Mercy

When I think of the mercy of God, I think of how huge the definition of that word means. The mercy of God is when He shows us compassion and kindness. We need this in order to have forgiveness of our sin. God's mercies are new EVERY morning!!

Lamentations 3:21-23 "Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning."

The mercy of the Lord is all throughout scripture. His has mercy on us as well when we mess up, and that is when He shows us grace!

Hebrews 4:16 "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."

I love this part of the song "Amazing Grace My Chains Are Gone" by Chris Tomlin.
[[and like a flood His mercy rains, unending love, amazing grace!]]

Fun Filled June Weekend

Okay, so this weekend was quite a busy one!!I started it off by being a part of Jessica and Luke's wedding festivities Friday and Saturday. Friday I got manicures and pedicures then to lunch with the bridesmaids. It was quite fun and exciting! That night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. We got to watch the slideshow that played at the reception. It was just a reminder of the wonderful memories with two of the most wonderful people I know. Then Saturday was the big day!! Jessica and Luke's wedding!! It was absolutely beautiful. I have had the privilege of seeing Jessica and Luke grow in their relationship together and grow in their walks with the Lord together and separately as well. It was an emotional weekend for me, because I knew the wedding meant them moving to California and not seeing Jessica as much as I have. She has been a huge part of my life like I wrote about in my last blog. It was a truly beautiful day! It was great to see all of the people that Jessica and Luke have impacted and been apart of each of their lives.

Another big event this weekend was my little sister Caroline turned 16 today!! My sister is unique and there are qualities that she has that I wish I could have. She is really go with the flow and more carefree than me, which is something that I love. Caroline is so beautiful, funny, talented, and so many more things. I am proud to call her my little sister!! I just can't believe she is getting her license. That absolutely blows my mind! [[This picture is of her and her new precious yellow bug that is totally a Caroline car!!]]

I just wanted to leave you with this thought. I love this song called "Your Love Never Fails" by Jesus Culture.. my favorite part is::

"He makes ALL things work together for our good!"

((just rest in that.. I know I try to remember that.))

faith. family. friends.

Okay, so this morning I went to support Cameron and the youth band from Central play at a church called WestStar Community Church in Temple. They did a great job! Last night the drummer got sick, so he couldn't even come and they did it without him. They did some awesome worship songs, a lot of my favorite ones actually: Take This City, Your Love Never Fails, Our God, and You Won't Relent. God has really been working in my heart about many things recently, I've talked about a few of them in notes on facebook and maybe a little in my first few blogs. He is continuing to work in me about not fearing things in life and totally and completely just fearing Him and rely on Him to guide and protect me. That even goes back to being at camp and the speaker talking about making sure that God knows we are in for His plan for our lives, whether that be ministry, missions, serving Him throughout our daily jobs in the community, etc. It just means that we are ready to do what He wants us to do no matter what He says.

Today was also Father's Day! I have to say I love my Dad. He is an awesome person! My Dad has two daughters and a wife. He has always been outnumbered in our household, and I would say that means he is a special man. I am so thankful for my Dad and the things that he has done for my sister and I. I am very blessed. I am not only thankful for my earthly Father, but for my Heavenly Father also. I don't think we necessarily think of our Heavenly Father on Father's Day, but He loves us even more than our earthly fathers. That is crazy to think about, but on this special day I am thankful for our Father in Heaven and my Dad!

This weekend Cameron and I got to hang out with Jessica and Luke, these are two special friends of ours that are getting married this upcoming weekend. I am so excited for these two and to be apart of their special day. Luke started seminary in California in January, so they will be moving there after this weekend to live. I am sad to see Jessica move (you too Luke! haha!), but I am so excited to see what God has in store for her as she gets to Pasadena. I know He is going to use her gifts in many ways there. Jessica has been one of my best friends for a long time. We actually have known each other since we were little kids, but we became friends in middle school. (Yes Jessica, I am going to tell the story!) I was in the 6th grade and she was in the 8th grade, and she invited me to spend the night and go to the movies with her. I was so excited and I thought I was really cool that an 8th grader was inviting me to spend time with her. Jessica and I have had so many fun memories together since then from slushie runs and musical to being disciple now leaders together to shopping to Cougars 4 Christ retreats. We have even enjoyed laughing at Cameron and Luke being crazy together, and even dressing up and acting like them. HaHa! I am excited to add her special day to our memories that we already share together. I love you Jessica (and Luke) and I am so excited for you both! Saturday is going to be a wonderful and special day!!

"Take This City"

I began my summer classes on Tuesday and I am hoping it isn't going to be too terrible. I am excited to get some more classes checked off of my list before I graduate next May. If there is anything I've learned in college, it is to try to stay motivated and positive and the semester will seem quicker and less painful. I think summer is more of a challenge, because you know that a lot of your friends aren't in school and you are. However, I feel like the teachers are a little more lenient than they are during regular fall and spring semesters. That doesn't mean there is less work, but they don't make us stay in class for the full time all of the time. I am also taking an online class this time, and that definitely takes motivation to remember to get online and do a discussion question and test for the week. All of this to say, I am ready to conquer this summer semester.

I went to Callaway yesterday with Kristin Bolt and her mom and little brother Jake with their church children's ministry. It was a long, but fun day! I remember being a kid and having that much energy and then when you hit the pillow at the end of the day you fall right asleep. I mean those kids did everything yesterday. They went to the butterfly garden, played putt-putt, rode a train, played on the beach, and just played on the playground. They did so much and in the heat. As an old person, I was exhausted! It was a very fun day though and I am so glad I went. (The picture on the blog is from our day at Callaway!!)

I wanted to share this song that we learned last week at camp called "Take This City" it is from the Grace Midtown cd::

"This city belongs to the One and Only, Lover of all who gave His son, for all to see His love and majesty!! This city belongs to the King of Glory, Savior of all, who came and set the captives free for all eternity!! If God be for us, who can be against us? The gates of hell will NOT prevail! We're gonna take this city for Your glory! We're gonna take this city for Your name! We're gonna see Your kingdom, bring Your freedom! We're gonna take this city for Your name! We hold on to every word You've spoken. We stand on the promises You've made. We call on the name that is above all other names!!"

This song gets me every time I hear it, because I just say to myself, "Sarah Beth, what are you doing to further the Kingdom of God?" If we truly believe in the Word of God we should be telling others about Him daily and help our cities, countries, wherever we are to shine for the Lord!!

beginning?

Okay, well all of my best friends have started to blog, so I decided it might be fun to try this. It is a good way to keep up with people, especially if you don't see people very often. I don't really know what all I'm going to write, but I am excited about trying it and seeing what comes of it.

Last week I went to IMPACT with the youth from church as a TL (team leader). It was such an exciting experience, because I went to IMPACT as a camper from the summer after my 7th grade to the summer after my 11th grade year. It was wonderful to be back at a camp that made such an impact on my life years ago and then I had the opportunity to pour into the lives of students over the course of last week. I was placed in the purple school of IMPACT, which is rising seniors and graduated seniors. I had a family group of 12 guys and girls of those ages and a "husband" for the week, this group was our small group for the week. It was amazing to watch how close my family group got after the first night and the discussions we had already had. God definitely had lots planned for everyone who went to IMPACT last week. I know that as a TL I learned just as much as the students did. I don't think one person that left at the end of last week not learning anything.

I think last week I continued to just recognize the love that the Lord has for us. Aaron Keyes played this song called "Jesus Loves Me" the last night of worship. He asked us to all bow down and get in a position where we could pray and after we had been praying for a while is when he started to play this song. I began to just listen to the words and immediately started to just tear up, because I just thought about how even when I am so unworthy I can remember that He loves me. Here are the Lyrics::

When I feel I'm not enough-when I feel unworthy of Your love

When I'm doubting and alone-broken, far away from home

When I've all out forsaken You-oh, I remember..

Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me so..

Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me this I know..

When I think about the way, You spoke the word, and worlds were made

Yet you call me Your child, the apple of Your eye

When I lie down to sleep, my heart skips a beat

at the thought so sweet..

Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me so..

Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me this I know..

neither death nor life, angels nor demons, not anything that is to come

neither depth nor height, nor all of creation, can separate me from Your love!!

I have definitely become a fan of the song and it makes me so happy to just know that He loves me, and He loves all of us more than we could ever imagine. I could go on and on, but I don't think anyone would want to read this for that long.

I start my summer classes this week, I am not looking forward to that. However, I know I will be excited at the end of the summer. I will be done with 3 less classes to graduate next May. It is going to take a lot of positivity in my attitude and thinking, so that way I can stay motivated.

Oh yeah, people are probably wondering why I named my blog Psalm 91. I did that because that verse means a lot to me. I think it is a wonderful thing that our God is our refuge! If you haven't read it before, I definitely encourage you to. Even if you have read it before you should still read it!