Counting Our Blessings // Odelia Chan

Good morning everyone! Can you believe that next month, it will be a full year since the first post in the Counting Our Blessings link up was published?! Where has the time gone? Thank you all so much who have joined me in this venture the past year, it's been absolutely amazing counting blessings with y'all ^_^ 

For the first guest post of 2017, I'd like to introduce... Odelia Chan! She and her family have been friends with my family since like forever ago. She just recently opened up her own blog - be sure to check it out after this post! So welcome to both the blogosphere and my blog, Odelia! :) 

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HI!!!

My name is Odelia Chan. I am turning fifteen next month.(Whooo-Hooo! Finally!) 

I have wavy black hair, dark brown eyes –that could blaze with fire or twinkle with fun, I am also rather short ☺ and… Yeah! Sorry, I couldn't find a nice, recent portrait/picture, so…..

I live on a hobby farm in Ontario, with my great family of eight kids and my parents (myself included.)  I am the second oldest.

We have sheep (and therefore cute little lambs in the spring—YAY!), a flock of hens, two goldfishes, and probably a few more animals over the summer!!

I, along with my sisters and brothers, are homeschooled- which, by the way, is one of my greatest blessings.

I love to write. Sitting down with a stack of paper to fill with the ideas that storm my mind (and that keeps me awake at night!) with the pencil in my hand, to write for hours, un-interrupted—that is almost pure happiness to me.

I’ve recently started a blog thingy I would like to share with you readers. (It’s my first time, so bear with me in whatever typos and stuff like that I might have overlooked) I launched it in hopes of getting some honest-to-goodness suggestions and advice on how I could better improve my writing. (Another way of saying “Comments, please!!”☺) so…. The link is: Odelia's Writing Blog

Be sure to hop over there after reading this guest post!!

So that’s a little about me: shall we get started on the blessings? 

© Google 

#1 My family. I am sooo thankful that God had placed me in a Christian household: and although none of us are perfect (it’s a wonder how we can get through the day peacefully at all!!) Home is the place where we are taught to live like Christ and for Christ. Parents are the God-appointed mentors of our early years, and siblings often (very often)give you the extra push toward being a more kind, loving, --and patient—servant.

Having a Christ-centered, supportive family is one of the most precious blessings that God has given me.

© countingyourblessingsonebyone.blogspot.com

#2 Beauty. Beauty is everywhere, if we only look for it: in each leaf, each flower, in each toothy smile –God’s creation is perfect, seamless, majestic. Even after the Fall—what unsurpassable beauty must the spotless Garden of Eden have held!--- He has still left us with His creative Beauty on each and every one of His created plants and animals—right down to the smallest snowflake.And not only that, He’s given us the ability to see and enjoy them!! Isn't He marvellous!!

© Google 

#3 Writing—Words. Ideas. Thoughts. Through writing, God speaks to us, guides us, and moulds us to be more like Himself. Through the written Word, He leads us to Himself, and shows us the path to Salvation.

Writing is powerful—perhaps even more so than music.( sorry, musicians…. I’m really biased☺) It is also my life’s calling—to write to His Glory. Writing means a lot to me—sometimes I feel as if I would die from bursting if I don’t sit down and scribble across the page.

I can’t thank God enough for this Blessing!! 

© Google 

#4 Work. This may come as a surprise, but trust me—when you have literally nothing to do in the whole wide world, you’ll be glad to scrub those dishes and sweep those floors, even if just to pass away the time. After all, we are made for work!!!  Mind you, I didn't say I love work—I very rarely enjoy it☺ -- it is still a blessing in disguise; In many, many hidden ways!!!

It gives you a measure of satisfaction to see the results of your work—whether it be cleaning up your baby brother’s mess, mucking up(or down) the stalls, or scrubbing your arms off over the sink. It gives you time away from the grind of schoolwork, a job, or plain boredom. So, praise the Lord for work!!

© Google 

#5 Water. Such a profoundly simple, vitally important element God has given us!! It’s just the combination of two gases, that somehow join together, and become a liquid that all life depends on, that it’s simply profound!!!

Without it we could not quench our thirst, we could not wash our clothes—or ourselves, we could not even flush the toilet. We would not even exist!! We should not take H2O for granted. Water is a great blessing.

So there! A few of the blessings that I receive daily from the gracious hand of God!!

I hope that each one of you have been encouraged by this post, and thanks again, Blessing, for having me here!!!

Counting Our Blessings // Faith P.

Good morning, afternoon, or evening! (depending on when you're reading this :)
A special friend of mine (and fellow ASL student ;)) sent me an email today. . . and now she's here to share some of her blessings with us. Thank you so much for coming, Faith! Take it away! :D 

Hello everyone! :) I'm so tickled to be here today – guest posting for my friend, Blessing Counter! She asked me awhile back (probably, knowing what a procrastinator I am and knowing I would need plenty of time… *wink*) and, well, I finally got this written and into her inbox. ;)

Let me begin by introducing myself. I'm Faith – a born again Christian, a PK, and a homeschooled teen. I live with my parents, my little brother, and our two yellow labs in the mountains of NC. I enjoy writing, reading, pottery, camping, biking, and kayaking. I blog at Stories by Firefly and Chosen Vessels. :D 

On to the post! I chose three blessings to talk about as part of Blessing’s Counting Our Blessings series. I can't say they're my *top* three blessings, but they're all pretty special and dear to my heart. :) 

My first blessing would have to be prayer. To be perfect honest, previously my prayer life was…well, not existent. But this year God has been working in my heart. And now prayer time means so much to me!! 

Let's just stop and think about the whole concept of prayer for a minute. 
Sinful, broken people have the ability to go to the Lord of the Universe and talk to Him. We can pour out our hearts and He will listen. We can confess of our many wrongs and ask a pardon and He will forgive us. We can offer up thanks for all our Heavenly Father has done for us and He will listen. How amazing is that?! 
We can simply praise His holy Name...for He is so deserving of any honor and glory we can give to Him. Prayer is a blessing indeed. 

For my second blessing, I chose blogging friends. And I don't mean just those people you talk to once in awhile in a Blogger/Wordpress comment box on your blog or theirs every one in awhile. Although those are great too and often where these friendships start! 
I mean those people who you read their blog and they read yours…then someone took the initiative and sent that first, carefully worded email…and now your friendship has grown soooo much and you couldn't ask for a better long distance friendship.  
I'm beyond blessed to have several of these types of friendships. And these girls mean THE WORLD to me. 

With different people, there are different things that have pulled us together. Maybe we write together at ridiculous hours of the night. Maybe we talk in hashtags just to the annoyance of certain someone. Maybe we write emails about a certain TV series that are so long they would be a twenty pages if we printed them out. Maybe we attend the same online ASL course and have that in common. 
Whatever it is that drew us together, I love it and I wouldn't trade y'all for anything. *hugs* 

My third blessing is…writing. Writing had come to mean a lot to me. It's how I express myself. How I escape into a world of my own imagination. How I create people and places form nothing. 
Until the late summer/early fall of 2014 I didn't write. AT ALL. (I even wrote an assignment for an English course in one of my elementary years explaining why I didn't like writing. XD) But that year there were some hard things going on in my life, and writing became my go-to. Now, over two years later, I write pretty much everyday and I'm constantly comparing real life happenings to that of my beloved characters. ;) 

I'm a writer through and through. It's who I am now. :) 

Thanks for having me, Blessing! :D And thanks for reading, y'all! 

~Faith

Counting Our Blessings // Jesseca Dawn

Next up for our little blessings series is Jesseca! She blogs at Whimsical Writings and just recently published her first novel, The Silent Blade (which is a really good book, by the way, and if you haven't read it, you totally should!) 

Please welcome Jesseca to the blog! :) 

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Hi all! Blessing Counter contacted me a little while ago about doing a blessings post, sharing about a couple things that I count among my greatest blessings. An awesome idea, no?
So let’s get started! 

God’s Word.

Number one on my list of blessings would have to be the Bible. Growing up in a Christian home, it was something I really took for granted for a while. Sure, I took it out for family devotions and church, I memorized verses for school, but other than that, it pretty much just sat on the shelf. Unless my parents made me read it, or handed me a Bible reading plan and told me to finish it. 

And then me world came to a stop a few years ago when my dad was diagnosed with cancer, and I had no where else to turn. I picked up my Bible, and just started reading. And, oh, what I had missed before! God’s Word came alive to me, and I realized that the words contained therein are truly sharper than any two-edged sword. Words that teach and convict, words that bring promise and hope, words that are for more than just words; they are, in fact, God’s letter to us! 

Friends.

These past few years I’ve better understood and realized the gift that friends are. They are truly one of God’s greatest gifts to us. They are there when times are good, and they are there when times are hard. They don’t ask you to be someone you aren’t, but at the same time they encourage you to continue growing the Lord. 

And they’re just all around awesome. I mean, who else can you be completely crazy with? ;) 

Words.

Words have the ability to convey so many things. Something we read can completely change our view of a certain subject. Words have the ability to persuade and to encourage, but they also can tear down and destroy. Words have such power! What we read impacts us, what we hear impacts us, and what we say can impact someone for the better or for the worse.  I’m so thankful for words. When used for God’s glory, they can change the world!

Music. 

Has there ever been a time when you were sitting and just minding your own business when suddenly a song comes on, and, for one reason or another, that single song affects the rest of your day?

I’ve had that happen to me. 

Music can tell a story, it can send a warning, and the way it can depict and effect emotions is truly marvelous. 

It is a wonderful gift and blessing from God above, and also a beautiful way we can praise our Lord and Saviour!

God gives us so many wonderful blessings, doesn’t he?!

Thanks so much for having me, Blessing! And thank you, readers, for reading. ☺ 

*All pictures taken from pinterest or google images

Counting Our Blessings // Tiffany

Good morning everyone! This post is going to be a little bit more different. Partly because it's a guest post (love those! :D) and partly because our special guest is going to be doing a quick flower post at the beginning as well! For all you botanical lovers, you're going to especially enjoy this ;) Allow me to introduce to you a good friend of mine and pen-pal for more than 8 years. . . Tiffany!

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Hi everyone, my name is Tiffany and thank you very much Blessing Counter for inviting me to do a guest post on your blog! I am 15 and I have been saved by the blood of the Lamb. I love classical music and I play the piano and the violin.  I also live in the country, and I have 5 sisters and 2 brothers!  This year I’ve planted some flowers in my flower garden, and I am going to tell you a bit about them. Last year I was more successful with the flowers as you can see here at my family’s blog:www.littleapplesofgold.com/garden-chickens/tiffanys-flower-garden/

Okay, so here we go.

I started the seeds in February.  These pictures here are from the 7^th of February:

 Geraniums

This from the 10th:

 And these two from the 29th: 

The following pictures are from June and July:

Dianthus

Geranium

 Petunia

 Geraniums and Petunias

Sweet Pea

 Morning Glory

 Dahlia

 Marigold

I probably didn’t start the seeds early enough.  Sorry for not being able to show the flowers for all of the plants.

Our blessing number one, would be….. FLOWERS!!!!!

Flowers are a beautiful part of God’s Creations.

Number 2 would be: MUSIC

Classical music is like a special language.

And I can’t leave number 3 out, because it would be…….  BOOKS.

Here is my book shelf.  Not all of the books are mine, and not all of my books are there.(is that confusing?:))

Okay, so that was quite a long guest post. Thank you all for reading and thanks again Blessing for letting me do this post!

Counting Our Blessings // Emily McConnell

Hello all! Today, please welcome to the blog Emily McConnell as she joins us in counting blessings! :D 

Blessings in the Little Things

I was so honored to have Blessing Counter contact me several months back, asking me if I would be able to do a blessing post on her blog. At the time I received the email, we were going through the intensive phase of my little sister’s cancer treatment, so I’d asked if I could wait a bit before I put one together. To be honest, I wasn’t feeling very much like writing about blessings while we were going through that particular time. There was very little I felt blessed about, and at some bleak moments it seemed more fake for me to say I was blessed when I very much did not feel blessed.
Fast forward several months forward and we’re in July. Wow. How time flies. My little sister R is now out of intensive cancer treatment and into maintenance, a true, true blessing! But when I look back on those months where there was so little I wanted to say about our struggles and few people I wanted to talk to, I realize there were so many little blessings that I didn’t see until later. Blessings that in hindsight are quite big. Now, if I were to delve into all of them we’d be here a long time. The moral of that little story is to point out that there are times where we really can’t see our blessings. Sometimes our blessings are hidden behind things we don’t understand until later.
Oftentimes I believe people expect blessings to be obvious things in their life- perhaps getting the job they prayed for, the puppy or horse they wanted, and so on. But I firmly believe the blessings that are the most prevalent are the little, little blessings we have no idea will be so important until later on.
So today my focus is on the little blessings, the ones that may seem insignificant or even contrary to what we’d ordinarily classify as a “blessing” from the Lord, but are so important in everything we experience and do. I hope these resonate with you as they do with me.

Sleep
I think this is one of those things you don’t realize is so important and a blessing until you don’t have enough of it. ;) During the months of the most intensive phase of my little sister’s chemo, most nights would find me on the couch in the school room. My mother slept in the bedroom I shared with little sister R in case she got sick in the night. I slept alright on the couch, but a couple nights in a row starts to wear on your back. To top that off all of us were taking turns staying overnight at the hospital when R had inpatient stays, and hospitals are not exactly the most relaxing places to sleep. During that time I remember all of us were tired and exhausted, none of us was sleeping very well and we all were sort of on edge. What a blessing when R was back out of the hospital and things began to return back to normal in April. I cannot even begin to express how grateful I was to catch up on much needed sleep, how refreshing it was. After that experience over the last several, several months, I dare say none of us will ever take sleep for granted. Sleep is a blessing from the Lord and a wonderful thing he’s created for us, a time for our minds to rest and our bodies as well. :) 

Quietness
This is a surprising one on my list. I am by no stretch of the imagination a quiet person. In fact I’m the opposite, I’m a rather boisterous and exuberant personality who has a very hard time being quiet. During the months at the hospital, though, I came to appreciate time alone and by myself, where you had a chance to contemplate and pray and separate from people enough to catch your breath again. Quietness is something that is quickly disappearing from our everyday lives, what with the invention of the smartphone, the iPod, portable radios, etc. Why, we even have music on our watches now! Having quietness where there is no one there, no noise, no distractions, is something truly priceless and important. I discovered that when I’m truly alone my mind always, always turns to God and I find myself praying. Quietness is a small blessing that can seem very frightening and uncomfortable to us extroverts, but oh, it is a necessity. I learned this from being around people 24/7 at the hospital with my sister and mom and the nurses. ;) “Be still, and know that I am God,” we find in Psalms 46:10. It isn’t just a suggestion, this is something I firmly believe God wants us to do to learn to trust Him in the silence, in the quietness, and especially when we feel like there is no one else there. Quietness has a way of showing us we are not alone. And that is a true blessing I daresay none of us want to miss out on.

Waiting
Ah, waiting. A dreaded thing for me, but an important one. Waiting on important decisions. On life. On money. On health. Waiting for answers from the Lord and people. I am not a patient person. This one is a hard issue for me. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned recently, waiting is a wonderful little blessing that trains us up for some pretty wonderful things. Being forced to wait makes you go over all the scenarios on whatever you want a decision on. It gives you a chance to consider some other options, and more often than not it also curbs some of that impatient energy that could have led to some disasters you more than likely would not have foreseen. Waiting is a little blessing that is tied with patience and love, that’s for sure. I’d say the best example of waiting I have to give right now was the impatient  waiting I went through to signup for a penpal site I wanted to join about two years ago. At first it was my parents who told me to wait and make sure it was safe, then it was my own conscience (and fear, to be honest) that held me back from signing up. Last month I finally did the deed and got an account, and have been blessed in the communication with several new friends around the world that have not only helped me with my own language learning but have given me more opportunities than I can ever recall to share my Lord and Savior with these new friends of mine. Waiting holds so many more blessings than we can ever realize. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. -Isaiah 40:31

There are a couple other things I’m waiting very anxiously for, particularly a single event that comes to mind in October, but who knows what God’s answer will be to that? I shall wait on the Lord and find what His will is! :) Waiting on Him is so much easier than fretting over everything. That I can assure you!

So those are my blessings to share with ya’ll, readers of Blessing! I hope these encouraged you in some small way. :) Thank you, Blessing, for asking me to share with your dear readers, and thank you readers for taking time to read my words. May the Lord bless you with rest and sleep, the time for quietness and the ability to wait. Take care and blessings!

-Emily McConnell

emilybmcconnell.blogspot.com

Counting Our Blessings // Sawyer Maretzki

Time for another Counting Our Blessings post! If you would like to learn more about this, or read more awesome posts by others, click HERE.

Today, allow me to introduce Sawyer Maretzki to the blog! :)


Hello, I am Sawyer Maretzki. I'm twelve years old and I am one out of eight kids. And I live on a farm. I am also not a very good blogger...at all. I haven't posted since last October and I only have three posts. Plus, I only have two followers :) I do love to write, but I feel I never have time. So thank you Blessing Counter, for making me write a post! :D Anyways! On with the blessings...

I am thankful for my friends...I may not have very many, but the ones I do have I'm very close to. They are always there for me. Truly a blessing. 

I am thankful for our farm...Living on a farm has taught me so much! Not only about animals and hay etc. etc. But also good life lessons, like responsibility, perseverance, wisdom, and many more! I love animals too! Six years before, when we lived in Oakville, (very opposite to farm life) we never had ANY pets, except for fish and they don't count. ;P Now, we have cows, chickens, horses, pigs, rabbits, cats, a dog, a tarantula, a bearded dragon, and fish. 

I am thankful for my siblings...Some people can't stand being around their siblings, but I love their company! I don't know what I would do without them. They're my best friends. Plus, I'm stuck with them my whole life, so I kinda have to love 'em! :)

Me and my siblings 

I am thankful for Bible Quizzing...I just love Bible Quizzing!! It's a great way to keep God's Word in your head, and it's super fun! I have Bible verses running through my head all day! It's great!

A Bible Quizzing tournament 

I am thankful for my cats...They are just awesome. They're cuddly, affectionate, adorable, furry, weird and so much more. Right now we only have four. We had three kittens, but my dad doesn't like that many cats, so we gave them away. :(  But our lady cat is pregnant AGAIN. :) I love kitties. Such a blessing to me.

I am thankful for prayer...Need I say more?? It's got to be my favourite thing. 

Well, that's all I got for today, but if you visit my blog- Maretzki Family Blog Maybe, just maybe, I'll post more. :D 

Thank you for reading! 

Counting Our Blessings // Yours Truly

Hello all! How are ya doing? :) 

I realized a couple days ago that I had never done a blessings post yet, and the Lord gave me an opportunity to do it this month, so here I go! :D 

Photo Credits: Tiger Lily 

As most of you already know, I am a 16 year old country gal with 6 (and soon to be 7!!) younger siblings. I love reading, writing, singing, baking, photography, and so much more! I'm known in the blogosphere as Blessing Counter, and if you're reading this, you've probably figured out where I blog at ;) 

Now here are a few things that I'm thankful for. 

Nature

The Lord definitely shows His love for us in His creation, wouldn't you say? I love walking outside on a cool, spring morning and smelling the beautiful, dew-covered blossoms. 

Then seeing the light from the early morning sun run across the fresh new grass. 

I love studying the delicate patterns of a fragile butterfly,

And hearing the chirp of a little bird. 

Watching the sun's rays burst gloriously from the clouds,

and observing the glassy eyes of little Mr. Sticky-Toes.

Listening to the crack of thunder and the flash of lightening, and knowing all the while that behind everything is an awesome, all-powerful Creator who loves us and cares for us. He blesses us with the beauty of nature; Praise the Lord! Who says God doesn't exist? Look around you - His very existence is shown in creation! 

For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature  have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse ~ Romans 1: 20

Music

I LOVE music. Listening to it, singing it, playing it, everything about music is just so beautiful and amazing and somewhat mysterious. Sure, there's scientific explanations for sounds and frequencies and all that stuff, but still! It's just mind-boggling trying to grasp that God made and gave us sound. Beautiful sound that comes together as music :) 

My Sister 

I'm not trying to be partial here; trust me, I love all my siblings! :D However, Tiger Lily and I have been best friends since forever and well, I'm very thankful for her. 

I've always sort of known it, but the full reality of how much she means to me really hit me when we were at the Landry camps. There were times when I was just so overwhelmed with how many people there were, or just feeling very alone. I'd head to my dorm room and she'd always either be there already, or come in a few minutes after I arrived. And she somehow always made me feel better :) 

Yes, we fight. There are tons of things we don't agree on. But we always make up. I have a very hard time trying to stay angry with her for very long ;)

She's funny. You've heard me say this multiple times. I think she's a clown at heart ;) A gentle, caring, kind clown.

We geek out over THE weirdest things.

We chat all night and giggle randomly at things that sometimes aren't even funny :P

We've been roommates for about 14 years, pretty much our whole life.

We're best friends forever. Bosom friends. Buddies.

We've pretended to be Mary and Laura Ingalls. We're Anne and Diana.

We've had tea parties, Indian war dances, and operas. We do weird things to our ice cream cones.

She is special.

Thank you, Lord, for blessing me with this girl! 

Counting Our Blessings // Rebekah Eddy

Today's special guest blogger is Rebekah Eddy! I love her blessings, and I'm sure you will too! So let's get onto the post! :) 

When Blessing Counter asked me if I would be willing to do a guest post on her blog, I had two reactions. The first one was excited; this would be my first time as a guest on a different blog than my own. The second one was hesitant; I knew my life was going to be busy during May, and I wasn’t sure I could commit to something like that. Thankfully, Blessing has been very flexible and allowed me to take way longer on this post than I think she thought I would. ;) 

But now, onto the post:

I am supposed to give you a few of the things that God has blessed me with. She didn’t tell me whether to pick blessings from the past or present, but I’ll give you a few of both. 

1: Trials

This blessing probably took you by surprise. BLESSED by TRIALS?!?!? Who is this crazy person? But think about it. Jesus and Paul and Peter and all sorts of other people in the New Testament tell us that being a Christian isn’t easy. Our lives are never going to consist of Bible lessons and cupcakes while walking on a paved sidewalk through beautiful flowers and butterflies by the wounded side of Christ. We walk on the narrow path: a path that goes against the world’s way, a path that is both difficult and dangerous. We’re going to be despised and rejected. 

We American’s have it easy right now, and it’s made us a little lazy in our spiritual walk, but that could change at any point. Have you noticed that it’s where people are getting beaten, tortured, and killed for their faith that Christianity is the strongest? No lukewarm Christians are willing to put up with those things if they can help it. 

Personally, I don’t want to ever have to go through torture for my belief in God. I’m an imperfect human just like you. The thought of pain and death are still scary to me. I realize I’m weak, and part of me fears that I’ll be too weak to suffer for my Savior. But after thinking about it…I would be willing to die for Him. After all: “To live is Christ; but to die is gain”. I think Paul, of all people, knew what he was talking about. 

Ok, now you’re wondering “So why are trials a blessing?” Glad you asked. :P Here are my reasons:

a) They bring you closer to God

b) They make your faith in Him stronger and

c) They give you a greater appreciation of what Jesus went through when He died for our sins

2: Freedom

This appears to be fast disappearing in our nation today…not to mention all over the world. We need to remember to thank God for every moment of it that we have. 

So far, we can still come together with other believers on Sunday without the fear of imprisonment or even death. We have the choice to have as many children as we want. We are still able to keep and educate them at home. That may or may not last through our lifetime. 

With the string of bad decisions our nation has made, I’m noticing how frighteningly thin the thread that holds our freedom together has become. 

People have twisted the word until its almost unrecognizable. They’ve changed “freedom” into what they think are well-deserved “rights”. It’s absolutely sickening. No wonder our nation has gone down hill. To be completely honest, we deserve the wrath of God. I’m a little surprised that we haven’t been destroyed yet. We’re acting all the world like Sodom and Gomorra, like the people in Noah’s day before God sent the global flood, like those who built the Tower of Babel. 

Our God has been merciful. He’s given us freedom when we deserve His wrath. Don’t take it for granted. Freedom is a blessing. 

3: Jesse Divakar

No, I’m not getting to know anybody. ;) This young man is actually my older sister’s future spouse and my future brother-in-law. God brought him into our life a long time ago, and he was just a friend. But later, when he began getting to know my older sister, he became a lot more than that. He became a brother…and a blessing.

4: Online friends

I’ve given you a couple spiritual blessings and a family blessing, now its time for a fun blessing. :) 

When I first started my blog, my parents gave me a lot of warnings about the dangers of everything online. Internet access can be a blessing, but it’s also a scary place, and a place that can get you into a lot of trouble. Anyone who has any experience in online things knows what I’m talking about.  Let’s just say you can’t Google anything and everything. 

God so far has spared me from creepy stalkers…creepy online people period, actually. He even helped the details come together for me to be able to meet two of my blogging friends in person! Each person I’ve found on here have been godly, homeschooling, like-minded writers who hope to glorify our mutual Savior with everything they do. It’s seriously awesome.

You all who I’ve gotten to know through my blog over the last three years have been a huge blessing. ^_^ Not only have a lot of you helped me polish my story writing, but you’ve patiently encouraged my helpless attempts at poetry, put up with my endless supply of tags, and survived through my crazily unpredictable schedule. Y’all are awesome. And, like I can’t say enough, such a blessing. Thank you. :)

So there are the blessings. Obviously, there could have been a lot more, but I’d have to have all of eternity to tell you about them…so I’ll save it for heaven. ;) I hope you enjoyed this post, and those of you who don’t know about me or my blog, feel free to visit me at: 

My main blog: 4rmeddy.blogspot.com 

My story blog: simplystories4.blogspot.com

And if you have any questions e-mail me at: 4rmeddy@excite.com

Counting Our Blessings // Lea Hoffmann

Well, well, well, would you look at that? It's Friday already! How time flies :) What are you going to do this Victoria Weekend? I've got a few exciting and fun things planned, including this post by a close friend! 

 Hi, my name is Lea Hoffmann, and I'm your average Christian teenager. You may know me from my blog by the name Redroses474. I'm here by the request of my friend (Blessing Counter) to talk about myself. I was born in Germany with a huge family of 6 sisters (I'm the youngest). When I was still a child, my Dad decided that we would be moving to Canada, and I'm happy we did. We left my 5 sisters behind (because they were married and had children) and it was just me and my other sister Ina. Around one year later, we moved and it was amazing. I got to see the busy city (for me it was busy, but then I saw New York on TV), and I had amazing friends, we even opened our Russian church for a while (did I mention I'm Russian and German?) but it all went wrong when everybody wanted their own ways, and that's where that ended. My family moved in a condo building, and from there on, I just started going further and further away from God, and before you knew it, I was scared to call myself a Christian because I knew that's not who I was. Years past and High-school came, that's when I heard the "horrible" news, I was going to be taking High-school online. I say "horrible" because I thought I was going to lose all the "amazing" friends I had at school (which I did eventually). I kept on praying and asking God to make my family change their minds, but He didn't, and I'm thankful He didn't. My friends from school started drifting away (just as I suspected) and I was "all alone". At this time, I started knowing God and being interested in Him, also at this time I was actually hanging out with the teens at my church and I started paying attention to sermons and taking them to heart. I started making goals to myself, such as limiting my listening to unchristian music, reading the Bible, and praying every morning and night, going to Grace Youth (a place where kids and teens meet at church to play games, talk, and discuss the Bible, etc). I started getting closer and closer to God and I loved every second of it. I loved His love, kindness, mercy and forgiveness, and I was happy that He took away all of my distractions to look at Him and just pay attention to Him. Not long before the whole online school thing happened, I was begging the Lord to get me to know Him, and He did in His own way. Now that I think about everything that happened, I'm happy it did. When I was confident enough, I started my own blog and I'm happy I have people reading it.

I'm blessed with so many great friends, and with a family that loves me. I'm thankful that the Lord gave me a chance to get to know Him. I'm also very thankful for this blog, and blessed that I can write in it.

I hope my story gave you something that you were missing in your heart, or maybe you were just bored and decided to read this, but I'm happy you took the time to read it.

Yours truly
Lea Hoffmann