Merry Christmas

    Christmas! I love Christmas for so many reasons. Yet the greatest reason to love Christmas is because it gives us a chance to reflect on the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. If He had never been born, if he had never lived and died for us, we would still be living in darkness, without hope.

    I know the holidays may have looked a little different these past two years, but the reason to celebrate has not changed. Praise the Lord!

    I hope all of you have a blessed day. Merry Christmas!

💚💚💚

 Linnea 

The Past Two Weeks...

Hello, everybody!

    I intended on posting earlier, but life has been very busy, lately. This week, I am dealing with lots of midterms/finals and just finishing up lots of school in general. I am more or less swamped. *sighs*

    I have a couple posts that I'm planning on writing/posting in the near future, but for now, I am just going to give a quick update on life. Obviously I already mentioned school. I'm thankful that the semester is almost over.

    We recently had a holiday event at my co-op, which was stressful, but also fun. There were a lot of performances to watch as well as some contests to participate in. 

    Also, my family started decorating the house for Christmas recently. We had fun working together and getting some things done, even if we've been to busy to really stop and finish everything.

    Last week the PSAT scores came out from the testing in October. I had to take this test, so it was fun to see how I did, and what I need to work on.

    I also got a chance to do some reading, which *ahem* I have not done in a very long time, due to all my school assignments that take priority.

    God has shown His mercy a lot during the past few weeks, and I'm so thankful for the great God we serve 

     Finally, if you have any post ideas for me, I would love to hear from you all in the comments! Have a blessed week!

 Linnea   

Resetting My Priorities

So, I thought I would give reason to why I haven't posted in a little while. I know it hasn't been an extremely long time I've been away or anything, but my posting has been irregular, so I want to give an explanation.

    This year, I've had a lot more school work, as well as other responsibilities. And lately, I've come around feeling empty, struggling to hold on in this new season. I've been walking a tightrope between what I want my life to look like, and what it does look like... along with the downward spiral it could easily be. 

    I'm finding that this is a terrible place to be. It's a place where nothing happens, when you are so stretched between the two sides, that it becomes impossible to move at all. 

    I've realized that my priorities are off. God needs to come first in life. Then I need to honor and respect those God has put above me as authorities, because He tells me too, not because of how they act towards me. I'm also realizing sometimes I tend to put these people before God, which is not right either. They absolutely need to be honored, but that is not the same thing as worshipping them, as if their opinions were more important than His. 

    Finally, I need to fulfill my responsibilities, because they are the responsibilities He has given me. 

    I've heard all of these things before of course, but it never occurred to me that I might not be following them as I ought too. In the past couple weeks, I've had to really face these things, and realize that I need to leave this tight rope I'm standing on altogether, and pursue after this order only.

    In light of all that, I've found it hard to jump on and blog. I don't want to share things just for the sake of sharing. I want to make sure everything I share is for God's glory, and really true for myself first. I would appreciate prayers that I would keep working towards resetting my priorities, and that I wouldn't fall back. Also that God would give me the strength I need to stand strong for Him.

    I hesitate to share this at all, but it is where I am right now, and I don't want to sugar coat things. 

    On the lighter side, I do hope to share some holiday posts soon, and I'm definitely looking forward to that!

For now,

Linnea

Life Lately...

 Hello, to anyone who reads this!

    Well, it's been a little while since I've posted, but I've *ahem* had very few ideas lately. So I decided to give a quick peek into what life has been looking like for me.

    First of all, I am on break from school this week! Now, that does not mean I don't have homework... *wishing I had finished all my homework this week...* but it does mean I have a little more time for other things.

    The past couple of days have been especially exciting and crazy. My sister celebrated her birthday, we finished up our last week of classes before break, and I participated in a piano demonstration. Also, the weather is finally getting a little bit colder. Winter is on it's way! Life is definitely moving quickly right now.

    Finally, before I go, I just wanted to share a little bit of encouragement. 

    Life isn't always easy. Things don't always work out the way we want. It's easy to feel discouraged, weary, and lonely. I know for me especially, I struggle with these feelings. But as I was reminded recently, we have been given Christ, "the most greatest gift." Nothing can compare to this Gift. So even when life feels hard, we can rejoice and praise God for what He has given. He is so, so good. 

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:8

Linnea

What I Love About November

It's officially November! I don't know about you, but I really love November. There are so many exciting things about this month! So, I though I would share a couple of the reasons I enjoy it.

1) The first thing that comes to mind is Thanksgiving. When I was younger, I actually didn't like this holiday. But now that I'm older, it has become more special to me. I like all the thought that goes into it, from the decorations to the meal preparations. And I like that it's not like other holidays where it's easy to get wrapped up in the "receiving," rather than the actual reason for celebrating.

2) A break from school! As a homeschooler, I never get a fall break. So, when Thanksgiving rolls around, there's always a sigh of relief to finally have a little time off.

3) Birthdays. I know a lot of people who have birthdays in November, so this is always a fun addition to the month!

4) Fall...all the way. I love warm weather, but it's always exciting to see the seasons change and the cool weather finally arrive. (In case you're wondering, where I live, it rarely gets cold until at least the middle of November.)

5) A time to reflect and reset. November to me always seems like a time to pause a little bit. It's not quite the end of the year, but almost. It's a good time to look back on the year, and also a good time to reset before the December chaos.

This year my sister did our fall decorating. 
These pieces are always some of my favorites!

Whelp, that's the end of my list, although there are definitely more that I'm sure I could come up with. Hope you enjoyed this post!

Linnea

 

Between Here and Sunset

Hello again! I was drawing a blank on what to post this week. I had a couple of drafts for different things, but I didn't feel like any of them were quite right. Then, I came across this song, and it really spoke to me, so I thought I would share.

    I have heard this song before, but I never thought of it in the same way before.

    I don't know about anyone else, but a lot of times I struggle with accepting what God is calling me to do. Sometimes I want to argue and say, "Don't You know what You're asking?". Then I start to go down a mental list of all the reasons the request is unreasonable.

    It's easy to question whether God really sees the situation in front of us, when He asks us to do something that doesn't seem to make sense. The truth is that He does see the situation in front of us. But He can also see the bigger picture, the picture that we can't see. He knows what will best prepare us for eternity, and He knows the best way to care for us, so that we make it safely through life.

    So even when it feels like the waves are crashing around, know that God can see what's waiting "between here and sunset." More than that, He's ready and able to do amazing things to protect you and carry you through. Even if we can't see it at the moment.

If you like instrumental music with singing better, I also found this version: Between Here and Sunset

Hope you enjoy!

Linnea

My First Post

 Hello! Welcome to my blog! 

    Blogging has been a long time in coming, but I'm excited to jump in and get my feet wet. I hope to show you all little tidbits of my life and offer you encouragement, all to the glory of my King.

    First off, I thought it would be a good idea if I shared a bit about myself. I’m a Christian and love Jesus with all my heart. I live in a family of four, along with our new dachshund Woodrow (who takes up far too much of my time, and I'm not complaining). As for school, I've been homeschooled my whole life. This year, I am a Junior in high school. Some of my hobbies include writing, reading, and listening to music. I plan to share regularly on this blog, but don't be surprised if I don't... I may or may not be a little bit unpredictable in that department. I hope that you'll stick around despite that!

That’s about all! Thanks for stopping by!

Linnea

"Whether therefore ye ear, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God," 

 - 1st Corinthians 10:3

Update: I ended up having to repost this, and delete the original, as I was having trouble with getting the title in the correct format. Everything else about this post is still the same :D.