Homeless v. Bill Gates

Have you ever been touched so deep by such an "ordinary" event that it has nearly brought you to tears, but yet you won't cry because there are other people around you at the time? That happened to me today just about an hour ago. What happened you may ask? Well, my grandpa and I were driving down the road on our way to my house and I saw a homeless woman sitting under a bridge. I always see homeless people and it bothers me but then my flesh says "Oh Brittany, you're much better than them, they did that to them self" Uhm NO! It made be true for some people but it is surely not my place to judge even IF they did do all of that to themselves. I don't know these people's situations, I don't know what wrong or right they have done and in the view of eternity how "good" or "bad" someone is, whether they have a million dollars or a penny to their name, whether they live in a mansion or a cardboard box, it just doesn't matter to God! What matters to God is our salvation! It really bothers me when people put so much effort into their wealth because they believe God intended all of his children to have many earthly material blessings. What about the widow who put her last two coins into the offering plate?
Luke 21:1-4 says  "¹ As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. ² He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. ³ “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. ⁴ All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” "

Also what about the Rich Young King came to Jesus? What did Christ say to him? 
Mark 10:21 says "²¹ Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” "

Don't get me wrong, having material riches is okay, I mean I'm sitting here watching tv in an air conditioned house. It just breaks my heart to see all these people in the hot Texas heat without homes.


I was thinking after I told my grandpa that it really bothered me to see that lady sitting under a bridge with her few belongings trying to escape the heat of the day how spiritually we are all homeless until we find Christ and can rest in His Goodness. We wander around searching for a bridge to keep us cool or water to quench our thirsts day in and day out as we cling to our very few "treasures". We seek temporary shelter but all the while we want more. Once we find Christ we become like Bill Gates, all of our earthly problems don't go away but we gain a Home, a Father, a never ending Fountain that quenches our every thirst, spiritual gifts, a purpose, a calling. I may never strike it rich in this life, but I know that I am the richest girl in the world because I have a Father in heaven that Loves me and wants what is the very best for me and he knows what is best for you too.

Antique Malls, New Dog Friend, and Tornados.

Today has been a whirlwind of emotions. I got to see Elizabeth for the first time in FOREVER today! I was so excited. Lots of hugs were given and good conversations were had. We joked and laughed as we wondered around the Montgomery Street Antique Mall. On our adventure we found a lot of wonderful things, here are a few pictures Liz snapped of me:

Me with a Mannequin head

Discovering a GIANT wardrobe that may or may not have Narnia in it. I was so excited to see it.

And lastly we discovered some metal lobsters that I snuggled with.

NOTE: Many other treasures were found but not photographed which included:Old Kodak Cameras, Stuffed Owls, and many adorable bird cages.

I walked away from the antique mall with these two items:

Old Fashion picnic basket!

my basket

old suitcase:)

After I got home from a lovely afternoon with Sister, I waited a few hours and then met this beautiful princess:

Her name is Taffy

I call her Princess Laffy Taffy

I love her

and she loves me.

Then it started to rain...and rain...and rain. Thunder, lightening, hail, funnel clouds, and tornados. YAY Texas! In fact its still raining a little now. So this is how I spent about 20 mins of my evening:

In a bathroom with my 6 dogs. Scared for my life.

Also, the blond dog on the far left is Penny, or as I like to call her, the Miranda Lambert of dogs. I love Miranda as much as the next southern chick. But heck, you have to admit, the lady has some anger issues. Liz and I call her a "bitter southern girl". Penny is the crazy ex-girlfriend of dogs. She decided to get mad and jump the white and tan dog, Katie, who now has a new ear piercing, but she's fine, really, she's okay. Just a scratch on her ear :)

Today has been so fun! Tomorrow I'm heading to the movies to see Pirates 4 with a cool friend of mine, then shopping with Mom and Grandma and then hopefully church in the evening!! Friday I leave for my favorite place, Mississippi and get to see my cousins, aunts and uncles! I can't WAIT! 

Pet Peeve

Okay so we all have them well here is mine: cleavage. yup cleavage, its a problem all of us girls have but some girls choose to flaunt it. That bugs me! Yes, I know it is their choice to let there stuff hang out, but for real, WHY? whats attractive about that? Nothing. Romans 8:9 says "Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak."  How do you think that affects your brothers in Christ to see that? Where does that take their minds? Are you lifting your brothers up or ultimately tearing them down. I don't want to sound like a sunday school lesson, but honestly, true beauty isn't flaunting what cha' got. Its a woman who LOVES THE LORD. Psalm 31:30 "Charm is deceitful and beauty is fleeting but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised" flaunt THAT, thats what is important. It may not get you guys galore, but shoot it will get you one fine Prince Charming in the end, the one He has planned for you. 

Summer Vacation!

I have to celebrate the start of summer with a late night blog post! Its been a while once again, but its been busy with school, doctors appt. , and stuff along those lines. For those of you who don't know, for about two years I've thought that I had a hip injury, turns out its damage in my spine. I'm working on finding a new doctor to help correct this. I finished finals on Thursday, yay!!  I've been spending my time reading a fantastic book by Jenna Lucado Bishop, Max Lucado's beautiful daughter, I've heard her speak three times at the Revolve Tour and I just ADORE this woman! We've corresponded through facebook before, she's so genuine and kind. Anyways, her book is called Redefining Beautiful (again with my theme of beauty ;] ) Its fantastic! If any of you want to borrow it let me know, I already have two people in line though, also I would suggest your own copy, there are questions and stuff to answer in it, and I've written, underlined, and scribbled all over this precious book. I'm actually quite sad that I finished it in three days. I'm going to two summer camps this summer, I'm going to kids camp with my old church (that I'm actually going to again) and youth camp with my youth group at BBC.

My mentor is home from college!! I can't wait to see Elizabeth soon! I'm so excited that she is back in Texas! <3 I'm also very excited that all of my college girls are back in town! I can't wait to see all of them! I'm just a little summer happy right now, I have a feeling I'll be bored and ready for school by next tuesday! That is, until I leave for mississippi at the end of may for my family reunion! Can't wait to see my darling aunts, uncles, and cousins!!! I'll cut this short since I don't really know what else to write! Love you all! <3
-Brittany Lauren

D-Now: Approved

My church held our annual D-now a few weekends ago and it was AMAZING! It was our best one yet. The band Nick Thurmond was awesome (look them up they are amazing) and our speaker Curt William of Youth Reach (http://www.youth-reach.org/HomeYRH.html) just ROCKED. He pointed out that so often we wonder what God's plan for our life is and we desperately search to figure that out, he told us something that REALLY hit me "God's plan for your life is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS"! How true is that?! SO TRUE! It really took a burden off of my heart because I've been really looking and seeking out God's plan for my life, colleges, future job, etc. Another thing that struck me was when he streched this orange ribbon all around our gym and at the front of it were the words "Birth" and about a foot away from that it said "Death" the rest of the ribbon represented eternity. I wish I could show you on this blog the picture because it rocked my world. Our time on earth is so limited! What we do now is our ONLY chance to do it, so you know what that means? SHARE THE GOSPEL! Is it REALLY going to matter in 10 thousand years what that person thought of you? YOU might be the only person to ever share the Love of Christ with them!

The theme of our bible study times at the homes was Approved based on 2 Timothy 2:15 (Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.) It really encouraged me to begin having my quiet times in the morning again, since I had been slacking off in that area of life. 

I always like to tell you about the people I meet along the way in my life journey, mostly because they mean something to me and I never want to forget them, I want to read my blog years down the road and say to myself "oh yeah, that person REALLY impacted my life big time" or "Oh that drama was so dumb" or "Yeah, he broke my heart, but look at where it got me :)" I made two very special friends at D-now, one I already knew and the other I knew who she was but never talked to her before. I found out that my sweet friend has gone through almost exactly what I'm going through now with my family I'm so thankful that God placed her in my life. My other sweet friend, who doesn't understand anything that is happening to me, still manages to encourage me and help me through the toughest time in my life. She snuggles with me and hugs me every time I see her and it always means a lot to me when she takes time out of her busy day to ask me how my week has been and listens to me share. They are both wonderful and I don't know where I would be without them or any of my sweet girl friends for that matter!

I love every single one of you who read my blog! It means the world that you guys would take time to read this!

PEACE.LOVE.BLESSINGS
Brittany Lauren

Trials, Struggles, and Life Changes.

Oh my, it has been WAY to long since I have sat at my computer preparing myself to blog. I don't even know where to begin. I have wanted to write so badly the past month and a half but I just didn't feel like I could yet. On December 5th my whole world came crashing down in front of me, our home was foreclosed on and then the next day my dad left. I felt the need to keep all of this to myself (with a few select people knowing). I can't even begin to tell you what God has been teaching me. I've learned that though I don't understand why things are happening, they still happen and just because I don't understand it doesn't make the situation stop. I've had to realize that I will be able to use this time in my life to help another girl someday. I can say that over the past month and a half I have truly discovered who my true friends are and now I have a total different view on love. I knew it before but I have really noticed how selfless love really is. I've had this selfish view on love that its about that person making YOU happy. I know now that it's about YOU doing everything in your power to make the other person happy. Over this hard time my mom and I have become best friends. She means the world to me and I honestly don't know how I would have made it through this without her. 

Another thing that has happened is that my mom got into contact with one of her old girl friends from the church we used to attend/ her "sister" at work. Growing up I was close to this woman's daughters, they were way older than me though but I still adored them and wanted to spend all my time with them. I ended up having a dream about the oldest daughter (You know how I feel about dreams) so I wrote on her wall on facebook and asked if we could get together for coffee or something. Turns out her and her family have been praying about this situation and God had put me and her heart as well. The first time we hung out was last sunday, we went shopping with her, her mom, and her sister I had SO much fun. Today I went to church with my grandpa (he attends the church I grew up in) and I got to sit with and go to lunch with my sweet friends from that church. This evening I got to go to starbucks with my friend and we realized how much we truly have in common even though there is an age difference. I'm really thankful that God brings old friendships back and that I can share this season of my life with Sacha and her family. 

I really don't know what else to say. I just felt like I should give an update since I haven't in a long long long long time. 

Peace. Love. Blessings.

Brittany Lauren