Giveaways!

Hey guys!

I just wanted to let you know about some giveaways.

Go to Abigail's blog to see what she is giving away.
Go to Marie-Madeline Studio for the Long Ladies' giveaway. Their giving away a very beautiful quilt!
Go to Jasmin's blog for Julia's giveaway of a gorgeous necklace!

Enjoy!

Rebekah Bjur

Thanksgiving CHALLENGE!!!!

Hello there, my wonderful readers!

I'm really excited!!! And I'm really excited because... tomorrow is Thanksgiving!! But yeah.. I guess you knew that  :)  Unfortunately, the Pilgrims missed their stop in Chile. So that's why this incredible holiday is NOT celebrated here. Can you believe that?? :O  lol! But the good news is, WE as a family DO celebrate it! yay! So tomorrow, no school! I get to hang out in the kitchen with mom all day :D  We've decided to not over-do it where food is concerned, for the simple reason that we don't want to "over-do" our waist lines. But we are having turkey. Mom found a little one at the store, so we were so happy! And yes.. pumpkin pie.. yuummmm! can't have Thanksgiving dinner without pumpkin pie, right? lol.. it's going to be a good day.

Ok.. enough with the food. I'm making myself hungry already!! Let's focus on what's really important, shall we?
All right. The challenge. I've decided I'm going to start my day a little differently tomorrow. I want you to join me on an adventure!! That's right.. YOU.. on an adventure! Let me tell you what this adventure is all about. To start off, I'll be going to bed extra early tonight. (If you decide to join me, do so as well.. you'll need it!) And tomorrow, my plan is to wake up THREE HOURS before my regular wake-up time. Tomorrow is supposed to be a day of thanksgiving, and that's where I want my focus to be. Not only does God want us to thank Him for His blessings, but He commands us to. Psalm 100:4 says "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving" and "Be thankful unto Him". Anothes Psalm says that "is is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord". He also commands us to be content in the present with the things that we have. It's kind of hard to give thanks to God for the things we have when we are not content with them, huh? Or what about the difficult situations we might find ourselves in? God is perfect, and He is good, and he loves us! He gives us everything we have, and puts us in the difficult situations we are in, for a reason. And He commands us to be thankful for them. I know it's hard.. but what I'm going to do, and recommend that you do too, will help us have the  right kind of perspective on things. Ok.. here it is.

1)  Go to bed early tonight!
2)  Set your alarm clock to wake you up 3 hours before your regular wake-up time.
3)  Think of areas in your life in which you need to work on being more content and thankful.
4)  Spend 3 hours with your Heavenly Father. (below are some ideas)
          - With a study Bible, or concordance (whichever is available).. find verses in your Bible about thankfulness, contentment, who God is, and reasons for why you should be thankful.
          -  Pray, read, pray again, and meditate on God's Word. Have a true time of fellowship with God and ask Him to help you in these different areas.
          -  Take time to sing out loud and praise God for ALL His blessings.. not just the ones you think are good.
5)  Now you are ready to face the day ahead of you with renewed thankfulness!
6)  Share with others what God has showed you from His word.

So..  there you have it! I've never tried this before, but I'm going to tomorrow! Please join me! It will be a wonderful adventure with our Lord. If you can't do it tomorrow.. that's ok! Do it on Friday or Saturday.If you can't do it for 3 whole hours, that's ok! Do it for 2 hours, 1 hour, or whatever. And please.. if you decide to take this challenge, let me know how it goes for you! I would love to hear about what you learned and what God is doing in your life.

I hope you have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving tomorrow!! God bless you  =D

Rebekah  Joy
        
         
     

Princess In a Tower

"The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength,

in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation,

and my high tower."

~ Psalm 18:2 ~

Most likely everybody in this world has some kind of place he likes to call his own. Think about it! Maybe there's a certain place you like to go that just makes you feel special, protected, adequate... like the beach, a shopping mall (lol!), or it might just be a room in your house.

My bedroom is all that for me. It's the place that I spend most of my time in. Seriously... it's where I do all my school work, where I sleep (obviously!), the place I make my "escape" to, where I cry and vent my frustrations, and where I feel truly safe, protected, and secure.

My awesome room is located on the second floor of our house. It's the only room up there, so you could say it's kinda secluded :) Leading up to it is this skinny, tiny, windy staircase. I have a friend, and whenever she goes up to my room, she says, "I feel like a princess in a tower!" (you know who you are! :P). And hey! Guess what? It does kind of feel like I'm in a tower! And the princess part? Well.. that too! After all, I'm the daughter of the King of kings!

My "tower" is pretty cool, isn't it? But there's this other Tower I want to talk about. My "tower", even with it's cute windy staircase, is just a room.. which could collapse in an earthquake at any time! Very unreliable, I'm afraid.

The Bible says that God is my Tower.. and my Fortress, and my Strength, and so many other wonderful things! I can truly trust in Him, because He has promised to always be there for me. He, as my Tower, can give me true security. I can feel safe and loved in Him. I don't have to worry about this Tower tumbling down in an earthquake. I can take all my fears, all my frustrations, all my worries.. to Him, who will always be there for me.. no matter what!

Now I can truthfully say that I am a princess in a Tower. In a safe, stong tower.. where nothing can ever hurt me, because I am His.

I am His princess.

My Special Chilean Toy!

HELLOOOOO!!!!!

Long time no see.. I know.. but, better late than never, right? :) Well.. here's my excuse.. lol! I've been suuuper super busy. Yup.. an MK's life can be that way sometimes. Trying to juggle two days' worth of school work in only one PLUS trying to get ready for different church activities every week can be pretty time consuming. Sorry! But.. here's the good news! =D I'm gonna try to make up for it! I'll start by letting you watch the video down below. This is just one of the many ways we have fun here in Chile. I hope you enjoy!

Well.. hope you liked it! I'll post some more stuff in the next couple days.. hopefully :D Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have a great week!

God bless!

Becky~

Friends are Awesome =D

Hello people!!

Last night I had a really fun time with some of the girls from church! We ate some yummy food, and talked ALL night long. We didn't go to sleep like 'til .. umm... 7 a.m! We asked each other funny questions, and got to kow each other a little better :D
It was a great time of relaxation after a very school-filled week. Yes.. it was relaxing, believe it or not... even if I look like a zombie right now.. lol! Wait.. I did get to rest this afternoon, though.. so that was nice :)

Good Christian friends are truly a gift from God!! I praise the Lord for every single one of them. They might be really far away and not in the pictures below, but they still have a very special place in my heart.

Enjoy the pics!!

Note: Some of the pictures are from the sleepover last night.. and were taken like at 4 a.m... lol. You can tell we need our sleep!! Our faces are just.. wierd.. =D

Me and Karim =D

Melannie, Mathalya, and me. This was at camp last month.



Sarah, Abbey, and me.. getting ready to WALK to my Sweet 16 at the church. We got a bunch of stares for some reason.. hmm.. wonder why? lol.. Miss you guys!

All of us girls at the sleepover!! Boy... don't we look beautiful.. at 4 a.m???? haha

Sarah, Abbey and I recording our CD. Fun times! :D

Aww!! Maritza, Pilar and me.

At the sleepover.. eating some yummy food (Chinese rice) prepared by Tiare!

(Nathalya, Javiera, Maritza, Tiare, me, and Melannie)

Hope you have a great Lord's Day tomorrow!! =D

Living in His Beauty,

Rebekah Bjur

Glorifying God... in my schoolwork???

Hey everybody!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been pretty busy :) School has been taking up most of time recently, as I am trying to do TWO years in one! It can be REALLY exhausting at times, but somehow... God keeps giving me His grace every morning to do what I need to do. Now it gives me the laughs at the thought that before I started doubling my schoolwork every day, I could barely complete one day's worth of school! I kept making excuses, I guess.. lol.. as to why I couldn't. But now I see that I was just being plain lazy =D

I suddenly "came back down to earth" one day and realized how behind I was in my schoolwork, and thought.. "hey! no problem.. I can start doing double". And that's what I did. I realized that I needed to "redeem" the time time that God has given me. I need to be prepared for what God might have for me in the near future. I have no idea what that is, but I know that I can't really do it if I'm being lazy and still stuck in the 7th grade (no, I'm NOT in 7th grade... lol.. just an example)! But seriously.. I guess the hardest thing for me while taking on this new challege has been getting up early. And I mean HARDDD!!! I 've always, always been a late-sleeper-inner :P Considering the fact that we live in a very "nocturnal" country, and, as a rule.. I never go to sleep before midnight.. lol! (believe me.. we've tried to develop an earlier get-to-bed schedule, and it just doesn't work!) So.. it has definately been a challege. I find myself asking God every night to help me get up early. I need help from Above to accomplish this hard task.. lol.

I know that God's will for my life right now is to be a good daughter, sister, and student. And only when I fulfill these responsibilities will I be ready for the bigger things that He has in store for me :D

I will try to post some pictures later. Thanks for stopping by!
Hope you have a blessed day!




Living in His Beauty,
Rebekah Bjur~

Just some thoughts...

Hey Ya'll!

Today I was reading about Creation in my Bible. It got me to thinking again about what a great God we have! And reading about Creation also shows me I have a creative God. Just look at all the cool design around us! In youth group on Saturday nights we've been discussing the topic: "Why do we believe the Bible?", and the same things were mentioned.

Psalm 19:1 says "The heavens declare the glory; and the firmament showeth His handiwork." That is SO true. And think about this: the "heavens" is one of God's creations, right? It has so much design and beauty to it, and gives testimony to the fact that we have a beautiful and creative God, therefore.. it declares His glory. How much more should we, His unique and most important creation, declare the glory of God? Isaiah 43:7 " Even everyone that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him."

I, as God's child and creation, need to show His "handiwork" in my life. We need to glorify God with our lives by pleasing Him each end every day for the rest of our lives!

Well... these were just some thoughts that were on my mind today and wanted to share them with you =D Let's declare the glory of God!!

Living in His beauty,

Rebekah Bjur~

The following are pictures taken at a beach right outside our city. Whenever we go there, I never cease to be amazed by God's awesomeness. The pictures really do not do it justice, lol. It's really, really beautiful. Enjoy!

~Living In His Beauty~

Hey Everybody!

Welcome to my new blog! Yes, I finally got one. I thought it'd be a great way to keep in touch with everybody and share my thoughts as well as what God is doing in my life!

You might be wondering a little about the title of my blog, and how I came up with it. Well... it's pretty simple really. A while back, I came to a point of decision in my life... one that would completely change my way of life and my way of thinking. You see, even though I recieved the Lord as my personal Savior when I was a little girl, I wasn't living my life in total submission to Him. I was always worried about what others would think of me. I always tried to be pretty and tried really hard to make a good impression. I wanted people to think that I was doing great spiritually. But you know what? I realized how empty I felt, because I wasn't living for Christ, but for myself! I realized that I needed to start making my life count for Him! I don' want to live for myself any longer. It's not worth it.. take my word for it! I want Christ to shine through me! That is the only way to truly ever be happy and have a blessed life. From that moment onward.. when I kneeled before the Lord and asked His forgiveness for being so stubborn and wanting my own way... I decided that I was going to live in His beauty. Not in my own... no longer.
Is it easy? No (shock!). Do I sometimes fail and get discouraged? Yes (double shock!). But when I do, I know I have a loving and merciful Father whom I can turn to. I can rely on Him for help and strength in this battle against Satan. Whenever Satan says, "you can't! you're too weak!" God says, "you can, I will make you strong, I will hold you by the hand and help you through this"! I start every day by giving it to God in prayer, and asking Him to help me live in His beauty. It's a choice I have to make every day, believe it or not. And God helps me carry it through. Don't we have an AMAZING God?? He is full of second chances! Maybe you haven't been living your life 100% for God. If not, I would encourage you to make that decision. Because only then will God truly be able to use you, and only then will your life really count for Him. Live in His Beauty! God had many blessings in store for His children who seek Him! Remember... God honors those who honor Him.

I'm really excited about what God has in store for me. I have no idea what that is... but I know that is HAS to be good =D (1 Cor. 2:9) In the mean time, I want to glorify Him and bring praise to His beautiful Name!

God bless you!

Living in His Beauty,
Rebekah Bjur ~