My Favorite Verse

"Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:6)

As the title to this post says, this is my favorite verse. Why? Because it reminds me that I do not have total control over my own life. And that's a hard thing to admit. I like to believe that I've got my life in my own hands... everyone does. But the truth is that we don't always have everything together. We all have personal things we struggle with. We all fall short of who we wish we were.


In my experience only God can take broken dreams, bleeding hearts, and weary hopes and transform them into something beyond the greatest expectations. God is a God of the miraculous. What is impossible for me is not impossible for Him. All I have to do is look up at the stars. How many do you think there are? Have you ever wondered where the wind comes from? Or how birds learn to fly?

Everything God has created in life has a function, an ability,... a purpose. Everything. Man also makes things for specific reasons. So why don't we believe that our lives have a purpose beyond ourselves? WE DO MATTER. One life can and does make a difference. Our lives do impact others!

But it doesn't always feel that way, does it? Some moments in our lives feel gloomier than a funeral while others feel like heaven itself. Don't let your emotions be the judge of your worth as a person. You are alive which means your life is touching others and that your living has purpose.

Even the simple acts of breathing, waking up in the morning, and realizing our own existence are gifts. They are, at the most basic level, purpose. We do them only when we live.

Don't let life, and all the complexities of modern existence, make you feel small and insignificant.



The verse above is a promise God has made to me.... to you and He NEVER breaks His promises. He doesn't say, " ... he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it if you're popular enough, smart enough, spiritual enough, successful enough..." No. He says, " ... he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Period. It has nothing to do with our ability or inability to fulfill our destiny. Its all Him.

So my sole "purpose" in this post is to encourage you. Yes life can be big and scary and at times unfair. But it can also be filled with love and hope and anything good you can imagine. So... go out and LIVE.

The Magic Of Favicons

Have you ever visited a blog or a website and seen a tiny image in the web address bar? Have you ever wondered how-in-the-world folks did that? Well if you did I am here to tell you that you too can have your very own... Favicon icon. Yes, that is what those little images in the address bars are called.

And to help make things a little easier I will share in this post where I went and what I did to accomplish the making and publishing of a favicon icon.


Step one. First, I thought about what image I wanted to use as my favicon. You can make one in Photoshop, or you can use photos.

Step two. Once I figured out what I would use my next step was to turn my image into an .ico file. For this I found Favicon from Pics. Go visit this site. Its quick, its free, and most importantly... it works!

Step three. Now here is where things got tricky. Why? Because Blogger will not let you just type in your favicon icon into the html. You have to upload your favicon somewhere online first. That was my biggest problem. Where could I go to upload when most places online don't allow .ico files?
Well, I finally found a solution when I visited a great blog called, " Tips for New Bloggers." I did a search in this blog for Favicon icon and found what I was missing! It was suggested that folks find a free host like Google Page Creator. This was also free. So I uploaded my favicon into my own space in Google and found the url address for my little .ico file. Now I was in business!

Step four. Once the uploading was complete I revised my blog's html. Basically, I went to the top of my html code and looked under this:
< head >Next I found this: < title>< data:blog.pageTitle/>< /title>

It was the second " sentence" down from the < head> opening tag.

Then I typed in the following: < link href='http://MY ADDRESS/MY FAVICON ICON FILE' rel='shortcut icon'/> And that was it!

Of course the final html code I wrote above is just an example. If you type it in your html put your own web file address instead of MY ADDRESS and exchange MY FAVICON FILE for the url address of your icon. But if you're still a little confused do visit Tips For New Bloggers. They do a great job of detailing the steps.

Star Gazer

Dancing With The Stars ~Princel3d

I remember as a child I would love to lay in the grass and look up at the sky and watch the clouds roll by. And sometimes when I would be riding in the car I would look out my window and try to find shapes in the clouds and watch them move, sailing across the sky at the speed I was traveling. Even to this day, I will still look up... especially on days when I'm feeling lonely or nostalgic. It relaxes me to know that even when life is tough the clouds keep rolling and the sun keeps shining.

But as fun as it is to look at clouds I also enjoy the night sky. As a child I would look up at clear night skies and admire all the twinkling stars and wonder what they look like up close. But now that I'm older many days Im just too tired, too busy with work and life, to just stop a moment and acknowledge what's around me.

I think... for many of us remembering to look up and simply admire the universe we live in is becoming a lost art. So I'm making an effort to go outside and just look up at the stars once-in-a-while. Sometimes I'll have my ipod with me... and a camera. Most of the time though, I'll just step outside and revert back to that childhood star gazer... wondering why those stars twinkle, why I exist to admire them, and realizing that their light may very well outlive me.