~I am thankful for...

~the families who have taken me in over the past few years by showing me how to love for the sake of Christ.
~my sisters in Christ for discipling me with much patience and care.
~His grace in sustaining me amidst trial and heartache.
~the promise that He will never leave me nor forsake me; even in my loneliest moments He gives peace and rest for a desperate soul.
~the truth of truth.
~the victorious work of Christ in His life, death, and resurrection.
~God's revelation to a wretch like me.
~my Bible and journal.
~Amy Deburgh, a faithful friend who saw right through my life of ignorance, prayed for me, confronted me, and labored heartily to spur me on to walk with Christ.
~God's glory evidently displayed throughout creation.
~my daily humility trips that God graciously gives so that I might look more like Christ.
~the Ladd family.
~my Pap...I love him so.
~RBC a church thats foundation and head is Christ.
~my salvation.
~that His grace is sufficient.
~His power in spite of my weakness.
~His righteousness.
~my parents.
~Christian Ladd(He's my favorite!!)
~my 1996 Chevy Corsica...hah!
~the defeat of Satan.
~prayer.
~repentance.
~music and that God made it so I can worship Him.
~the enablement the Spirit gives me to see the beauty of Christ.
~the truth that nothing can separate me from the love of my Redeemer.
~John Anderson's guidance and...patience with me as I slowly learn how to handle money correctly.
~being a middle school that causes me to strive to show what following Christ as an 18 yr old looks like.
~the grace the middle school leaders have shown me.
~Christ, because there is nothing more costly and worth living to die for.

These are just a few of the things that I was praising God for as I drove to and fro today. I confess that I choose to focus on what I have lost rather than what I have gained. I find myself repenting of this often. His grace is sufficient for me; even in my weaknesses His glory shows forth. I need to live like Paul in such dependance on my Savior. In my weak moments of sin, I need to continually look up to see the bronze serpent and find forgiveness at the foot of the cross.

~A Purpose for This Blog

Through this blog, I seek to show a purpose that is beyond myself. It is what I live to stand in awe of and the reason of my very being.

This purpose is found in Exodus 9:16. "For this purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

Like Pharaoh in Exodus 9, I have considered myself to be of high esteem. Because of my sin, God broke my foolish heart, yet because of his glorious grace, I was bought, and at a high price. I have lost what I never had and have gained Christ. Through pruning, I am being made new. I am His! Here I stand confident in the blood of Christ. Although I live with the broken and redeemed, there is nothing that can separate me from his love. Exodus 9:16 shows my purpose, our purpose, why he raised us from the dead: that he might show his power in us, and that his name might be proclaimed in all the earth. 

What I desire most is that you might truly know the power of God and that his name would be proclaimed. That is my ambition, like Paul, to proclaim Christ and him crucified through a life that gives glory to His name alone.