A Joyful Heart

   Recently, I've been thinking a lot about the topic of love and the very popular misconceptions that people tend to have about it. These are, of course, only my opinions on the matter, but I try my best to base my opinions in biblical truth. There are many people who seem to have a very distorted and warped view of love. People who base their "love" in how they happen to be feeling at the moment are bound for failure and here's why...    First, let's start with this phrase. "Do they make you happy?"... I hear countless people asking this question when first finding out someone they know is dating. It seems like a nice enough question. After all, no one wants to see people they care about sad, but I don't think that should be your first question about someone. I think a better question to ask would be, "Are they following Jesus?" or "Is this a person who you could see yourself marrying?" or even "What qualities do you l...

Hey guys, I have a story I wanted to share with you. It's a story of my guardian angel. Now, when you think of guardian angels, you might think of people with wings, wearing all white. That's totally not what I'm referring to. When I say guardian angel, I mean someone who shows up to help when you're in trouble, then disappears without a trace. These could be people who just happened to be walking by or they could be angels sent from God to help. To be quite honest, I'm not sure what they are. All I know is they are good. Alight, that's enough explaining. Let's get to the story.     So our story begins with me walking around downtown Kona. I had been waiting for a friend to get off work. It was about 11:30am and I had to wait until 3:00pm so I was window shopping to kill time. I stopped at a cross walk to wait for the cars and then the cars stopped for me. I waved politely as one does to say thanks and proceeded to cross. Me, being the clumsy person I a...

So a week or so ago I had the privilege of going to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival with a few friends. It was really beautiful and there were so many different colors of tulips. It was a bright and sunny day, just perfect for pictures.     As I was walking down the rows watching the colors of the flowers change along the way, one of the colors stood out to me. There was a patch of very deep purple tulips that caught my eye. They were called, "Queen of the night." My first instinct said, "They look like death," but, as I stared at them, my mind started to run away with them. It was as if I could hear God speaking through them.     In the field there were so many bright colored tulips. Everyone was taking pictures with the other colors, but no one really stopped for these ones. They were nicknamed, "Nightmare tulips." I imagined these tulips to feel lonely and sad, waiting for someone to stop for them, yet the people just kept walking. Too often...

Hello there, people of the inter-webs. Today, I want to tell you guys a story about how a few clothes, a good friend, and 5 words changed my whole point of view.    I've never been the skinniest person or the prettiest person, so I've been self conscious about the way I looked for years. I really started to notice when I was about 10. I somehow got it in my head that I was ugly.    It didn't help that my parents were also self-conscious. They would go on diets, and they would make the rest of the house follow along. They weren't very healthy diets either. Any random diet they found on the internet that was promising to lose 20 pounds in a week or two was worth a shot to them.    I don't want you guys to think I had terrible parents or anything. They would always tell me I was cute, pretty, beautiful, etc... But children will always follow their parents’ example rather than their words. Since my parents hated looking at themselves in the mirror, I also...

   Hey guys, I've been working on this poem off and on for a few months now. Sometimes I just get into a really rhymey mood. It's about how sometimes people can be so wrapped up in their own lives that they forget about being kind. I know how badly words can hurt people and I wanted to show people both sides of the story. If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all. Spread love, not hate. You can make someone's day a million times better if you say something nice, but you can also make it a million times worse if you're too wrapped up in yourself to be kind to others. The world doesn't revolve around you. We're all in life together, so let's act like it.    Anyways, I'll stop going on about it and just let you read it. "Be Careful..."  By Me... Ashley    Always be careful with the things that you say. Just because there's a smile doesn't mean they're okay.    A weapon is not the thing th...

This post is a bit shorter than my usual ones, but important just the same. Today,  while I was at work, I was helping out on the gas station side of the store I work in. I was ringing people up at the register when this little girl, probably no more than four, came riding on her dad's shoulders.    When they got to the counter, she dropped her package of donuts that she had been carrying and smiled at me. Her dad handed her a 5 dollar bill and said, "Here, can you give this to the lady?" She took the money and said, "Here ya go, lady," still smiling at me. I said thanks and gave her dad the change. He held out his had to her. "Here, do you want the pennies?" She responded with a, "Yeah! I can have them for my collection!" Her father and I both laughed. "You mean your piggy bank." he corrected her. I asked her what she was gonna do with the money that she was saving and her response melted my heart... "I'm collecting it f...