LOOK UP

This topic is something really close to my heart, people who know me, know that I love people, I love to be around people, laugh with people, serve people, help people, care for people and all other things you can do with people. However there is a group of people that have stolen my heart, these people are 'young people' I have a passion for young people, especially the young people who are;

Lost, hurting, confused, abused, forgotten, unloved, depressed, broken, bullied, outcast, addict, drunk, druggie, abusive, violent and ungrateful. 

Young people are the next generation of people, their the future;

Doctors, carers, police officers, nurses, teachers, lawyers, paramedics, judges, cashiers, shop assistants, scientists, inventors, artists, writers and all the other jobs. 

This is why I love them, I look at young people, even the ones described above, and all I see is potential, I see the people who one day I shall look to for help, so while I can and while I am capable I want to help them, encourage them, support them and be there for them. Jesus is there for everyone, and we are his hands and feet....

I'm going to talk about something that may seem off topic, but actually this 'thing' is consuming our world, its disconnecting us from each other, this 'thing' spreads like poison and is more addictive then heroin, most people don't even realise it. 

What do you do before bed? what is the first thing you do when you wake up, before you have even gotten out of bed? What do you do when you are on the train or on the bus? What do you do when you feel awkward or uncomfortable? What do you do in the doctors surgery while you wait? 

This 'thing', is teaching our children and young people that its okay to sit in doors all day, apposed to being with friends and family, this 'thing' has made us the most connected and most disconnected generation to ever walk the earth.

Have you figured it out yet? This 'thing' I am referring too is our phones, our iPads, our computers. This 'divide of delusion' that we use everyday to stay 'connected'.

The other day I was at a small house party, and in one of the quieter moments between people 'raving' i glanced round to see everyone in the room on their phones. It was crazy there we were a room full of friends and a room full of antisocial friends. I find myself often saying enjoy they people in the room!! not the ones on your phone! I know I not innocent of this, and I hate it! so much!

I came across this video a week or so ago and I've watched it like 15 times! I think its brilliant! So this is why I am blogging about this subject. below is the link to the video

LOOK UP

Are there times where you find yourself in a social situation but sit on your phone?

Enjoy the people in the room, not the ones on your phone.

God Bless

'Everything Everywhere'

So I don't normally review things other than books really, and I haven't done a book review on my blog yet.... But right now I'm going to share my expierence of a certain company, that has angered me greatly, they false advertise and i am fairly dependent on them everyday!!

This company is the phone network EE! Oh my gosh I can't explain the frustration I have with them. I know everyone has different expierences with their phone companies and some of you may sing EEs praises, I  however do not.

What a lie

The signal has been dreadful to the point that having a phone is redundant, 4G.. What even is it? I've never got it on my phone turns out my area does not even have it!

What frustrates me isn't that signal is crap and my 4G, and most of the time 3G is awful it's that EE means 'everything everywhere' I get nothing anywhere!!!! It infuriates me! And the customer service hasn't been great either I was talking to one of the customer service people and they just left half way through! Not to mention the up in phone contract price! I wouldn't mind but my phone contract is ridiculous! 

So I am strongly advising people don't go with EE, there not that great, right now I dont have full signal and honestly I don't think I ever have. What a disappointment! 

Have you had any bad expierences with phone contracts please share in the comments!!! 

God bless  

Taxi drivers....

Okay so I have a theory that I would like to share with you.

Taxi drivers are going to take over the world. 

Think about it some people get scared that the world is going to be over taken by aliens or whatever else, but if All the taxi drivers in the world out their heads together on some big ass Facebook group set to private we could be doomed. They quite possibly could know every road ever! All the shortcuts... Well long cuts. Deserted places..... It could happen you know! 

Also, isn't it annoying that when it hits about midnight and the roads become quite'er taxi drivers are EVERYWHERE! And they act as if they own the bloomin road... Now I know I just blogged about gossip and slander, Im not trying to slag off taxi drivers, I just think there all aliens that may take over the workd. 

I haven't quite decided what they shall do once they take over the world but I'm sure it will be exciting.  Hopefully Jesus will rock up before the taxi drivers realise the power they hold in numbers.

So yes taxi drivers are aliens and they shall take over the world.

God Bless the ramblings of a tired student. 

How does Moses like his tea....

Hebrews it!!!

WHEYYY!

Okay this is a terrible joke not just because it's a cheesy Christian one, but also because Moses wasn't even Hebrew! I'm pretty sure he wasn't anyway! 

There is a reason I started with this awful joke, I have just been reading Hebrews 12 1-13, wow. It's not like majorly spiritual or even that deep but it really just made things click in my head.

Vrs 9 'We have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it.'

Okay maybe we didn't at the time and the Bible takes that into consideration, because in Vrs 11 'no discipline seems pleasent at the time, but painful.'

When you are being disciplined or suffering consequences for past actions it is really friggen hard! Sometimes it really hurts too! Over the summer this was deffinatly something God was teaching me, I think I blogged on it... Yeah it's called consequences! Funny that! Anyway, what I liked about this section in Hebrews is it's saying endure the hardship, God is treating you as his children! And also it says that God disciplines us for our own good! 

Vrs 10 earthly fathers discipline is for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our own good, that we may SHARE in his holiness. 

I know a lot of people who struggle to relate to God as their dad, but ultimately that is what he is the dad of dads....he is the ultimate dad! Everything he does is for our good! It's not because he wants to hurt or punish us or watch us squirm in pain and be unhappy, he wants us to grow be strong, learn and SHARE IN HIS HOLINESS! 

The other half of Vrs 11 says later on, 'however, it produces a harvest of rightousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.' 

Discipline is a good thing, it helps us learn and grow. The reason why I'm blogging about this is because to some of you this may be really obveiouse but it just clicked in my head. 

I had God down as this father who is gracious, loving, loyal, slow to anger, just, rightouse, holy and the list goes on. 

He is all those things but because he is our father and just and loving and all the rest he disciplines his children so that they can grow and learn and share in his holiness. 

It can be really hard to understand why someone who loves you is disciplining you, when your in the middle of discipline or dealing with the consequences of your actions, but actually you will grow and be a better person because of it. And also God is so gracious that you will still go on to do amazing things even if you did bodge something up significantly well! Believe me my life is loving proof of that! 

So if you take anything away from this it's that God is the dad of dads.

Tongue....

Us girls love to talk. We love to talk about everything, clothes, boys, TV, celebs, food, houses, cars, beauty and money. Ultimately though we are very good at talking about each other.

Gossip. 

It is poison amungts friends and sweet amungts enimies. 

I have been really challenged by the things that come out of my mouth and the big book is always telling us how powerful our words are and what comes out of our mouths! I found over 100 verses in the Bible that talk about the tongue and our words! Over 100! 

One that really stuck out at me was;

Matthew 12:36-37 

I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Wow, someone once said to me or I read it somewhere, imagine if All the words we spoke we're written on our bodies for all to see....' We would so think twice about what we would say. 

It's really easy to get sucked into a bitching session or sharing a juicy bit of gossip about someone, I know because I do it! 

I have seen people's lives been run and ruined by gossip. Truly a life of misery. It builds no one up because not only have you just slated a friend or even a complete stranger like celebrities, okay so we see and hear a small portion if their lives and how often do we hear someone say so and so is such a bitch! What a slag... Like Miley Cyrus what a dick, half naked on a wrecking ball seriously!? 

And yes she was a muppet to do that (in my humble opinion) but be don't actually have a friggen clue about her, her life, family, background her character which is fundamentally what makes us who we are. We only see what she and the media want us to see. 

But you have just betrayed, trust and also shown the people around you that you do gossip and slag people off and ultimately if you can do that about someone else with them, then who's to say you don't do it with someone else about them! Trust is broken.

This was just an example of how easy it is to gossip and slag people off. But that verse is saying well by your own words you will be judged. This is what helped me get my head around the whole love God fear God thing. I was like how can I fear him  and love him!!! 

The only way I can explain it is like when you do something quite bad wrong and you need to tell your dad and you know he's gunna hit the roof but ya gotta tell him and your scared, it's kind of like that, you still love him but gosh in that moment the fear takes over and you start practicing that little speech of, ah dad I'm so sorry I will never do it again please forgive me I will do anything you want cut the grass... Ect. 

Our words are powerful. What we say about each other is so important! My DNA year tought me that. Just think about things people have said about you good or bad they stick. If you tell someone they are ugly all the time there going to start to believe it and that's because they are powerful! 

Gossip is one of the things the devil loves the most because he doesn't even have to do anything he just sits back and watches you destroy each other, it breaks my heart the things that come out of my mouth sometimes, i really need to think before i speak!! 

I'm asking God at the moment to search my heart and to help me to become more aware of what I say and who too. 

Is there anything that you want God to search your heart for? 

Anything you do that you know isn't good for you or the people around you? 

Just something to ponder on! 

God bless 

TFTC

I'm not sure how well known this whole geocaching thing is but I absolutely love it! I have only known about for a few months now, and like everyone in my life has never Hurd about it! It's amazing! 

So if you don't know what it is, I describe it as like a massive treasure hunt all over the world! Where you basically go places and find various shaped and sized boxes,containers, film canisters Ect and they have little goodies in, you sign the log book and you swap, so you can only take something out if you put something in! 

It is so much fun aswel! It gets you out the house and exploring! Now I don't know about you, but I LOVE adventures, the people that know me well know that if you say adventure I'm there! So this is a great way of going on little adventures and the best thing about it is, ITS FREE! (unless you drive some where then petrol)

It's great to take kids aswel, they get to look and get really excited about finding one when they do! 

I'm 21 and me and all my friends of various ages love it! The pastor and his wife of my church up north did it all the time all over the world! 

But Do you know what I love most about the whole thing? 

Is that it has restored some of my faith back into the world. I love the fact that I haven't come across a single geocach that isn't there because someone has stolen it or ruined it, that people respect it and enjoy it, and help others to enjoy it too! It would be so easy for someone to ruin it and steal, I'm sure it has happened but I am yet to see it! That makes my heart so happy. 

It may only be something small but it reminds me that the world isn't all bad, and that actually something really simple like hiding a sandwhich box in the woods has been going for a few years and it hasn't had to stop due to people stealing or ruining it! 

1000s of people take part all over the world! I was completely blown away by it when I Hurd about it and everytime I actually find a cache it makes my heart smile that little bit more at the fact it is still there! 

If this is your first time ever hearing about it check out the website - http://www.geocaching.com

Or download the app at the App Store! 

It may change every walk or holiday you ever go on! 

Some little tips that I've picked up;

Don't let people know your geocaching while your geocaching, be discreat, I'm not sure why that's a thing maybe it's to prevent people who don't know and love It from finding it and taking it away as some cool thing they just found! 

Make sure you put something in before you take something out! There are a lot of families that do this so it's really nice to keep things in to if not for the adults but for the kids! It must be the coolest thing ever to find something and get to take a bit of 'treasure' out of it and home with you! Also kids probably put some of there favourite things in those little boxes! 

And the rest I'm afraid you will have to find out on your own! It's really fun trust me and the geocaching world is so lovely! So if this has inspired you then I am glad! Enjoy your little adventures! 

Here's some snaps from geocaching! 

God Bless

New season

Wow what a rollercoaster couple of months it has been!

I've lost my job and moved back down south! Not to mention essay deadlines! 

All this means I have just been awful at keeping my blog up to date. Now that I have the mobile app this means I can blog wherever whenever, which is really handy for me as I like to write things in the moment as apposed to after! Especially When God is talking to me! 

So what's been going on, well as I said I've lost my job, there are many reasons why all of which will help me grow! It was a sad time saying goodbye to all my northern family, friends and young people, I had finally made myself a nice little life up there I was really happy! God had really broken my heart for Lymm and all the young people, so it was really really hard to leave, however It has been an amazing faith growing year and a half up there! It has not been easy, far from it but I am glad I've been though it! I have had to do a lot of growing up to do, It's scary being a grown up. 

So I now live with my parents again, that's really wierd! It's been almost 3 years since I first moved out on DNA and although I have popped back for holidays and stuff it's odd living here. Mum and dad don't know Jesus yet, so it's an interesting dynamic, especially when we talk about jobs and money! 

I thank Jesus that I have friends and family to come back too! I may be jobless but there is so much to be thankful for! : ) 

I did get a new hamster just before I left the north! So I have a bit of the north with me : ) 

This is Gordon George (baby GG) I just call him George he's very cute! : ) 

So my plans, well I have one more 6000 word essay to submit then I have finished my diploma but I'm pretty sure I shall carry on to do the degree, I know I'm not great at a lot of things but if I have learnt anything over the last 18 months it's that God has given me a heart for young people, the young people that the media always paint in black and that people in public would cross the street to avoid. They are who I want to work with. I have a lot to learn and a lot of growing up to do but I am so excited for the next chapter of my journey with Jesus! Is shall so my best to keep this updated! : )

Thanks for reading! 

God bless 

Laura-Ann 

Add me on twitter 

https://twitter.com/Lauramorris8

I'm a princess...

So a few months ago i found myself saying this phrase on numerous occasions 'Do you feel like a princess?'
It was my first experience of wedding dress shopping. Now i must say that what you watch on the television is all a lie. There is no champagne. This, i was highly disappointed with. However i was highly impressed with the size of the mirrors they had.

The shop its self was pretty boring, the carpet was a dark cream colour kind of like coffee... and had stains on it. It didn't smell all that amazing either the room not the carpet... 

The rails were full of ivory coloured wedding gowns, with only two or three actual white dresses. So many to choose from. A lot of bling bling in this particular shop. I always imagined that i would walk into a wedding dress shop and be like WOW all of them are beautiful but this was not my reaction i was somewhat disappointed. There were many beautiful dresses but i guess I'm more fussy than i first thought. There were 2 women working in the shop that day. They were sisters. It is a family business.  One was slightly over weight, long blond hair starting to go silver at the top, big beautiful smile, lovely woman. Really friendly, quite a bubbly personality very helpful. Married 4 children. Her sister however came across the opposite. Blunt, not very friendly, looked rather stroppy. She walked in high heels, but she couldn't really walk in them. we shall call the bubbly sister, Bubbles and the stroppy sister..... stroppy.

I was very grateful when we turned up for our appointment at 3, after the high heel walking sister had booked us in, to find that the bubbly sister was the one who would be assisting me and Bird with the wedding dress adventure. She was very helpful and helped us when we needed. Me and bird picked out 4 dresses to start with 3 were of the fish tale kind 1 was a 'princess' dress and the other was a plain looking dress which was actually a brides maid dress. After we had picked some dresses to try we were shown to the changing room. I was amazed with the mirrors. They were ginourmas!  Bird went into which was basically a small section covered in massive curtains. I kept my self busy, taking pictures in the massive mirrors whilst asking bubbles lots of weird and wonderful questions.

Me keeping myself occupied, with the massive mirrors. 

 (I love asking questions, its like the best way to get to know people and its really handy if people are not very natural at flowing conversations.) So i waited while Bubbles and Bird were in the changing room and there was dress on the floor and a oo here and whoops sorry think i pulled the pin out, sounded  a little messy. Then Bubbles opened the curtain and there was my Bird.

WOW! the first thing i said was do you feel like a princess birdie!? ( i asked her this every time she tried a new dress on) you look like one! I have to be honest, i don't really like fishtail type dresses, they just don't do it for me. However birdie did look beautiful. Beautiful lace and detail was just amazing. The next 2 dresses were of similar style one was a high neck lace dress the other had little lacy straps. Then she tried on the one i found.

It was a very simple dress no big train, not big and fluffy but boy oh boy i fell in love! it suited her perfectly it was so beautiful. I was like Bird you look like a princess! Bird tried on one more dress this one was white, it was a nice dress but it was very white!

We left the shop and sat in burger king and pondered on our experience. I was so proud of Birdie, she isn't a fan of crowds and lots of people but we managed to stay out all day. I was privileged to have her arm wrapped in mine as we walked through the people in and out of shops.
I new Bird had her heart set on a dress she had tried on the day before, she showed me a picture of her in the dress and oh my gosh it was beautiful and it was everything birdie wanted in a dress. So it was between 2. The simple dress from Bubbles shop. or the princess dress from the day before.
The big difference was the price. I said well if she got the simple dress she could have all the extras hair, makeup, nails. All done professionally. So i said

'Throw a coin, because while it is in the air you decide which one you want.'

I can't take credit for this i had read it somewhere who knows how long ago but it has stuck with me. Bird was like 'core bird thats deep, where you hide that one!' i was like i have a few pearls hidden ya know :)

Anyways. It was a good experience.

Bird has the Dress she dreamed off. it wasn't the simple one but was the princess dress. Our Daddy  (God) stepped in and cut the price for her. I am so excited for my Bird. The man she is marrying is one of the loveliest gentlemen i have ever had the privilege of meeting and i can't wait for her big day.

Until then, we have wedding planning and ideas to bat around. I'm sure i shall blog about some other bits and bobs before her wedding in september! Its all a new experience for me!

thanks for reading!
God bless

Me and my Bird

Whoops.

I am so bad at blogging... i was totally ready to go and was like yeah man, I'm going to blog every week.... I'm lucky if i remember every month! whoops! my bad.

Life gets in the way sometimes don't you think? When your busy at work come home, then got to sort the kids out. (I don't have kids so i can't pretend like thats my excuse) or you're just too tired and veg out in front of the TV, you got work up to your eyeballs and can't concentrate on anything else, your at uni and you feel guilty if your not doing anything other than your essays. There are so many things that get in the way. The main reason i forget to blog is I'm too busy living life and enjoying real peoples company! i wouldn't change it for the world!!

Anyways, what i wanted to say was i hope you had a lovely christmas and a really fun NYE! hoping that 2014 already is bringing new adventures and much needed joy into your lives! :)
I am really looking forward to 2014! Not only because it is an even number, but i feel feel like this year is going to bring a new big adventure! I LOVE ADVENTURES! I am known by friends for adventures, doesn't matter when but some says adventure and I'm there! call me old fashioned but i love the outdoors!

2014 for me is a year of thankfulness on my Facebook i am posting a photo a day everyday. I'm hoping by doing this it will change not only my view of life but others. So very often do we concentrate on the negatives of life and not the positives, There is something to be thankful for everyday!

Here was my first thankful photo;

New Years. Era Party. Family