Inside Mandy’s Head

Day #7: A Helpful Hand

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Have you ever helped someone? When I was in high school I went on a few mission’s trips that they described in the story and they were incredible. I loved getting to serve a family by helping to build a house for them. They were complete strangers but we were building them a house to show them God’s love. That is what we learned on Sunday. We are to show our love through actions so that people know we are Jesus’ disciples.

Remember: Love is a VERB!!

Question for today:

- How can you show God’s love to someone today by helping them out?

Day #6: Let the Games Begin

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

First of all, I apologize for not posting yesterday.

How many of you have ever won a race or competition and recieved a medal or a trophy? I have. I won them for sport tournaments, track meets, academics, etc. Those were all fun to receive and I would display my trophy or certificate proudly for a while, but eventually they all were placed in a dressor or simply thrown away. They didn’t last, the pride I had for each one faded.

The Bible calls us to a different race….the race of life. There is only one way to win and there are multiple winners. We just have to give our lives to Christ. The different between being a winner in this race and a track meet race is that our award/prize is eternal. It’s a prize that will never fade or just be put in a dressor somewhere.

Questions for today:

- What races have you won? What were your prizes?

- Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Day #5: “Sweet Dreams”

Thursday, September 16th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

How big is your family? Some families are very small (maybe you are the only child) and some families are HUGE (have you heard of the Duggars that have 19 children!). I fall in near the small family. Along with me, I have two sisters and a brother…that’s 4 kids in the family. There are times when I wanted our family to be smaller (just me would have been great) and there are other times I would have liked to be a part of a bigger family (and yes, there are times I would like to be a part of the Duggar family).

The awesome part of being God’s family is that we are a apart of a bigger, HUGE family known as the family of God. This family is made up of all the believers. That’s HUGE!!

The Bible says we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. That means we have brothers and sisters all across the world….pretty cool, huh?! Along with that we are to love everything like they are our brothers and sisters.

Questions for they day:

- Who are the people you want to spend eternity with?

- Think this one through…..your mom is your sister and your dad is your brother….weird huh?!!!

Day 4: “Jesus in My Heart”

Thursday, September 16th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Do you ever wish God created everyone to be nice all the time. It would be great if everyone had good attitudes and always said nice things to each other. That would be perfect….however, we know that doesn’t happen all the time. People say and do mean things to us all the time. It hurts, it hurts real bad. It’s hard to love those people.

Today we talked about loving others the same way Jesus loves us. Jesus loves us no matter what our attitude is or what we have done. We also need to to do what I call a “heart exam” and see if our attitude is coming from somewhere else (are we sad about something, are we angry and we take it out on mom and dad).

Questions for the day:

- How can you show love to your friends no matter what they do to you?

- What is one chore you are going to do to show love and respect to your parents today?

Day #3: “He Loves me, He Loves Me Not”

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

How do you know someone loves you? Have you ever tried the flower exercise to determine if someone loves you? It can be hard to tell if God loves us, except the Bible tells us over and over and over again that He does and gives examples of the things He does to show us! I’m so thankful that I know without a shadow of doubt that God loves me no matter what!! That is a promise you can take to the bank and you don’t need no stinkin flower

Questions for today:
- How can you tell when someone loves you?

- What are some ways you can love others through actions and words?

Day #2: “Butterscotch”

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Today we learned a very good and simple reason why we should love other….BECAUSE GOD COMMANDS IT!!! Have you ever been left out of something?

Maybe your friends had a sleep-over and you weren’t invited.
Maybe your brother or sister go to something you really wanted to do.
Maybe you were the last one picked at a game.

Whatever it is, that is never fun and always hurts. God never wants us to feel that way. We are loved. We are loved by Him and others.

Questions for the day:
- How did you finish the “Ask It” part?

- Share your experiences with finding someone who was being left out and asking them to join you? How did it feel? How did they respond?

Day #1: “Mandy”

Monday, September 13th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

I’m so excited to be starting this 40 day journey of learning what Biblical Community is all about.   Today we start with a story about a girl named Mandy (and no I didn’t write it)….I loved this story, because it challenges me to really get to know people and their personalities.   If I know them, I know when things aren’t going well….I know to start asking questions.   This story was a great reminder to not just pass people, but stop and ask questions.   Ask how they are doing, ask how school is….get to know them!!

Questions for today: 

-  Who are those people you want to spend some time with and get to know?  

-  What are good questions to ask?

-  Why is it important to notice people and ask questions?

Offering for Haiti

Saturday, January 16th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

The last few days I have had a quote that has been stuck in my head that I heard in a conference back in September.  

“The church isn’t here to meet our needs, we are here to meet the needs of the world.”

We have all seen the destruction in Haiti & tomorrow, PCC is going to take a special offering to partner with Samaritans Purse.   Samaritans Purse is already in Haiti and have been helping in the relief efforts.   They are doing amazing things down there and bringing hope to the people of Haiti.  

Below is the link to see all the work that Samaritans Purse has been doing in Haiti so far.

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/Samaritans_Purse_Today/

PCC, please spend some time in prayer today on how you can be apart of this special offering tomorrow.  You can also hop over to Jason’s blog (www.jason.prescottchristian.com) for additional information.

It’s a new year….

Monday, January 11th, 2010 | Personal Thoughts | No Comments

In my last post I shared with you my “self growth” project from last year by not drinking any pop.   As this new year has started, I have been thinking of what I can do this year as my “self growth” project.   I have decided to challenge myself with a reading project.    If you know me at all, you know I HATE reading books!!!    I can read short materials like blogs or articles, but give me a 100+page book and it will most likely just sit on the book shelf.   Cliff notes in high school were my best friend…..I perfected skimming in college…..and most of the books on my bookshelf in my office are for show.  

However, it is good to stretch yourself and challenge yourself to do something that will require discipline.    This will mean that I will have to plan time during the day to read and I will have to shut the TV off at night (EEEKKKK!!!!) every once in a while and pick up a book and read.  

Last week I had the privledge of speaking at one of the Christian schools in town and I challenged them to a “growth project.”   My orginal goal was to read six books this year, but afterwards a girl came up to me and in her lovely words pretty much told me that wasn’t good enough….so I’m uping it up to nine books.   Below are the nine books I’m committing to read this year.    I’m posting them to keep myself accountable of this decision.  

1.   Deadly Viper Character Assassins- by Mike Foster & Jud Wilhite    (Love these guys and the ministry they have going on with People of the Second Chance….check it out at http://potsc.com/)

2 & 3.  Quitting Church by Julia Duin & Real Church by Larry Crabb   (interesting books about people who have been burned by “the church” and their search for what church really is….excited to see what insights I can gain from these two books)

4.   If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat- John Ortberg   (one of our Life Groups is doing a study of this book this semester, and as I was preparing for this studying it really challenged me in some areas of my life)

5.  Mad Church Disease-  Anne Jackson  (This will be a book I pick up every year and read through…read it for the first time last year and it was AMAZING!   It’s about burnout and how to avoid it and get through it if you find yourself in the middle of it)

6.  Plan B-  Pete Wilson  (So excited for this book to come out this spring…..Pete is an amazing pastor in Nashville that I follow on his blog, twitter and through his podcasts)

7.  Killing Cockroaches- Tony Morgan   (This is  book that I bought a while back that has been sitting on my bookshelf “for show”….it’s about time I took it down and read it!…..it has recieved great reviews)

8 & 9.   Counterfeit Gods & The Prodigal God- Timothy Keller   (I have heard great things about this author, so I am excited to check these books out)

So there you have it…..that’s my reading list for the year.     How about you?    What are you doing to “Grow” this year?

Longest Day of the Year…..

Thursday, December 31st, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

So I made it…..December 31st…..

About six years ago I started this “self growth” thing with myself where every other year I would give up pop (or soda for you “westerners”) for the entire year.    I would go cold turkey at midnight on January 1st and could not have a drop until midnight on the next January 1st.    This past year was my third year doing it.    I love doing this because it really helps me develop self-control  (seriously passing Sonic is HARD!!) and integrity.   It may seem like a small thing, but I know that if I can have self-control and integrity in the small things it will help me have them in the big things.  

The year is tough, b/c I get strong cravings (I LOVE MY POP!!!).    Today will be the LONGEST day and I will down some can of pop at midnight.    If you read this, hop over to facebook and give me your idea on what pop it should be!  

**I must confess this year I did cheat a little this year, but it totally wasn’t my fault!!!    A couple of weeks ago I had a doctors appointment to have a medical procedure and my blood sugar was a little low so I had to drink a Sprite (hint the picture above) before I left.   I only drank 3 sips and dumped the rest as soon as I left the doctors office.   I didn’t have the heart to tell the doctor I couldn’t drink it …..hahaha……My doctor still doesn’t know this was the real reason I was crying that day, not b/c the procedure was so painful….