SNOW DAY!!

So today, I woke up to an inch or two of snow! Being in a place that doesn't get much snow, it was enough for a snow day and no school. So I called my friends Sarah and Melody and they walked down the hill to play in the snow. We did everything we could think of; making "snowmen", making snow angels, eating snow, having a snowball fight, sledding down my driveway, and taking pictures were just a few of our activities. To people in other places that have snow half of the year, this may seem quite pathetic, but we didn't really care! What I learned from this was that I need to make the most of every moment! If I hadn't played in the snow today, I know I would have regretted it! Even though it was an inch of snow, I had a BLAST!!! Praise God for those small joys in life!

A Living Sacrifice

Hi guys! Sorry for the delay in posts. I've been a little busy over Christmas Break. I hope you all had a wonderful time relaxing and spending time with family. Over the break, I got the privilege of going on a retreat with my youth group to a place in Central Oregon called Wildhorse Canyon. There we had workshops and main sessions and time to do different activities. I learned so much and was really challenged in my faith. One main thing our speaker talked about was being a living sacrifice and being willing to give up anything to follow God's will for our lives. I found out that I had been very selfish and I don't really know if I would be willing to give up all the things I have and want in order to serve God. But I also learned that I need to trust God with my life and commit my ways to Him. It's really hard to be willing to give up everything to follow God but I completely trust him with my life and would have it no other way than have the Lord directing me. God has blessed me so much this past year. Sure, I've had many hard times and I would say it has been the hardest year of my life, but I wouldn't have it any other way because the lessons I've learned are life-changing. I thank God all the time for an amazing family, awesome friends and the best church and youth group ever! I pray all of you will stay close to God this coming year and please pray for me as well as I try to keep my commitments. At the end of this post are my commitments and I would greatly appreciate it if you could hold me accountable to these. It truly is the main desire of my heart to glorify God in all I do and I hope you all too can see how much God loves you and honor Him with your life. Thank you all for your friendship and love. I love you all and hope you have an amazing year of 2008!
My Commitment for 2008:
Stay in the word and spend meaningful time with the Lord daily. Surrender to the Lord every day and die to myself and my selfish desires. Be a holy and pleasing living sacrifice to God!
~Hannah

FELIZ NAVIDAD

Christmas is my favorite time of year! It's just so happy! Christmas traditions are so much fun! Ever since I can remember, I have been practicing these traditions. They include making and decorating gingerbread cookies with my grandma, opening one present on Christmas eve, and listening to the Carpenter's Christmas album while decorating our Christmas tree. Although these are all very special, I think my most favorite Christmas tradition is on Christmas Eve when we turn off all the lights in my house and light candles. My mom reads the birth story of Jesus and my brother and I act it out with a nativity scene while she reads. I remember doing this all my life and it is a very special Christmas memory to me. As we are in the midst of the Christmas season, my prayer for all of you is that you will not forget the reason we celebrate this holiday. It seems Christmas gets more and more commercialized every year. It's very sad. So lets not forget that it all comes down to a babe in a manger. Merry Christmas everyone!!! 18 days left....

this is Hannah...

Hey there! So I decided to start a blog. No clue what I'll put on it, or if i will keep it up to date, but it sounded like fun! So, my name is Hannah and I come from the wonderful city of Salem, OR... also home to the giant gold man! Pretty exciting... my life at the time consists mainly of school and my amazing church and youth group. Crosswalk (my youth group) is a passion of mine and I love to hang out with the people there. Junior American Humanities is my full-time job. The words, "To what extent..." make me cringe. (if you are in that class, you know what I mean...haha). So yeah, basically what you need to know is that I love my amazing God and my desire is to honor and serve Him in all that I do. I also love my awesome friends and family and enjoy every second I spend with them. My favorite band is Audio Adrenaline and they taught me to be an UNDERDOG!!! So I guess I will talk later. Sometimes I will blog exciting things that happened or cool things the Lord has taught me. So I guess I will be talking to you later!!