Rae's Reads

Do you ever feel like God is just speaking directly to you? That’s how I felt this past Sunday. I’d been struggling with patience, reassurance, and gossiping (I knew I was gossiping, not just giving others information on things). I’ve been trying to get better in all those areas, but I felt I kept losing my cool with others way too much. I wondered if I was truly saved.  The Lord told me when I was reading His Word, “If you want to be content, you have to develop patience and practice it.” Well, that’s helpful for someone who’s been praying for happiness for the past 6 years. The Lord spoke to me through my youth pastor when I was at youth group. The man simply said, “If you’re questioning whether you’re saved, you probably are. If you think ‘Oh, I’ve accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, but I don’t know…’ you’re probably good to go.” Well, that felt like a hug directly from God. The Lord spoke to me later that night through my youth group small group leader. She simply was relat...

Lately, I’ve been feeling distant from God. Felt like He’s been silent. Not helping me out as much as He used to. Letting things go by that He used to not. I wondered why that was. I was doing everything right, wasn’t I? I read the Bible daily, I journaled, I prayed (out loud, I might add), I fellowshipped, I tithed, and I was kind to people. What could I be missing?  Well, the answer came to me on a Sunday. What were we doing? The answer might seem obvious to you.  We were worshipping.  What? It was that simple? Yes, It was that simple. Notice I said simple, not easy. The very act of worshipping can be surreal. I poured my heart out to God, I praised Him, I clapped, I jumped, I waved my hands in the air. Guess how long it took to start feeling God’s hand in my life? Well, we sang about four songs, so I’d say about 20-30 minutes. Really? That’s all it took to feel close to God again? Yes, really. Not fasting for 3 days, or secluding myself for a week. 20 minutes of worshi...

One time, somebody got my car into an accident. No big deal, that’s why we have insurance. Only one problem: I couldn’t drive it before it got fixed up again about a week later. Oh, how frustrating that was. I live close enough to my work to walk there. I live close enough to the grocery store to walk there. I live close enough to church to walk there. I live close enough to my best friend’s house to walk there. I live close enough to the gym to walk there. Wait a minute… Okay, I see what God did there. I didn’t need the car for anything, really. I could walk anywhere I needed to go. Now, I can’t deny that I have a newfound appreciation for cars, my license to drive one, and God for giving me the finances to buy one. Wait, I thought we were talking about bad things? Let’s try another, harder one. Your grandma dies. Wait, is that too much? Well, mine did die recently. That certainly qualifies as bad, right? Well, let’s look at the facts. She was a beautiful woman of 91 years (...

  Sometimes, when you think about life, you might say to yourself, ‘Here we go again’, ‘life’s been hitting me hard’, or ‘It is what it is’. You might say, ‘If only I had money’, ‘If only I were skinny’, or ‘If only I found love’. Some of us say these things to ourselves almost daily, and most of us say them multiple times an hour. I disagree with this thinking. Life is meant to be lived, breathed, experienced, enjoyed, purposeful, meaningful, lovely, wondrous, delicate, adventurous, exhilarating, and many more things. Life is a gift from God, and should be treated as such. What do you do if you receive a gift from someone? Do you toss it onto the nearest surface, fully intending to get back to it when you have the chance? Do you open it, then, realizing it’s not what you wanted, shove it aside and hope the giver doesn’t ask what you did with it? Or do you regift it to someone else? Wow. Saying it like that really puts it into perspective how much we care for things that are ...

Written by: Rae Emmalie scowled at her cat. The little booger had hopped up onto the bathroom counter and was this close to knocking over all of her makeup products and toiletries.        Emmalie had a bad day. Sure, maybe she shouldn’t be thinking that way, but it was true. Her Mom had called and told her that her and Dad couldn’t make it to dinner that night because “Bingo night was rescheduled to tonight!”, which was frustrating considering that she had slaved away with prepping a fancy and fabulous five-course meal the night before. Now what was she supposed to do with all that food? Second, Emmalie’s sister had volunteered to collect coats for her church. She’d done very well, collecting over 40 lightly used coats and jackets. The kicker? Emmalie’s sister had dropped all of those items off at Emmalie’s because “I have guests coming over tonight! Oh, and by the way, the church doesn’t need those anymore anyway. A department store donated 100 brand-new c...

 By Rae Sunday: Sunday was an interesting day. I woke up early to be able to help out someone by cleaning their small business shop for them. I do it by myself, so it doesn't matter what time of day I do it, as long as I do it on Sunday. I wanted to clean in the morning before my family and I left for church, that way I'd have the afternoon available for anything else I would want to do. But when I woke up, it was 9 degrees Fahrenheit! That was super unmotivating! But, I reasoned with myself and thought, "If I do it now, I'll be glad later. If I wait, somebody will probably invite me to do something special with them, but I'll have to refuse." So, despite the Michigan weather, I went. And guess what? Later that day, two of my brothers invited me to workout with them (that's a compliment)! I had so much fun! The lesson for that day was to never put off for later what can be done now. Of course, there are exceptions, but most of the time, we're just bein...

By Rae Welcome, everyone! I hope everyone reading this is having a God-filled and blessed day! I'm so glad you clicked on my blog. I've been wanting to do it for a while now, and I'm finally taking the plunge. I hope my writing meets your expectations!     Whether you're here to learn something, for entertainment, or you're just bored, I hope there's something here for everyone.  I'm also hoping to learn from you as well!     First off, I want to introduce myself. I'm Rae. Hello everyone! I'm a female who lives in Michigan. Yes, it's cold here in the winters. Yes, it's unbearably humid in the summers. No, I don't know why we still live here. Fresher water, I guess. I'm homeschooled alongside all of my siblings. 'How many siblings?' you might ask. 10. Yup, straight up 10. No adoptions. No fostering. No twins, triplets, or quadruplets (that would be a sight to see). It gets crazy, but it's all fun and games. I'm the thir...