Preciously Content

So, tomorrow is the day that I was born.
My day of birth.
Birthday.
Whatever you wanna call it, it's a happy day :)


You know, as I was thinking, today, of the myriad of events that have happened over my lifespan. I could not help but smile and then laugh...and then frown and pout. Much like anyone else would be after living for sixteen years, i have had many different events, things and people enter my life. I am grateful for
every.
single.
one.
each in its own special way.


Obviously, it would be impossible to sum these up in one blog post. And so that's why I tried to think of- out of all the things I could write to best sum up my life, thus far- what would it be? The one thing that stuck out from all the others was... my dad.


Now, I'm most definitely not a "suck up" for writing this and you have to understand why. You see, I have the most amazing mother. One I adore and look up to. One that I wish I could be just like one day...only a little different, of course. After all, one must maintain their individuality somehow... but, truly, she has done so much more for me than I will ever realize and touched my life in so many more ways than I will never know. But my father... he is a godsend above all else. A special gift.


Have you ever had the thought: "what if I didn't have a mom? -or- what if I didn't have a dad?" Well, I have had this thought an incredible amount of times and all I can say is I know beyond a shadow of a doubt I would be no where near the person I am that's writing this post unless my father was in my life.


My dad is an amazing man. Not only is he an amazing man but, he has shown me what it looks like to live for Christ. To dare and to go against the flow of people in order to stand strong for what the Holy Spirit has told me is right. He speaks truth in to my life and in return expects me to speak truth right back. He loves me more than anyone else I know and shows that. My daddy treats me like a princess and knows my favorite things.


He's the kind of dad who will dance with me in the middle of a restaurant. The kind who will run while pushing me up and down grocery store isles and who brings me sunflowers home when I need them most. 


It amazes me to see just how well he knows me, sometimes. How he knows just what's bothering me before I can even get over it enough to tell him. Many times I wonder why I'm the one to have such a remarkable father and today it dawned on me. Jesus knew just what I needed in my life to show me just how he feels about
me.


My God knew just who I needed in order to fall for him all the more. He knew just who I needed to keep me strong and safe. Just who I needed that would exemplify a passionate pursuit of my Lord, who would teach me to walk in the ways of my God and carry the cross of my Jesus.


It's a beautiful thing when I think about it. Not only did my Jesus die to save me but he gave me a dad to walk me through a response to His sacrifice. 


I am preciously content to remain in this thought. 

I am Resolved

Honestly, there are some weeks where I completely loose my mind and decide to spiral down into a dark abyss of selfishness and sorrow. Now, of course I'm selfish on a regular basis and i definitely don't want to fool you into thinking otherwise, but these kind of weeks I'm particularly closed off. I decide to shut down because I'm overwhelmed or because I feel worthless... or maybe it's because I can't handle not getting enough sleep or living up to other's standards... or better yet, because I allow Satan to speak lies into my soul. Sometimes I can't help that I'm rotting but most of the time I allow myself to become self focused and ridiculously saddened because it gives me some sense normalcy (oddly enough). But you see, any sense of normalcy takes away from the extravagance of Christ's suffering for me.

Today, as I was looking at some songs for the youth group band, I stumbled upon a sermon and ended up listening to it. The speaker was an extreme word smith and completely caught my attention... He mentioned a young man named Jonathan Edwards and at that moment I looked the guy up. I was stunned to find his list of Resolutions... here are a few that particularly got to me.

4. Resolved, never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God; nor be, nor suffer it, if I can avoid it.

-As a Christ follower, I, Anna Foulkrod, am called to lift Jesus up in the highest way I possibly can and give him all the glory he is owed...but how many times do I take credit for the things that only Jesus enabled me to do? How many times do I forget that only HE deserves the glory and honor and praise?

Have I Taken My Cross?

Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee.

Destitute, despised, forsaken,

Thou from hence my all shall be.

Perish every fond ambition,

All I’ve sought or hoped or known.

Yet how rich is my condition!

God and heaven are still my own.

These words just pierced my heart. Jesus says in
Luke,"If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me." This verse has always made and impact on my visual mind because I can see the picture of what this means...of what it means when JESUS the one who died on that cross says that I must ALSO pick up my own cross-- By creating this word picture He's asking, "Are you willing to do this for me?"

It's a constant struggle isn't it? To "Perish every fond ambition, all we've sought for hoped for and known"? I mean this IS crazy... to give up all your dreams in order to pick up that cross? no way..right? But this I am asking: What more can He do for YOU? What more can He do to show you His Love? He already sent His very OWN Son down to earth to be tried and to struggle and to be beaten...He sent His OWN righteous wrath upon Him...He was tortured---FOR YOU. He offers to be in a perfect relationship with YOU. So, what more can He do? What more can He do to prove this love of His? 

Instead of constantly asking Him to prove Himself again and again, why don't we just have faith in Him? Faith that He IS who He said He is and believe that He chose to love us SO much that he would not only redeem us...but adopt us as His very own. For like it says above, "How RICH is our condition? Christ is our VERY own!" 

January...

Wow. This January was an incredible month and, as do all months, it went by so quickly! These days I can hardly keep up with dates because they fly by so swiftly. As I was looking over my month, I realized how blessed I had been through it all...and how much I have changed even just since the beginning of 2011.

My month started with an incredible journey through the snow storm into sunny Florida (: After being up tight about exams and rushing to finish all of my Christmas things I was a bit wound tight and anxious but a visit to see my favorite family ever with my dearest friend Lydia was just the best I could have ever asked for. I got to re-evaluate where I wanted to go this year, my goals and my dreams as we set off home-made fire crackers in the the back yard to celebrate 2011.

Home-made fire cracker :)

Amazing Strawberry milkshakes... my favorite people ever.
Chase, me, Lydia, Nick

Then I started school back up...but this time with a fuel and fire that no one could dare put out... Im on a mission. I have decided what I want to do with my life! For me, it's the perfect combination of everything wonderful: people, creativity and service.  I want to help people and I always have. I want to make a change in people's lives and love on them... the perfect profession for me? Occupational Therapy. Not only does it help my fellow mankind overcome physical disabilities from past accidents but also helps them overcome that hump emotionally. I can be recruited to join different companies and live in different places every six months if I wanted! There is a great need for these kinds of therapists and there are just a hundred things that are attractive about it to me. One of which is that I could readily take this out onto the mission field, something I'm very passionate about. 6 years in college...here I come!

Another BIG thing in my life is Mock Trial. I cannot tell you how much I adore  team. We have had an interesting case this time around...but we've all found the best in it and the FUN in it. It's so cool to be surrounded by a group of fellow believers that are also my age and striving towards a goal. It has taught me so very much and I am so very proud to be apart of it. Wish us luck for our first competition (this year) this Saturday!

This month I've been at Hope Reins for 61 hours...which on top of everything else I'd say it's quite remarkable! I've conquered one of our ponies who was always so troublesome. I think my biggest problem is that he's so darn cute I could never discipline him. But now, he's a trick pony! He's so well behaved (with the help of one of my friends) he lays down and lets you sit down on him. I'm very proud of that lil' pony! I was hoping to find one of me laying on him....but it was on a different camera. So, here! You still get a little dose of his cuteness (-:

However, out of this whole month, one thing sticks out most to me...and that's change. It's amazing how much someone can change in such a short amount of time..but honestly, over the duration of this month God has changed my heart towards his in incredible ways. Some of the big things I had under my control are in his, totally and fully. It's still a constant struggle to give it to Him but the more I do the more I feel his Love. This love that sees past EVERYthing it seems. It doesn't matter what I look like that day or if I'm crying or if I'm failing at something, He's sees me no matter what. It doesn't matter if I feel lonely...because He'll remind me that He's right there.

But, right when I think He's quiet and not there, He is. When I wake up every morning, He reminds me that I am His child and that this is His day...so what more could I do than live solely for him?

This month...was just a continuation of my flesh dying and Anna becoming a bit more like Christ. I'm thankful for the pain, though, because Today I feel new. Just like the Word says, "His mercies are new for you every morning".