times after that. But if reading the Bible and seeing the words of Jesus in red saying we need to forgive four hundred ninety times isn't enough, remembering that God sent his only son Jesus to die on the cross to FORGIVE all of our sins, should be enough to make us forgive others! Seriously who am I to hold a grudge against anyone? I am an unworthy sinner who’s saved by grace through faith!

Quiet Time daily...was not so daily!

This past Sunday Aug 26th my youth group started these new "Quiet Time" devotionals, by Word Of Life ®. I'm just going to be honest last year was a flop for me. When I started it, it went great I didn't miss a day and was doing pretty well off spiritually! But then...I missed a day because I was tired...honestly in my heart I was going to catch up the next day. But just like a diet if you mess up one day, it's super duper hard to get back on track. I don't know about anyone else, but when I personally get behind on things I have an extremely hard time catching back up. I have a little pinch of procrastination in my blood, but I'm a die hard planner 99.9% of the time. I think the thought of falling behind scares me so much that i think more about that, than the fact that I've  gotten a little behind on something. Anyways so far I'm on a steady path of doing my devotions, although it's not been a full week yet. I'm praying that i can stick to it this time and not get behind. I really don't want to miss something great God has planned for me! So far the devotions have been great. Some were about how we really need to show God how thankful we are, because we are abundantly blessed. The others were about how God has our back always. Psalms really is a great book in the Bible! That's all i have for now. :)

Yours Truly, ~ Emily ~