For You, Lord // A Poem

For You, Lord

Written by Brooklyne 

How far would I go for You, Lord?

How much would I suffer for You? 

How long will I be faithful to You? 

How much would I give for You? 

Would I travel 9,429 miles, for You? 

To be a light, the salt of the earth

To stop looking at me and start looking at You

Telling those I’m around about Your goodness and mercy

Will I take that leap of faith, for You? 

Way outside of my comfort zone 

For a chance to be Your hands and feet

To a place of my fear and unknown

Would I stop doubting and start having faith, for You? 

Then I could stop fearing the giants 

And start hearing your calm reassurance

Listening only to your promise that You will never leave me

Is it truly the Cry of My Heart to follow You?

When following You means being different

When following You means surrendering self

When following You means Your will, not mine

~*~

How far would I go for You, Lord? 

How far would I go it to bring one person closer to You?

How far will I take up my cross and follow you? 

How far will I be a soldier, for You?

Lord, please give me what it takes to travel 1,000,000,000,000+ miles, for You

Give me the strength for when I suffer for Your names sake

Give me courage when I step out of my comfort zone, following Your will 

Give me words, when I have none 

Lord, please give me what it takes to serve You 

Give me comfort when I’m hurting

Give me calmness and peace when I’m frazzled

Give me enough faith to trust in Your plan

Lord, take away my selfishness and worldly ambitions 

Take away my doubt in Your plan

Take away my worry that things will go wrong

Take away my fretting

Lord, take away sinful nature that always is searching to satisfy

Take away my bad habits that cripple me to do Your work

Take away fear of the unknown

Take away my stubborn micromanaging 

~*~ 

Lord, I know you will give me my every need

For look at the Lillies of the Field.

Help me to trust in your faithfulness.

Be my guide and my strength. 

So when I wonder how far I will go for You,

Remind me how far you went for me.

You left Your throne for me

You suffered for me

Lord, You came to this earth to die for me.

Because You love me

Because You care

Because You are faithful

Jesus, thank You for all You have gone through… for me. 

This poem is very raw and has special meaning to me. I wrote this because I was inspired by a friend when I saw how God was working in her life. 

So in a way, this poem is dedicated to her. <3

 This poem talks about following and obeying God's guidance even when we don't necessarily feel ready or don't feel good enough for the calling. But I think we have to realize that we don't have to be ready in order for God to work in our lives and in others. He want's us to come to Him now. Even when we don't feel ready. Even when we don't feel good enough, because God is enough. And it's when we feel like we can't make much of a different when God really shows you that indeed, you can.

Maybe God is calling you to witness to someone right now. So I'm encouraging you to take that step of faith and give it to God. Send that text. Smile to that person who always looks lonely. Talk to that friend. Write that Bible verse on a sticky note. Play that musical instrument. Be that light for Him. Because no matter how small the light, a bright light can be seen from thousands of miles.

The opportunities are endless when we let God write our story! So let Him. 

Matthew 5:13-16 NKJV

"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp-stand and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and 

glorify your Father in heaven."

Because this poem was deep, was it hard to understand? (Sorry if it was, sometimes you just have to write what's on your heart even if it doesn't make much sense...) How are ways that we can shine His light to those around us? 

What has God been teaching you this week? 

Share your thoughts in the comments! <3 

The Awesome Blogger Award Tag!

Good morning! Today is a Monday post!!! If you missed my announcement about posting twice a week, get caught up by reading this post. 

So for today, I am doing a tag (or two, or three!) In the past, I had a page where I posted all the tags, but I have decided to do away with that page, and actually post these tags as individual posts! And it just so happens that I was tagged by three sweet blogger friends to do the #Awesome Blogger Award Tag! So let's begin! 

The rules:

Thank the person/blogger who nominated you (Thank you Molly, Mallory, and Liberty!!!)

Tag your post with #awesome blogger award

Answer all the questions given to you

Nominate at least 5 bloggers and inform them of their nomination

Give them 10 new questions to answer

Molly's questions: 

1. Do you like NASCAR? If so, who is your favorite driver?
Hmm, I'm not really big into NASCAR... although it might be fun to drive a race car just to say you did!?! *winks*

2. Have you ever been pulled over? If so, why and did you get a ticket and who paid for the ticket? 
No, I have never been pulled over. Thankfully! 

3. What is your least favorite musical instrument?
Um, I'm not sure on this one! But I've never been a huge fan of the Bagpipes...

4. What is the silliest/most embarrassing thing you did when you were a kid?
I've embarrassed myself a lot when I was a kid... still do! Many stories come to mind, but one would be when I went to the beach and found this really fun sand that would pop when you squished it... turned out the geese had a hand in creating this fun squishing sand. #notoneofmybestmoments 

5. What do you do when you're stressed?
Eat chocolate? 

In all seriousness though, I normally find that journaling helps a lot! 

6. What was the biggest/most expensive thing you bought that you regret buying?
Probably a harp. My parents bought me a harp when I was 10 or 11 and I played it off and on for three years, but ended up not sticking too it.

7. How many houses have you lived in?
I have lived in six houses...

8. What is the item that you most regret getting rid of?
Nothing comes to mind right now. :)

9. Who is your favorite author?
WHAT? I can't possibly narrow down!!!!

10. Do your siblings stalk your blog and discover who comments on it before you do? (mine do) ;)
On occasion they will, but not too often. (Not to my knowledge anyways!)

Mallory's questions: 

1. Why did you decide to start blogging?
Because I felt God leading me to start a blog. It first came as a question after I found the blogosphere, "What if I decided to start a blog?" and that question stuck with me until I took the step and pushed the "publish" button for the first time. And I'm so glad I did!

2. What is your favorite kind of animal?
Dogs and horses!

3. What is a smell that brings back a memory?
Good question! This isn't a smell, but whenever I taste strawberry ice cream I think of summer pool days at Nannies house when we would churn homemade strawberry ice cream! :)

(Sorry, that might have been really random and had nothing to do with the question! *headdesk*)

4. What is a tradition that your family has made that is different?
We have a lot of traditions that we have made different, but my favorite is we go camping up in the woods the day after Thanksgiving! 

5. Is there a song/artist that you like that is uncommon/unpopular?
Idk! I don't really keep up with who's popular or not, I just like who I like... Lol! 

6. Do you have a favorite brand (of food, clothes, anything….)?
Jean brands I like: Wrangler and American Eagle
Tennis Shoes: Brooks 
.
.
.
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I guess thrift store clothes aren't a brand? XD 

7. If you drink soda, what is your favorite kind?
I don't drink pop that often, but I like root beer (especially a root beer float!), and sprite (especially mixed with lemonade!) 

8. Is there a TV show that reminds you of your childhood?
VeggieTales, and Curious George! 

9. Have you been to a concert before, and who played?
Yes! I have! Rascal Flatts.


10. Would you want to live in the future or past for a day?
Probably in the past?? 

Liberty's questions:

1. What is a song that always makes your day a little bit brighter?
I'm not sure. I guess any song that I have on my playlist makes my day brighter! (Especially if I'm cleaning...) *laughs*

Or... I just thought of one! There is a song we sing for Praise songs in church that always makes me smile. It's called Rescuer, and my Auntie, Uncle, and cousins learned it at family camp then came home and taught us all! I had never heard it before, but it's a good one! XD

2. How long can you hold your breath?
Ok, let me see. *gets stopwatch out* *holds breath* *face turns red* *almost passes out* 45 seconds! Hey, that's pretty awful... I might be able to do more if I were swimming under water.

3. What song always makes you happy?
Any song that I can smile at a inside joke with my sisters and cousins! We have many songs with stories behind them! Hehe!

4. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?
I'd go anywhere with my family! Family makes the trips I take special to me! Honestly, it doesn't matter the location! Although I do like places with mountains... or beaches!

5. What's your favorite childhood memory?
So many!!! But one that comes to mind is when I was 8 or 9, we found a nest of bunnies in our strawberry patch. For some reason, that memory has always stuck with me...

6. If there was any animal, wild of tame, you could have for a pet, what would it be?
We have all the animals that I love as pets, but if I were to choose a wild animal, it would have to be something crazy. Like a lion... but only if it was a trained pet, mind you. (I just recently saw a video of a baby lion that grew up with this man, and the lion was so sweet!) Course, on second thought, a lion's mane would take a lot of brushing!

7. If you could live anywhere in the U.S. where would it be?
Like I mentioned above, wherever is fine as long as I'm with my family! But I do think I would hate to live in a big city...

8. If you happened to be stranded on a island, what one thing would you want with you?
Yes, you guessed it: my family! 

Or a multi-tool pocket knife might come in handy! 

9. Iced tea, or lemonade on a summer day?
LEMONADE!!! I absolutely love lemonade!

10. What is your favorite Bible verse? 
I have so many! One that I really like that comes to mind now is: Isaiah 40:31 "But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint."

I nominate Faith P., Hosanna, Maddy, Rakayle, and Kaitlyn for the #awesome blogger award tag! 

Here are your questions:
1. What is one thing that makes you sparkle? (what you get excited abt...)
2. After a long day, would you rather watch a movie with your family or read a good book?
3. Have you ever tried writing backwards or upside down? Or both at the same time? 
4. What is one sport that you are really good at?
5. What is one sport that you better sit out on?...or else things could be disastrous.
6. What is one book that you could read over and over again and never tire of it? And what makes that book so memorable?
7. What is a life lesson that God has taught you through a difficult time in your life? 
8. What is a book in the Bible that you rarely ever read? 
9. What do you love about blogging?
10. And a fun one, if you could create a dessert that has never been made before, what would you create? 

Well, I had so much fun answering these questions! I hope y'all liked reading my answers! Have a splendid Monday! 

What is your least favorite instrument? What TV show reminds you of your childhood? How long can you hold your breath? If you could create a dessert that has never been done before, what you you create? Let me know in the comments below! (Hehe, that rhymes!)

I'M BACK! // Nano Update // Life Update // Blog Update

*excitingly waves while jumping up and down* Hey y'all, I'M BACK FROM HIATUS! <3 

The month of April literally flew by and as much as I enjoyed having a little time off from blogging, I am SO glad to be back! I must say, I missed posting and thought of all my wonderful readers every Wednesday I didn't post in April. 

Since I have returned, I have lots of new things happening in my life right now! Today's post, I'm going to catch you up to date on how my April Camp Nano 2019 went as well as let y'all know about some life happenings and blog changes I'm going to try! So lets dive right on into this post! 

Camp Nano Update:

➳Week one was AWESOME! I was able to reach 9,429 words. (Which was really good because last Camp Nano in July 2018, my goal was to write 10,000 words in the whole month!) So, I was off to a great start and loving all the fun word wars going on in our "Cabin." Also, on day four, I upped my overall word count goal to 15,000 words instead of 12,000 words.

➳Week two was... more of a struggle. I was starting to get some ideas but wasn't sure how to go about them. I might have even experienced a little writers block on occasion. In the second week of April, I only wrote 3,576 words.

➳Week three I got my second wind! Sort of. I started skipping some scenes (chapters) and wrote the ones that I saw coming next. I did this because I wanted to keep the words flowing and not get stuck on my plot problems, or editing what I had already written. For some reason the perfectionist in me found it extremely hard not to go through and start editing. This week, I was able to crank out 2,000+ on some days! I had decided to once again higher my overall April Nano goal to 20,000 words... but by the end of week three, I upped it again to 25,000 words! 

➳Week four was great, if not a bit scattered. I seemed to start certain scenes then go and write a new chapter only to go back and finish the other scenes I had started. At times, I was going back and forth. More word wars helped me! (Fun Fact: Word wars are so much fun! I have learned that I can write anywhere from 200-300 words in only ten minutes if I am racing the clock... and a cabin mate. It's was a blast!) 

And... on the 25th of April, I WON CAMP NANO! I made it to my goal of 25,000 words! I am very pleased to say that my first (and very rough) draft of Third Chances is well on it's way. In the grand scheme of things, I'd say I wrote a good 1/4 of my story! 

Also, I want to thank all my cabin mates for cheering me on during the month of April! And for showering me with confetti + gatorade (blue raspberry NOT cherry!) *winks* Hehe, I had a lot of fun with you girls! :) 

Now for some of my favorite Nano snippets... I know since these are all out of context, they will probably sound like a jumble of a mess, but I thought I'd share some with you anyway! And I have each snippet labeled with a number so I'd love for you to vote which one was your favorite snippet in the comments below! =)


Snippet 1

"The aroma from the kitchen downstairs not only awoke Amy from a dreamless sleep, but also awoke a flood of childhood memories. Some good, mostly bad memories. Memories that she had thought she tucked away in a dusty corner of her brain." 

Snippet 2

"Personally, she liked the idea of being creative and imaginative, but she preferred to be structured and intentional. She tried to be as much different than her inconsistent mess of a childhood as she could. Maybe her mother liked teaching art so much because she was good at making messes. Especially with making a mess of parenting. Tina Bennard—now Bulien—was known for scribbling outside of the lines and and making up her own rules, boundaries that were never the same." 

Snippet 3 “Natt, I really don’t know the answers to those questions. I wish I did, so I could make plans and sketch out how I want my life to operate, but I truly don’t think we are meant to know exactly how things will pan out. I think that’s where trust comes in. A few day’s ago, well, actually on my way home from college, I had a flat tire, and me and God had a little talk. I was wrestling, kind of like Moses did when God asked him to take a leap of faith. I decided to try trusting Him, it’s a work-in-progress, but I’m still trying my hardest to trust Him. With finding a job, with finding a guy, exedra.” She paused her speech, trying to decide if she was a hypocrite for telling her friend to trust God when she was still struggling to take her own advice.
Natty spoke then, saving Amy from her scattered train of thought, “You’re so right, you know that? Woah, girl, we are on the same brainwave or something, because I’m going through the exact same thing. Trying to trust God, but still hanging on to my worry. Are you sure we aren’t twins or something?”

Snippet 4

“Bye, Amy.” Jennie said, looking back at her with a glance of sadness that squeezed Amy’s heart like a lemon being squeezed to make lemonade. Just the taste in her mouth was not anything like a sweet lemonade, but a sour and bitter tasting one."

Snippet 5
"Breakfast was cold biscuits and gravy with a small serving of eggs that were more recognizable as Styrofoam, colored yellow with food coloring, than labeled as scrambled eggs. They tasted like chemicals, nothing like fresh eggs strait from the chicken coop at the ranch. Home seemed farther and farther away as this unplanned vacation grew longer."

Snippet 6

"Trisha proved to be such a sweet and motherly host. The small older lady had crinkles around her chocolate-brown eyes and a apron around her petite waist. The first thing she had done when she saw Amy was to give her a bear hug, squeezing her harder than Amy thought possible for such a tiny woman."

Life Update:

Other than keeping my fingers busy pounding on the computer keyboard for Nano, I did a lot of other things in the month of April! 

April Happenings:

• Tricked my little sister for April fools day.
• Knee-deep in a online cooking class! Put on by Rouxbe and Forks Over Knives.
• Research for Nano.
• HOT CHOCOLATE DRINKS! 
• Taking way too many spring pictures! 
• Cooking a lot more for family meals.
• Groomed Rosie (she is almost all the way done shedding her winter coat!) 
• Seedlings are growing so well! Our tomatoes are looking better than ever before!
• Ran a 5k in 29 minutes! 
• Black raspberry ice cream sandwich! Yum!
• Spring flowers and rainy days.
• Wrote a piece of flash fiction. 
• Packaging more Honey Oatmeal soap.
• Celebrating sisters birthday! 
• First tulip bloomed on April 11th.
• Randomly looking up unique baby names.
• A Sabbath walk in the woods = more flower pictures!
• Committing to a 14 day food plan that entailed no sugar or flour.
• Lots of smoothies!!! Like-- so many smoothies!
• Making new recipes. Trying out homemade BBQ sauce! 
• Making chocolate raspberry oatmeal bars! They are amazing, btw! 
• April 16 I was at 15,690 words in Camp Nano! 
• Got new writing glasses for when I'm on the computer to block part of the blue light...
• Helping papa build a raised bed. 
• Hard life changes. 
• Made scrunchies for the first time! Yay! They are so fun and easy to sew! 
• Having fun with photo filters with little sis! 
• Working out at gym and/or jogging on our road. Three times, I went 5 miles! 
• Driving.
• Freeing Wilber (our mini pig) from the wire fence he had gotten stuck in... that was traumatizing, thankfully he's ok!
• Movies with the fam! 
• Winning Camp Nano! Whoop whoop! 

April songs: 

• Church praise group songs for practice.
• Maddy & Tae's album.
• Lauren Daigle's album.
• Carrie Underwood's album. 
• Random songs on the radio.

April quotes (sorry, most of them are writing related quotes... Hey, what can I say, I needed inspiration!): 

"Chocolate comes from cocoa,

Which is a tree

That makes it a plant.

Chocolate is salad!" 

"And one day 

the girl with the books

became the woman writing them."

"Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on." - Louis L'Amour 

"Very few writers know what they are doing until they have done it."

"Logic will get you from A-Z, Imagination will get you everywhere." 

"I'm writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand in a box so that later I can build castles." 

"Writing is a profession for introverts who want to tell you a softy but don't want to make eye contact while doing it." #laughingsohardrn

"If you truly are going to be a writer, there must be somewhere within you the drive, the desire, to put pen to pater, fingers to keyboard, and actually write." 

"A writer is simply a photographer of thoughts." #sotrue

"Writing is only reading turned inside out."

"life is like a camera, you focus on what's important, capture the good times, develop from the negative, and if things don't work out, take another shot!" 

Blog Update:

Since I have been gone for a whole month, I am SO ready to get back into a blogging schedule! But- it's time to mix things up a bit! So, guess what? Are your ready?

*drumroll* 

I'm going to start posting twice a week! 

Yes, you heard that right! From now on, I will be posting Monday's and Wednesday's! (Or at least trying it, we shall see how it works out! *winks*) But for the month of May, I will be posting twice a week for sure! After that, we'll see how things are going! 

But that's not all that is going to change, I am wanting to start posting some other content in addition to my poems and devotionals that I post on Wednesdays. Therefore, the Monday posts will be for random other things basically! (Lifestyle posts, thoughts, other poems, rambles, writing related, flash fiction, writing prompts, book reviews, blog series, collabs, tags, photo dumps, diy crafts, just whatever-is-on-my-heart/mind-at-the-time kind of posts!) Whew! The possibilities are endless! 

I'm just wanting to expand my horizons. I'm hoping to be a little more real-life in my posts. I love sharing my poems and devotions, those will not cease to exist. I'm just hoping to add to them, not take away from them.

My monthly wrap-up posts will be on posted either the last Monday or last Wednesday of the month... 

So, that's how things are looking right now, hopefully these new ideas sound fun to you! 

Did you participate in Camp Nano? Favorite snippet? What new has happened in April for you? Do you think this new posting schedule sounds like a good idea? Got any suggestions on posts you would like me to do? Hope you are having a great day! And I'd love to hear from you in the comments below!