My Journey: Here to There And Everything In Between

 In 1855, a man by the name of Joseph M. Scriven, wrote a poem in order to comfort his mother. She was living in Ireland and he resided in Canada at the time. Joseph published this poem anonymously and never was recognized for it until almost thirty years later. Yet, this poem has become what we now know as the old hymn,  "What a Friend We Have in Jesus."        I often find myself hearing this song and thinking so deeply on the words of it. The depth of which this poem was written (later turned into a song) is something that as a young child I grew up singing in church as the average Sunday hymn. I never thought twice about the true meaning of it until I was much older and encountered things in life that taught me to rely on the Lord. None the less, I'd like to share what I've learned and what the Lord has showed me through this beautiful song.  "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear!...

There's a popular song out right now, on Christian radio, by For King and Country, called Burn The Ships. I typically wouldn't take all the extra time and space to type out the lyrics within a post, but  I think they are very important words and add a lot to everything I am about to share with you. "How did we get here? All castaway on a lonely shore. I can see in your eyes, dear. It's hard to take for a moment more. We've got to... Burn the ships, cut the ties,  Send a flare into the night,  Say a prayer, turn the tide,  Dry your tears and wave goodbye. Step into a new day.  We can rise up from the ash and walk away.  We can dance upon the heartache, yeah. So light a match, leave the past, burn the ships, And don't you look back. "Don't let it arrest you. This fear is fear falling again.  And if you need a refuge, I will be right here until the end. Oh, it's time to... Burn the ships, cut the ties,  Send a flare into...

Hello friends, Today is September 11, 2019. I come to you in this post with an extremely heavy heart, for a few reasons. Allow me to share my heart, this evening, with you. As I stand in honor on this Wednesday, thinking about how our world changed--eighteen years ago today-- I am thankful for the service and sacrifice of the men and women who died. I pray for the families who lost their loved ones, whether in the attack or in the rescue. If you serve in the military, with the fire department, with the police forces, or with the EMS, thank you. You are special. I was not alive on September 11, 2001. I was just six months and four days away from my arrival into this world, but I came into a world that was forever changed and broken by these attacks. With an even heavier heart, I look at Monday, September 9, 2019, as someone very special took his own life. Some of you may know the name Jarrid Wilson. Jarrid was a pastor at Harvest America with Greg Laurie. He was a strong mental h...

Hello friends,  It's been a minute since I have blogged. I honestly have just been extremely busy over the summer, and did not feel like I had very much worth saying over the summer. School has now started back and I have less than seventeen weeks of high school left. The reality that it's coming as quick as it is seems so surreal. I often ask myself where time went and how I made it this far. I can firmly say that it is only by the grace of God and the support from my friends and family that I have made it this far.  But, more of a graduation speech later on, I started this post to talk about something specific. I began this post to talk about seasons; not the beautiful seasons we experience in East Tennessee, but the seasons we experience in life. Over the course of the seventeen years I have been alive, I've experienced many different seasons without realizing it, and I have seen my parents experience many different seasons of life. The way I often think of thes...

I had the amazing privilege of joining some of my best friends on a retreat this weekend with Wallace Students. I can't think of hardly anything, if anything, I love more than being able to spend a weekend growing in Christ and worshipping with my best friends. Often times, that weekend comes with sore muscle and some serious sleep deprivation, but I am 100% sure I wouldn't trade it for the world. We had an absolutely awesome pastor and worship band to lead us and teach us this weekend. Many, many thanks to them for giving up the time to come and be with a bunch of crazy middle and high school kids. I had been praying over this retreat for many weeks, leading up to it. Satan and the world had thrown a lot on my plate and I was so excited to have a weekend away, with no cell service, good friends, and plenty of Jesus. As the retreat became less than 48 hours away, my mind and heart began to be anxious about the many situations, that most likely wouldn't, but could occur. ...

2 Corinthians 10:5 (NKJV) says, "Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5 (ESV) says, "We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ..." The original context of this verse was in Paul's second letter to the church at Corinth. He is defending his ministry, speaking of needing boldness and how to wage a war on sin and temptation of the flesh. It starts in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, saying, "For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your ...

Last night as we prepared to leave the first ever Green Light Conference, at Wallace, I heard the famous, "You are sent to Knoxville and the nations," with a unanimous clap. That rang through the head the rest of the night. "Knoxville and the nations." The whole point of the Green Light Conference,   was to be a mission conference. Green means go, right? Sometimes going isn't my first choice. I often times find myself not wanting to go to the grocery store or  to a social function of whatever sort. But, green means go. If you tie that phrase into a missions conference, its plain and simple...GO. The last commandment that Christ ever gave, before He left this earth, not to return until the resurrection of believers, was to go. Matthew 28:19-20 says, "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am wi...

This Sunday, February 24, was scheduled to be our Youth Sunday at church! A lot of us were involved in it, and we were nervous, but also excited!! Unfortunately, the flood waters of East TN stopped that plan. It has been moved to next Sunday but I volunteered to teach the "Young Married Couples" class for Sunday School. "Young Married Couples" is the majority of the youth student's parents. It's the class that everyone gets scared to teach, simply because it is our parents. We feel like they are very rich in Biblical knowledge, so we tend to feel like what we have to say is not going to be important or new to them. As that thought continued to roll over my brain, God very sternly spoke to me and said, "Izzy, if I am leading you to teach them and I am giving you the words to speak, I will move and change hearts as I see fit." Therefore, I shut up about being scared and decided to let Him handle it. I've been doing the Bible plan, "Untainte...

I've kind of been in a weird place lately and haven't blogged much, so my apologies for that. :) I've had a lot of things on my mind, and some of which are questions that just can't be answered anymore. So I thought I'd just give sort of a life update and share some things. Recently, our basement flooded due to an extremely full septic tank. As my mom and dad were cleaning it up and disinfecting everything, they had to throw some stuff away. Some sentimental things were lost and unfortunately that's just how it goes sometimes. We did salvage what we could though. Even after it was covered in poo-water. Thankfully, my mom was able to salvage some letters that my Grand had written me when we lived in North Carolina, dating back to 2008 and 2009. She was able to dry them out and laminate them, so I would have them to put in memory box and look back on someday. So I decided to sit down earlier this week, and attempt to read them. The key word in that sentence was a...