Standing Strong

As a child, I dealt with a lot of fear. Throughout my twenty-two years, I have overcome many fears. It has only been by the grace of God that I have overcome them. Although I do not have the kinds of fears I did as a child, I still wrestle with overcoming my "grown-up" fears, such as not knowing what the future will bring. Sometimes I just don't want to grow up. When life gets stressful, I just want to crawl into my bed, drink hot cocoa, and get lost in a book, one that lets me escape from reality. Often times, I just want to sit down to old cartoons I watched as a kid and eat fishy crackers or doodle my own characters or write my own stories again. Boy, do I miss those days! Then reality sinks in when I realize I will never be a kid again, and will only continue to grow older. I mean, it's scary to think that in eight years, I will be thirty years old. Sometimes I think about what it would be like to be Peter Pan and never grow up. Recently, I watched Disney'

This past weekend was a huge blessing to me. I was able to attend Xtreme Winter Conference. I haven't been able to go in the past due to work. This year, however, my family and I all were able to go. Mandisa and the Newsboys were there the first night. Sunday morning, Jordan Howerton Band opened with a worship session, and then Matthew West finished it off.  The message that Matthew West left with everyone was very powerful. He sang, "Hello, My Name Is," (which, if you have not heard, is an awesome song). He hadn't planned on singing it at first, however. Actually, he hadn't planned on singing it at all. But he said he felt like someone in the room needed to hear the song.  After the song, he went on to talk about how people may have put name tags on us that don't belong on us, such as "defeated," "addiction," "hopeless," but that if we are the sons and daughters of God, He has put name tags on us that say, "