The Cause.

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Oh decisions, decisions, decisions… think. think. think. Sheesh. So, once again I was at a crossroads. I took the job Convergys offered me simply because it was convenient. Thennnn I got a job offer at The Red Cross. I took it and ran. Well… I first looked at it, tilted my head, then grabbed it and turned around. I had no clue if it was a good choice or a bad choice.

Side Note: Sometimes there is no “Good” or “Bad” choice. Every day, God throws choices your way that simply take you in a different direction. Remember, no matter what you choose, God’s still going to be there with you, waiting for you to see that He’ll never leave.

It’s farther away—but then again I’ll be moving in a few months. Also, they’re hiring 150 new people, so they practically promised me a leadership position when I inquired of the possibility. I would LOVEEE a leadership position. I haven’t had one since I lived in Naperville. When I moved here I traded status for pay. And then there’s the cause! I feel like working with The Red Cross is much more beneficial than troubleshooting cable… just saying. I know there has to be someone to troubleshoot the cable—I just don’t believe it’s me. And I can’t prove my leadership skills if I’m at home at my desk working. Working for a cause, even though the payment is much less, makes me feel worthwhile. I’ve been there for a month now, and I LOVE ITTTTT! No leadership position yet, but I sure as heck have been impressing the bosses   

This is the main reason that I haven’t blogged in so long. However, I have a rockin’ schedule now, so I’ll be here more often attempting to entertain ya’ll.

 

Peace, Love, and Chinese Food.

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Today was painful.

I don’t know what will happen in my life tomorrow, but I know that God still reigns. He loves me, and I will praise Him in this storm. Sometimes it’s hard to dance in the rain when there’s lightening around, lol

I know I’ll be okay, it’s just a matter of when.

Oohhh to wait or not to wait…

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I have had no patience lately, sad to say…

I’m ashamed that I’ve been so easily irritated—and with such silly things at that! I used to let everything slide, and even encourage others to let their irritations go as well. Now I seem to grumble a lot more about things I’ve never been upset with before. Like a pillow. A PILLOW. It was lumpy, hahaha! I have made the decision to suck it up and just have a good attitude. No excuses. This’ll be difficult with Jeff, hahahahaha. Relatively doable with everything else. Why not enjoy life while I’ve got it?? Jesus gave it all so that I could.

 

What (or WHO) pushes your buttons? What can you do to mellow out? Breathe—Smile.

 

 

Iloveyou.

Little Tidbits: So today was eventful.

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I had plenty of stuff going on. Mini road trip with the boy. in the Jeep. with the top down. and Charlie in the back :D good times. Then adding finishing touches to my [dorm-ish-looking] room with my new roomie. I love how big my room really is! Made lunch with the roomie—yummmmmmmy. ‘Nuff said.Then got my very own WIFI—it’s swell to be sure. Everything was Grand today, and several times I found myself forgetting to thank Jesus for letting life be so Grand… Sometimes when stuff is happening, whether good or bad, it’s easy to forget about the One who is with you the whole time and His promise to get you through life His way. Remember Jesus and what He did for you, then thank Him for it! He’s given us so much, everything in us and around us is His.

This reminded me of the chorus of the old hymn “Jesus Paid it All” by Elvina Hall:

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

 

On another note, I start my new job tomorrow! Can I get a WOOT WOOT?!?! I’m a bit nervous, I won’t lie… but I know everything is gonna work out and it’ll certainly help out my income quite a bit! ^_^ That is the cutest turtle btw. Anyways the drive across town should be interesting—I’m gonna have to leave early to make sure I can find the place. It is well known that I’m directionally challenged in every way possible. And that’s putting it politely! Ugh, the only city I don’t get lost in is Chicago… Tucson is definitely the opposite of Chi-town. Barely any TRAFFIC though :D It’s a good thing I won’t have to drive there everyday— working from home definitely has it’s advantages! See, God knew my truck is a well-loved machine, but a gas-guzzling one nonetheless. And then I don’t have to worry about getting lost more than once… yes, I’m serious, sadly.

 

Well, I think I’m going to call it a night—gonna get up early so I can be all perdy for my orientation. Gracias for listening to me ramble on. Have a glorious night, and don’t forget to thank Jesus

 

Loveeeee you <3

I Declare….

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I declare this to be A Random Act of Kindness Month!

Yessss indeedy. I think we should make it happen—I know we can. I need you all to gather up some ideas on how we can spread the love—email me with a great idea or a success story and I’ll feature it!!
To get the momentum going, if I hit 35 followers, and this is a success, I will have a cool lil giveaway—suitable for guys AND gals

So spread the word people

To enter this giveaway all you need to do is follow my blog via Google Friend Connect, then post a random act of kindness you have performed that day, up until May 31st. Since this is my first giveaway and it will be relatively small, only one entry per person/per day will be accepted. If you post about this giveaway on your blog or Facebook you may have ONE extra entry every day that you do so. I will draw a winner on May 18th using random.com’s random generator.

What good can you do??

Just around the corner…

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So I’m heading off to work on May 11th—next Wednesday

Yayyy me. I will be able to work from home. Praise God! That will save me who knows how much in gas money, and I will have NO excuses to eat out. None. At all. Thennnnn I begin my classes at Liberty University on June 27th. Aye aye aye, won’t I be a busy!?! Haha

Jeff (the man) is home, hopefully for good. It’s nice to have him around again, I don’t think he has any idea how much I missed him. Well, he might—I just about knocked him on his tush when I first saw him

 

Enjoy every moment you have with someone. They say you never know what you have until it’s gone… I know that to be true. I’ve lost people close to me and I miss them. But those people who are in my life, please know that I love you all very very much. I may not say it enough, and that’s something I need to work on. I have been focused on me, God, and God and I. I forget that even though He will take care of me, I have other people in my life He has blessed me with to get me throughHe is so good. He gave me YOU all!

 

Peace. Joy. LOVEEEEE

He’s watching.

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So today I was letting my mind get wayyyy too stressed out. About my job, about other possible jobs, about if they’re worth it, about the truck that was going ten under right in front of me. *deep breathe* About money, about my bills, about my health, about if my money will pay all my bills and pay to get me healthy. About God, about His plan for me, about if I’m going to make a stupid decision or not and screw it all up. About school… it’s starting. Very soon. About money to pay for that. About….oh a rabbit—yes really— about my boyfriend, about him coming home, about our issues, about my friends, about if they’re really my friends. Then I looked up… and I saw this:

Look at that. It’s perfect. It’s amazing… now how can you look at that and say that there is no God, and that He’s not in control of everything? I mean yea… the sun reflects off the ocean yada yada yada, but who made it that way? Everything is just too perfect to have just, happened. It is SO important that we just stop. Just stop. Breathe in and see that there is so much more meant for your life, and though they may seem like big things… big things that hurt; they don’t really matter. That is so unbelievably difficult for me to get through my head. It doesn’t matter. So don’t worry so much about what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen because GOD, the maker and creator of the universe and everything that we see—He's going to take care of it. My money, my constant pain, my relationships… He’s got it allll under control (which is grandddd, because I sure as heck don’t). Now, I say this… but please don’t think I am able to follow this all the time easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. As you’ve seen above, I clearly worry. A lot. It happens, and it takes a mustard seed of faith and a LOT of prayer not to worry about things that seem like OH! Tom finally caught Jerry—shows over!  It’s something that takes work. Kind of ironic… It takes a lot of work to remember that we don’t have to do all the work. 1 Peter 5:7 says “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”  That’s what He’s here for, that’s why we get to invite Him into our lives and our hearts. It’s definitely not to show Him how great we are— it’s so we can admit how broken we are. And that can be a hard thing to do… Frankly, I know for a fact that all of the stuff that I am going through I CANNOT do alone, and yet I find myself trying to take control of situations that can’t possibly be handled by anyone else other than my creator.
So, if you are worried about something, I encourage you to just breathe. Just stop. Remember that everything is going to be ok. It may not be your version of “ok”, but God’s version of “ok” is a lot better in the long run, I PROMISE
Now, just as a reminder of how amazing He is, look at what else is just sitting around in the palm of his hand:

NASA’s Eye of God

NASA’s Darling of Astronomy

NASA’s best guess of the Milky Way Galaxy

God’s work goes so far we don’t even have telescopes that can reach it all [yet?]! So I know if He has time for all of this and cares for every bird in the sky and every fish in the sea, then I know He knows and cares about YOUR problems—even the tiny ones, and He’s got you in His hands.

Psalm 27:1
The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?

Auto-Correct Epiccccc Fails :)

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Alrighty… so I have officially spent the last two hours laughing hysterically—OUT LOUD—with tears streaming down my face at some points. Yea… I almost peed my pants. Twice. I needed that. The laughing part, not the peeing in my pants, haha. I think I may have laughed my headache away for a little while… and gotten abs in the process

This reminds me of the time my mom and I decided on IHOP for dinner while Jeff (my boyfriend) was still at work. This is sort of how it went:

S: hey babe are you almost off work?
J: shouldn’t be too much longer. why?
S: because we’re making a trip to Ohio for dinnner.
J: Ohio?? What’s in Ohio?
S: oops! ihop.
J: babe there’s an ihop almost next to your house, but if you really want one from ohio…

Ehh you might’ve just had to be there… but these are better

So, for the record, I DO NOT promote nor tolerate swearing of any kind on this blog, so don’t get any ideas. However, for the sake of spreading laughter and joy to you—there will be a swear word in the name of the website (this site is not for the kiddos).

I don’t want it on my blog so just click here to enjoyyyyyy 

Have you ever?

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Have you ever wanted to change the world?? Not like Batman and Robin rescued Gotham City from evil villains on a daily basis, but really accomplish something or help someone...from the heart. I know I have! I do... everyday. So if we do want change, why don't we make it happen? It’s so easy (a caveman can do it!). You always hear people say "Be the Change" but how often do we actually get up, take as little as 10 seconds out of our day, and fix a little piece of broken world?
K-love, a Christian radio station that I currently sponsor and volunteer for has started something huge crazzzyyyyy big. They have what is called Make a Difference Monday. How AWESOME is THAT?!?! All throughout the week they promote doing good things, even little easy things. Then on Mondays, alllllll day they have people call in and share something they've done, or something they've seen someone else do :) Now why don't we take that and make it daily?? Let's look for the good things in life and let it become contagious!! That is my proposal. Share the love. After that come share your story! Tell us what happened—was it a good idea? a bad one? not very well planned out? changed someone’s life? Let us all swap ideas and maybe we can give it a shot in our end of the world. Keep it humble... don’t get a big head—get a big heart! :D Let Jesus shine through you.



By the way, if you’ve never heard of K-love, they have A LOT of fun and positive music playing. Check out their website— you can give them a listen anywhere in the world! You can see what events are going on in your area, subscribe to daily “Encouraging Word” bible verses (my personal favorite), become a prayer sponsor, or even receive prayer for yourself or someone you know that may need it! Let me know if you like what you hear/see :)

Welcome!

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Hello and welcome to Go Beyond Religion (GBR)!


My name is Samantha, I am 20 years old, and this is my blog. The name is pretty self-explanatory-- but this being my first post, I'll elaborate a bit:
I'm not one for "Religion", never have been. Going through the motions doesn't count... I believe that having a personal and unique relationship with Christ is everything. He's not some entity in outer space that is out of reach. He is real, and He is YOURS :)


Though that is most important, this blog isn't simply about that. It's about things in my life that I like to share. Many of which are DEALS :] Yes! I like to save mula! I'll post giveaways on occasion, and share stories-- whether mine or someone I know... and things that make me laugh. I love to laugh!
I'm also starting school soon, so I'm sure some random experiences are to be had.


I'll leave you with this-- 'tis my favorite:


Now faith is being sure of what you hope for, and certain of what you cannot see.
Hebrews 11:1