hislovewillremain:

If the desires of my heart are not aligned according to Your will, then please change my heart. Make the beat of Your heart be mine.

(Source: pepper-ish, via truelovereallywaits)

kleomarlo:

marooya:

akosikeisint:

1. Love each other.
2. Don’t lie.
3. Keep communication open.
4. Stay sweet.
5. When you get hurt, just forgive and forget.
6. Never talk about break-ups.
7. Say I love you every single day.
8. Forget about pride.
9. If you say sorry, mean it.
10. Don’t compare your past to your present.
11. Don’t talk about your stupid ex’s.
12. Give and take process
13. Be aware of his/her feelings.
14. When you have a fight, don’t let the day pass without being fine.
15. Don’t be the PERFECT one. Be the RIGHT one.

(via thisawesomeguy)

**My faith testimony was first shared to the retreatants at AR#23 Know God, Know Love. Since Then I have shared this story with the youth at Holy Cross Catholic Church.

For those of you who do not know me, my name is Jessika-lyn Mahinalani Garcia and I am the oldest of five. I am 200% times infinity sure that you guys have either seen or heard my family around church. I graduated from The Kamehameha Schools Kapalama in 2009 and I just completed my first year at Chaminade University of Honolulu. I first gave this faith talk at Chaminade University’s Awakening Retreat #23 Know God, Know Love. I was so excited to share my faith walk with the retreatants that I was moved to share my story with you, the youth of Holy Cross Church. So, here it goes; what is faith?

In Hebrews 11:1 it says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” To better understand this verse, I think of the Nicene Creed, in the beginning of the creed it says, “I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty. Maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.” I believe that faith is also having a relationship with God, believing in Him, and trusting that He will lead me and that I will follow. Hebrews chapter 11 names all the people from the Old Testament that lived by faith. Abel’s faith let him offer a better sacrifice to God than his brother Cain did, therefore, he was commended as a righteous man. Even though he didn’t know where he was going, Noah had faith in God and built the ark. It was by faith that Moses was called to lead God’s people out of Egypt. Having faith is a two-way thing, like a relationship. I have faith in God and God has faith in me. I believe that God has faith in all of us even though we tend to stray away from Him at times. I have faith that He will never give up on me, even if at times I feel like He has.

            Right now my faith is in God. However, I have never had a relationship with God until recently. Let me explain, knowing of God and having a relationship with God are two very different things. I needed to learn that. For example, you can know of some one and not have a relationship with him or her. That is how I started out. I’ve known God from the time I was born; I was born and raised in the Catholic Church. I was baptized, I received my first holy communion when I was seven and I just received my confirmation through the RCIA program at Chaminade. My mom was a Sunday school teacher so I went to every catechism class you can ever imagine, I was an alter server up until my freshman year of high school and I was in the church choir for a while. I guess you could say I was an active member of the church at a young age. As I grew older, I started to notice my church’s youth ministry and I couldn’t wait to be apart of it. One of my friends, Michael Basilio was the youth minister at the time and he was a big part of why I wanted to be apart of youth ministry.

            You see, Michael Basilio was born with a heart defect and the doctors said that he wouldn’t live past the age of three. But, I noticed that Michael and his family had a very strong relationship with God and they constantly lifted all of their burdens up to the Lord. Sure, Michael was sick, but he was a true advocate of God’s love. He had so much energy and passion for God that it inspired the youth…especially me. Michael passed away while I was a freshman in high school and because I was going to Kamehameha at the time, I never got the opportunity to be in youth ministry while he was alive. At a distance, Michael was one of the main influences that led me to want know God more. However, after Michael’s funeral, I went back to school and I started to fall away from the church and my faith.

All of the events that happened after Michael’s death played a crucial part in my faith walk. I remember after his death, I would complain about going to chapel and I would try to act all bad. I would swear all the time and not be myself. During my sophomore year, my mom wanted me to join our schools Deputation Team. The Deputation Team was like the campus ministry of my high school. I specifically remember feeling like I should join but I was afraid so I told her that I wasn’t going to have time to do Deputation Team because I was trying out for our school’s Hawaiian Ensemble and I knew that Ensemble would take up a lot of time because I was already in it that year. Well, God definitely heard me say that and He quickly made lots of time in my schedule for Him. Later that week, I tried out for ensemble and a few days later I found out that I didn’t get in. I was so upset that I didn’t make it back in! After I got all of my frustration out, I went down to the chapel, prayed and the pastor of my chapel told me that I should sign up for the Deputation Team because it was the last day. I believe that the events that happened that week were no coincidence. In fact, I believe that that was all part of God’s plan. I was accepted onto the Deputation Team with open arms and I am glad that God led me that way. While on the team during my junior year, my faith and relationship with Him grew. I started to see Him transform my life. I did a lot of work with smaller congregations throughout Hawai’i, like O’ahu, Maui and Moloka’i, and my faith in God let me advocate His love and my story to my peers. At that time, I worked a lot with our Keiki Kahu, which is a student chaplain, and her name was Kaulana Ka’auwai. Along with Michael, Kaulana became another huge influence in my life. Every time I was around her, I yearned to have that same kind of relationship that she had with the Lord. In fact, the summer of my junior year, Kaulana invited me to go to church with her and I believe that it was with Kaulana that I established my relationship with God. One of the pastors at her church prayed over me, and the prayer was so powerful that I could feel my burdens being taken away and I felt the warm embrace of the Holy Spirit along with my very hot happy tears. It was an experience that is hard to explain unless someone has also experienced it for them selves. During my senior year, I was given the blessed opportunity to become the student chaplain of my school and be apart of the Hawaiian ensemble again. It was at a time like this that my faith in God grew even more. I would rely on Him to let me stay close to Him even while I was busy with other things. I let God lead me during my entire senior year and I’m glad that He did! In the beginning of senior year, my friend and I started a Bible study and I remember having so much planned. I remember imagining lots of people showing up to our get-togethers and things going perfectly fine. However, when our first meeting happened, there were only 4 people; and two of those 4 people were my friend and I. I was so upset that things did not happen the way that I planned and I wanted to quit. You see, I’m the “it’s my way or the high way” kind of person and when something doesn’t go the way I planned, I usually drop it. But with Bible club, my friend and I prayed for more people. Each week, new faces would come and leave. Soon after no one started showing up and we learned that our original club advisor could not help us anymore. After falling into that hole I did not feel motivated to go on with the club. A few weeks later, while I was talking to one of the ladies in the office, she brought up the Bible club. She knew about our club advisor leaving us and she wanted to know if we were looking for a replacement. I was taken aback at how willing she was to help us and the Bible club was started up again. I explained to her my fear of no one showing up and she asked me, “Would you rather have a small amount of people show up because they are willing to learn about the Lord or a whole lot of people show up and not really care?”  Her statement helped me welcome the 5 permanent members of the Bible club. Although Bible club had its bump in the road, it was lifted up in our prayers and revived. Senior year was a success and without the Lord, it would have gone differently.

Unfortunately, when I came to college, I fell away once again from God. I felt like He left me to do my own thing since I was doing so well and I took advantage of it. My mom calls these periods “dry seasons”. In the beginning, my faith kept me strong in my beliefs and morals. I was more than excited to be attending Chaminade University’s Awakening Retreat #22 Transformers. The Awakening Retreat is a retreat for college students no matter what denomination you belong to. A week after the retreat, I let myself fall into a huge hole. I started to have a few drinks with my so-called “friends” and I went against my own beliefs and morals. I went to church with a closed heart and only because I needed to lector. I also stopped praying and talking with God. I strangely felt invincible and I gave all the credit to myself. I stopped serving others and I started to become selfish. I figure that God had let me go to do his own thing and that it would be fair that I do the same. It took me up until the last week of winter break to notice that I was screwing up. When I came back in the beginning of spring semester, I felt God tugging on my heart. It was like He was pulling me closer to Him and saying, “You’ve done enough, come home to me”. I would strangely find myself thinking about Him, especially while I was walking by myself. During this time, I was in the process of moving out of my old room because I felt that my roommate at the time was being a bad influence on me. While making my decision, I let my pride get in the way and I didn’t want to move out because I felt like I was giving up on this invisible war that we were having. My mom told me that I should not let my pride get in the way and that I should just go on with moving out. After doing so, I kept myself busy. I remember going to the first Women’s college LIFE meeting and telling Aunty Margaret and Lindsey that I wanted to restart my relationship with God and with every one here. I told them that I felt like I didn’t come into college being myself and that I let all the good things that God had planned for me slip away.

I now know that God didn’t leave me; instead, He was watching at a distance and praying that I would remain faithful to Him. I am so ashamed of the things that I took part in and I am so sorry that I chose to take part in such acts. God and I are now working hand-in-hand on our relationship and I’m glad that He has forgiven me and never stopped having faith in me. As the preparation for the Awakening Retreat staff started to get intense, I felt God step out for a while and I felt myself being tempted. As I rebuild my faith, all the devil wants to do is knock me down. One of my biggest problems that the devil tempts me with is that he tries to make me doubt myself because I am too young, but I will not let him win. 1Timothy 4:12 says, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, and in purity.” I am young and I have faith. One of the guys that I work with at the Awakening Retreat told me something before I gave my talk; he said, “No one said loving Him was going to be easy.” I expect my relationship with God, family, friends, and peers to have its ups and downs. But in the end, I am forgiven, and my faith will still be strong. During Holy Week, everything I heard was about faith. It is so amazing to see God working in my life and in others lives every day of the week.

This youth night has sort-of been a dream of mine since I entered the Deputation Team back in 2008. I saw the difference that I could make in people’s lives and I really wanted to do something for my church here at Holy Cross! I didn’t do it as soon as I had the idea because God told me it wasn’t the right time. During the process of getting ready for the Awakening Retreat, my mom brought up doing a youth night and I explained to her that I have been waiting for the right time do one with our church. I hope you guys understand faith a little more after I have shared my own story with you!

I understand that my life’s trials aren’t as bad as those who suffer way more than I do. However, anything can happen, and it will happen for a reason. I put my life into God’s hands and I constantly TRY to lift everything up to Him. Although I follow Him blindly, I know that I do not need to be afraid because He will always lead me in the right direction. I recently came across a quote, it says, “Trials exist not because God wants to test you. That’s a lie. He already knows your capabilities, more than you could imagine. Trials exist because you need to learn one thing: FAITH.”  

Submitted by: jegarc

Chicken Soup for the Christian Souls

GOD’S PLAN


Some things are beyond planning. 
And life doesn’t always turn out as planned. 
You don’t plan for a broken heart. 
You don’t plan for a failed business venture. 
You don’t plan for an adulterous husband 
or a wife who wants you out of her life. 
You don’t plan for an autistic child. 
You don’t plan for spinsterhood (being single) 
You don’t plan for a lump in your breast. 


You plan to be young forever. 
You plan to climb the corporate ladder. 
You plan to be rich and powerful. 
You plan to be acclaimed and successful. 
You plan to conquer the universe. 
You plan to fall in love - and be loved forever. 


You don’t plan to be sad. 
You don’t plan to be hurt. 
You don’t plan to be broke. 
You don’t plan to be betrayed. 
You don’t plan to be alone in this world. 
You plan to be happy. You don’t plan to be shattered. 
Sometimes if you work hard enough, you can get what you want. 
But MOST times, what you want and what you get are two different things. 


We, mortals, plan. But so does God in the heavens. 
Sometimes, it is difficult to understand God’s plans especially when His plans are not in consonance with ours. 
Often, when God sends us crisis, we turn to Him in anger.True, we cannot choose the cross that God wishes us to carry, but we can carry that cross with courage knowing that God will never abandon us nor send something we cannot cope with. 
Sometimes, God breaks our spirit to save our soul. 
Sometimes, He breaks our heart to make us whole. 
Sometimes, God allows pain so we can be stronger. 
Sometimes, God sends us failure so we can be humble. 
Sometimes, God allows illness so we can take better care of ourselves. 
Sometimes, God takes everything away from us so we can learn the value of everything He gave us. 


Make plans, but understand that we live in God’s way.
The full control of your and my life is HIS.

(thinkerchelle.tumblr.com)