Everlasting Love

"For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only son, that whoever

believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" John 3:16

Best. Weekend. Ever. True story. This weekend included watching chuck wagon racing (pictures to follow!), rollercoasters, amazing worship music, youth from across Alberta being positively impacted, roadtriping, and hanging out with good friends. What more could you ask for?!

YC (youth conference) Alberta is an event where youth from across the province, and neighbouring provinces, come together in fellowship. Thousands of youth gathered to praise God and learn from the wise speakers. A man named Reggie Dabbs spoke about being created to have a personal and loving relationship with God. He spoke straight to everyone's hearts when you asked people to stretch out their shame, pain, frustrations, hands to God because he wants to carry our burdens. He spoke about it not being our fault that our relationships fail, that people were abused, that people's parents fight, that people's family's are broken, that we aren't strong enough to handle what's thrown at us. God wants to love and protect us, but we have to let Him in and accept His love. It was very impactful, and most nights ended with me praying (and crying) with my girls. Those are moments that I don't want to forget - I pray that those thoughts and feelings stay with me and with the youth as YC moves further away. Here are some pictures from the fun times:

Here's my ticket from the lovely YC event!

Rexall Place was COMPLETELY packed with 17,000+ teenagers!

STARFIELD!!! My favourite worship band EVER was there :D

Hanging out with some of my youth girls outside of the rollercoasters in West Ed Mall! Totally rode them. Total awesomeness.

I heart this picture. Look at all those teenagers praising God! Makes me smile :)

Procrastination Nation

I've been bombarded with this idea of procrastination ever since last Sunday. The guest speaker mentioned that we often fall into a "performance trap", needing to reach perfectionism. I was thinking about these words throughout the week and whether they are true for myself or not. Then I fell into a CBC radio broadcast about how our nation is FAR more familiar with procrastination now than even 5 years ago.

What I've discovered is that my procrastinating tendencies stem from my perfectionism. I hold onto this false truth that I need to be able to finish what I'm going to start, and that I need to know that it'll be done right before I allow myself to start trying.

Need some examples? At work, if I know I can't finish something before the end of the day, I often won't start. I can't start glueing things to a scrapbook page unless I have every detail in place. I can't encourage myself to keep up with my guitar playing because I can't see the finish line.

Perfectionism Defeats Initiative.

"If you wait for the perfect conditions, you'll never get anything done." Eccl. 11:4 (LB)

The truth is that God gives us the grace to try and fail. I know that I cannot complete anything on my own, so why am I continuously expecting myself to be perfect. I need to rely on God's grace.

"You began you life in Christ by the Spirit. Now are you trying to make it complete by your own power?" Gal. 3:3 (NCV)

I need to accept my limitations and realize that God sent his son so that I don't have to try to be perfect. Only then can I free myself from procrastination. I have eliminated my need for perfection, allowing me to take initiative in my life. It gives me the mental strength to do something, as oppose to nothing.

Obviously the change of mind frame doesn't happen overnight, but it certainly gives me something to think about the next time I'm procrastinating/daydreaming.