Sunday, January 24, 2016

FROZEN

Hey, hey, hey!

Wow....what a storm we just had! I hope you all enjoyed how beautiful the snow was. I also hope you went outside and played. I know I did. I had a blast. Playing in the snow makes me feel like I'm a child all over again. And honestly, I'm totally okay with that. If you missed the snow or aren't from around this area, here are some pretty sick pictures I got Friday Night
Oh and that's my brother and his beautiful girlfriend. I love them.

Anyway, these past two weeks have been crazy like I said in my last blog. I was in a car accident last Tuesday (I'm okay). Thankfully that accident was not as bad as it could've been. I'm very thankful for the Lord. He was looking out for me that night. Also, my internship at Drayer Physical Therapy ended. Which was a bummer because I really looked forward to all the awesome people I got to intern with every Monday-Friday. My Drayer team taught me so much about physical therapy and life. They encouraged me to be myself and to fulfill my dreams. Once I talked to the Drayer team about my mission trip this coming summer they were ALL so supportive and were willing to do anything to help. On my second to last day of my internship at Drayer I got a notification that the team had gotten together and raised money for my mission trip! Getting that news was SO, SO, SO exciting! Thank you again Drayer team, I love y'all! With leaving Drayer that meant I had to start a new internship somewhere else. I started an internship at Country Meadows Retirement Home this past Monday. To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to it. This wasn't something I necessarily wanted to do in the future. But momma Moore told me to put on a smiling on my face and enjoy it because I know you will. How come mom's know everything...? I really enjoy giving elders their breakfast and seeing how happy they were to get bacon. Bacon is what the elders needed to be happy. Something so simple, something that will be gobbled up in a minute, but bacon was it. You may ask where I'm going with this other than making you want bacon, but I have a point. I want God to be my bacon. I want to be presented with something that has God written all over it. I want to trust, love and endure God for all he's worth. I want to look at God and be as happy as those elders were to get bacon. I want God to fulfill my hunger and thirst for something more. The only thing is, lately I haven't been feeling like that elderly person getting bacon. I've been feeling blah with my faith. But I really want to be as happy as the elders were. I want God to work in me. But again, I've been struggling and honestly I'm not exactly sure how to love God for all he's worth. I guess this is a struggle most Christians go through. I'm just not understanding how to get out of a "frozen" relationship with God. I have been doing my devotional and learning, but something just isn't clicking. If you could please pray for me and my "frozen" relationship with God, that would be awesome. You could pray that I won't feel stuck anymore and that I will look at God the same way the elders looked at their bacon. Thank you for reading my blog this week. Hopefully, I didn't make you want bacon. 

"I am the bread of life. he who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." John 6:35 


Talk to you next week,

Lauren Moore 


If you would rather not use the GOFUNDME page to support me, feel free to write a check instead. In doing that, I will receive all the money instead of GOFUNDME taking 5%. You can send checks to 982 Homestead Ln, Hershey, PA 17033. 

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Young Life Hype

Hi,


I know I haven't posted in a while and I'm truly sorry. I haven't been on top of things lately. Life has been a little crazy. I wanted to talk to you about this past weekend. I was attending Young Life winter weekend and let me tell you, it was AMAZING. I love Young Life! This past weekend I created new friendships, grew closer to old friends and skied like an Olympian (not really).  Going into this weekend I had lots of things I was struggling with. Things I haven't really talked to anyone about. This weekend I was looking and searching for answers about my mission trip this summer because I've been doubtful about the trip. Ive just been second guessing myself if this trip really is what I need to do. I've been worried that if this trip wasn't for me, what was I going to do with my future? I was depending on this past weekend to give me answers, and I think it did.

During Winter Weekend we have club. Seriously, club is so lit. You get together with TONS of high school students to sing Justin Bieber, dance like you're in the shower and scream like you're trying to talk to a friend that's a thousand miles away.  If you haven't heard of Young Life I HIGHLY suggest you look into it. It has changed my life. Anyway, after singing a speaker will talk about the awesome things Jesus has done for us. Our speaker this year was AWESOME. He connected with the students so well. He spoke about Jesus with such enthusiasm. You could tell he really loves Jesus. He kept speaking about the Good News. The Good News the Jesus has saved us, that He loves us DEEPLY and that he wants us. The speaker also told us that we have all fallen short of the glory of God. That we have turned our backs on God. That sometimes we use God only to our convenience. But the speaker kept referring to the Good News. Again, that Jesus has saved us. Jesus loves us even if we've sinned, Jesus loved us even if we turn our backs on Him. Then it hit me...like a hard smack in the face. I'm to go on this mission trip. I'm to continue to share the Good News. I am suppose to go because I understand what its like to turn away from God but more importantly I understand how to turn my life around to praise God for all He's worth. I can be like the speaker from this weekend and teach kids and teens about the Good News of Christ and how it changes you. After our speaker spoke Sunday night he gave all the students 15 minutes to sit outside and think and look at the beautiful camp. It might have been cold and my butt might have been frozen to a rock, but I couldn't fathom how beautiful the sky lit with stars looked. How the frozen lake with a thin layer of snow looked. It was beautiful to have 15 minutes with the Creator of the stars, snow and the beautiful Young Life camp.  Within the 15 minutes, God told me this mission trip is what I'm ABSOLUTELY supposed to do. This is why this past weekend was the best weekend I've had in a while.

Thanks for reading!

Lauren

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Reflection of 2015

Hi friends,

I hope you had a Happy New Year! I know I did! Going into downtown Hershey with my friends is always fun! And this picture really shows how my night went....
My night was spent with my favorite couple. Obviously you can tell I was enjoying myself. I was also surrounded by my awesome friends. 
With the New Year it always calls for a reflection of the previous year. And thats what I want to talk to you all about today. Last year was a year of highs, lows and a lot of in between. I struggled a lot last year with many different things, one being myself. I've always been that girl who's sensitive about everything and always took things way out of proportion. I would cry if someone would look at my in a "hurtful" or "judging" way. I would cry because I assumed people talked about my all the time. I would cry because I didn't love myself. I wasn't confident. I cared WAY too much about what others would say.  I didn't like how my body looked a lot bigger than every other girl in my school. Looking in the mirror everyday and telling myself I was beautiful was often a struggle. I didn't believe myself when I would say it. Little did I know.....

 Now reading through this now I'm upset. I'm disheartened because last year I was missing something in my life that I so desperately needed and it was a relationship with God. Thinking back on in now the start of 2015 God was the last thing I wanted. I had a boyfriend, friends and fun. I didn't want anything in my life that was going to be "hard" because we all know that having a relationship with God can be hard. It can be frustrating at times and I thought I didn't need that in my life. Unfortunately, when the fun stopped, my friends drifted away and my relationship ended life seemed pointless to me. Instead of crying out to God for help I was mad at Himm for allowing my life to turn to turmoil. Little did I know.... 

August-November 2015, was a time where the depth of my loneliness was noticeable. I thought I had no one. Little did I know....

I thought life couldn't get better. Little did I know...

I thought I would never come out of this loneliness. Little did I know...

I thought I was would never love myself. Little did I know...

Little did I know that even though I felt far from God he still loved me. God was working in me through all the hard times I had throughout 2015. I chose to ignore how God was working through me. I prolonged my anger, hurt, loneliness and the way I felt about myself because I didn't cry out for help from the Lord. It took me till November to realize that I needed Gods help to work through my struggles. That's when God has spoken to me about the YWAM missions trip. That I needed to do this mission trip to learn and grow. But little did I know that praying, crying and talking to the Lord would help with the loneliness and my self-worth. Little did I know, that reading my bible taught me how to start loving myself. Little did I know, growing a relationship with God was already changed my life. That start of 2016 has been great. I've cleared the unhealthy thoughts and actions of last year out of my mind. I'm starting fresh and boy that feels good. My confidence in myself boosted! HOLLA to that! My loneliness is little to none. I know that with God and my family I should never feel lonely. Past experiences can hurt. They can actually crush you but, the advise I would give my 2015 self is stay strong in your faith, don't push people away, let family and friends know whats happening. I would've also told myself that in the end it would be okay. With God things were AWESOME. 

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 

Thanks for reading!

Lauren Moore 


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