Your first day of HIGH SCHOOL!!

Hello!! I apologize for my lack of blogging, but I have been thinking about you girls a lot lately and I am so curious to know how everyone’s first day of High School was!!! I remember I was terrified the entire time and the night before I spent at least an hour trying to find the perfect outfit, but hey, I survived!! I am so excited for all of you and I hope it was a great day! I am thinking of y’all and praying for you all the time! Please leave me comments about your first day or email me at jessjoyttu@yahoo.com!! I will pick up my blogging so check back! Love you all! JJ:)

A one-on-one relationship…

How do you get to know someone better? You spend time with them and after some time spent with them, you realize one of two things: I want to continue hanging out w/them or I don’t. It’s really as simple as that. However, what are the deciding factors? What is it that makes you want to spend more time w/that person, why do you want to get to know them better? Maybe it’s for selfish reasons, maybe for your own personal gain, maybe they make you look better in your friends’ eyes. Or maybe it’s just that you really enjoy them, enjoy their personality, enjoy that they make you feel special, important, and needed. We are all searching for the ultimate relationship, even you all, as rising 9th graders…most of you are always on the lookout for your next crush or your next best friend, and often times, that person changes weekly. Even I am searching…yes I have Russell and we have an amazing relationship, but he was not made to be my everything. There is no one who can fill that role, no one but Jesus.

As our time together in small group is wrapping up, I have been thinking a lot about what I desire for you girls and your lives, and I came up with a lot of answers…I want you to be happy, healthy, I want you to hang out with people who encourage you, lift you up, make you want to be a better person, I want you to be respectful of other people, but when it comes down to it, the one thing I desire MOST for you all is that you desire to have a relationship with your Heavenly Father, your Creator. I pray that you would desire to get to know the One who knows you best, the One who wants so desperately to have a relationship with you. I pray that you would know and believe that this is the ONLY relationship that truly matters, that God is the One who knows you best, loves you most and wants only good things for you. He is the One who brings healing, joy and purpose to our lives. So this is my question to you (that I want you to answer by commenting or sending an email), What do you desire to get out of your relationship with God?

 ”I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.” Philippians 1:9-10

On a side note, I want you all to know that although we won’t be together on Sunday mornings in small group, I will always be your small group leader, I will always want to be a part of your lives and I pray you will let me be. I will continue this blog for as long as the Lord leads me to, so I hope you continue to read it! I love you girls so much!

Also, please continue to tell me how I can pray for you this week.

 

 

How can I pray for you this week?

No long post today…I just want you to answer that question. You can comment here or email me at jessjoyttu@yahoo.com.

“So I say to you:Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Luke 11:9-10

God’s comfort

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our troubles…” 1 Corinthians 1: 3-4

When I started this blog I wasn’t sure how I was going to know what to write, should I try to think about what y’all struggle with at school or at home and write about such things, should I write about what I am going through and hope you can relate, or should I simply trust that because we are all God’s children and we all have our own struggles, that He will make it relative to each individual situation….well, obviously, I went with the last option. So, today, I am struggling with some things in my life and I desperately needed comfort. I was doing a Bible study this morning and I came across this passage of scripture talking about God comforting us in times of trouble and I think it’s something that we all need to hear. Whether your struggle is that your friend talked about you behind your back, your boyfriend broke up with you, your parents seem to be completely unreasonable, you got a bad grade…whatever it is, you can take comfort in knowing that your Heavenly Father has His arms wrapped around you at that very moment saying, “Everything is going to be ok, I love you my precious daughter.” If you girls are willing to confess to Him that things just aren’t going your way and if you are willing to just talk to Him, like you would a friend, I can promise you that He will listen. It is going to require you to sit still and be quiet, as it says in Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.” and once you are still and quiet, He will comfort you with His Love. I know that many of you have said one of the reasons you don’t pray or go to God with your problems is because He doesn’t give you an immediate response, and I know how frustrating that can be…but God says that when we seek Him with all our heart, we will find Him. (Jeremiah 29:13). He will show up and He will comfort you during those hard times when your hearts are broken or your spirits are crushed and you just feel like you want to crawl in bed and never get out…He is compassionate, and His love for you will never fail. So try this sometime this week, when something happens that just really sucks and you need some comfort, get on your knees and ask your Father in Heaven for comfort, ask Him to wrap His arms around you and tell you He loves you. And then close your eyes and be still….and He will.

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139:14

If there ever was a verse to memorize, this one would be it. This verse has meant more to me than any other scripture simply because it says what I (and every other girl) usually needs to hear the most….that we are perfect in every way in God’s eyes. If you read the verse again, it says that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Now I know that the “fearfully” part may throw some of you off, as it did for me the first time I read it. However, it simply means that we are made with great respect, love and (this is the best one..) adoration from God. That’s right, God ADORES you!! He looks down on you every single second of every day and He thinks…”She is my perfect daughter, I love her more than she could ever imagine.” Now, I know that there are days when you feel like you just don’t measure up…you’re not pretty enough, thin enough, athletic enough, smart enough, popular enough, etc and I know the world likes to tell you how you should be, act, look, dress, talk, think…but in those moments of doubt…I want you all to remember this verse, I want you to remember and BELIEVE with all your heart that our Heavenly Father made you the way you are for a very specific reason, to Him, you are WONDERFUL, you are His joy, you make Him smile.

So today, as we go about our day, whether we are at school, home, sports games, the mall, wherever it is…think about this….no matter what anyone else says about you or even what you may think about yourself…your Creator, your Father in Heaven thinks you are perfect, that you are wonderfully made.

 

Welcome to our blog!

Hey girls! I have been wanting to do something like this for a while, something that can keep us connected outside of church and as you move on to high school. God put this idea in my mind because so many of my friends have started “blogging”:) so I decided this would be the perfect way for us to communicate. I plan to post once or twice a week to start and then increase as time goes on. There are a couple reasons I wanted to start this: 1) to have a way for you girls to send me your questions, comments, concerns, prayer requests, or just anything that you want/need to talk about. I want to be there for you in any way possible as you begin this amazing new chapter in your life (high school) and although I will no longer be your small group leader, I most definitely want to be a part of your life. and 2) to get your girls in the Word (if you’re not already!). I will be praying each week that the Lord will give me a verse to give you all and then how to apply it to your life. I want God’s word to be relative to you and your everyday life!

So, with that said, let’s get started!! I am so excited and I pray that this will be as much of a blessing to your lives as you all have already been to my life! I love y’all so much!! Here goes….

ps-feel free to leave any comments, questions, or prayer requests you may have on the blog comment section or you can email me at jessjoyttu@yahoo.com.