Brittany Withers

“If you believe, you will receive…’ (Matthew 21:22, NIV)

I love this verse, it is so simple and yet, perhaps, the most difficult to follow. The power of life and death is in the tongue and what is on the tongue, is always in the heart.

The people who always seem to more happy, more upbeat and more fulfilled with their lives are the people who have a good sound mind and who are always thinking about and dwelling on the more positive things. They choose, with their own free wills, to dwell on things with a light and fresh attitude, knowing full well that life isn’t always what we thought and that sometimes there are going to come times where attitude has an input, the most important input.

Have you ever spent an hour with a person who isn’t fulfilled, who is always pessimistic and depressed all the time. People who have negative attitudes towards anybody and anything, and are choosing to think and dwell on the negative side of life. I can admit that sometimes I look in the mirror and this person is me. Sometimes it is easier to moan and complain. And sometimes, I just feel like being a little black thunder cloud who came to rain on the parade- because sometimes it takes too much effort to stand up, fix my hair, change my attitude and walk with a different pair of glasses on, choosing to see the good in the worse.

Granted, this cursed and fallen world in which we live in has a mixture of both life and death residing in it. Jesus himself said that we would all have various trials and tribulations that we would go through from time to time. Storm clouds are apart of this life, and no one will get by not having to drive in the rain at some point or another.

But maybe a good life starts in our head, just like a bad… and with the renewing of your mind..I want to be the person who can always find the good in a situation. Looking at the good in life wasn’t something that was taught very well as I was growing up, I am not turning this into a ‘woe is me, my childhood my childhood‘, but more to recognize a pattern and find the courage to chart a new course for myself. I was to see that although I am a million miles away on an adventure that doesn’t quiet look how I expected it too, some good has to come from this. I will learn a lot about myself and the back bone that I was given. I want to return home the same but different. I want to be positive and always smiling. I want to be healthy (after just having ate my body weight in mint choc chip ice-cream) and have a shine that comes from the inside- to realise that there are no excuses, just the ones that you make for yourself.

So. here’s to the silver lining, sunny side up, blogs, a good cup of coffee, Freedom, laughter, post cards, ice-cream, skype.

Here’s to triumphs and lessons, good times and bad, to the things you cant change and to the thing you wouldn’t if you could. Here’s to living this precious life well, with grace dignity and gumption!!

Proverbs 23:7 teaches, “For as a [wo]man things within their heart, so is [s]he”… and Proverbs is never wrong!

Dad: So, what are you doing tomorrow night?

Son: Oh, you know, a usual Saturday night... Pizza, beer, and strippers.

Dad: Okay, can you just pick one of those, because all of those are unhealthy.

--N Train

I love this city..

So, 51 days. OR 1 month, 20 days.

Ok, so I have been here for 43 days, 1032 hours, 61,920 minutes or 3,715,200 seconds... (just an update)

I am beginning to think that homesickness is like motherhood, no one can describe how hard it is until you go through it yourself. -Brittany Snow

“If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with.” ~ Michael Jackson

He said "For I am your greatest encourager."
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

He said "For you are my treasured possession."
Exodus 19:5

He said "I am also the Father who comforts you in all your troubles."
2 Corinthians 1:3-4

and then He promised "When you are brokenhearted, I am close to you."
Psalm 34:18

so

I will seek Him with all of my heart. I will trust in Him. I desire His ways.
I will rejoice in the Lord, always.

That being alone means you’re free. That old lovers miss you and new lovers want you and the one you’re with is the one you’re meant to be with. That the tingles running down your arms are angel feathers and they whisper in your ear, constantly, if you choose to hear them. That everything you want to happen, will happen, if you decide you want it enough. That every time you think a sad thought, you can think a happy one instead.

That you control that completely.

That the people who make you laugh are more beautiful than beautiful people. That you laugh more than you cry. That crying is good for you. That the people you hate wish you would stop and you do too.

That your friends are reflections of the best parts of you. That you are more than the sum total of the things you know and how you react to them. That dancing is sometimes more important than listening to the music.

That the most embarrassing, awkward moments of your life are only remembered by you and no one else. That no one judges you when you walk into a room and all they really want to know, is if you’re judging them. That what you make and what you do with your time is more important than you’ll ever fathom and should be treated as such. That the difference between a job and art is passion. That neither defines who you are. That talking to strangers is how you make friends.

That bad days end but a smile can go around the world. That life contradicts itself, constantly. That that’s why it’s worth living.

That the difference between pain and love is time. That love is only as real as you want it to be. That if you feel good, you look good but it doesn’t always work the other way around.

That the sun will rise each day and it’s up to you each day if you match it. That nothing matters up until this point. That what you decide now, in this moment, will change the future. Forever. That rain is beautiful.

And so are you.

There is magic even here, in gridlock, in loneliness, in too much work, in late nights gone on too long, in shopping trolleys with broken wheels, in boredom, in tax returns, the same magic that made a man write about a princess that slept until she was kissed, long golden hair draped over a balcony and fingers pricked with needles. There is magic even here, in potholes along back-country roads, in not having the right change, arriving late and missing the last train home, the same magic that caused a woman in France to think that God spoke to her, that made another sit down at the front of a bus and refuse to move, that lead a man to think that maybe the world wasn't flat and the moon could be walked upon by human feet. There is magic. Even here. In office cubicles.

No matter how you stack me. No matter how you arrange me. No matter how you look at me. I am still here and I am still the same person made of the same things. I regret nothing.